Ask Why, Then Decide Solutions

I shared in my previous blog post that I sparred with one of my clients/students/friend over the weekend.  It was actually the second time we sparred this month - we met up two weekends before that.  But otherwise, I have not played pool for an ENTIRE YEAR.  The last time I played pool was January of 2018.  

Yes, seriously.

The first time her and I sparred earlier this month, though, I was tired towards the end of the 2nd hour, and distracted by several things.  One was the weather was nice for once and I wanted to work in my garage, lol (it has been so cold, I haven't been able to do that for a couple of months).  Two was, a few guys came in and played a couple of tables away from us and started to engage in conversation a little bit (not much, but enough to where it was bothersome).  And three, I was having some digestive issues (I know, tmi, lol).

While I played decent in the beginning, toward the end of the sparring sessions, I was definitely missing more shots.  And of course, that didn't spur me on to want to keep playing that afternoon lol.

However, we did schedule to spar again in two weeks.  

During this two-week period, it crossed my mind one day that the reasons why I played poorly toward the end was because of the typical demons:  (1) I wasn't staying down on my shots, (2) I wasn't focusing on my shots, (3) I wasn't comfortable and felt kinda tired, and (4) I was distracted.

Therefore, because these items are in my control, I was very cognizant of what I wanted to do differently when we met up again.

So, two weeks later, I deliberately ran errands before I met up with her - this allowed me to feel more "awake" and also give my body time to wake up.  I had this same routine for when I used to compete regularly.  I was also more cognizant and stayed down on my shots longer and focused on looking at the object ball last - both of these allow me to play my best.  And finally, I deliberately didn't have other plans that afternoon, so my attention was solely on the sparring session, and not thoughts of what I needed to do when we were done.

And sure enough, I played jam up and a lot better this time around!

Even though I haven't competed in an entire year, and barely competed the year before that, the problem-solving process remained.  I figured out what was off, thought about what I needed to do, then did it.

This tells me I have a good habit (in general) of figuring out what is going on/wrong, and then preparing to resolve it.  

So my question to you is, have you incorporated this into your game?  Or how about your daily life? This is a great trait to have, right!?