What Do You Do When You're Broken Down?

[TWOFORPOOL]

Broken Down

One thing I see the Pros do ALL THE TIME is their pre-shot routine. They use it on every shot even the easy ones. The reason they do this is to keep focus and mentally train themself's not to wonder. There is a "Doubtful Thomas" in all of us and keeping him quite is the real key to winning. When most players struggle its because they are "fighting" with "Doubtful Thomas".

Probably the most important thing I learned was from my brother who played Basketball. He always wanted the ball at the end of the game and never was afraid to take the shot to win or lose the game. I asked him how he did it. He said simply "FOCUS ON WHAT YOUR'E TRYING TO DO AND DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE OUTCOME". This will keep any "Doubtful Thomas" out of your game and therebye winning more matches.

One more thing that has helped me. I have realized over the years that you have either made or missed the shot once your bridge hand hits the table. I always commit to the shot and never change anything once I'm down on the shot. I don't try to cut it a little more or less by second guessing myself.

 

[renard]

One thing I see the Pros do ALL THE TIME is their pre-shot routine. They use it on every shot even the easy ones. The reason they do this is to keep focus and mentally train themself's not to wonder. There is a "Doubtful Thomas" in all of us and keeping him quite is the real key to winning. When most players struggle its because they are "fighting" with "Doubtful Thomas".

Probably the most important thing I learned was from my brother who played Basketball. He always wanted the ball at the end of the game and never was afraid to take the shot to win or lose the game. I asked him how he did it. He said simply "FOCUS ON WHAT YOUR'E TRYING TO DO AND DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE OUTCOME". This will keep any "Doubtful Thomas" out of your game and therebye winning more matches.

One more thing that has helped me. I have realized over the years that you have either made or missed the shot once your bridge hand hits the table. I always commit to the shot and never change anything once I'm down on the shot. I don't try to cut it a little more or less by second guessing myself.

Very good post Twofer. The preshot routine is very important as it prepares for and lets the subconscious take over. This again is something we should be doing from the start, much like the mental preparation before hand that snapshot referred to.

Zen archery has little tidbits like, "The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him. This state of unconscious is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill"

In essence your brothers quote, "Focus on what your trying to do and don't worry about the outcome" is saying the exact same thing. No time to think, just do. The closer we act as a well oiled machine, the more our results will resemble one. The problem is we are human. Emotion and conscious thought doesn't stop and sometimes it has a habit of creating additional barriers to the the game mentally. It's easier said then done in Archery, Golf, and Billiards because they are not reflex games. That is, reflexes do not require conscious thought, but subconscious thought. (A hitter in Baseball, a hockey goalie, etc.) In Billiards pure subconscious thought has a two words that describe it, "Dead Stroke." Think about it, many times when we are in dead stroke we have problems recalling particular events as they happened. The subconscious has no recall ability.

You also mention when your bridge hand hits the table you commit to the shot. (Sorta along the lines if you think long you think wrong.) But have you ever felt as you started the warm up strokes that something was amiss? The natural tendency is to refocus the aim, or as you put it, "Cut it a little more or a little less." (You are right don't follow that tendency.)

The reason something felt wrong in the warm up strokes is because something was wrong. Your body was giving you feedback from millions of receptors from your elbow to your finger tips, even the position of your stance. (Everything about pool is not natural for our survival, it is not innate behavior; it is learned behavior. Through thousands of strokes your body knows what its supposed to feel like for that particular shot.) If it says somethings wrong, it is wrong, get up off of the shot. Start the preshot routine over.

At this point some people say, "think long think wrong." I beg to differ, watch Johnny Archer. That man only pulls the trigger when its right, lint on the table and all. Do not view starting the process over as a negative but a positive in that you just avoided disaster. Information given to you by a well learned, well trained,and well oiled machine.

This particular post is a tangent of course, as it replies to your post directly. The Saurus's post was referring to, "Your already in it, now what?" The doubts are already there, how do you turn it around?

 

[DoomCue]

When I go out of stroke, it's almost always because I'm doing something wrong fundamentally. I've developed an internal checklist of things, both mental and physical, to constantly review while I'm playing. I've made this checklist a part of my pre-pre-shot routine (that's right, BEFORE my pre-shot routine) and my post-shot routine - I go over it while sitting in the chair, while racking, while waiting for the racker, between shots, etc. I'm constantly evaluating my play, decisions, and stroke. It helps me to focus on the task at hand. My checklist has become such a part of my routine, I don't even think about it anymore. That's actually the hard part - learning to think without thinking (does that make sense?). Writing the checklist helped me to internalize it.

-djb

 

[DaveK]

When I go out of stroke, it's almost always because I'm doing something wrong fundamentally. I've developed an internal checklist of things, both mental and physical, to constantly review while I'm playing. I've made this checklist a part of my pre-pre-shot routine (that's right, BEFORE my pre-shot routine) and my post-shot routine - I go over it while sitting in the chair, while racking, while waiting for the racker, between shots, etc. I'm constantly evaluating my play, decisions, and stroke. It helps me to focus on the task at hand. My checklist has become such a part of my routine, I don't even think about it anymore. That's actually the hard part - learning to think without thinking (does that make sense?). Writing the checklist helped me to internalize it.

-djb

Excellent post, and to the heart of the matter in most cases, imo.

Dave

 

[uwate]

i hate it when the wheels come completely off. I usually hit the bathroom and try to regain my composure. Positive affirmations help, as does trying to relax and like others have said, take it one shot at a time.

Its also good to know that no matter what happens, I can always make more money tomorrow and the people who matter to me will still think im A-ok.

 

[renard]

When I go out of stroke, it's almost always because I'm doing something wrong fundamentally. I've developed an internal checklist of things, both mental and physical, to constantly review while I'm playing. I've made this checklist a part of my pre-pre-shot routine (that's right, BEFORE my pre-shot routine) and my post-shot routine - I go over it while sitting in the chair, while racking, while waiting for the racker, between shots, etc. I'm constantly evaluating my play, decisions, and stroke. It helps me to focus on the task at hand. My checklist has become such a part of my routine, I don't even think about it anymore. That's actually the hard part - learning to think without thinking (does that make sense?). Writing the checklist helped me to internalize it.

-djb

That to me is playing the game at its fullest. Very interesting with the before and after. I have indeed done this myself now that I think about it, but never realized it or really utilized it before.

How do you change a learned behavior from conscious thoughts, to become subconscious thoughts? Practicing good habits habitually makes them a "routine of the subconscious." As you said Doom, "Writing them out helps." Your right, it helps in the process of listing details of the preshot routine, that way there are no generalizations or gray areas to worry about.

We learn best from repetition. The more precise we are in carrying out the details the same way, every time when we repeat the task, the more hard coded in our brain in becomes. The brain sorta rebels and says, "Whats this repeated monotony for? I don't have time for this... I'll hard code this and make it automatic." Our brains do this all the time. Ever drive home and wonder what happened to the last 10 minutes on the road? Or make the wrong turn and start heading home even though you were going someplace else with other thoughts on your mind? All hard coded.

When your preshot routines start becoming hard coded it shows that the once needed conscious support is in the place were we want it to be... in the subconscious. Another thing you will notice is that when the preshot routine starts becoming hard coded the more the preshot routine is referenced in your mind as "images." Images sorta pull the subconscious along the track so to speak.

As you alluded to Doom, most of the time it is fundamentals that are askew. A quick subconscious preshot routine check may find the flaw. Sometimes not. Thats when we break from a "seemless" subconscious routine and into conscious thought on the preshot routine. Either way the body knows and will tell you, "This don't feel right." Listen up, heed the warning and repeat the pre-shot routine. Do this enough and maybe it will become a subconscious as well. A nice addition to have for your game.

Maybe i'll talk more on Images later, good night!