POOL: Little Epiphanies...

[Jaden]

yeah...

I had a little epiphany about 3 weeks ago, I was playing my match against Dave Matlock and I was playing really bad and he was playing great. Well I was studying what he was doing at the table and it clicked, on my last break of the match I broke and ran out that game, I lost 9-1 .

The speed of the table and new atmosphere had me a little out of sorts so my confidence was not there. Then it hit me my speed of stroke and pace around the table was off and I could hear Mark Wilson in the back of my head saying that "A top player like Efren can hit a stop shot at long range at around 6-7 miles per hour" What I had noticed is Dave's speed when he hit the cue ball.

My next match I won 9-2 and i missed 1 ball.

For me, it was when I was practicing with Donny Mills and Shawn Putnam a LOT..

I would play perfect pool practicing by myself, sometimes running five packs of tenball. Then when I would play them, I would miss a shot almost every rack. I realized that when I was playing them, I would look up on shots when pulling the trigger. It was only like half a ball that I was looking up, but it was enough to miss a shot here and there that I usually wouldn't. That's also the problem with figuring out what you might be doing wrong. You won't ALWAYS miss when you do it. You may even only rarely miss. Playing tenball, even making 90% of your shots isn't enough to win a single game against the better players.

As soon as I realized that and started focusing on keeping my eye on the OB's contact point when I pulled the trigger, I started running out again.

It's been a battle to keep my focus on the right things when under pressure or in competition, but I have gradually been getting better and better at it.

Well... At least until my back started bothering me again the last few weeks.

That was more because I became lackadaisical regarding stretching and training.

Don't let anyone tell you that pool isn't a sport because it isn't physical. It is extremely physical and incorporating physical training into your pool training is important.

Jaden

 

[223tracer]

For me, it was reading a book that had nothing to do with pool and everything to do with the mental approach. I saw someone on here suggest the inner game of tennis and it was the most eye opening material in regards to the conscious and unconscious mind. I've heard so much about how important focus was , but never how to do it right. It never clicked until I read the book. For example he was instructing someone how to hit a backhand and she couldn't get it right. He told her just picture him swinging in her mind and focus on the stripes of the ball. She stopped trying and just hit it Fascinating stuff

 

[SFC9ball]

For me, it was when I was practicing with Donny Mills and Shawn Putnam a LOT..

I would play perfect pool practicing by myself, sometimes running five packs of tenball. Then when I would play them, I would miss a shot almost every rack. I realized that when I was playing them, I would look up on shots when pulling the trigger. It was only like half a ball that I was looking up, but it was enough to miss a shot here and there that I usually wouldn't. That's also the problem with figuring out what you might be doing wrong. You won't ALWAYS miss when you do it. You may even only rarely miss. Playing tenball, even making 90% of your shots isn't enough to win a single game against the better players.

As soon as I realized that and started focusing on keeping my eye on the OB's contact point when I pulled the trigger, I started running out again.

It's been a battle to keep my focus on the right things when under pressure or in competition, but I have gradually been getting better and better at it.

Well... At least until my back started bothering me again the last few weeks.

That was more because I became lackadaisical regarding stretching and training.

Don't let anyone tell you that pool isn't a sport because it isn't physical. It is extremely physical and incorporating physical training into your pool training is important.

Jaden

I totally understand your point on Physical Fitness, I am retired from the Army and still stay in prety good shape. Myself and 2 friends were talking about the same problem that you were having and one of them was having that same problem.

The three of us all play at A and AA level and just from that conversation the level of play had picked up just from our conversation. Its funny the things you can learn just by listening and not talking!