When Sharks Attack

Gary Frerking is this month's Poolsynergy host and he wants us to talk about sharking.

Ahh... sharking.

I've learned more and more about sharking lately, mostly because a good player friend of mine has confided in some of the things he does to shark people.  The reason the topic was brought up was because I told him I knew he was sharking in his matches, lol.  I felt comfortable telling him that I wrote about him in a blog post.  This is when I stated he took many bathroom breaks during the finals of a tournament and could get away with it because this tourney didn't have a rule about the # of bathrooms breaks per match (like a tour would have, for instance).  So, he was able to get away with that sharking technique and sure enough rattled his opponent enough to win the tourney.

He recently told me if he notices his opponent is bothered by upside-down chalk, he will deliberately keep putting the chalk upside-down.  This forces his opponent to get his mind off of the game.

Quite insightful yet disturbing to me.  

I hate to hear when the pros are accused of doing things deliberately when in fact, we really don't know.  Because they interrupt a shot to ask a question - how does one sit in their chair and say to themselves, "okay, run, get up and interrupt him "NOW."  No, I feel that we sometimes just react to things and don't deliberately try to shark people.

But, that is my optimistic side coming out in me.

However, I have seen true sharking before.  And it's not pretty. 

Standing by the table while you shoot, talking loudly while you are shooting, etc.

What I also don't like is that some people think that certain players deliberately complain and/or get mad at themselves to shark their opponents.

What?

The people I know that show emotion do not do it deliberately.  They are simply wearing their emotions on their sleeves.  Now granted, their actions DO shark their opponents.  But, from where I'm sitting, I know in my heart they aren't getting mad at themselves deliberately to throw off their opponents.  They just don't handle tough emotions calmly all the time.

The funny thing about the pros:  they all know who the sharkers are.  They know when they see certain opponents' names on the charts they will have to deal with antics.  Luckily, the pros are pretty good at focusing on their game against sharkers because they have years of experience dealing with them, lol.

What about me?  Have I been sharked.  Sure.

I have also sharked myself by letting people get to me.  Ugh.  Hate that.

No, really, what about me?

Have I ever sharked anyone?

Yep, I have.

I am ashamed to admit it, but luckily this was years and years ago.  I immediately felt bad and prolly have yet to recover, quite honestly. 

But here is my story:

I know from reading about mental toughness that when you are in the zone, the worst thing you can do is to start thinking about how well you are shooting.  That throws your game off.  Instead of free stroking, you are now thinking about outcomes and how well you are shooting and it affects your game tremendously.  You think-yourself out of the zone!

Think about it - how can you be thinking about how well you are shooting, if your mind is suppose to be focusing on the shot at hand?

I was playing a friend of mine (about 8-9 years ago) who told me during our match, "please quit talking to me while we play."  I was hurt, but at the same time felt bad for bothering her.  I was just being friendly to her while we played, ugh.  But, I completely understood she wanted to focus on the game and that I was distracting her.

But I also realized I had ammunition.  (gosh I hate thinking this way!)

But I did:  Future reference material.

Sure enough, I was playing her a couple of months later for 7th or 9th place on Sunday on the Ladies Tour in Texas.  She was free stroking and playing great!  She was running out from everywhere.  And then I did the wrong thing; the inappropriate thing:  I spoke to her.  :(

I told her, "I wish your music was playing on the jukebox, I like your music best.  And btw, you are shooting really good."

What did that do?  It got her out of her rhythm.  It got her thinking about (probably) several things:

• Why is she talking to me?  
• I DO love my music and wish it was on.
• Why did she bring that up?
• Wait, I AM playing good.

And yes, it sharked her.  She started to miss, I started to capitalize, and she even had to take a bathroom break because she was so upset that I distracted her (I'm guessing).

I ended up winning that match and went on to place 4th I believe.

Still to this day, I am ashamed at myself for doing that.  For me to even type these words out is difficult for me, but the topic is about sharking and I must confess I have done it before.  And I honestly don't know how the people who do it continually and deliberately can live with themselves.

(BTW, I also recognize when other players do this to me.  I have noted people trying to throw me off my game deliberately by the same "complimenting" comments.  I *try* to force the nice comments from my brain.)

Sure, pool is mental like golf.  Sure, no rules say I can't talk.  But this is about ethics.

I could even throw the word "karma" around in this blog article (but I wont).

It's a much better feeling to know I am winning because of skill and talents, instead of sharking and "trickery."

Btw, STILL not happy I did that, even if it was 8-9 years ago. :(