Playing Pool For Fun? Uh, no.

I was talking to a new coworker the other day, who has only been employed at my office for about 8 months, but been with our company for about 15 years. He had no idea I used to play pool and he was very intrigued because he plays golf. As we all know, the sports are very similar.  Further, he plays in tournaments on weekends and is a pretty good player for an amateur (hey, just like me!).

During our convo, he asked me something unusual, and as soon as he asked it, though, I immediately knew something about his golf game.  And when I gave him my answer, he immediately knew something about my pool game.

He asked me if I ever practiced pool for fun.

Again, I thought it was an unusual question, so I first looked at him funny, but then confidently said, "Nope."

And he replied, "Now I know you were serious about pool when you played."

And I replied, "Just by you asking that question, I also know you play a good game of golf!"

I'm not sure if I've shared this before or not, but once I became more serious about competing and also when I started to focus more on trying to make my fundamentals solid, I didn't play pool for fun anymore. I discovered it was one of the worst things I could do, was play pool for fun.

By that I mean, I either practiced with intention, or played in league and in tournaments ONLY; I no longer played pool for fun.  I wouldn't ever again, say, play for fun on a Friday night with a couple of friends that weren't pool players.

In other words, if I'm at the pool room on a Friday night and I happened to be playing pool, I'm usually doing a race, maybe gambling, maybe there for a tournament, or hitting balls to get ready for a tournament (ie practicing). But you would never have seen me in the previous 10 years just having fun with friends drinking and playing pool.

Why?

Well, when I would be out having fun with friends at the pool room, it would cause me to resort back to my old tendencies of two-stroking and jumping up on my shots. Let's face it, it had been difficult enough for me to stay down on my shots and follow through, and being in an atmosphere where there wasn't competition, I didn't even try to stay down or follow through; I was having fun with friends.

And anyway, who wants to hang out with a friend who is trying to be super serious at pool? They would rather be joking and drinking and catching up anyway.

I had put so much time and energy into my game, I didn't want to put myself in situations that set me back.

What do I mean by set me back?

Well, I found this out the hard way:

Once my fundamentals started to get better, if I went out to the pool room for fun and drinking with friends (who don't play pool), I noticed at my next practice session I had some fine tuning to work on because I had flubbed up my fundamentals. Figured it was fluke, so of course I went out and had fun again a few weeks later on another night lol. And what to do you know - same thing happened: my mechanics got messed up.

My fundamentals weren't solid yet, so any time I played where I wasn't serious, was a detriment to my game.

Seriously.

You see, I was finally always working on my game. You may not have seen it, you may not have known it, but if you saw me on a table in the last 10 years I was either trying to stay down, trying to focus on three-ball shape, trying to walk 'into my shots,' working on shape, trying to learn... all that type of stuff. So why would I possibly want to take steps backwards?

Okay, okay.... don't be sitting there thinking I didn't have fun lol. I did have a lot of fun! I went out a lot still - I just didn't play pool when I did go out and have fun.

I remember also that when I traveled for my job, people would always try to get me to play pool after work. It was always difficult to explain I just wasn't interested. Even if I gave the excuse I didn't bring my cue (which I didn't travel with unless I was playing in a big tournament), they would say, "Just use a house cue, come on!"

Nope.

Again, playing for fun when I was trying to improve and work on my fundamentals was a step backwards for me. I wasn't using the same muscle memory when I was having fun. Why? I was focused on laughing and joking and drinking with non-pool playing friends. Those nights just weren't the proper times to be working on my game.

And btw, this proved extremely beneficial to me. Because even when I play pool now, I am surprised just how solid my fundamentals are and good I am still playing, though I hardly play pool and haven't competed in over 2 years.

Now, go check your fun factor. Have you noticed the same thing? If so, just have fun with your non-pool playing friends at other spots that don't have pool tables. See? Simple solution. haha