Great Golf Advice from a Pitcher about Not Practicing

I know, I know, the subject of this blog post is interesting (or confusing, right?!  haha).

I have mentioned a few times now that I work on blog articles after work at my desk in my office.  Well, I took a much needed vacation the first full week of October.  So, that kept me from my office, right?  Then I was busy catching up at work and now I find myself with not many blog posts this month (October).  So, I'm trying to catch up and write several before the end of the month to meet my personal monthly quota lol (10-15 per month).

Where did I go for this much-needed, stress-free vacation?  Well, of course Vegas!  My fave city.  :)  I even saw a show this time.  Being that I have been to Vegas a lot, I have seen most shows, but this time my friend Robin and I went to see Barry Manilow.  It was a really great show and she and I had a great time!  Barry is now 75 years old, but you would never it know based on how he moves all around the stage, dancing and very active, for the entire full 2 hours of his show.  Heck, I lost close to 20 pounds before going to Vegas and he STILL had more energy than I did at 75.  Pretty impressive!

This time in Vegas, I actually found a boyfriend!  He wasn't very talkative, but we hit it off:

Don't be jealous!

hahaha.

I also used a new app called "Relive" and it's super cool!  It creates a video of hikes/runs/walks/biking/etc and puts your route on a google map, and you can also add photos along the way.  Here I am walking from the Peppermill to the Flamingo Casino along the Vegas Strip and here is another video when I walked from NYNY casino along the Vegas Strip back to the Flamingo.  It can show how many miles, how fast you went, and how long it took.  Pretty cool app, right?

So, I flew Southwest Airlines for the first time in about 15 years this trip to Vegas.  I normally fly American because DFW is a hub and that's who all my airline miles are with, lol.  But, it was about $200 cheaper with Southwest this time and therefore I found myself at a new airport (Love Field) and a new airline.  I normally watch the movies on AA through my tablet (if they don't have screens in the chairs) but because I hadn't flown SW in so long, I didn't know I needed to download their app to watch shows BEFORE I got on the plane.  Oopps!

However, always the prepared person that I am (smile) I brought along my ipod for music, sudoku puzzles and a magazine, "Golf."  I somehow have a subscription to Golf magazine, prolly from some online thing I signed up for and then got a free magazine.  I normally stop any free issues, but I have been sharing the mag each month with my coworkers.  However, I took this issue with me in case I needed some time to kill on my flights (SW had a layover on each leg of my flight - well, "stop over," not switching planes).

ANYWAY, lol.

Archie Bradley (pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks) was interviewed in the Golf magazine and I really enjoy when different sports and athletes cross each other in magazines or interviews or articles.
Towards the end of the interview he shared some great advice a golf pro shared with him.  And now I am sharing it with you all :)

Q:  What's the best advice you've received about your golf game?

Answer:

"I played with Lucas Glover, and he gave me a bit of advice.  He said, "Hey, man, you don't practice, so when you come out here don't expect to shoot a 75, because you're not good enough to shoot a 75.  If you shoot an 85, you shoot an 85."  Ever since then, I've loved golf 100 times more."

Great advice for our pool game, too, right?

Cowboys Love Pool Too

My friends a Pro Billiard Service in the Dallas-area (but travel out of state, too, a lot) helped refelt and level a pool table this week.

They did this at the star practice facility, called the "Cowboy Club" for the Dallas Cowboys!  Pretty coolio, huh?

Photos or it didn't happen, right?  Here ya go:

If Pool was like Tennis

I was watching an episode of Law and Order the other day and this amateur tennis player said something along these lines:

"I am ranked 81st in the U.S.  If I beat the player ranked 80th, no one notices.  If I was to defeat the 5th ranked player, everyone notices.  I might be on a magazine cover or get sponsor inquiries. "

What she said really hit me - dang, what if pool was like that?

Can you imagine?

Right now, if I am ranked 80th and I beat the 5th ranked person, people in the pool community might talk about it.  I might have friends in the pool room say something.  I might get a lot of kudos on Facebook or something.

But imagine for a minute if pool WAS like tennis?  And I really did knock out the 5th ranked player in a big tournament?

I'd be interviewed by many reporters, magazines, local tv stations, and maybe even be on ESPN's Sports Center.  I am not saying Nike would be beating down my door with a contract, but what I am saying is the difference in our sports is light years.  It's like water and oil, fire and ice... (you get it).

Sure, we can get on magazine covers and be interviewed today - but it's only for pool-related mediums.  Tennis and Nike are all-related-mediums.

Can you imagine how much more practice we would all put in if there was a chance to play in tournaments on live tv, knowing we might be all over the media?  Not just talked about in our local pool rooms, but be on Sports Center or Yahoo news?  And have the potential to have big name sponsors?  Sell my own brand of shoes or a clothing line?

So many of us would be playing so much better!!  lol

What's In The Case?

No, this isn't the normal "What's in the Case."  I actually already did that via video a few years ago. 

This is about how when you are walking through the airport or a hotel and you have your cue case with you.  It's inevitable that someone asks you, "What's in the case?"

I always wondered why I would get stopped a lot for that question when I had my cue.  First of all, isn't it obvious it's for a cuestick?  But, I suppose not.

When WE see someone else with a cue case out of the pool room, there's like this magical connection - we know they are pool players, too, and we are connected in a way the average human is not.

But, I'm sure if you travel enough for tourneys you get asked this in the lobbies or at the airports (especially when we could carry our cues onto the planes - 'ole, the good old days).

So, imagine the roll reversal I found myself in last Friday.

My friend was staying in Downtown Fort Worth and I picked her up for dinner.  I then see this:

And there I was, the person who always asked the question of us, "What's in the case?"

She replies, "A javelin."

HEY!  A javelin!  How cool.

Turns out there was a college track meet that weekend in town.  Hope she kicked ass.  And glad I asked the question. :)

 

I'm Still a Tennis Amateur

I'm playing in the Scotch Doubles tourney of the BCAPL Texas State 9-Ball Championships this week here in Temple, Texas.

I am playing with a league-mate, Marty Jones.  He was always at the top of the league but this year he sits in the #1 spot for the first time (and there are close to 200 people in this league).  I played him in a little 8-ball tourney a while back and came to appreciate his game even more.  So I asked him if he would like to play with me and he said, yes.

Since I am in a rut, it made for an interesting day yesterday, tho!

It reminded me of a tennis game I played once against a friend of mine when I was in my late 20s.

She had played tennis in high school, I had not.  But we wanted some exercise so we decided tennis was the way to go and it would be fun too.

Since I hadn't ever really played tennis, but it looked simply enough to bat the ball over the short fence (net), I was all for it.

I would just hit the ball over the net.  I had no accuracy, no control, and my only goal was to get it over the net.

What did this mean?

It turns out my girlfriend got a lot more exercise in than I did!

I meant that she was running back and forth the whole time!

She was busting ass trying to hit my wild balls....while she was aiming the ball right towards me the whole time.  I recall kinda just standing there, easily hitting the ball over the net.  I hardly had to move around or run.  But her!  She was running left and right and back again and up and down and left and right trying to retrieve my balls!

We never played again, lol, but that one time.

This is how I felt yesterday in my scotch doubles matches.  My partner was getting me perfect shape; leaving me easy shots.  I was struggling and would therefore leave him really rough and tough shots a lot.  Long shots, long cuts, tough shots that required a very steady stroke, etc.  He made 99% of them tho!  But it was just like that tennis game I played 15 years ago - he was making all the tough shots and I had all the easy shots!

I noticed this about half way through the day, especially when I started to get tired and he was making all these fantastic tough shots.  I even said something to him about it and he jokingly replied he could leave me the tough ones and he could start shooting easy ones, lol.

Thank goodness he played well, while I played "decent," because we won the hotseat last night!

Finals are not scheduled because of the other events but we have to be doubles dipped and we WILL make it tough for that to happen!