the mental side of pool.

L

lorider

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I posted my thoughts on this subject quite a while back and thought I would revisit the subject after what transpired at 9 ball playoffs last night.

After 2 matches we were up by one point and I threw my 4...they countered with a darn good 7 who happened to put a butt whipping on me a few weeks ago. I thought ...oh crap ...no chance in Hades for us to win playoffs my 4 had gotten beat up by 55-4 by this same teams other 7 a couple weeks ago for a 20-0 loss.

My 4 shot amazingly well ...great cue ball control...never missed a shot that was make able. He looked relaxed yet confident at the table. Something I had never seen from him before in the 3 years he has been playing for me.

After his match was over it was obvious that what we had been thinking all night was going to happen. We were going to have to forfeit the 5th match due to a couple of no shows on our team.

Well it came down to me...the last player we had ....playing the 4th match and the other teams turn to throw and they knew we were going to forfeit the 5th match. They come out guns a blazing with their other 7 .

My scorekeeper just had to say...if you win 16-4 we win even having to forfeit the last match. Aww crap ...she just had to say that and put a ton of pressure on me. Oh yea....i am a 6....newly raised from a 5.

I have beaten this 7 by 15-5 before but I was a 5 at the time and had no pressure on me and didn't have to reach another 8 points like this time. I lost 12-8.

Afterwards we were all talking and I told my 4 I had never seen that level of pls from him before. He replied that he figured we had no chance in jell of winning so he just relaxed and had fun playing.

We also discussed how he noticed how tight and nervous I was at the table...unlike my usual matches in the past when I was in the same situation. He mentioned how tonight I played completely different than in last sessions playoff where I beat an 8 by 18-2.

I told him yea I usually relish being pit in those situations and usually come out on top.o can't explain why I folded like a limp rag last night and my 4 played the best game of his life.

Nights like last night lead people to believe that its nothing but sandbagging going on in these kind of matches . I guess if I didn't know this boy as good as i do I would probably be yelling sandbagger at the top of my lungs .

I really believe the mental aspect of the game is more important than people think. People automatically think that when some one is in a slump or have a sub par might they need to work on their stroke...fundamentals...par..or whatever when the root of the problem is between your ears.
 
I agree that the mental aspect is a huge part of the game. I have seen very good players keep a table for quite some time only to lose the table when some sub-par player came up and asked if the really good player wanted to play for $5.

The really good player started playing completely different. He was shooting safeties when he would have normally made the shot and got position on the next shot. He would go on and eventually lose the table and $5........$5???

The guy I'm speaking of is a good tournament player who normally plays deep into a tournament and sometimes wins. When I play him again in a tourny...I will ask if he wants to play for some $ on the side.

Every little bit helps
 
There is a book titled The Inner Game of Tennis. Although it is based in tennis it is a good read for understanding the inner game or mental aspects of most any game or competition.

Another good book is The Pursuit of Excellence by Terry Orlick. It is a sports psychology book and also a very worthwhile read.

I read both of them back in the early 80s for learning more about the mental aspects of playing pool and still have them.
 
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The "mental" side of almost all sports- billiards included - can be most simplified by the definition of " the ability to relax your mind and body AT THE POINT of EXECUTION" to allow FOCUS and MUSCLE memory to perform simultaneously - this is true in all sports- the moment of the baseball swing, the release of a baseball pitch, the release of a basketball shot, the release of a football pass, a tennis swing, a golf swing or putt, and in billiards, the moment when you release the cue towards the cue ball. What you do PRIOR to release of the cue should be a process that ALLOWS you MOST CONSISTENTLY to strike that cue ball with the desired stroke, speed, and english that allows for a pocketed object ball and the resultant desired position for the next shot attempt. ALL sports champions possess a superior ability to RELAX their body and FOCUS on the objective more consistently than the average person, regardless of the circumstances- and that is the key to MENTAL strength in sports. Not as easy to do as it sounds, or we would all be champs. How You get there most often is the process that you individually develop to foster this state of relaxation and focus at that point of execution.
 
Most people don't realize that even though pool is 80% mental, the other half is too.
 
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