Bad Practice and Two-Stroking

I mentioned that I played poorly during the BCAPL Nationals this year in July.

I have been trying to figure out why.  One of the reasons is because I didn't get enough sleep .  But truly, the other reason, once I thought about it, was because I was practicing bad.

I have written numerous time how I hadn't practiced not even ONE time before my two recent big wins (BCAPL Texas State Ladies Single title and ACS 9-Ball Ladies Single title).

Well, this time I decided to practice before the BCAPL Nationals.  While that may seem like a good idea, it bit me in the ass instead.

I thought practicing straight pool would help me, but it did not. 

While straight pool is suppose to hone you in and help your rotation games, I ended up two-stroking my shots (literally only stroking only TWICE and then shooting) b/c I was playing by myself (no pressure) but more so because the shots seemed easy to me.

I no longer had that good stroke that everyone talked about.  And two-stroking is NOT good for me.  Hurts my shot making ability 100%.

I was even playing bad on my Thursday night ladies league before Nationals.  I knew something was off, but I didn't know what until in Vegas I was missing shots I don't normally miss b/c I was back to two-stroking.

"Any day of the week, no practice is better than bad practice."

-Randy Goettlicher, Pool School Instructor

Once I figured this out (too late during that big event), I have been playing much better at my ladies league and even played well in the last Omega!  Got 17th out of 80 players :) :)