I might be ready to challenge you, Walter! I played this in Korea 2 weeks ago. I am now an expert!
You forgot the #1 solution:
Probably pool is not for me
- Thread starter Slh
- Start date
I have had those feelings before but I have a better attitude about the game eventhough I'm not much better at the game. It's easy to lose confidence when you play people who are better than you but you have to realize your limitation and just be happy to play to your own ability level. Better to play confident and relaxed and play to your level and lose than to choke because you're trying to play better than you're average performance and putting too much pressure on yourself.
Having confidence does make you play better even if you're not all that. Pretend you know what you're doing even if you don't and to a certain degree you'll convince otheres and yourself.
Also, you'll play better if you're having fun. Take the pressure off and play for the enjoyment of playing.
Read "Pleasure of Small Motions" by Bob Fansler. It addresses all the issues you are describing.
Lol no I don't think you signed it but I imagine its hella hard to do lol.
As for what it says about TheThaiger that he refuses to pay for table time....
It means you are probably Jewish and not fun to hang around with. Not to mention you may not have tournament experience unless you only play the high level ones. I also imagine it means you have an abrasive personality and I fully expect you to respond to this post by attempting to fight back with fictitious facts and fallasies.
I will head you off at the pass by saying I don't care.
As for what it says about TheThaiger that he refuses to pay for table time....
It means you are probably Jewish and not fun to hang around with. Not to mention you may not have tournament experience unless you only play the high level ones. I also imagine it means you have an abrasive personality and I fully expect you to respond to this post by attempting to fight back with fictitious facts and fallasies.
I will head you off at the pass by saying I don't care.
sa ga, or sam ga...smartie??!!
Wow, so why the racial slurs? BTW I am not Jewish but I wouldn't be ashamed to be either.
What I meant by my comment to Thaiger is that I have listened to his comments in the past about his views on why pool in dead in the US and am not surprised by his comment here.
TheThaiger
Banned
What cheek!
No, it's a matter of personal pride, dear boy. Only bangers pay for tables, surely?
Sorry about that wasn't directing it your way was referring to the fact that Thaiger thinks pool is dead in this country but actively supports killing it.
TheThaiger
Banned
TheThaiger
Banned
TheThaiger
Banned
TheThaiger
Banned
So, the racial slurs are fine so long as they're aimed at me. Is that right?
I'll not try and talk you out of quiting but ask just a few questions.
Have you taken any lessons?
Have you asked for advice?
Have you played for cheap. Even $.25 a game.
My short story is I played table tennis against better players for over 20 years. Never won a match but kept at it until I was a table one player. Quiting was never a option.
Nothing to be ashamed of here.
Pool is one of thousands of possible hobbies. Most of us who post here have derived great joy and satisfaction form playing, but pool is not for everybody.
No doubt, some will call you a defeatist, and others will contend you should have worked harder at it, taken some lessons, etc., but how you spend your time and money is your business.
Try some other hobbies and maybe you'll stumble onto something that is as fulfilling for you as pool is for most AZBers.
Whatever choice you make, good luck in all your pursuits.
Absolutely not, I don't condone them in anyway.
FactoryMaster
Registered
Fine...post pictures of your table and the public ones. I have married into a family that has family in Sicily (Calascibetta?) and as soon as they pay for me to come ove, I am on my way!
Now, call slh on the phone and say someting mean, then hang up right away.
I'll do that as soon as I rebuild my table, I'm currently changing the pocket facings !
Thanks for all the replies, a lot of good suggestions.
First of all I didn't really consider to quit, yesterday I was disappointed and I wrote it but I knew it wasn't true.
I'm taking a short break from pool because I need to go to another town for study. I will probably restart to play in October. I think a month of break should be good.
I have a lot of hobbies, pool is the only one I'm serious about it. Thanks as always for the suggestions.
I play pool. I recently pick up 3 cushions billiard and I'm enjoying it.
As you know, I started playing it and it is really a great game, I like playing it like I do with pool.
I'm also considering switching to it because I feel it needs less focus to be played at the low level. I obviously aspire to become a good player, but at the moment I'm a beginner, I will worry about opponent's high runs later. :thumbup:
In pool when you play against good players if you miss they runout, instead in 3 cushions you can get away with more errors. Now, I'm not saying carom doesn't require focus, but as I said when you are playing with lesser skilled player ( I'm not talking about Dani Sanchez) you can make more mistakes without being punished like in pool.
Hi Federico thanks for the post. First of all I never thought I lost because I was unlucky, I knew everytime I lost it was my fault.
My main problem is the lack of focus and confidence in my game, I don't believe the problem is in the stroke. I'm not saying I have a perfect stroke, but a good one, atleast in terms of straightness because I rarely give unwanted spin. The lack of pratice is also a big problem because you know is very hard and expensive to pratice here. I also started to play 3 cushions because I can pratice much more.
First of all I didn't really consider to quit, yesterday I was disappointed and I wrote it but I knew it wasn't true.
I'm taking a short break from pool because I need to go to another town for study. I will probably restart to play in October. I think a month of break should be good.
I have a lot of hobbies, pool is the only one I'm serious about it. Thanks as always for the suggestions.
Thats a good suggestion. Everytime I play I try to follow this advice, but I'm also a lazy person and after few racks I start to get careless.
I play pool. I recently pick up 3 cushions billiard and I'm enjoying it.
You forgot the #1 solution:
As you know, I started playing it and it is really a great game, I like playing it like I do with pool.
I'm also considering switching to it because I feel it needs less focus to be played at the low level. I obviously aspire to become a good player, but at the moment I'm a beginner, I will worry about opponent's high runs later. :thumbup:
In pool when you play against good players if you miss they runout, instead in 3 cushions you can get away with more errors. Now, I'm not saying carom doesn't require focus, but as I said when you are playing with lesser skilled player ( I'm not talking about Dani Sanchez) you can make more mistakes without being punished like in pool.
I'M THE GUY WHO PLAYED WITH SLH YESTERDAY...
(we played 10-ball race to 9, and I gave him the 9 ball.
I started playing seriously until 3-0 for me, then noticed that he was playing very poorly not beacause he is bad but because he wasnt fully into it: just like he knew he was going to lose and couldn't do anything about it, and needless to say he wasn't enjoying the game at all...
Noticing that I couldnt go on playing focused and we ended the game just to end it at 8-7 for me... we weren't betting anything and divided the table fare)
Listen, I know how you feel: i felt exactly the same some times ago when I was playing with Biagio ( a strong player of our poolroom) , and losing every time... We played about 6 times in 3 weeks, and I only won 1 match. Every time i lost, i thought that he was lucky, and that I should be beating him easily, and didn't manage to do that only to lack of focusing... every time i went home very sad and disappointed ....
Then I realized that the problem was not my focus, because i desperatly wanted to beat him so obviusly i was focused ! Simply I still wasn't good enough to beat him yet ! I started to practice better than before ,
Instead of just running balls and some drills (I have the fortune to own a table at home). I thought with GREAT HUMILTY : "ok, maybe i'm not good as i think to be,maybe i cant even do the simple stuffs correctly" , so I decided to start from fundamentals (how to hold the cue, stance, stroke, etc) , correct my aiming adjusting it to my dominant eye, then moving to easy shots doing them until they were automatic, then difficult shots, than position play , etc...
I'm doing this from some days, and I'm already seeing great improvements in my pocketing ability and mental strenght, because , as others said, you need to know the game to be confident with it, and also you need to know yourself ! You dont have to shoot until you know youre doing that 100% right and not gonna miss it ! And to do so you have to take your time before shooting, even for the easy shots, you have to exactly predict how the balls will be moving ! dont have fear of seeming dumb if you take much time for an easy shot...
Remember that when you miss a shot, or lose a game, its not because you are unlucky, or god is punishing you, but its only your fault !! you have to exactly understand why you are missing the shot and correct it ! for example why did you aimed correctly but missed the shot? maybe it your stroke! your stroke is good ? then its your aiming ! and so on...
Other than practice hard, wich is the only way to get better, I choosed not to play with Biagio until I'm sure I will beat him! So you also should go play weaker players to gain confidence instead of quitting the game.
Practice hard is the only way to be confident and to get better in any sport. No magic wands !!
I know its easy to say that for me, having a table at home
Oh, you say you are not self confident in life other than in pool, so your pool is bad because of this lack of confidence... If I were you, I'd try to make this the opposite: getting better in pool may let you feel more self confident in everyday life!
Sport (and I consider pool a sport rather than a game) is a great master of life, it should teach you not to quit when you are losing, but to train harder and win what you want. If you quit the game you wont learn anything and will gain only regret of not being enough motivated to get good at it, IT DEFINITELY WONT HELP YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE IF YOU QUIT :thumbup:
Federico
Hi Federico thanks for the post. First of all I never thought I lost because I was unlucky, I knew everytime I lost it was my fault.
My main problem is the lack of focus and confidence in my game, I don't believe the problem is in the stroke. I'm not saying I have a perfect stroke, but a good one, atleast in terms of straightness because I rarely give unwanted spin. The lack of pratice is also a big problem because you know is very hard and expensive to pratice here. I also started to play 3 cushions because I can pratice much more.
I've come to think that everyone thinks they have a good stroke no matter the level they really are at. Here try this stroke shot and see how many times you can make it:
Place a ball directly in line with a corner pocket about a diamond off the rail and about 3 diamonds up table from the opposite corner pocket. Now place the cueball directly in line with the object ball and the corner pocket. The object of this shot is to follow the object ball in with the cueball. If you can do this the majority of times then you know you have a straight stroke.
If you want to get creative try this:
Put the cueball in the middle of the headstring and the nineball right in the mouth of one of the opposing corners downtable. Then place the 8ball 2 diamonds up from the 9ball right against the rail. The purpose of this shot is to hit the 8ball with nothing but straight top and have the cueball make the 9ball after it without hitting any other rails but the one the 8ball was up against.
Here's another stroke shot. Place the 9ball about 1/3 of the way across from the side pocket and about 1/3 of a diamond down from it. Now place the cueball in line with the far side of the pocket (not the middle) and make the 9ball with severe draw. If you can scratch in the corner pocket along the rail from where you make the 9ball you have a good stroke.
Now here is another beautiful shot that can only be accomplished with a semi decent stroke. Place the 8ball in the mouth of a corner pocket and the cueball in line with it and the second diamond. Now place the 9ball down the opposite side of the table up against the rail in the middle. Hit the 8ball with bottom left (or right depending on which pocket) so that when it hits the short rail it spins off downtable and leaves a shot on the 9ball.
Oo oo I'm on a roll here's another one:
Place the 9ball against the 8ball a half inch off one of the side rails and the cueball lined up perfectly in line with it and the pocket. Now try and make the 9ball and draw the cueball straight back so that it doesnt hit the cushion next to it and it doesnt veer off into the middle of the table.
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Yeah, I have issue with going out and paying too much to play on inferior equipment, around people I'd rather not see, listening to things I'd rather not hear...so I play with myself at home.