Are You Playing Too Slow?

I don't know if many players have gone through this in their pool journey, but I've noticed this in a couple of friends of mine so I thought that I would write about it.  If you are one of "these people," then the experience I share in this blog entry will be your friend and help you out!  :)

I remember there was a time in my pool journey when I played slow.  Well, let me be more clear... it's not that I played slow - it's that it took me awhile to make my decisions which looked to others like I was playing slow - like a sloth, lol!  But in reality, I was standing at the table looking at the layout and all the options that could possibly happen, thinking about what I should do, what was possibly best, and therefore it took me awhile to finally get down and shoot a shot.

I actually played like this for about nine months of my pool journey and that happened to tumble over into a nationals tournament in Vegas.

I was playing so slow, that it actually pissed off my scotch doubles partner!  I didn't know his personality, and he actually snapped at me in front of everybody about it.  Yea, that was a lot of fun.  NOT.

I asked one of my friends who is watching, "Hey, was I really playing that slow?"  You see, I didn't think I was!  And she confided, "Yeah, you really were. But what it looked like to me was you're standing up there and you don't really know what you should do, and that's why it's taking you so long to shoot."

Man, I had no idea I was taking that long.

And she was absolutely spot-on. And once I heard that, it actually help me to stop being so indecisive at the table.

You see, when we are learning a lot of things that get in our head that we didn't know before, it can slow down our decision process. And so there's a ton more new options that we didn't know before and so now we kind of stand there and wonder, "Uh, what I should shoot and what would be the best shot to take?"

Even though I still had some indecisiveness, because that doesn't go away completely right away, her pointing that out made me realize that I do need to make my choices faster.  Not that I do need to SHOOT faster, but have more confidence in my decision and the shot that I do choose so I can go for it.  The reason why I say this, is we could stand there for several minutes trying to decide what to do and in reality that doesn't help you, your percentage to win or help your opponent.

I actually believe that taking too long to make a decision can actually hurt our game.  Why?  Well, it throws off any rhythm we have.  If we go from normal shooting (whatever that is for you and I) to being super indecisive, that slows down your rhythm, which is detrimental to your game.

But, like I said, I think this might be part of most pool players' journey and so it's something that in time we eventually just stop standing up there at the table being indecisive.  So, don't fret if you do this right now!  Things will change for the better soon. :)

And I admit, when you find out people are getting upset or agitated because of how slow you play, you really don't want to keep being slow.  Yea, yea, I know some people think that it's a good thing to agitate your opponents lol, but in reality, a lot of us want to have a smooth match.  And if that means I stop playing sloth slow or being super indecisive, that will actually help me anyway, right?

I think if I hadn't asked my friend that and she wasn't honest, or that guy hadn't snapped at me, or our opponents didn't call a ref because I was playing so slow, I wouldn't have known that I had that issue.  I was in the moment and I'm standing up there just trying to make a good decision, not realizing how long it's actually taking me, lol.

So, obviously, unless someone tells you are playing super slow or you see yourself on a stream or some video tapes, you may not realize just how long you're taking at the table.  Now I'm not saying that you should rush through any of your decisions and that you should rush through any of your shots at all!  But what I am saying is there does come a point where we sometimes take too long in every single match with every single decision with every single shot. And when that happens, that's when you need to have some self-reflection and make a change. Because I promise you, when you do make the change (ie decide to accept your decision and be confident with your choice), I promise when you do this your game will actually go up.

Again, I'm not saying to rush your shots.  I'm not saying to rush your decisions.  But sometimes standing at a table looking at a layout for too long is something you should eventually try to get away from.

Again!  Your game is going to go up after you stop doing this.  Maybe it's because when we finally start making decisions, we are more confident in ourselves and with our choices.  And whether they're right or wrong, at least you're learning each time that happens instead of standing there wondering, "What the f*** should I do?!"  lol.

Enjoy peeps!  (but don't take too long)  lol