The Sixth Sense

BAZARUS

BAZARUS

alien in a strange land
Silver Member
Hi all

I'm looking for cure, that would make my sixth sense really work. I'm sure most of you people went through this before. Quite offten there is a situation when I'm aiming on a shot and I have this feeling, that is telling me, that something doesn't feel right. The sixth sense is telling me this. I don't know exacly what is that; am I going to miss? will I get properly on the next shot? will I miss cue? will I scracht? and so on...All I know, that its going to be bad. The right decission at this moment would be to back up and start my routine over. But for some reason I'm not doing it, I'm down on the shot and I've decide to go for it anyway. Unfortunatelly my sixth sense was right and I miss or did something else wrong. After all I said: "I knew it and I haven't listen!" I do that a lot and I know that, but I don't know how to fix it?
 
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If you want to win you'll start to listen and stand up and start over. Your subconcious mind never makes a mistake and if it tells you something is wrong, you're going to miss. My advice is FORCE YOURSELF- FORCE YOURSELF- FORCE YOURSELF
Good luck, Sam
 
This happens to everybody. You just have to discipline yourself to start over. I use a short pause on the backstroke for a little reality check. Do I still "see" the shot? If so, pull the trigger. If not, STOP! Do over.

-CM
 
Originally posted by highsea
I use a short pause on the backstroke for a little reality check.
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I use that technique as well. I came from a snooker background and my fundamentals are pretty strong, just my discipline not. Also sometimes I am confused while on the shot and even so the outcome is positive. :confused:
 
Read an article entitled "Threading The Needle" written by Max Eberle. This is by far the best thing about pool I've read in a long time. It might help you ALOT.
 
BAZARUS said:
Also sometimes I am confused while on the shot and even so the outcome is positive. :confused:
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Yeah, that happens to all of us too. Nothing like a little negative reinforcement. I guess it's true, even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

-CM
 
LastTwo said:
Read an article entitled "Threading The Needle" written by Max Eberle. This is by far the best thing about pool I've read in a long time. It might help you ALOT.
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Where's this article at?
 
Originally posted by LastTwo
Read an article entitled "Threading The Needle" written by Max Eberle.
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Originally posted by XzyluM
Where's this article at?
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It can be found on Azbilliards site; I'll also post it here.

Threading the Needle

By Max Eberle

Have you ever tried to thread a needle? When you tried for the first time, did you notice that you could hold the thread steady until you approached the eye of the needle, and when it was almost there your hand shook and the thread missed the eye?

Attempting to pour a liquid into the mouth of a very small-necked bottle often results in the same kind of behavior. You can hold your hand perfectly steady, until you try to accomplish your purpose, then for some strange reason, you quiver and shake and spill the liquid.

In medical circles this is called "purpose tremor." It occurs in normal people when they try too hard, or are "too careful" not to make an error in accomplishing some purpose.

In playing pool, these purpose tremors may lead to a missed ball. It may occur in a pool player if he is being excessively careful or too anxious not to miss a shot. Excessive carefulness and anxiety both have to do with too much concern for possible failure, or doing the "wrong thing," and making too much of a conscious effort to do right.

You can avoid "dogging it" by training yourself to stop "trying" too hard or being overly careful at the moment you deliver your stroke. You must learn to trust your stroke. Do your best to position your body into the stance with your center of vision and cue stick on the stroking line, and have keen focus on the contact point before you begin your stroke. Now, with your body perfectly still, your eyes focused on the contact point and not a thought in your mind, freely swing your arm forward in a pendulum motion.

When you are first learning your stance, it will require much work just to get aligned properly for each shot, and may feel awkward. Yet the more you practice good form, the more natural it will become and getting into your stance will also be like threading a needle. You develop a trust that your body is lining up to what you are looking at, and with trust comes confidence.

The trick is to keep your body still as you relaxingly and confidently throw the cue with your shooting arm. So many times a dogged shot is accompanied by a sudden jarring of the body at the time of the forward stroke or a stroke that obviously deviates from its usual relaxed and straight path. Again, this often comes from being overly careful and anxious. It may help to remind yourself to "trust your stroke" or "I'm just going to move my arm" before you get down on a shot. Also, taking deep belly breaths to ease possible tension in your torso and to get more oxygen to your brain can be helpful.

Try hitting some long straight-ins and angled shots with your body perfectly still and your eyes glued to the contact point. Then move only your arm with no concern for the outcome, just detached observation to the feeling and results of the shot. If you have a habit of moving your body on your stroke, you may not even notice it when you do move. Even if you have someone to tell you when you move, try to develop that awareness. Even though you will be looking at the contact point on the object ball, you must focus on keeping still as you deliver your stroke with perfect trust. Do not "try" to stroke straight, do not "try" to make the ball. Just swing your arm forward and keep your body still and see what happens.

You may discover incredible powers to make difficult shots look easy, even in pressure situations. Please let me know if it works for you, my email address is maxeberle@hotmail.com
 
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Thanks BAZARUS! After reading the article again, I do recall reading in some time ago. It's a great article.
 
Good article. I'd say there is no sixth sense, the subconscious doubt has crept in your mind and you have a brief flash of this-might-not-work, which makes you miss/screw up the shot. If this comes to your mind, stand up, start over your preshot routine with a touch of more positive attitude. Many times this moment of hesitation affects your mechanics and you miss without knowing it was your mind which had the negative effect in your execution.

Ability to clear your mind of negative thoughts is very important. I don't know about you guys, but I sometimes use a kind of psychological trick, which could be called "neutral word" -effect. I have a word in my mind which has no meaning to me, it's just plain neutral to me. When the doubt creeps in my mind, I try to concetrate only on this word and clear my mind from all other thoughts. I've found this technique quite effective in tournaments. Especially after a stupid mistake I used to get angry or uncertain of my abilities, but nowadays I just think the word and thus put myself back in a neutral concetrated mode. All the mechanics are (should be) so deep inside you that by thinking them you actually prevent them working fluently from the subconsciousness.

Hope this helps...
 
I see, that you guys mostly say about missing balls on this particular issue, but its not only that. To give you another example. I practice a lots of straight pool which developes good patern and position play. You have to be very precise in straight pool to get good position. In 9 ball you can get decent shape even if you are far away from the object ball, in 14.1 you may not get position within an inch off the target!
Anyways to get to my point, sometimes I think what pattern should I choose to play and I go for it, but than all of the sudden my inner me teaking me away to something different, that may be better option.
 
BAZARUS said:
I see, that you guys mostly say about missing balls on this particular issue, but its not only that. To give you another example. I practice a lots of straight pool which developes good patern and position play. You have to be very precise in straight pool to get good position. In 9 ball you can get decent shape even if you are far away from the object ball, in 14.1 you may not get position within an inch off the target!
Anyways to get to my point, sometimes I think what pattern should I choose to play and I go for it, but than all of the sudden my inner me teaking me away to something different, that may be better option.
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Playing pool and choosing shots is a matter of taking risks and keeping the success percentage as high as possible. Sometimes you face a choice between shots/position play when you must avaluate the success rate on each option and choose the one that gives the best success rate. Finding the different choices and executing the best shot is sometimes a matter of taste & personal skill. One shot is preferred by one player, the other option is preferred by other player.

Learning the basics of making the right choice and playing the right pattern can be done by watching a lot of world class players playing 9-ball, straight pool, one-pocket etc. And when you watch these players, don't just admire their ability to play, but also try to focus and think what option would you choose on the particular situation and if the world class player chooses other shot, try to understand if there is benefit over the shot you thought in your mind. I've watched a lot of pool and played 13 years and nowadays when I watch pool, there aren't many shots top players choose which I didn't see in the first place, but when one comes up, I try to understand why the top player chose that option. Was it better or was it more attacking/defensive shot or was it chosen too hastily or was the bad decision a result of nerves. Top players make bad decisions as well...
 
Originally posted by mjantti
Learning the basics of making the right choice and playing the right pattern can be done by watching a lot of world class players playing 9-ball, straight pool, one-pocket etc.
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:D I'm not a fresh fish Mikko, I've been playing pool since 1992! I have done all this what are you refering to and other guys as well. My concern is that I keep doing the same mistakes over and over again, even that I realize that. I'm looking for something that would help me with my discipline. I need to quite down my mind, I always have many thoughts, while I'm playing. I even catch myself on not thinking about, what I'm doing on the table. Maybe it is too much routin, when you play same things all the time you just stop thinking and beginning to do this automatically, like in trans or something.
 
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BAZARUS said:
:D I'm not a fresh fish Mikko, I've been playing pool since 1992! I have done all this what are you refering to and other guys as well. My concern is that I keep doing the same mistakes over and over again, even that I realize that. I'm looking for something that would help me with my discipline. I need to quite down my mind, I always have many thoughts, while I'm playing. I even catch myself on not thinking about, what I'm doing on the table. Maybe it is too much routin, when you play same things all the time you just stop thinking and beginning to do this automatically, like in trans or something.
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Yes, compared to many players here, we both are quite fresh... still wet behind the ears :p

Do you think you lack concentration or do you just have a vivid mind and it's hard for you to keep focusing for hours on pool ? Is it only in tournaments or in both practise and tournaments ? It's very hard to tell someone to clear your mind from all thoughts, you end up thinking too much not to think ! What a dilemma ! :D

Couple of hints in a nutshell:

-when practising, figure out the mechanics & stroke & stance and try to make it better.
-In tournaments, forget all the details in your stroke and mechanics. Don't think about them at all. Your mechanics should be rooted in your subconscious muscle memory and you don't need to think about them. In tournaments, your mind doesn't work objectively and you tend to exaggerate minor flaws in technique, and thinking about the flaw(s) won't make it better.
-You might want to try the "neutral word" -technique I posted earlier. At least it has helped me a lot. Your mind & body works better if you have only one word to concentrate on. Try to realize instantly when negative thoughts come to you and switch your mind to the neutral word. I know this thing might sound like a ridiculous superstition, but it doesn't hurt to try :)

Human mind is very complex. There is a very easy concentration test and I've tried it a couple of times. Pick a blank spot on the wall and clear your mind from all thoughts with a stop-watch in your hand and measure how long you can keep on thinking absolutely nothing. The moment when a first thought pops in your mind, stop the watch. I've reached over 30 seconds at best, but over 15 secs is a good result.
 
I went thru that with the mind wandering and it drove me nuts. In my case I had started to get accustomed to being a good loser. I had lost the desire to beat my opponents to the point of embarrassment. When I first started to play in the bars for money, I looked at everybody like they were a hustler trying to take my cash. I wanted to send them home with their tail between their legs. As I got older and started to concentrate on making a living, I lost some of that fire. In the last year I have started to pursue that fire to achieve new goals. There was an article a while back by The Monk that had a phrase in it to tell yourself every time you play. "I came to win". I repeat this daily and especially before and during tough matches. It helps me to focus on the objective of putting the balls in the hole or playing the best possible safety. It may not help you but it has me. Hope this helps. Sam
 
Originally posted by mjantti
Do you think you lack concentration or do you just have a vivid mind and it's hard for you to keep focusing for hours on pool ? Is it only in tournaments or in both practise and tournaments ?
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In my first couple of years of playing my friend told me, that I'm the best player on a practice table :cool: , but when comes to money or tournaments I dog it. I used to play 10 hours a day or more. I can stay concentrated at the table for long time. Although I do have some sort of blocker due to my personality. I'm very active person, I always do something and I always have something on my mind. Besides I have high temperament which is not very good for a poolplayer.
In tournaments I usually loose about 50% of my abillity to play. I hear people, that are watching me before tournament talking about me. This guy can play, he can beat anyone in here, I'm going to bed on him, etc. When it comes to a match a different person is sneeking into me:mad: I won great number of tournaments, nothing mayor, right now I'm just feeling like I'm going backwards. Maybe I'm getting to old for this :(

Originally posted by Satman
There was an article a while back by The Monk that had a phrase in it to tell yourself every time you play. "I came to win". I repeat this daily and especially before and during tough matches.
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It is amazing what you mind can do if you really want to.
 
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i had a local pro who won the michigan state championship talk to me about this same phenomenon. he says it is your body telling your eyes that they are not aligned correctly. he claims that when pool players approach the table, their body is helping you aim along with your eyes. when you go down, your eyes are trying to aim, but if u get that sensation it is your body telling you that your aim is off. most likely your stance is off for that particular shot and its best to get up and WALK AROUND and reset. he claims that it is usually not enough to simply stand straight up, look at the shot, and then go down again. moving your feet away from table is key. i've found this to be possibly the most useful tool when it comes to pocketing shots because i too, get this sense all the time and its almost never wrong.
 
Originally posted by Klad
most likely your stance is off for that particular shot and its best to get up and WALK AROUND and reset. he claims that it is usually not enough to simply stand straight up, look at the shot, and then go down again. moving your feet away from table is key.
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That is what Ralf Soquet does. He dosnot get down untill he checks the shot from every possible angles. It is really good technique. No rush, just a perfect, metodic aproach.
 
Yea but if I try to look at every different angle I play like crap. I know after all these years what I need to do unless in a difficult position. If I get in my zone and don't think too much, I might beat anyone. It's that thinking that gets you in trouble sometimes. Don't think- just play. Sam
 
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