tips on turning a match around?

scottycoyote

scottycoyote

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!, Ive had the most frustrating 2 nights in a row on the pool table. Last night, matching up with a pretty good player, we are pretty close to even, when we are both "on" im probably just a little better. Last night I was shooting great, but just couldnt seem to get any rolls, at one time I had him down 4-1 in a race to 5 and just could not close it out. I chalked it all up to just one of those nights.

Ok tonight same scenario, same player. First match I break and run 3 racks, everything is working and then.....i feel a shift. All of a sudden i have a runout and blow it, and now its 3-1......then 4-1......and dammit if he doesnt come back and win, despite 2 runouts I should have nailed. After that its just right down the toilet. If my shot could scratch it did, id run racks and wobble the 9 and leave it in the pocket. He could do no wrong......miss and leave me safe, everything would fall in for him........I just felt like putting my fist thru the wall.

He could see my frustration and mentioned that my stroke didnt look the same, like i was jabbing at the ball. I think I had gotten so pensive from leaving him out so many times it had gotten to me. I literally must have ran out to the 8 or 9 and ended up losing the game probably 9 times out of 20 games. The last race I was trying to let out my stroke more, speeded up my game and that seemed to help although i still lost.

I felt like I might could have stuck with it and played thru and gotten some money back but i was just so frustrated I decided to pull up. I dont mind being outplayed but I just completely beat myself and handed him everything. My question is do any of you guys have tricks for when you can do no right and your oppenent can do no wrong. I tried deep breathing and relaxing, and I tried to get more conservative at the end, safing anything but the easiest runouts and it was working. What other tricks do you guys use to turn a match around when its like that?
 
Most players will have sessions where they start off slow or they can't get any breaks or whatever. The best thing that you can do is just to play through it as if it were not happening. Dwelling on this will make it more frustrating and in some cases will put the player in an unrecoverable tail spin.

Learning to deal with this will make you stronger for sure. One of the biggest things that you can do is to maintain your composure. I know this is easier said than done when your apponent is reaping the rewards of you beating yourself up on the table, but you have to train yourself to keep it composed and play through it.

The more time you put on the table and in action the easier this will become.

Best of luck. I hope this was of some help.

Louis
 
Trying to relax with your body doesn't help if your head works against you. If you keep thinking "I can't lose this one" or "I have given him way too many chances already", then you might as well unscrew if your opponent is a good player. A couple of lines which should be adapted if you want to be a top player:

-Don't try to analyze the shots you've made earlier in the match, especially those that went wrong. Those thoughts work against you and lower your confidence. If you are analytical, go through those shots after the match, but while the match is still in progress, never think about mistakes or opportunities thrown away
-Play one ball at a time. This is much easier said than done. If you are left with difficult shots and no safety, you can't blame yourself for missing a difficult one, the shot just wasn't going at the time. If you are missing easy ones, you have probably started making unconsciouss changes in your pre-shot routine. You might even think: "I need to play differently to secure the match", which is false thinking.
-If you lose after acquiring a significant lead, you probably have either relaxed too much to let your concentration drift away or you sub- or consciously see yourself as a winner of the match and think the match should be yours, like you'd deserve to win with that kind of a lead. When the leads shrinks while you start taking loose shots, you start to panic when the balls aren't going away. Many players think that if you lead massively, you don't need to make an effort to score the remaining racks, like you'd deserve the match to be handed to you. That's not the case when playing top players. They won't give racks away, if you lead 7-2 in a race to 9, you'll probably have to work as hard or even harder to score the remaining 2 racks compared to early stages of the match. Many ppl think that with that kind of a lead, your opponent should give up and hand you the remaining 2 racks. And that's exactly where they fall and find themselves losing 7-9.
-Think positive. In your head you should try to win and not trying to avoid losing. Play one shot at a time and enjoy those shots. Also realize that you are not perfect and you make mistakes. You should know if you gave your best effort and still missed, that shouldn't even bother you at all, right ?

Example from a recent 8-ball tournament I was in. I was playing a young gun, really talented player with skills is spades, but he is not experienced enough yet to succeed. I was shooting quite badly and had already missed a few shots in a race to 6 and while down 3-2, I missed a really easy penultimate ball and gave him the rack to go down 4-2. I dunno, but he seemed to feel that the match was under his belt already and made a horrible mistake after making a successful break at 4-2. He rushed into a shot and missed a hanger. I ran 3 racks to go 5-4 and missed a difficult cluster break-up and give him a difficult lifeline which he blew and I ran out. I think (hope) he learnt a lesson from that and next time when leading, he should know how to deal with the end-match situation.

Quite lengthy stuff, but I got carried away. This issue is something which prevents many good players ever stepping up to join the big guns in the world IMHO.
 
When I start feeling the pressure, I just try to focus on one thing, and often it helps. Tonight for example, I was playing some guy giving him the wild 8-ball, cheap sets and we are even in sets won. It was hill-hill and I had a makeable shot on the 1ball and the table was wide open, but the out was very tricky. I started to get some negative thoughts creeping in my head so I went to the bathroom, washed my hands, and told myself no matter what, I'm gonna stay down on the shot, and I wont shoot until it feels right. Focusing on keeping my head down took my mind off the pressure, and I ran out the rack perfectly, staying in line on every shot except the 7-ball, overran my shape a little and had to go around the table to get position on the 8. Again I just stayed down and executed it perfectly, and got out. Usually when it's hill-hill and I'm shooting the 9-ball, I get fairly nervous, but this time nerves didn't even play a factor, because my mind was preoccupied with staying down on the shot.
 
I get like that time to time, what makes me lose a match is to over confident. Thinking im just going to ease by then i lose focus on my preshot routine and such then miss a shot then i lose confidence in my shot making there. Especially if i have negative thoughts in my head like i am going to miss the shot or leave myself safe on the next shot i always do what i exactly what i am thinking. What changes the match around for me is to let go of my mistakes, i find it when i do this right after i make a mistake i can still play my game which is purdy gooder when i don't get these ugly thoughts. But if i beat myself up on it everything from there seems to go wrong. I had this one match against a very good player that whipps everyone in the leagues the top shooter, and when it came time for us to match up i was first to get comfortable at the table and make him nerveous, then he started to make the mistakes. Even when i was ahead in the match and playing good, making banks long thin cuts i still played the right shot each time this meaning if there was an opportunity to play a safe i would, cause i knew he was struggling with his game. So always play the right shot the high percentage shot, stay calm, get comfortable, and let go of your mistakes. Sorry if i got off topic or didn't help out lol. Cole
 
tips for turning the match around when someone is getting every roll and u r getting every bad role..

1. Remember he is not going to get every good roll
2. U will not get every bad roll. U probably just discard all ur bad rolls in ur memory bank when they happen(I know I do:D).
3. If the other guy gets a good roll then DO NOT worry about it. Wait for ur next turn and be happy when u get to the table.
So many times we get to the table and have already lost because we are thinking about how "lucky" the other person is as we shoot and miss letting them get to the table again. Then we wonder why we missed-because we were still thinking about them while shooting!!That brings me to my last point...
4. ONLY THINK ABOUT THE TABLE when it is ur shot. Don't think about how many times u have missed the shot, how u always choke etc. Just think of the task and what u need to do.
 
TheConArtist said:
I get like that time to time, what makes me lose a match is to over confident. Thinking im just going to ease by then i lose focus on my preshot routine and such then miss a shot then i lose confidence in my shot making there. Especially if i have negative thoughts in my head like i am going to miss the shot or leave myself safe on the next shot i always do what i exactly what i am thinking. What changes the match around for me is to let go of my mistakes, i find it when i do this right after i make a mistake i can still play my game which is purdy gooder when i don't get these ugly thoughts. But if i beat myself up on it everything from there seems to go wrong. I had this one match against a very good player that whipps everyone in the leagues the top shooter, and when it came time for us to match up i was first to get comfortable at the table and make him nerveous, then he started to make the mistakes. Even when i was ahead in the match and playing good, making banks long thin cuts i still played the right shot each time this meaning if there was an opportunity to play a safe i would, cause i knew he was struggling with his game. So always play the right shot the high percentage shot, stay calm, get comfortable, and let go of your mistakes. Sorry if i got off topic or didn't help out lol. Cole
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Good post. Some players duck obvious shots in tight spots because they are afraid to lose. Beginners and intermediate players (not talking about you Cole ;) ) don't realize that if they are playing a good player, not matter what the score is, they have to take the remaining points to win the set/match. Some players wait the match to fall into their laps... and usually they have to wait for a long time, from one match to another. And then they start complaining how unfair it is or how unlucky they are to fall on the last hurdle so many times.
 
erikido said:
tips for turning the match around when someone is getting every roll and u r getting every bad role..

1. Remember he is not going to get every good roll
2. U will not get every bad roll. U probably just discard all ur bad rolls in ur memory bank when they happen(I know I do:D).
3. If the other guy gets a good roll then DO NOT worry about it. Wait for ur next turn and be happy when u get to the table.
So many times we get to the table and have already lost because we are thinking about how "lucky" the other person is as we shoot and miss letting them get to the table again. Then we wonder why we missed-because we were still thinking about them while shooting!!That brings me to my last point...
4. ONLY THINK ABOUT THE TABLE when it is ur shot. Don't think about how many times u have missed the shot, how u always choke etc. Just think of the task and what u need to do.
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Good advice except #4. When you are playing a match, and lets say that you have missed 4 makeable balls, and you missed them all by overcutting them. You need to remember that. The next time you get to the table, you need to think "the last few shots I overcut them" and you aim a little thicker, see if that feels right. You MUST adjust. If you forget about your mistakes, you are going to keep repeating them. You must be concious of everything you do. The key is not to get upset because of the mistakes. A mentally strong person will learn from mistakes and try to figure out how to fix them during a match. A weak minded player will either get very upset and discouraged and give up, or try to block them out, which is just as bad as getting upset with yourself.

I'll give you an example. Lets say a pro player makes a cut shot, over cuts the ball slightly but still makes it, but he overruns his position by a few inces and hooks himself because he hit the shot too thin. Then someone asks that player what happened on that shot. A strong minded player would immediately say "I hit it too thin" while a weak minded player would say "I got a bad roll".
 
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cuetechasaurus said:
A strong minded player would immediately say "I hit it too thin" while a weak minded player would say "I got a bad roll".
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Excellent point! There are no such things as good rolls or bad rolls. Everything the balls do on the table are a direct result of what you did to the cue ball to start a chain of events. If you do it right, good things happen. If you do it wrong, bad things happen. If you are blaming luck, the table, the balls, the pockets or anything else, you aren't giving yourself a chance to fix it. After all, if it's not your fault, there's nothing you can do.
You have to know what you did, and if it wasn't what you wanted, make adjustments so it doesn't happen again.
I have been known to point out a "bad roll" to an opponent. It's possible he may believe it was just bad luck, and he won't try to fix his problem. Advantage - ME!
If someone is complaining about their bad rolls, I pretty much know I will win. Why? Because they are already beating themselves!
Steve
 
Good thread.

When i'm on tilt (which is usually) it's very difficult no matter what
i try. Breathing, pacing, relaxing, shooting even faster, etc. It could be
any method or adjustment that helps for that given night. I usually
play better players even and so i know my chances off the bat.
Playing Mr. LastTwo here is a challenge for me, but sometimes
i can get a set on him. :)

Frustration is like quicksand. I don't fight it. I just accept the fact
that i aint playin so hot. And this attitude alone sometimes helps.
Now i don't "choke" as much because of nerves, i just miss entirely.
It's a different sort of loosing. :)

Best advice: Concentrate not so much on the game or shot but what
it is you feel you're doing wrong. Like jabbing as you've mentioned;
which is obviously a sign of lack of confidence. It's best to acknowledge it
rather than making excuses as we've all seen players do (pathetic really).

Tricks are for kids. :)
 
Scotty, this is a common problem and hopefully you now have some excellent solutions via these posts. Here's one more tip that work for me:

If I find myself behind because of my bad play or "doggin" it at the end of the games, I forget about the outcome of that set and use the remainder of that set to try to get in stroke for the next set(s). As "Lasttwo" said "...told myself no matter what, I'm gonna stay down on the shot". This is very good advice. To get in stroke for the next set(s) I decide on the shot and once down, I think of only two things: keep my head still (stay down) and make sure I follow through. I even exaggurate the follow through a little to make sure I'm delivering a proper stroke. I may even hit everything just a little harder. At this point, I don't want to finesse myself out of the match.

The results have been pretty good for me using these simple techniques. I get my "feel" of a proper stroke back quickly and build my confidence in "my" ability again. Many times I have come back to win that set and then go on to dominate my opponent the next set because of my new found confidence. Without having to analyze what I was doing wrong, I reinforced what I should be doing right: keep my head still & follow through. It's amazing that once you reach a certain level of play how easy it is to forget to do the simple things that are necessary to keep it going.

Good Luck. I love threads like this cause it reminds me of what I have done in the past to battle through these same problems & I learn a bunch of new techniques.

Dave
 
All of these are very good points, but I think it's important to focus on the em motional part, since this is the issue at hand.

The reason I get myself out of my game is by by getting angry when I feel that I am not playing up to my skill level. When I am doing this, I get very upset, and my game goes in the tank.

I think that it's important to cut yourself some slack and allow for a missed shot, or blown position, as long as it does not get out of hand. This way you keep yourself in the game mentally, without blowing your stack.

Some of this information is paraphrased from A Mind for Pool: How to Master the Mental Game by Philip Capelle. If you never read it, I highly recommend it.
 
streaks and stroke

This IS a good thread!
Being a streaky player in my younger years, I found myself in this spot regularly...so I began to search for MY answer. I have always found the condition of "in-stroke " an interesting area of study. I believe we all struggle with this from time to time. So here's my opinion...
I say you must pay attention to what you are doing when you are playing at your very best...this means you must risk the fragile balance (I have found the balance is not as fragile as I thought it might be) of "in-stroke" to identify what makes you play well...for example...
1) Pay attention to your body mechanics - the big features for me are height of eye, stance, and grip. it may be different for you.
2) Consider your state of mind - I thought for years this was a chicken/egg thing, but now I realise I have control over my attitude...so I "pay my positive attitude forward" and have confidence the "in-stroke" condition will follow. i don't pay too much attention to what the other guy is doing because if I am doing what I'm supposed to do, I can exclude him from playing effectively.
3) Pay attention to the subtle signals you receive from the table. A table (even one you play quite regularly) will play somewhat differently in response to humidity, temperature and/or a different ball set. I have developed a warm up routine (I can get thru my routine in about 3 minutes) that provides me the information I need to make better judgements about my shots.
4) Get back to basics - I suspect that upwards of 90% of all errors committed on a pool table are due to fundamental problems. Strive to understand your style and study the style of better players.
All of this is to say that you may want to consider developing a routine that will support (or remind you of) your best performance. I have written a short piece on this on my website - hittcues.com - follow the Transcendental Pool link...the articles are written sequentially and the links to the next page are at the bottom of the each article. Hope this helps.
Just my opinion...you be the judge.
Andy
 
thanks for all your replies. Ive read several books over the years like inner game of tennis and pleasure of smallmotions, and I think Ive gotten past alot of the mental bad mouthing you go thru when youre dogging it, like saying to yourself you shouldnt have missed that shot, youre an idiot, etc etc lol. Usually I blow a shot or a run and I think about why it happened but thats it, I dont dwell on it, but last night was just such an extreme case of every thing I did going wrong, looking back at how frustrated I got i probably should have just quit (although if I had played thru it to win my money back I would have felt like id climbed Everest probably). This did turn into a pretty good thread, Im going to take alot of these points to the table next time with me and see how it goes. Going to read andys article right now.
 
When things go bad, people start to deconstruct and analyze what they're doing in an effort to understand why things went bad. Generally speaking, this can be very successful at determing the cause of failure. However, the aim is to correct the failure, which this behavior only exacerbates (especially under pressure).

Your brain goes from a very balanced mental activity (visualizing, sensing, and thinking) to a purely academic activity (analyzing), so you need to restore the balance. Also, your mind goes from an in the moment mentality of execution to one that is very chronologically categorical to help break down your shots. This is a harder thing to correct, and it takes practice to create flow.

You have to make sure you rededicate yourself before you completely lose focus, because, at that point, you won't care enough to put yourself back in the zone.

Mental training, visualization, positive self talk, etc. are all great techniques you can do away from the pool table to help prevent yourself from losing focus, but the real task is recapturing it after a moment's waver.

Yes, all players make mistakes. You can't play expecting not to have any mistakes. Your goal is to have your mental game strong enough so that the mistakes you make cost you as little as possible. When that happens, your mistakes will become less frequent and less disastrous with practice. It is the key to avoiding the plateu.
 
scottycoyote said:
thanks for all your replies. Ive read several books over the years like inner game of tennis and pleasure of smallmotions, and I think Ive gotten past alot of the mental bad mouthing you go thru when youre dogging it, like saying to yourself you shouldnt have missed that shot, youre an idiot, etc etc lol. Usually I blow a shot or a run and I think about why it happened but thats it, I dont dwell on it, but last night was just such an extreme case of every thing I did going wrong, looking back at how frustrated I got i probably should have just quit (although if I had played thru it to win my money back I would have felt like id climbed Everest probably). This did turn into a pretty good thread, Im going to take alot of these points to the table next time with me and see how it goes. Going to read andys article right now.
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Hey, we can all use a good pat on the back sometimes.
 
A lot of really good replies here. Reminds me of a friend of mine who always thinks he gets terrible rolls when we play Snooker. He doesn't. He just doesn't understand how to make the cb go where he wants. As a result, he scratches quite a bit. After one or two scratches, I know he's mentally done for the day.

That's an example of why I find the idea of "luck" to be very destructive to my game. Thinking that you are "unlucky" or "getting bad rolls" is (IMHO) a way of removing yourself from responsibility for what you are doing at the table. If it's just a matter of bad luck, then what can I do to fix the problem? Nothing. Just get more and more upset at my misfortune and feel more and more powerless and victimized. I always try to remind myself that I control what I do at the table, good or bad. I make the shots and I miss the shots. Well, sometimes I do get kinda unlucky. :rolleyes: :D
 
cuetechasaurus said:
Good advice except #4. When you are playing a match, and lets say that you have missed 4 makeable balls, and you missed them all by overcutting them. You need to remember that. The next time you get to the table, you need to think "the last few shots I overcut them" and you aim a little thicker, see if that feels right. You MUST adjust. If you forget about your mistakes, you are going to keep repeating them. You must be concious of everything you do. The key is not to get upset because of the mistakes. A mentally strong person will learn from mistakes and try to figure out how to fix them during a match. A weak minded player will either get very upset and discouraged and give up, or try to block them out, which is just as bad as getting upset with yourself.

I'll give you an example. Lets say a pro player makes a cut shot, over cuts the ball slightly but still makes it, but he overruns his position by a few inces and hooks himself because he hit the shot too thin. Then someone asks that player what happened on that shot. A strong minded player would immediately say "I hit it too thin" while a weak minded player would say "I got a bad roll".
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Notice I didn't say forget the misses. I said don't think about HOW MANY u miss and HOW MANY TIMES u choke. I completely agree u need to know what u are doing wrong. But, generally when u tell ursel I have missed like 5 shots I should have made u are not thinking about how to fix it.

I go at it in a sort of eastern way(daoist, buddhist or tao). Just take the misses accept them(When u have acceptance of something out of this u WILL learn from or of it) and then move on.
 
JLW said:
A lot of really good replies here. Reminds me of a friend of mine who always thinks he gets terrible rolls when we play Snooker. He doesn't. He just doesn't understand how to make the cb go where he wants. As a result, he scratches quite a bit. After one or two scratches, I know he's mentally done for the day.

That's an example of why I find the idea of "luck" to be very destructive to my game. Thinking that you are "unlucky" or "getting bad rolls" is (IMHO) a way of removing yourself from responsibility for what you are doing at the table. If it's just a matter of bad luck, then what can I do to fix the problem? Nothing. Just get more and more upset at my misfortune and feel more and more powerless and victimized. I always try to remind myself that I control what I do at the table, good or bad. I make the shots and I miss the shots. Well, sometimes I do get kinda unlucky. :rolleyes: :D
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Dr. Bob Rotella, who's made his money primarily doing golf mental game instruction, would probably say that it's perfectly fine to believe in bad luck so long as your approach is that with each instance of bad luck you're due for some good luck soon.

In other words, if I lip out a 5-foot putt, well then that means I'm that much more likely to lip-IN the next one.

It's basically a way to take "bad luck" and turn it into future good luck, mentally anyway.

A lot of Dr. Bob's golf teachings could easily apply to pool.
 
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