Playing Better Because of Confidence - the Danielson Series

Wanted to chat a minute about Danielson and his new boost of confidence from an unlikely source.

By joining a new league!

His APA teammates see him as a higher-ranked player because even though he may not be a top player (yet) he is still a better than most of his teammates.  He's often the one the call on when they take a time out. 

I can't begin to express enough how much this is a confidence booster!  And his recent finishes are starting to show that.

He played well in a regional qualifier and then placed 2nd in an APA weekend tournament.  I asked him why he thought he was playing well. 

He responded laughing, "Probably cause they think I play better than I think I play.. LOL"

"Well," I stated, "That doesn't really explain why you are playing better lol."

He responds, "It might... they treat me like the DFW Tour treats Rick Stanley."  (Rick Stanley is one of the top players on that tour.)

I asked Danielson to explain further.

"Well, the way they talk to me or talk about me makes me feel better about what I'm doing.  And I think it translates into me actually playing better.   It's a very weird dynamic.  And definitely not one I'm use to. "

I asked him, "It's a huge confidence booster, right?"

"Yeah.. and I'm getting the results of feeling better."

You see, Danielson is going through a normal part of our pool journey.  When we start to be the one people come to to ask questions, or people start to talk about us - the feeling it gives us is confidence and it radiates directly to our pool game.  We feel better, we shoot better.  Goes hand in hand.

I can pinpoint exactly when this started to happen to me.  Ironically I had joined a new league, too (a women's league) and I found myself being looked up to because I was one of the top players all of a sudden in the league.  The other leagues I was on was full of master male players who had been playing for years and years, so on those I was a little fish in a big pond.  But on the new league, I became the player people wanted on their team.  Me?  It took a while to get used to, but as Danielson shared with us, it's a huge confidence booster.

Getting to this point in our pool journey is a very amazing place.  Danielson is correct - it's a very weird dynamic, but also is huge step in our progress; just as Danielson is seeing/feeling.