Your/My Pool Journey is Worth It!

I am beginning to wonder if I should reconsider sharing in my blog I enjoy not competing anymore.

hmmm...

I have many friends that don't just love pool, but live and breathe pool (just like I did for decades). And some of my friends started playing pool only in the last few years. So I really truly hope me sharing my joy of no longer competing will not deter them.

Admittedly, I have heard from a few people they completely relate to what I'm saying and it gives them relief to know they're not alone. You have to understand that it almost feels shameful and an embarrassment to admit we choose to not play pool right now in our lives and that we really are okay with it. 

So, while I know sharing my feelings are helping some, I hope at the same time I'm not hurting others. I hope they don't think that becoming mentally tough is hard or that competing isn't fun or that it's a lot work to play pool and deal with all the negative aspects of competition.

Well, wait, crap!  Haha, all of those things are true!  Don't be scared, though!  It's all part of the process of loving the game and improving.

I knew that competing was tough and that mental toughness was something I hadn't honed in, but yet I still competed for 25 years. Once my mental game and physical pool game came in the line at the same time, I became a force to be reckoned with!

And so that's what I would tell anyone who are starting out:  read my past enjoyment and realize that in order for me/you to become so successful, all the ups and downs of our pool journey is WORTH IT!

Career or Journey?

I think it's very interesting the different verbiage players choose to use when they talk about pool when it's been in their lives for a long time.  I describe it and see it as my "pool journey" and I specifically use the word journey whereas others usually call it their "pool career."

But, I think there are two very important and distinct reasons why I choose "journey."

I've never once called my pool journey a career. Why? Well, because I have a career with my day job that I've worked at since 1992. That career pays for my bills and is how I make a living. So, I'm not about to call my pool playing for 25 years a "career," because, well, it's just not true in my eyes (and hasn't paid the bills, lol).

The other reason is really more because of the relation to my blog. Yep, the one you are reading right now! I use the word "journey" instead of "career" because "journey" is in the title of my blog. So, journey naturally flows out of my mouth when I talk about my life with pool all these years. And I like to keep that connection, whether people know about my blog or not.

When I decided to start a blog, I first needed to come up with a title to even be able to sign up for one on blogger.com. After days of trying to decide on the absolute most perfect in the world best title, it finally dawned on me that in all reality, I would be writing about my journey with pool. And so there it was:  my blog officially became 'Pool is a Journey.'

Then my friend Juan helped me with the description, which is on the top of the blog.

"Living life to the fullest is a wonderful, amazing adventure; playing pool is one of the infinite paths of the adventure. This blog is about my life journey with pool."

Thank God he helped, too, because again I was struggled with the most perfect best words of the universe to use/choose and my brain was hurting from all the choices, lol.

I do wonder sometimes if I hadn't chose "journey" in the title of my blog, what word would I be using now instead when I talk about my life with pool?

Things that keep you up at night, too, huh?

What Can Help Your Pre-Shot Routine Under Pressure

A couple of weeks ago I was watching a stream because one of my friends was on it. I don't check them out all the time, but I get more interested when I personally know one of the players.

My friend is an up-and-coming player and I happened to catch the end of his match and watch him play a couple of games - the score was about even (5-5), so it was a close one!

As I watched him, I kept thinking to myself I needed to get a hold of this guy and help him with his fundamental! He wasn't staying down at all and he was rushing his shots. That caused him to miss a lot. He also cared more about shape than making the ball, which also caused him to miss. His body language showed he was frustrated (and maybe embarrassed, too, I'm guessing), but he was missing because he wasn't taking his time or staying down and didn't have a good pre-shot routine.

I guess I'm like the cat lady, lol, who wants to help all strays in need. She swoops them up and takes them home so she can care for them.

And that's what I wanted to with this guy! I wanted to reach out to him and ask if we can meet up so I can try and help him with this game. You know, instill in him that he needs to stay down and focus on the shot and stop rushing! He would see so much more progress in his game and faster results if he did this. I guess wish someone would have taken me aside and given me a deep cleansing lesson. So, I want to help him so he doesn't have to struggle for a long time like I did, and instead sees results sooner.

Btw, he ended up losing that match. :(

But then something happened.

I saw on Facebook a few days later that he linked to the match. So, for whatever reason, I decided to check out how he started in the match - did he take the lead first or did he make a come back or were they about even the whole time until I showed up at 5-5 when I watched it live the other day?

And what I saw is a HUGE thing that reminded me of a tip I received once that I am super excited about to share with you all!

So, what did I see? I saw that he was playing good!

Wait, what?

Yep! He was staying down on his shots, he was taking his time, he wasn't rushing, he showed less "emotion" and he was playing jam up! One of the first or second games he even ran out from the 2 ball. I was impressed!

And then it hit me.

Without even seeing the middle of the match, I can tell you what happened. Why do I know what happened in the match without seeing it in its entirety? Well, because I'm psychic. No, no, that's not it! It's because I could clearly see his mannerism and body language and shot-routine were completely different from how he started the match to what I saw the other day at the end of his match.

I don't know exactly what happened (told you I wasn't psychic) but something "negative" happened that created emotions, stress, pressure, nerves, or embarrassment, etc that got his game off kilter.

What I learned once was, when you recognize you are playing badly/off due to pressure, or if you already know you will be playing in a pressure match, you need to take a couple more strokes than usual before you shoot the ball.

This may seem counter intuitive. You might be saying to yourself, "It is counter intuitive, Melinda. Everyone knows you should have the same pre-shot routine every shot; that includes the same number of strokes." And, THAT's TRUE. However, what you are trying do to when you are nervous or upset or feeling pressure, is to get back to your usual pre-shot routine. And taking extra strokes helps you do that and slows down your adrenaline a bit because your body has slowed down.

You see, the reason why my friend was missing wasn't because he didn't know how to stay down or not rush his shots. He was missing because he felt the heat of the game or was upset about something. So, taking a few more strokes before we hit the ball gets us back into our pattern. It slows us down. And that's what he needed - to slow down, stay down, be reminded of his great pre-shot routine. Nerves and pressure causes our pre-shot routine to leap out the window. Our arms feel like jello and we keep missing and we don't know why, which frustrates us even more. But, taking extra strokes before we shoot the ball keeps us down on the shot longer, which helps us from jumping up and rushing. For whatever reason, it WORKS.

I feel a little embarrassed I wanted to take my friend home and care for him like a stray, lol, when in fact he already shoots really good! Just needs to have this tool in his toolbox for when the situation arises in the future.

Don't worry, I will let him know (guess I'm still kinda like that cat lady after all).

Enjoy!