Poll: Play through it or quit early...that's the question!

When in a slump what do you do?

  • Force yourself to play through it.

    Votes: 17 51.5%

  • Try to play through it, and then quit if you can't.

    Votes: 12 36.4%

  • Just quit to avoid picking up bad habits.

    Votes: 4 12.1%
  • Total voters
    33
Donovan

Donovan

Play it safe or go home.
Silver Member
A recent thread by TheConArtist got me to wondering how others feel about this:

When you start playing and everything feels off, do you force yourself to play through it, give yourself a chance to play through it and then quit, or do you just quit for the day?

I understand the idea of going back to the basics and trying to play through it. But do some of you just give that a small try and if it doesn't improve then quit. Or do some of you feel like you just don't want to pick up the bad habits in your memory and just quit for the day.

Please let me know what you do, I think we could all learn from this.
 
SUPERSTAR said:
Are you talking about Gambling, Tournament, or Practice?
Click to expand...

That would be my question too.

Gambling and practice, I would probably have to quit. No sense in trying to be hero while losing all your money while gambling and practice just ain't no fun when you're really struggling.

Tournament, I would play through it.
 
When I'm having trouble with my game (whichever it is), I personally like to simplify what I'm doing to the point that my confidence is bolstered back to where it should be. If I have to go all the way back to just pocketing simple straight in shots for ten minutes, so be it. From there, gradually work back to where you should be. The minute I start feeling out of stroke again, I back off to somethig easier. Confidence is paramount in pool IMO.
 
Ok, the poll thing is up now, it wasn't before. Now it makes sense.
I don't even bother playing when i'm hitting them bad.

I try to figure out WHAT if anything might be causing it off the table. Is it something mental and am i distracted, or did i shovel snow all day long, and are my arms and back demolished as a result.
Is my stance natural, or did i feel off or out of line.

If your are very in tune with your body, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out what you might be doing wrong, cause you know how you feel when you're doing it right.

Then i go back, play a little and see what adjustments need to be made so that i'm back where i want to be.
But with me, and not with everyone, i usually figure out what is wrong within 5 minutes, and the problem is gone.

So my way is definitely not for everyone.

When i was younger, and everything WASN'T automatic, i would definitely spend some time playing through it to see if i could work it out.
I guess it all depends on where you are along that scale.

If after everything is said and done, i'm still off, i go do something else to take my mind off of it, like i go to the gym.
 
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SUPERSTAR said:
Are you talking about Gambling, Tournament, or Practice?
Click to expand...

So for this, yes gambling and practice.

Thanks for your comments; they were really good.

I pondered at this question. If you are in a tourney, then I guess I took it for granted that you have no choice but to play through it. I never actually thought people would quit a tourney, just because they were out of stroke. Then I thought about this some more. I have had people give up early when they hit a few bad shots in a row. It never dawned on me that this is why. I just thought they were a bit mental. LOL I mean I don't know anyone who has ever done this, not someone I know personally anyway. Hmmm? This got more interesting than it started out.
 
gambling.....I will hang in there and try to build some character....obviously if I'm playing cheap:D

when practicing, and playing crappy....I'll break out Freddies book, or a 14.1 book and work on banks or learn some diamond system numbers. anything to stay in the practice session, but maybe not pocketing balls that day.

gerry
 
Gerry said:
gambling.....I will hang in there and try to build some character....obviously if I'm playing cheap:D

when practicing, and playing crappy....I'll break out Freddies book, or a 14.1 book and work on banks or learn some diamond system numbers. anything to stay in the practice session, but maybe not pocketing balls that day.

gerry
Click to expand...

Hey that's not bad advice Gerry. I have done that on occasion, but I like the idea of that being the norm.
 
Sometimes I'll even switch hands and practice righty for a while....just another thing to make stronger, but you never practice...

Gerry
 
If Im gambling I will quit, that is if I am playing someone my speed or better. I can't see any reason why I should give my money away. In practice or a tournament I would play through it.

Since I am constantly improving from week to week, I find that the slumps or bad days are a measure to see how far I have come. I believe that it is not your A game that defines your playing ability and not your B game either. It is your C game that you should judge yourself on. What can you do when nothing is working out for you. I played very poorly today, but even so I was able to run the occasional rack and I managed a run of 14 and 28 in straight pool. Considering how dismal my worst game was last year, I was pretty pleased.
 
Normally if i find i am having a bad day at the table, i will just practice till i run out a rack or figure i am back to playing well.

Or what i will do is throw out all 15 balls and just try to clear the table 2times in a row then quit.

Also what i will so is practice my break in 9ball, and start off doing soft breaks and work my speed up till i am breaking as hard as i can while controlling the CB

but mainly i will just practice throwing out all 15 balls on a 9ft table and try to clear the table as many times as possible.


dave
 
If I'm gambling and playing lousy, I'll quit after the second lousy set.

But if I'm practicing, I'll just simplify things for awhile, just throw out 5 or 6 balls and try to get through a couple of easy runouts. I can't stand leaving the table on a low note. Then when I start playing decent again, I hate to quit.:D
 
Donovan said:
A recent thread by TheConArtist got me to wondering how others feel about this:

When you start playing and everything feels off, do you force yourself to play through it, give yourself a chance to play through it and then quit, or do you just quit for the day?

I understand the idea of going back to the basics and trying to play through it. But do some of you just give that a small try and if it doesn't improve then quit. Or do some of you feel like you just don't want to pick up the bad habits in your memory and just quit for the day.

Please let me know what you do, I think we could all learn from this.
Click to expand...

Hey bro, like my father always said never quit, if you sing and people say you can't sing, sing your heart out anyways. If you play your hardest and fail, Play your heart out anyways. My slump days have got the best of me time to time and i bloody my knuckles up against the wall, cursed some outrageous words that i never knew i could say, but i still stuck at the table trying to work it out just me always been me i have to have everything down to a T, a perfectionist thing always had it. I couldn't sleep at nights cause of this so what i would do is just head downstairs and play all night long until i felt everything was right again. Good thread Bro, but i feel just like you should never go to bed angry right lol, i wouldn't want to quit at the table until everything was corrected for me, it is not how you play on your best day but how you play on your worse day.
 
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