Explaining Why We Lose

After I lost my very first match during the Season Finale of the OB Cues Ladies Tour in early December, I happened to run into a top player who hangs out at this particular pool room. 

He asked me how I did and I told him I lost.  But as most pool players do, I didn't just say, "I lost."  Yep, I gave him the final score, then explained that I was tied 4-4 but then scratched on an 8 ball, missed a tough 9, and I got accidentally hooked bad when my opponent was on the hill. 

You get the picture.

As I'm going on with my reasoning and explanations for losing he stops me and says, "Come on, Melinda, you're a seasoned player.  You know there's no reason to think about why you lost or worry about it or let it bother you. Just let it go."

It was very interesting because he was right.  I have played enough all these years to no go into details about why I lost.  I just needed to focus on what I can control in my next match.  

While I wanted to share with him why I really lost (those 3 mistakes and a bad roll), in reality I am at that point in my pool career that all I have to do is say the score and I don't need to give a play by play of every single reason for each game that I could have won. Lol

I think this might be because I haven't been playing a lot?  And so I just wanted to explain to him all the details of why I lost, lol.

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.

The Mathematics of Improving

It always find it interesting what people focus on and think of when trying to improve their game.

Someone told me last month, "I want to be your first Most Improved Player on the Omega Billiards Tour."

I smiled as I read that, knowing this player was working on hard on his game.

Then the other day a different Omega Tour Player was asking me about how the Fargo Ratings work, since we are using them for handicapping starting in 2017.  

I received the answer from Mike Page:

The system doesn't care about tournament results per se.   It also doesn't care about handicaps or anything like that.   So for example if you Melinda (529) played a match against Sky Woodward (778), and Sky won 10 games, the system would say based on your ratings you are expected to get to 2.    So if he beat you 10 to 2, your ratings would stay the same.   If he won 10-0 or 10-1, you'd go down a smidge (and he'd go up).   If he beat you 10-3 or 10-4, you would go up and he would go down.    

If you played Monica Anderson, you'd be expected to win 6 to her 4.    It doesn't care that you are a 6 handicap and Monica is a 5 handicap.  If Monica won a match against you in a Omega event with a score of 5-5, she would go up a bit and you would go down a bit.  This is not because she won the handicapped match; it is because she would have been playing even with you for 10 games when due to her lower rating she is not expected to... 

After I shared the answer with the player, and told him I hope it was helpful, his response took me aback!  

He replied, "Yep, helps a lot.  Tells me what I need to focus on, i.e. wins against higher ranked players…not just wins in general.  The other stuff will ‘happen’ because of that focus.  

He added later when I told him he had an interesting perspective, "You see, I need 26 points to move to the next level i.e. a 7.  (If I read everything right). 

If I focus on ‘getting’ that 26, then the other items just come naturally, i.e. finishing better in the tournament(s), getting ‘better’ overall, etc.

Goal oriented."

I was very impressed with how much he thought about what he needed to do now in regards to improving on the Tour now that we are using the Fargo Ratings.

He's right, it's no longer just simply wins versus losses or how one finishes in the tournaments. But he was clever to ask just how the process of the Fargo Ratings work so he could focus on the numerics of it all.

I love smart people!