Affects of People Watching Our Matches

While I was playing on Sunday at the OB Cues Ladies Tour stop a few weeks ago, one of the top players from the area who hangs out at this particular pool room had walked in.  He walked into the nonsmoking side where we were playing and said hello, and then he went to other side of the pool room and I didn't see him again.

Because I was drinking a lot of water, I had to go to the bathroom a lot and one time I walked by the bar area and I saw him there.  He asked me how I was doing and I said I had won my morning match and was in another match, up 5-2 or something like that.  I asked him why he wasn't watching and he said, "well I just want you to focus on your game."

What's interesting about this is is he recognizes that his presence can influence others.  

I want to say that he wouldn't have bothered me negatively at all.  And he wouldn't.  However, I WOULD be thinking about shots that maybe I could ask him about that he saw if he was watching - which is a distraction in itself.  I should be focusing on the current game, not trying to remember a layout to ask him about later.  I need to focus all my energy on the current situation.

I have talked many times in my blog how certain people watching can have a good influence or a bad influence. Some people don't understand that when they say things about a shot or a match after you have just finished playing that it actually affects us  deeply.  Not only at that moment, but we actually get anxiety when we see them at other tournaments because of their past "practice" of saying things that bother us.  I am afraid to walk by certain people for fear of what might come out of their mouth this time.

That's why I've written about how I don't look around at the crowd during a match.  Which is still one of my favorite tips I have received.

Then there are other people who watch that have a very calming affect on you or I because they don't say anything afterwards.  They don't say anything negative after a match or they don't make any opinionated, stupid comments lol.  

Then there are others that we yearn for them to watch us.  Helps calm our nerves, or makes us feel "loved" so to speak.  And those positive feelings help us when we play.

Coming full circle about this top player....  So, I appreciated that he recognized that he wanted me to focus on the match.  He's not a negative influence at all and he's never said anything to make me second guess myself.  But just having him in the room is a slight distraction that he recognized.