why losing after leading the match?

phjunky

phjunky

Registered
Last night, i've been playing with my pal, a race to 9. I had an advance, i was leading 4-1. I don't feel that i started to play worse, actually, i felt like i stayed focused on every game, maybe that my opponent started to get better, i dunno, but unfortunately, i lost!!! 9-4!!! unbelievable... it happens quite often that i start the match good, i take the lead, and then i get beaten. It sucks.. i don't feel that i'm loosing my game, neither. D'you have any tricks!?!
 
one thing ive found, dont go changing things when your winning. Like, lets say your breaking from a spot on the table, and youre not making a ball but youre winning each game. Then you try breaking from another area.....dont. Or maybe you are shooting alot of defense and winning, and then you get ahead and you start going for more offensive shots cuz youre in the lead........dont. Just dont change your game if your winning the set, every time i have its been disaster
 
Don't feel too badly. It happens to all of us. Allen Hopkins was leading 10-1 against Efren, yet the magician managed to come back and win 11-10. :(
 
Eh, it happens.

In one weekly tournament (that I went on to win; all races to 6) I was down 4-1 the first match, 5-1 the second match and then 5-0 in the finals.

That was the hardest won tournament I'd clipped off, and I felt particularly proud of myself for never having given up (and believe me, 5-0 in the finals I wanted to quit!). There's something about being down so bad that forces you to either give up (start whacking balls in frustration) or bear down like and find a way to win.

On the flip side, when you're ahead you have to find a way to keep the momentum going and realize that no lead is big enough until the set is over. What's more disheartening than being behind in a set is seeing your opponent (who's ahead) keep up his intensity and desire to win.
 
I was playing this guy one time, we rarely gambled cause it never turned out good. But this was one of those times. We were playing a race to 11 for 50. I win the toss, and break and run 2 racks then scratch on the 3rd break. He gets halfway through the rack, misses. I finish and run 3 more racks before he gets to the table again where he runs out. Next game he makes nothing on the break I run 2 more racks and play him safe.... this is where it turns bad. He unscrews his cue, starts with the profanity and throws the money on the table. At this point its 8-1 in a race to 11 and hes quitting me..... for some reason, I talk him into finishing the set instead of letting him go.
Now to this day, I cant figure out what switch in my head flipped to go from some of the best play I have ever spewed forth to watching this guy come back and win 10 games in a row with me having several misused innings in those 10 games. I couldnt run more than 4 balls without a miss or having to play a safe which wasnt safe at all by this point. Call it sympathy, call it something....... but it wasnt killer instinct.
From that point on, Ive always tried to seperate friendship, like or dislike of an opponent from the game. Because they are non issues. It affects everyone, but it shouldnt. If you are capable of stringing 3,4, or 5 racks and playing a tough safe..... then you can do it against the guy down the street or Efren. But the mind doesnt always allow for that. I think true deadstroke is not only zoning in on the balls, the pockets and the sound of the 2 meeting..... its about forgetting anything and everything else that is not a part of those 2 things. This includes forgetting about the person who is sitting in a chair off in the darkness giving you dirty looks as you proceed to make them get up and reach for a wooden triangle.
Chuck
 
It sounds like you lost your momentum to your opponent. I know that's kind of an intangible mental thing, but I notice it happening to myself also. In our matches we usually agree beforehand that each of us gets a 5min break at our discretion as long as it's between racks. If I feel myself loosing mo or my opponent gaining it I take my break. As long as it's agreed beforehand I think it's more wise strategery than gamesmanship.
 
You lost your concentration. You don't care if you miss some balls, you say with your mind that it doesn't matter if he wins somes racks and BANG..... You face a HILL - HILL and certainly you'll lost it.
Another reason, some players when he take a lead he thinks that he should NOT take risk and play too much safe, he let the opponent play and gain the confiance. His opponent wins 3,4 racks in a row and at that moment he himself losts confiance, he misses some easy balls and it's over.
 
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RiverCity said:
I was playing this guy one time, we rarely gambled cause it never turned out good. But this was one of those times. We were playing a race to 11 for 50. I win the toss, and break and run 2 racks then scratch on the 3rd break. He gets halfway through the rack, misses. I finish and run 3 more racks before he gets to the table again where he runs out. Next game he makes nothing on the break I run 2 more racks and play him safe.... this is where it turns bad. He unscrews his cue, starts with the profanity and throws the money on the table. At this point its 8-1 in a race to 11 and hes quitting me..... for some reason, I talk him into finishing the set instead of letting him go.
Now to this day, I cant figure out what switch in my head flipped to go from some of the best play I have ever spewed forth to watching this guy come back and win 10 games in a row with me having several misused innings in those 10 games. I couldnt run more than 4 balls without a miss or having to play a safe which wasnt safe at all by this point. Call it sympathy, call it something....... but it wasnt killer instinct.
From that point on, Ive always tried to seperate friendship, like or dislike of an opponent from the game. Because they are non issues. It affects everyone, but it shouldnt. If you are capable of stringing 3,4, or 5 racks and playing a tough safe..... then you can do it against the guy down the street or Efren. But the mind doesnt always allow for that. I think true deadstroke is not only zoning in on the balls, the pockets and the sound of the 2 meeting..... its about forgetting anything and everything else that is not a part of those 2 things. This includes forgetting about the person who is sitting in a chair off in the darkness giving you dirty looks as you proceed to make them get up and reach for a wooden triangle.
Chuck
Click to expand...

Race to 11 for $50 ... LOL Lordy, we go to 5 for $50, 11 would be in the $1,000 range .... You must be a glutton for punishment.... lol
 
Thanks guys for your comments. Yeah, i knew it must have been a mental thing, it's just that i didn't feel it. But you're right, when i got an advance, i don't care if my opponent make a ball of a sequence of 3-4-5 balls or even win a game.

As StevenPWaldon said : when you're ahead you have to find a way to keep the momentum going and realize that no lead is big enough until the set is over. Thanks, i like this may of thinking. I never realized that, but it's true, it's a good way to think.

you can keep writing stuff about that, always cool to read that i'm not alone... lol :)
 
Didn't change a thing but....

I once played a pro from Indiana, that at the time was ranked 8th in the world. I was winning 4 games to zip (in a race to 5 in 9-ball). 9 ball was/is my weakness game. I said to myself geee I cann't believe I am beating him. Then all-of-a sudden I tightened up and got all nervous. You guessed it, he beat me 5-4.
I didn't change I thing except I cyked myself out of winning.

Regards,
Hal
 
Snapshot9 said:
Race to 11 for $50 ... LOL Lordy, we go to 5 for $50, 11 would be in the $1,000 range .... You must be a glutton for punishment.... lol
Click to expand...
Twas a friendly game several years back. But I have been known to drag myself through the mud for 20 bucks....... lol This one time, I was playing a kid 5 bucks a game 9 ball. Friendly, nothing big. I get up like 60 bucks on him and he wants to up the bet. Now..... the kid stood no chance, and it was a friendly game so I decline and we stay at the 5 bucks. I get up to around 100 on him and he excuses himself to go the the restroom. I look out in the hallway and hes at the front counter trying to cash a check because he only had the 60 dollars. He comes back in, red in the face cause the desk guy wouldnt cash his check. To avoid embarrasing the kid, I start dumping till Im 60 winners on him and ask him for the money, because "Im too tired to keep playing." He went home happy it wasnt 100 or more, and I was happy cause I could have taken this kid to the cleaners but some form of humanity surfaced in me and I didnt..... lol
I usually haggle till I get something out of a guy, even if its just playing for drinks or table time. These days Im lucky to have enough cash in my pocket to play a buck a game....... wifes...... gotta love'em. :D
Chuck
 
A friend of mine always seems to beat me in one pocket. It always goes the same way too. I quickly take a 3-0 lead and then I lose 3-4. Every time.

Maybe we should play races to three.
 
same problem...................

Cameron Smith said:
A friend of mine always seems to beat me in one pocket. It always goes the same way too. I quickly take a 3-0 lead and then I lose 3-4. Every time.

Maybe we should play races to three.
Click to expand...


I use to do the same thing in onepocket, cost me alot of money at first. Just try to think that each game is hill hill......that seems to keep me more under control. Also if you have two shots most likely the more conservative shot is the better shot...........................................lol
best,
 
!!

bells said:
I use to do the same thing in onepocket, cost me alot of money at first. Just try to think that each game is hill hill......that seems to keep me more under control. Also if you have two shots most likely the more conservative shot is the better shot...........................................lol
best,
Click to expand...

Your exactly right, I tend to get too fixated on closing the match out, I just want to manufacture a shot and go 8 and out. I need patience!
 
one of the guys i played hockey with always said

treat the score like its 0-0
 
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