So yeah just Try pretending you're "in the zone" what could it hurt? 
The Zone -- Are We There Yet?
- Thread starter Biloxi Boy
- Start date
Just recently at the handshake (I won), my opponent inquired as to my thinking on a shot that at first appeared to have been a miss. Well I had no recollection and almost felt guilty.
8 ball provides double edged opportunities. I assume that's what I probably did.
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Mr Machine
Well-known member
There was a PBS documentary on the blues hosted by Clint Eastwood years ago.
In it he’s interviewing Dr John & Dr John turns to the piano, says I added this & plays a marvelous one handed riff.
I remember thinking he does that as easily as someone speaking.
And that is the top of the mountain.
In it he’s interviewing Dr John & Dr John turns to the piano, says I added this & plays a marvelous one handed riff.
I remember thinking he does that as easily as someone speaking.
And that is the top of the mountain.
Where I grew up, the book mobile was our access to the county library. Trinity county population oh about 14,000 give or take. I learned to use it as I enjoyed reading. A book on Jui Jitsu helped me overcome The Bully in the 8th grade when he grew a head taller and I didn't. So many good books on pool. McGoorty is a favorite. All Byrne's are required. Billiards As It Should Be Played by Hoppe is as well.
My first experience with the zone on the pool table came playing for money I didn't have. In the cowboy capital of the world with long hair and a beard. Definitely a Uneasy Rider happening that brought out the survival mode.
Confidence is a key to my Zone. Not sure but probably the back door. All I know is when I have it. I don't miss. Whether it's a shot or a safety. Most likely a shot, as I feel that I can make anything.
Another favorite is when I got 4th in the Northwest A division. A rough start put me in the second chance bracket. I had found myself and held the confidence key firmly in hand. I had come from behind to catch my opponent at the top of the hill. The format of alternate break gave him the chance and he made the 9 on the break. As I stood watching, knowing that if I got to shoot I would win. I chided him at the handshake with something in good humor regarding him just being afraid.
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
Very nice. The zone beckons when you start feeling sweet shoots. Easy shots, safeties, tough shots, when they feel sweet keep feeling sweet shot after sweet shot. Now if you start to question it in your head or congratulate yourself you have a good chance of falling away from the zone.
I'll sound silly saying this, but when I get there even the act of placing your bridge hand down on the cloth feels almost sensual.
I just stumbled upon this in my YouTube feed, not entirely zone related but it helps get you there:
Oh man another story triggered.
playing bar box 9 ball.Started with 110 and no job was down to 30 at 10 per. With 45 minutes left to close, as I racked I had the self to self. The options considered and path chosen. At close I was up 50 and at the handshake his complaint was, "I can't beat your slow game."
Pretty sure there's a moral there somewhere.
Our high-school football coach got us there. John McHargue RIP Taught us lessons that we have taken into all aspects of life.
When he came to Trinity they hadn't won a game in years. His first season they lost the first 5 (or was it 6?) And were downt to 11 (or was it 13) players on the team. They finished the season without a loss. The team went on to win 31 straight at 11 per year. I played center and linebacker as a senior the year of the streak ending loss.
I would describe it as a trance. Our pregame ritual that had me to where I felt nothing below my knees. Like being on a cloud.
So how many kids pretend just because presents are involved.
Your zone isn't my zone and I'm starting to think that is pretty typical. When we enter the state of mind it triggers different things in each of us.
Nothing to do with the zone but your talk of basketball made me think of my basketball days in PE. I gravitated to playing forward, at six-one! The way we played basketball it was a far rougher game than football. Of course the way we played football wouldn't have flown with any officials. I was going to a private school because it was convenient. Most had been ran out of the public system so we were a pretty rough bunch.
With no other high schools to play we went to LSU to find pick-up games on their old practice field which had the original astroturf, well worn now. It had started out like a quarter inch of very abrasive marine carpet on top of asphalt. No uniforms or pads, you started bleeding the first time you went down. It was like playing football in a parking lot. I don't know if we ever lost a game. We had a few guys that played like they were in full pads and helmets instead of t-shirts and blue jeans. One was the hairiest human I have ever seen. When we played something using shirts and skins to designate teams they would tell him to take his shirt off after it already was! I think he was 99% Neanderthal.
Hu
BASKETBALL!? That's a rough sport. A game I avoided. I once worked with a carpenter partner that had played Pro basketball in Portugal. His statement to me was that in that league he had to make a name for himself from the start. Getting thrown out of games was his starter. El Loco Americano was the name he earned. His favorite by-line was, "the taste of blood excites me."
The Coach McHargue teams were so strong that the year I played had us playing 2 teams that came from much larger schools that fielded teams that were much bigger and faster than us.
We actually beat the first and lost a close game to the second to end the win streak.
At 155 I played center and linebacker and all special teams. Facing 210 pound middle guards and chase ball carriers that posted 10.9 second 100 yard dash to my 12.4 best.
The 210 middle guards were easy compared to the 1 that weighed in at 170. He was just mean. The only hope with the speed demons was to get them before they took a step.Coach taught us the techniques we had to bring the heart.
The Coach McHargue teams were so strong that the year I played had us playing 2 teams that came from much larger schools that fielded teams that were much bigger and faster than us.
We actually beat the first and lost a close game to the second to end the win streak.
At 155 I played center and linebacker and all special teams. Facing 210 pound middle guards and chase ball carriers that posted 10.9 second 100 yard dash to my 12.4 best.
Coach taught us the techniques we had to bring the heart.
The Catholic school I went to voluntarily moved up an "A" or two to have some competition. The coach at the time was another legend. Last I knew a friend and neighbor of mine and his brother were coaching there. Think I'll check on them, it has been years. Johnny, the older brother, had been a hero at Redemptorist and LSU. He put in his dibs at the school to be head coach when the job came open a decade before the man that coached him retired!
Hu
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
There's actually a ton of pre game meditation type stuff that even high school teams do now, not all but many of the good ones. Like visualizing perfect catches/blocks etc. When I was a kid in school the coach basically tried to get us amped up and sent us jogging onto the field. My nephew's coach had them lie flat, dim the lights, do visualization and breathing techniques. He was also one hell of a mentor to them on and off the field. A real good male role model that actually cared about the kids and creating good members of society. My coaches got off on when kids puked at practice in 95 degree weather.
Our coach started the pre game mental prep on Monday. Each team provided a roster to the other, listing the players weight number and position. Pre season I weighed 165, by the start of the season I was down to 155. Pretty sure he listed me at 170 in the roster. Anyway Coach would stand in the hallway between classes and give encouragement. "Your man weighs 210....THINK ABOUT IT". (every day) Is one encouragement I recall. Fortunately I never fumbled a ball. Anyone that did was tasked with carrying a football every day to and from class. With 7 periods that gave everyone in the hall a chance to dislodge the ball. The absolute pre game involved laying down in complete silence.
Oikawa
Well-known member
Food for thought, for those who have a hard time finding the zone: Place all 15 balls on the table. Pocket each one of them directly into any pocket. Even with a relatively shitty stroke this should have a 100% success rate with no conscious effort. Try to do this multiple times in a row. You will most likely very quickly realize you can't miss, and if you already haven't, you now finally stop paying any attention to your technique, or other similar conscious things that would typically happen. Your body and arm will automatically, with no effort at all, just walk around the table and put the balls in. It will quickly get very boring, since you already know you can't miss, and there's nothing fun about being perfect.
Unlike in a normal game of pool, this is a game where you find the zone, an absolute and total trust in your subconscious, 100% of the time. The issue is that in a real game of pool, you can miss. You can do better, always. Even if not for the pot, the position can always be better. This messes with your mind, your conscious mind naturally wants to do everything it can to improve the situation. However, sometimes even in real games of pool you have similar moments; Imagine your opponent misses the 9 playing 9-ball and it's hanging in the pocket, and scratches the cue ball. Your experience of potting that BIH pocket hanger is probably almost identical to playing the aforementioned 15-ball straight-to-pocket "drill". You know you can't fail even with zero conscious effort. so theres nothing to think about. You just do it, automatically.
Lesson of the story: If you can't find the zone often, or at all, maybe just work more on your fundamentals. Miss less, learn the game more, over time, more and more shot will transform into the territory of "automatic". A pocket hanger for a beginner is the same as a medium-distance straight in shot to an advanced player, which is the same as a semi-thin close-range cut shot to a world champion.
Just keep practicing, the zone will visit you more often.
Unlike in a normal game of pool, this is a game where you find the zone, an absolute and total trust in your subconscious, 100% of the time. The issue is that in a real game of pool, you can miss. You can do better, always. Even if not for the pot, the position can always be better. This messes with your mind, your conscious mind naturally wants to do everything it can to improve the situation. However, sometimes even in real games of pool you have similar moments; Imagine your opponent misses the 9 playing 9-ball and it's hanging in the pocket, and scratches the cue ball. Your experience of potting that BIH pocket hanger is probably almost identical to playing the aforementioned 15-ball straight-to-pocket "drill". You know you can't fail even with zero conscious effort. so theres nothing to think about. You just do it, automatically.
Lesson of the story: If you can't find the zone often, or at all, maybe just work more on your fundamentals. Miss less, learn the game more, over time, more and more shot will transform into the territory of "automatic". A pocket hanger for a beginner is the same as a medium-distance straight in shot to an advanced player, which is the same as a semi-thin close-range cut shot to a world champion.
Just keep practicing, the zone will visit you more often.
Proper coaching and proper practice yields a much higher and more quickly realized reward. In pool I had the good fortune of stumble into a great coach in Backward Jan. I had the sports training background to know how to practice what I was taught in the once a week one hour lessons. 6 weeks of lessons and devoted practice of one hour a day got me over the hump and out of the B class that my progress had been stalled in for over a year. I knew I was in luck when I enquired as to lessons and his reply was, "I will give lessons on one condition. We will go back to the basics."