Why the hell do we keep on doing this ??

Perhaps, it is like having a new car. At the beggining, you're are cautious
and not sure of yourself, but later on, that new car isn't that new anymore
If you've played Efren on daily basis for some time, after a while, he would
become just another player, wouldn't he? The problem is, that we don't
have a chance to play people like him on regular basis, and if you do, it
will cost you a lot of money, cause thay won't play for nothing. And if
you don't have a lot of money(like me), you screwed. It will have to take
you a bit longer to get seasoned, I guess.
 
In my first reply to your post I was trying to be cute. Very sorry, please accept my public apology. I have a 65 year old body this year but sometimes a 10 year mind. Ihope we are .......:cool: Skip
 
NewStroke said:
Wait, wait, wait let me backup, there are certain poeple I hate playing, it's the moron that thinks they are really good but can't even talk a great game and they are too stupid to understand that. That's about 30% of the people I play against in the APA. I basically just shutdown when playing them.
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NewStroke, I feel your pain my friend!!! I just as easily could have typed the above words myself. Tell me about the APA in your parts of the state. It SUCKS big time in the South Arlington APA. Lousy, money-grabbing LO. Handicaps all f....d-up. No etiquette to speak of, etc. I hope it's better in your neck of the woods. This is my wife and I's last sessions in 8 and 9-ball in South Arlington APA.

Maniac
 
Maniac said:
NewStroke, I feel your pain my friend!!! I just as easily could have typed the above words myself. Tell me about the APA in your parts of the state. It SUCKS big time in the South Arlington APA. Lousy, money-grabbing LO. Handicaps all f....d-up. No etiquette to speak of, etc. I hope it's better in your neck of the woods. This is my wife and I's last sessions in 8 and 9-ball in South Arlington APA.

Maniac
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Etiquette is the biggest thing for me. It's amazing how many people in the APA want to talk to you while you are shooting. It's incredible. The first couple times I played on my BCA team, I thought I was in a morgue. Nobody talked to you until after your match and it wasn't a whole bunch of jibberish about how you need to fix your stroke, stance, aiming, etc.
 
NewStroke said:
Etiquette is the biggest thing for me. It's amazing how many people in the APA want to talk to you while you are shooting. It's incredible. The first couple times I played on my BCA team, I thought I was in a morgue. Nobody talked to you until after your match and it wasn't a whole bunch of jibberish about how you need to fix your stroke, stance, aiming, etc.
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If you want to ruin your game, you play in APA, or any other pool league. If you just
want to drink and have fun, I guess this is a right place for you to play. Etiquette in pool league, what's that?
 
poolmaster said:
If you want to ruin your game, you play in APA, or any other pool league. If you just
want to drink and have fun, I guess this is a right place for you to play.
Click to expand...

I have quit the APA but I play for a different reason. This is the only league my son can play on based on his age. In less than 3 months, he'll be moving on with me. I love watching him progress and rise above.
 
NewStroke said:
I have quit the APA but I play for a different reason. This is the only league my son can play on based on his age. In less than 3 months, he'll be moving on with me. I love watching him progress and rise above.
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Good enough, good luck to your son.
 
Seize and anticipate the opportunity to play the best players in a tournament. Look at the Flow Chart as the roadway to success. Experience is the best teacher. I remember reading a quote in a small billiard room in the 60's,"the only way to be good,is to play somebody better than you." Willie Mosconi.
What you ever achieve in the world of pool,large or small,is yours to enjoy and build a lifetime of playing memories. You will lose to lesser players,and you will in time defeat world class players,this is the beauty of pool. The word I is very relevant in pool,as there is in these individual battles You to savor Victory,and the loneliness of Defeat in "I lost." No Pool Player has ever competed through their career undefeated by lesser players.
"If you cannot be a Giant. Be a Giant Killer!" Good Luck.
 
poolmaster said:
I've played Stevie Moore once, and the
second I started to play, I just froze.
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A lot of it is about experience. You played him once, and it's natural to have the jitters in such a situation. If you played a big tournament every week, and had played him a hundred times, it would become much easier to just focus on the game. If not, you might be in the wrong game.
 
A couple of thoughts come to mind. Playing the table is correct, but you must also play your opponent if you are to be successful. Exploit his weaknesses and manage his strengths. Just as in golf, where course management is crucial, one must not necessarily go for the green when ones opponent is in the deep ruff. And to, as a pro player told me a long time ago; to really do well you must become tournament seasoned. Play in as many tournaments as you can, be they big or small.
 
cajunfats said:
Seize and anticipate the opportunity to play the best players in a tournament. Look at the Flow Chart as the roadway to success. Experience is the best teacher. I remember reading a quote in a small billiard room in the 60's,"the only way to be good,is to play somebody better than you." Willie Mosconi.
What you ever achieve in the world of pool,large or small,is yours to enjoy and build a lifetime of playing memories. You will lose to lesser players,and you will in time defeat world class players,this is the beauty of pool. The word I is very relevant in pool,as there is in these individual battles You to savor Victory,and the loneliness of Defeat in "I lost." No Pool Player has ever competed through their career undefeated by lesser players.
"If you cannot be a Giant. Be a Giant Killer!" Good Luck.
Click to expand...
You've hit this one right on the money. You can beat a world champion, and then lose
to a much lesser player. This is just something out of this world, isn't it? It shows you,
how crazy this game can be. I guess, we humans after all, and we will make same and
new mistakes, and that's how it is. We just have to learn, how to accept what's given
to us, no matter how sad or unfair it seems. By the way, good post!
 
Playing a great player like Stevie Moore is an HONOR.

It's what every pool enthusiast should be thinking about. In no other professional sport could an amateur be playing a professional and have the opportunity to play them, let alone beat them.

When I have the opportunity to play one of the greats, I can only thank my lucky stars, knowing that this is what I came for, this is what I practiced for, this is what I endured the needling on AZ for, that this is what I came to do.

Truthfully, at first it is difficult. Here I was playing the best players in the world. It was too exciting, too powerful of a feeling. It overwhelmed me but after a few of those "frozen moments", you get to thinking that is a bunch of squandered opportunity and you start taking serious stock of WTFRU doing here? After that, maybe a few tournaments down the road, you start to formulate a plan to modulate that pulse and the gazillion thoughts passing through your mind at light speed. After several big tournaments, the number is reduced to several billion and so on and so on. As time passes, you will realize that all that you can do is do the best you are capable of at that point in time. Playing the table is easier said than done but TRUST ME, the pros are HUMAN, they have the same problems as you and I. They sometimes struggle and if you think it's embarassing for you with the "deer in the headlights" thing, imagine how they must feel when a "shmuck" starts whipping up on them. Pretty soon, you will realize that you have game enough to scare them once in a while and your confidence will grow. Later on, you will know that you have added skills since you once scared them if only for a moment or two. Now you think, hey, I might be able to put a whipping on one of these guys... Then one day you get to the hill and it starts all over again, your heart is racing at 120 beats a minute and the thoughts are back up to a gazillion per nanosecond and you're caught in those headlights once more as you watch in slow motion as the pro snatches victory right off your plate. Your stomach kind of twitches and you want to chew nails because you knew you had a chance..... But then one day you are there "taking your medicine" as usual because you know "taking your medicine" makes you stronger and today you are the one giving the whipping and you're not feeling the butterflies floating in your stomach nor the lump in your thoat, now you're just in the zone putting ball after ball in the pocket with nothing else on your mind and then..........................

Nah! I don't know what you're talking about; haven't the foggiest idea of what you mean. Never been there, never done that. :rolleyes:

JoeyA
 
JoeyA said:
Playing a great player like Stevie Moore is an HONOR.

It's what every pool enthusiast should be thinking about. In no other professional sport could an amateur be playing a professional and have the opportunity to play them, let alone beat them.

When I have the opportunity to play one of the greats, I can only thank my lucky stars, knowing that this is what I came for, this is what I practiced for, this is what I endured the needling on AZ for, that this is what I came to do.

Truthfully, at first it is difficult. Here I was playing the best players in the world. It was too exciting, too powerful of a feeling. It overwhelmed me but after a few of those "frozen moments", you get to thinking that is a bunch of squandered opportunity and you start taking serious stock of WTFRU doing here? After that, maybe a few tournaments down the road, you start to formulate a plan to modulate that pulse and the gazillion thoughts passing through your mind at light speed. After several big tournaments, the number is reduced to several billion and so on and so on. As time passes, you will realize that all that you can do is do the best you are capable of at that point in time. Playing the table is easier said than done but TRUST ME, the pros are HUMAN, they have the same problems as you and I. They sometimes struggle and if you think it's embarassing for you with the "deer in the headlights" thing, imagine how they must feel when a "shmuck" starts whipping up on them. Pretty soon, you will realize that you have game enough to scare them once in a while and your confidence will grow. Later on, you will know that you have added skills since you once scared them if only for a moment or two. Now you think, hey, I might be able to put a whipping on one of these guys... Then one day you get to the hill and it starts all over again, your heart is racing at 120 beats a minute and the thoughts are back up to a gazillion per nanosecond and you're caught in those headlights once more as you watch in slow motion as the pro snatches victory right off your plate. Your stomach kind of twitches and you want to chew nails because you knew you had a chance..... But then one day you are there "taking your medicine" as usual because you know "taking your medicine" makes you stronger and today you are the one giving the whipping and you're not feeling the butterflies floating in your stomach nor the lump in your thoat, now you're just in the zone putting ball after ball in the pocket with nothing else on your mind and then..........................

Nah! I don't know what you're talking about; haven't the foggiest idea of what you mean. Never been there, never done that. :rolleyes:

JoeyA
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For a person who never had being there, you pretty sure know how it feels. The way
you wrote this post, I couldn't write it any better. Bottom line, there is no magical
potion for over coming your emotions. The more you do it, the better you'll become.
 
Winning can be a monkey on your back. If you lose you have an excuse if you win you have no excuse. If you are playing a better player. your brain already has a perception of this guy winning. Your brain has seen or heard it time and time again so it doesnt like change. Your hill hill with a top player you get down to the eight it starts to kick in. Im 2 balls away from beating this guy, damn this is not supposed to happen and guess what you miss. Your brain just sabotaged your chance of winning to get the result its used to. Now is the hard part how do i override the brain's perception of the outcome. I would like to hear some things that others may have done to turn a win into their favor. First, you need a plan to shift the concentration on the game. If you dont you will never be able to do it. Come up with a plan that works for you and practice it and it will become a routine with the results you want. Ok, here is mine, sounds stupid but works for me. If i get down to last 2 balls is will say concentrate MFer just make the ball and visualize the shot. I will then concentrate my energy on the point the ball is contacting the table and pocket the ball. Next ball same thing then after you've won hey what does it matter who you're playing.
 
shift the burden

I shift the burden to the guy I am playing, at least in my mind. Here is the key, 95% of my best game becomes my yardstick. Doesn't matter if it is walt frazier or Efren, he has to come after 95% of my game and either beat it or fail. While I do play to the other players strengths and weaknesses, I don't care who he is as far as a name. He is only an obstacle between me and the next match. I don't try to get mad at the player or try to hate him for the duration of the match as some people do, that is just a distraction for me. All I want to do is move past an obstacle as quickly and easily as possible and get on to my next match.

Hu
(tg is wondering why he has that sudden sharp stabbing pain in his short ribs! :wink:)
 
I didn't read the whole thread yet, so I apologize if someone already said this.

I don't play the table, I usually play the opponent. By that I mean that I make my decisions based on the level of my opponent. Sometimes, if you are playing a weaker opponent, it might be better to just leave them a long shot than to do something low percentage.

If the 4 and 5 ball are tied up somewhere up table, I will sometimes lag the 3 ball up there near them so they fire at it and break them up. It works great.

Also, if I am playing someone like Stevie (who may never miss a ball for the rest of his life), I may change up my play differently. I may play tighter knowing that a sell out might cost me 30 minutes in the chair.

Just my .02:D.
 
NewStroke said:
Wait, wait, wait let me backup, there are certain poeple I hate playing, it's the moron that thinks they are really good but can't even talk a great game and they are too stupid to understand that. That's about 30% of the people I play against in the APA. I basically just shutdown when playing them. In fact I think I couple times I sunk the 8 early to get the match over with.
Click to expand...

can definately relate
 
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