Serious question about not playing to my ability

dynamicmad

dynamicmad

one pocket any one?
Silver Member
I stopped shooting about 5 years ago and was a solid B player. I bought a table and starred shooting again in August and I play daily. In the fall I won or placed well in some tough tournaments and put together 2-3 racks at a time in 8 ball. A good friend said I am playing at a high A level. As guys having a 550-600 rating I was beating in these tourneys. My question is for the last 4 weeks if I run a rack out it's miraculous I can't make a ball. I'm playing patterns well but I mess up on one ball. I can't get out. What Gives
 
dynamicmad said:
I stopped shooting about 5 years ago and was a solid B player. I bought a table and starred shooting again in August and I play daily. In the fall I won or placed well in some tough tournaments and put together 2-3 racks at a time in 8 ball. A good friend said I am playing at a high A level. As guys having a 550-600 rating I was beating in these tourneys. My question is for the last 4 weeks if I run a rack out it's miraculous I can't make a ball. I'm playing patterns well but I mess up on one ball. I can't get out. What Gives
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You're probably to the point of thinking "this is easy" and not concentrating enough
Jason
 
dynamicmad said:
I stopped shooting about 5 years ago and was a solid B player. I bought a table and starred shooting again in August and I play daily. In the fall I won or placed well in some tough tournaments and put together 2-3 racks at a time in 8 ball. A good friend said I am playing at a high A level. As guys having a 550-600 rating I was beating in these tourneys. My question is for the last 4 weeks if I run a rack out it's miraculous I can't make a ball. I'm playing patterns well but I mess up on one ball. I can't get out. What Gives
Click to expand...

Same boat. This is how my slumps are. I will shoot well consistently for long periods of time and then go through the exact opposite. Shit blows. I just play through it, hating myself every step of the way knowing that I will come out in good shape again, but God knows how long it will take.

You figure it out, please PM me.
 
Honestly, it sounds like you have unrealistic expectations. I've never heard of anyone going from a "Solid B player" to a "high A player" by NOT playing for 5 years. You were playing a bit over your head and you've come back down and now you're discouraged and letting this discouragement pull you down further.

Now I have to run and watch Dr Phil. He's my hero.
 
Ok

BasementDweller said:
Honestly, it sounds like you have unrealistic expectations. I've never heard of anyone going from a "Solid B player" to a "high A player" by NOT playing for 5 years. You were playing a bit over your head and you've come back down and now you're discouraged and letting this discouragement pull you down further.

Now I have to run and watch Dr Phil. He's my hero.
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I only shot once or twice a week as a b player and for months played every day for 2+ hours to get to A player could someone advance that fast
 
BasementDweller said:
I've never heard of anyone going from a "Solid B player" to a "high A player" by NOT playing for 5 years. You were playing a bit over your head and you've come back down and now you're discouraged and letting this discouragement pull you down further.
Click to expand...
Kind of like the "new cue" syndrome...
 
dynamicmad said:
I only shot once or twice a week as a b player and for months played every day for 2+ hours to get to A player could someone advance that fast
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I'd say it's possible if you were building on a solid foundation, but I don't think you can give yourself a letter rating based solely on who you've beaten recently. I think Dr Dave and some others have posted ratings games that can help you determine what level you are actually playing at. For the purpose of simplicity, I usually just say that an A player will beat the 9-ball ghost on a 9' table - an A+ should win easily, like 7-2, 7-4, etc. If you comfortably beat the 7-ball ghost, but struggle with 9-ball, I would put you in the B+ range. Nothing super scientific, but a very simple way to at least gauge your offensive game.

Regards,
Aaron
 
dynamicmad said:
I stopped shooting about 5 years ago and was a solid B player. I bought a table and starred shooting again in August and I play daily. In the fall I won or placed well in some tough tournaments and put together 2-3 racks at a time in 8 ball. A good friend said I am playing at a high A level. As guys having a 550-600 rating I was beating in these tourneys. My question is for the last 4 weeks if I run a rack out it's miraculous I can't make a ball. I'm playing patterns well but I mess up on one ball. I can't get out. What Gives
Click to expand...


There is a fly in your ointment.

Or, put another way, there's been a change in your PSR that you have not detected. Think about it: if you do everything exactly the same way, you should get exactly the same results. Different results, then maybe like for sure you are doing something different.

Either that or it's all in your head :-)

Lou Figueroa
 
When I go into a slump it's usually because I get lazy with my fundamentals. This can happen for a variety of reasons, but typically to fix it I have to go alone to the poolroom and break everything down piece by piece and realize what I'm doing differently. This last time my stance had started closing up without really realizing it. That made it hard to bring the cue back straight. I did some solo practice one day and realized I needed my left foot further to the left of the shot line and parallel to it. As soon as I did that it was like magic. I started hitting them better, seeing them better, and my confidence improved. Bottom line: It's probably something small you may not even realized you are doing or stopped doing.
 
dynamicmad said:
I stopped shooting about 5 years ago and was a solid B player. I bought a table and starred shooting again in August and I play daily. In the fall I won or placed well in some tough tournaments and put together 2-3 racks at a time in 8 ball. A good friend said I am playing at a high A level. As guys having a 550-600 rating I was beating in these tourneys. My question is for the last 4 weeks if I run a rack out it's miraculous I can't make a ball. I'm playing patterns well but I mess up on one ball. I can't get out. What Gives
Click to expand...

Excellent advice already given. Is everything you're playing 8-ball?

Does messing up on one ball mean missing or losing position? If it's missing the ball, I'm thinking your mechanics have changed (check your feet ). If you're blowing position, then that's something you'll have to give an example so the board can analyze your shot selection.

Freddie <~~~ needs more punctuation
 
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