For me it all begins and ends with the eyes. If my concentration is off and my eyes can't find the spot i might as well just be guessing where I'm sending the cue ball, if I'm lucky it still find the right spot. Once I start missing because of this I start gripping tighter on the cue, subconsciously trying to "control" the cue ball with my back hand. Once I start to try and force the cue ball around accuracy decreases even more, that's when it becomes mental. Then the usual suspects creep in, jumping up, one stroking balls, hittin everything too soft it way too hard, generally just playing as if I never learned how to play. It's the most frustrating thing in the world knowing you can drop packages, but not even being sure if you can make the next ball. Luckily it all comes down to the eyes.
If I can calm down and remember to really focus on my eye patterns, i can mostly reverse this spiral. Instead of trusting my eyes to do what they normally do,i force them to stare down the spot and remind myself to loosen my grip and follow through. A little while doing this and my brain will naturally take these tasks back over subconsciously.
I good thing I learned to deal with an over thinking brain while shooting is to trick it into working for you.i will basically narrate or instruct myself on what I am trying to do on the shot. This narration process involves the part of the brain that otherwise would allow the negativity to creep in. This instruction is not like giving an sl3 a timeout it's more just a verbalization of what I am doing on the shot.
Seriously though, eye patterns! Learn yours and force yourself to do it. A lot of shooters don't know theirs and don't understand that they are missing because of them.
