What to do when...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pin
  • Start date Start date
P

Pin

Guest
For the past few days I've not been able to pot a thing.

Tonight (UK time!) I played for about 3 hours, and maybe a quater of that time, on and off, I was able to pot reasonably well. The rest of the time I sucked.

For the whole time I was playing I couldn't 'feel' my shots, and wasn't really in control of where the CB or OB were going.


Does this ever happen to you? If so, how do you fix it?

Help me! :(
 
Practice fundamentals

Get back to the basics. Get a practice table and hit a ball one foot from the hole, cue one foot from the ball. Hit that shot 10-20 times. Check your fundamentals: even cue stick, 6 to 8 in follow thru, proper stance, etc. Gradually give yourself harder shots. It will be boring, but you will be surprised how your confidence and your shot making will improve.

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
Good Post

TAP TAP!! Good post. I'lll try that the next time I practice. This makes a lot of sense.


jason said:
Got back to the basics. Get a practice table and hit a ball one foot from the hole, cue one foot from the ball. Hit that shot 10-20 times. Check your fundamentals: even cue stick, 6 to 8 in follow thru, proper stance, etc. Gradually give yourself harder shots. It will be boring, but you will be surprised how your confidence and your shot making will improve. :)

Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
everything jason said was the truth, great accurate advice. the only things i could add to them, is this --- try a new hard responsive tip. wipe down your shaft, with a damp towel, and each time you wipe, say to yourself, "out with the dirt, in with the smooth" watch a match on the television of your favorite player, and really get into watching his firm fingertip gripping open bridge. experiment with positional play. watch your stroke in the mirror, and be sure your in alienment, and make sure your elblow is high, like the professional snooker players. get away from the game for a fortknight, but no longer, relax, learn to love the game again, to play for the pleasure of small motions. and perhaps most importantly, take one shot at a time, don't get ahead of yourself. do your planning while standing, concentrate on potting when down. incorparate the back end hesitation that is so popular with the snooker generation. use only triangle chalk in green, like the great british professionals of the past and present. and if all of the above fails, (which it won't) just play! you will be amazed, how well, you'll do, if you just shoot, and don't fuss about. your right brain will take over and show you the way to victory, and you know what? when your right brain dominates, that's when you enjoy shooting the most. enjoy, mate, and may all your shots have small angles with straight potting authority. cheers from new york!
 
Hi Pin,

Any chance you might know a Lee Kendall? He travels to Las Vegas each year in May to play in the BCA Championships. I wish I could call him friend. He is more an acquaintance. Plays jam up US eight ball. Nice guy. Thanks.
 
Pin said:
For the past few days I've not been able to pot a thing.

For the whole time I was playing I couldn't 'feel' my shots, and wasn't really in control of where the CB or OB were going.

Does this ever happen to you? If so, how do you fix it?

Help me! :(
Click to expand...

That really sucks. There was a time when I was having a lot of trouble because I was putting so much pressure on myself and beating myself up so bad that I started hating pool. It ceased being a source of fun.

My husband got me to do this certain type of practice, basically going through the fundamentals. In this practice, we jokingly call 'zen pool', it only counted if I did my fundamentals right and did not matter if the balls went in or not. Of course I was trying to line up the shots and so forth, and get in the balls,but this type of practice took the pressure off, and the game got to be fun again. Interestingly, without doing any drills, I became relaxed and my pot % started rising almost right away.

I still start my practice this way, a couple of racks of just loosening up,doing and enjoying stroking the ball followed by working on a few things which I need improvement on.

Pro instructors have told me that there is a kind of rut a person can get in where when they are not playing well, the person starts to doubt themselves, over analyze and get all tied up in knots. It is like a downward spiral that can, it seems be very hard to break free of if it is not nipped in the bud. One teacher even told me that he sometimes has a student stop competition for a short time and just play for fun until they player can get that relaxation, feel and confidence back.

Learning to relax and not be bothered so much sure helped me, but I imagine the better a person is, the more expectations they put on themselves and possibly breaking free of all the negative head messages is harder when they are worried about their game.

Sure am sorry that you are having this frustration, though, and hope things get better for you real soon. ;)

Laura
 
Last edited:
Sometimes during a tournament, good and skilled players are agonizing about their lousy performance and wondering why is everything going awry. I usually give them only one simple advice without watching their game: "keep your head down/still during and after the shot and concetrate only on that for a couple of dozen shots and forget everything else". Most of them come back to me after their matches and thank me for a good advice, because it let them back in stroke again.
 
mjantti said:
Sometimes during a tournament, good and skilled players are agonizing about their lousy performance and wondering why is everything going awry. I usually give them only one simple advice without watching their game: "keep your head down/still during and after the shot and concetrate only on that for a couple of dozen shots and forget everything else". Most of them come back to me after their matches and thank me for a good advice, because it let them back in stroke again.
Click to expand...

Keeping your head down is also another great fundamental to focus on.
It's an easy one to mess up especially under the pressure of a tournament.
This works for many other sports as well, notably golf.
 
Thanks for all the advice.
I'm forcing myself to take a day off today. Tomorrow I'll start by taking those short shots, and focussing on my technique. Hopefully things will pick up from there.

I figure I need to work on the mental side too, concentration and focus. I'm not entirely sure how to do that, but I have my eye on a book...


Cardiac Kid - Lee Kendall.. I recognise the name, but I couldn't put a face to it. I'll keep an eye out though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top