When you focus, do you shoot and play better pool?

L

Lock N Load

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Meaning, When you focus on exactly what you are doing in a pool game or practice, do you play and shoot shots better? Play position better, and play better safe shots? Focus and playing a little slower on shots might just make you play pool better!!!
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
 
Lock N Load said:
Meaning, When you focus on exactly what you are doing in a pool game or practice, do you play and shoot shots better? Play position better, and play better safe shots? Focus and playing a little slower on shots might just make you play pool better!!!
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
Click to expand...

Of course Lock, focus is the most important factor for competing.
 
Lock N Load said:
Meaning, When you focus on exactly what you are doing in a pool game or practice, do you play and shoot shots better? Play position better, and play better safe shots? Focus and playing a little slower on shots might just make you play pool better!!!
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
Click to expand...

Are these some kind of retorical questions you ask Lock N Load? You are a very good player I have read and you ask questions that seem juvenile.

Do you know the answer or are you just making some point somehow?

--Jeff
 
If I can't focus, I'm done before I ever hit a ball!
Sometimes it happens to me. It seems like no matter what you do or try, your brain decides to take a vacation. I just wish it would at least take the rest of me with it!
 
I played pool in dead punch, and got to the 9 ball and didn't even know it, I had to look around to see if all the other balls were gone, before I made the cash ball. No focus at all there.
 
I don't shoot as well, but I play better. That is, I try to control too much of everything and my stroke tightens up making me lose my shot-making skills. But, my decision making gets better and improves my play.

This probably only makes sense on my mind!

"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." ---Casey Kasem
 
Masirib5 said:
Are these some kind of retorical questions you ask Lock N Load? You are a very good player I have read and you ask questions that seem juvenile.

Do you know the answer or are you just making some point somehow?

--Jeff
Click to expand...

Is there something wrong with wanting to hear how other players think and focus on their game? I can only know the answer to my thinking and focus on my pool game! Yes, I focus and think when I am playing pool. This is not about me though. It is about other players of the game we love. If I can be of help to 1 pool player with this thread I feel like I have helped a player somewhere. Hearing how you focus and think during a pool game is important to other pool players.

If I am wrong, I am sorry.
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
 
SouthernDraw said:
I don't shoot as well, but I play better. That is, I try to control too much of everything and my stroke tightens up making me lose my shot-making skills. But, my decision making gets better and improves my play.

This probably only makes sense on my mind!

"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." ---Casey Kasem
Click to expand...

That is why I wrote this thread is to get good input from pool players like you. And I hope to help a pool player with this input. When people read how and what another player is doing it sometimes help their pool game. It is not about asking a juvenile question at all. Perhaps if I would not worry about other pool players improving their pool game I would be OK! Thank you.
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
 
lately my game has fallen off and i have been thinking about the cause during the holiday season (happy new year all), i believe it is a lack of focus at the table and i am going to work on that at tomorrow's practice session. when i am focused i really zoom in on the contact point of the OB and lately i only aim and shoot, while making 80% of my shots that way, that is not good enough to run a rack. also when i am really focused, the opponent tells me the match is over, i have no idea of the score, i'm just in my own little world pocketing balls and controlling the "rock".. without focusing, we can't rise to new levels, IMHO. Lock and load's thread was very timely as i have been warring with this issue the last several days.....thanks for the post, i can't wait for tomorrow!
 
Lock N Load said:
Meaning, When you focus on exactly what you are doing in a pool game or practice, do you play and shoot shots better? Play position better, and play better safe shots? Focus and playing a little slower on shots might just make you play pool better!!!
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
Click to expand...

Meaning...what the hell are you typing about???

Doesn't everyone play better when they "focus"????

Focus, is in fact the key to the game.

If you can put "focus" in a bottle....you will have lot's of customers. One might call it "Lock-Focus". And you will make lot's of money...Sell it to football players, BB Player's...etc...You would have a line around the block.

No one can teach or sell focus...it's god given.

Many regards.

Pangit.
 
SouthernDraw said:
"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." ---Casey Kasem
Click to expand...
I like this quote...^....thanx, SDraw.

Zen and The ART of Archery...
"One shot, one life."

We all have to get there our own way...I get there by trying hard...
...I only realize I was focusing in retrospect.

Lock, I think Pangit is softening up...he's starting to say 'many regards'...
....a few more posts and he might even mean it...:rolleyes:

regards
double hemlock
 
Lock....this is actually a good question. Focus is kind of a loaded word (pun intended). I have found that you can be 100% focused and not play all that well or as well as you can. Almost as if being so focused on being/getting perfect can be detrimental to your overall game.

I have brought up rhythm a buncha times before....and believe you can have the exact same "focus" from one day to another and yet you may be in better rhythm one day and everything seems easier and you play better. Everyone has a rhythm of their own, and when you fall into it, I think your chances of playing well DRASTICALLY increase.

Ever had a song stuck in your head, and seem to be able to do no wrong? May not even seem like you are even thinking about anything at all....it just happens. You find a rhythm and BOOM, you are in a ZONE. If can find a way to get THERE by just focusing....well, then you have figured out "the secret". I have not yet. Focusing on a task at hand is relatively easy....if I could incorporate falling into "my" rhythm with just focusing I'd consistently play SO much better.

So, I think it may be a little more than JUST focus. I can FOCUS making free throws, but I won't make every free throw just because I'm focused on doing it. :cool:
 
My focus ability varies greatly. But when I get enough sleep, and have little to think about other than my game, I do play better while maintaining my rhythm. Have been facing problems to focus properly recently though.

However I believe an interesting topic to discuss on would be how players focus. Personally I can't keep quiet for too long and will talk to myself nonstop (but in my mind lol) while sometimes mumble to myself.
 
Yeah I think the important distinction here is to recognize the difference between focus and "paralysis by analysis". To me focus means that you're in the mindset of playing pool and little else. You're not thinking about dinner, plans with your wife or girlfriend, house repairs etc. You're there to play the game and play well. This is different than just hitting them around with a buddy IMO. When you're focusing in this manner you're also not thinking about your stroke, break mechanics, etc. It's just kind of going with the flow. Working on that stuff can also be a distraction in my opinion even if it's pool related.
 
another personal observation when i am really "focused"....it comes from one of the "golf" movies, can't remember which one but it showed the person on the tee and focused only on the flag stick, all the people, the fairway, all disappeared from his view, only the flagstick and the pathway to it, that is how i sometimes view the CB's path to the contact point on the OB and "see" the ghost ball....even on straight in shots, i see a "path", picturing the right and left side of the CB and the pathway to the ghost ball on the OB....i make that shot 99% of the time....why i do not always do this, i don't know...i am warring with that issue st the moment.
 
Focus is a blend of 2 parts...

conscious effort, (in a nutshell: seriously trying)

and subconscious stuff (not being distracted, feeling confident, being in a comfortable rhythm).

I think when someone is seriously trying, that should bring out their "B game" almost every time. You have control over how hard you try. But the unsconscious stuff? I dunno if we have much control over that. You might need to get lucky for that part to fall into place.
 
oldplayer said:
another personal observation when i am really "focused"....it comes from one of the "golf" movies, can't remember which one but it showed the person on the tee and focused only on the flag stick, all the people, the fairway, all disappeared from his view, only the flagstick and the pathway to it, that is how i sometimes view the CB's path to the contact point on the OB and "see" the ghost ball....even on straight in shots, i see a "path", picturing the right and left side of the CB and the pathway to the ghost ball on the OB....i make that shot 99% of the time....why i do not always do this, i don't know...i am warring with that issue st the moment.
Click to expand...

http://www.wat.tv/video/legende-bagger-vance-ibj5_2fgqp_.html

even after watching "Bobby Jones" swing and hearing Will Smith wax poetic about "the field"....my focus on that teebox would likely have been mentally undressing Charlize Theron. Oh well, I can hit a golfball just about anytime. lol
 
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