I hope I'm not speaking too soon with that title!
Since our 8 ball league ended (which we won) back in June, my game had gone downhill horribly. Now, I'm no expert & have only been playing for the last 10 months after a 13 year layoff but I know what I'm capable of & hate it when I play below par (as I'm sure everyone does!)
It seemed like every tourney I entered I would go 2 & 0. I've always considered myself to be a better league player than tournament but that was just not on! 2 weeks ago I lost my first match in our local PH's regular Sunday night event & I was pissed! It was a good game, no complaints there but I was just mad at myself for losing again. That seemed to spark something, the next few games I played I just relaxed & tried to play as if it were a league game. I won 2 matches before being knocked out. Not great but I felt like things were coming together again.
So, with our Wednesday night league waiting to start again we've had some mini tourneys running instead. A week ago I got to the final & split the cash because it was late. This week I won it. After that my team mates talked me into going to another tourney on Friday night, but when we got there it had been moved to Saturday afternoon. So we found another place in Ft. Worth that had something going.
What an experience! 3 little bar tables with 31 players, one rack! It took all night to get through it & I ended up with 3rd place. I had one guy get really pissy with me because I didn't leave him a shot! Hello, neither did he! I'm sorry but I play to win!
I'm just glad to be playing better again, how long it'll last I don't know, although I know that is up to me. The biggest thing that has made a difference is how fast I play. I'm not a slow player, but I've tried to spend more time studying layouts & patterns & it has killed my game. I play fast, the more time I spend on a shot the more likely I am to mess it up. I often wonder if this is a bad thing, but if it works when I play at my normal pace & see the layout then should I try to change it? I'm thinking no, but I'd love to hear opinions on this.
Thanks for your time folks.
Ade.
Since our 8 ball league ended (which we won) back in June, my game had gone downhill horribly. Now, I'm no expert & have only been playing for the last 10 months after a 13 year layoff but I know what I'm capable of & hate it when I play below par (as I'm sure everyone does!)
It seemed like every tourney I entered I would go 2 & 0. I've always considered myself to be a better league player than tournament but that was just not on! 2 weeks ago I lost my first match in our local PH's regular Sunday night event & I was pissed! It was a good game, no complaints there but I was just mad at myself for losing again. That seemed to spark something, the next few games I played I just relaxed & tried to play as if it were a league game. I won 2 matches before being knocked out. Not great but I felt like things were coming together again.
So, with our Wednesday night league waiting to start again we've had some mini tourneys running instead. A week ago I got to the final & split the cash because it was late. This week I won it. After that my team mates talked me into going to another tourney on Friday night, but when we got there it had been moved to Saturday afternoon. So we found another place in Ft. Worth that had something going.
What an experience! 3 little bar tables with 31 players, one rack! It took all night to get through it & I ended up with 3rd place. I had one guy get really pissy with me because I didn't leave him a shot! Hello, neither did he! I'm sorry but I play to win!
I'm just glad to be playing better again, how long it'll last I don't know, although I know that is up to me. The biggest thing that has made a difference is how fast I play. I'm not a slow player, but I've tried to spend more time studying layouts & patterns & it has killed my game. I play fast, the more time I spend on a shot the more likely I am to mess it up. I often wonder if this is a bad thing, but if it works when I play at my normal pace & see the layout then should I try to change it? I'm thinking no, but I'd love to hear opinions on this.
Thanks for your time folks.
Ade.
