Protect Your Table During the Holidays

Please don't let this happen with any relatives this season.

Oh, and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Mentality of Next Match After Losing

During the International 9 Ball Open back in October, I was reading some comments on Facebook about the tournament and players.

A big name player had just lost, but was still deep in the tournament.

Someone commented:  "Gonna be tough to bounce back right away after that tough loss.  We'll see."

A pro replied, "Easy to bounce back when you don't get to shoot....harder to come back if you dogged it. "

It was such an important exchange, I wanted to take a minute to talk about it.

You see, the pro was spot on.

In one sense, we can all agree that it can be difficult to bounce back right away after a tough loss.  But in all honesty, we do bounce back "easier" if our opponent simply outshot us, right?

It's when "we" are the cause of the loss that makes the next match tougher.

Because why?

Yep, because it's tough to stay in the present moment.

Plenty of players have won matches after a close, tough match.  But if a player missed balls, missed opportunities, or played bad, it's difficult to shake those ill feelings as you go right into your next match.  There sometimes isn't enough time to get over the embarrassment or sick feelings we have for dogging it in front of a crowd, or the feelings we have about ourselves for dogging it.  And therefore, it's tough to get ourselves into the "present" moment frame of mind in the next match because our body and mind are still reeling from the repercussions of the last match where we shot ourselves in our big stupid foot.

Just as I wrote about the other day - having a quarterback mentality of forgetting what just happened can go a long way to help you prevail in your matches.

Here's a really cool ending, though.  The person they were talking about was Chang Jung-Lin.  And guess what?  Yep, he ended up winning his very next match.  He was so determined because he didn't get many chances in his previous match, he actually went up 8-0 in his match before finally winning and moving on to the finals.

And then he defeated his opponent in the finals and won tournament!  $40K, baby.  Not bad, Chang!

That's some strong mental toughness that dude has!

Forgetful like Quarterbacks

I've mentioned this before in my blog, and I'm sure you have heard this before anyway, that the best quarterbacks are the ones who have short term memories and can forget right away any interception or dropped ball.  Those are the best quarterbacks.

If you can try not to think in the past when you're competing, it will help you immensely.  Because if you're thinking about that ball you missed six games ago and that you would be on the hill already.... that's not helping you here in the present moment.

And obviously the same goes for "future" thinking.  Thinking in the past or future keeps you from focusing 100% on the present moment.  And how can you play your best if you aren't committed to the shot in front of you?  Instead your shaking your head disappointed about what the score "should be."

But today I want to specifically talk about the past.... and, well, uh, trying to forget about it!  lol

As usual I compare things to everyday life when I talk about competing in pool.  And today is no exception.  Aren't you lucky?!

I think most of you know that I am a meteorologist (ie. weather person).  The other day a colleague shared with us he tried to boost the morale of our colleagues in Oklahoma.  He shared, "They need to have the mindset of a quarterback; forget quickly and get back in the game."

You see, early in the week, the forecast models were indicating that a snowstorm was going to occur across Oklahoma.  As the models adjusted through the week, the snow expectations became lower and lower.  Therefore, the forecasters in Oklahoma lowered the snow potential towards the weekend and put less snow in the forecast.

And of course they still got hammered on social media.

Ugh.

Everyone was saying that they missed the forecast "bad" because there wasn't any snow covering the ground like they'd imagined, come Saturday morning.

It's funny because when it snows people don't want snow and then when it doesn't snow, people wonder where the snow is.  But that's another story.  lol

The thing is, though, just like my colleague was saying, they need to not be worried about what's going on on social media or why the forecast didn't pan out.  They need to have the mindset of a good quarterback and get back to forecasting.

You see they can't sit there and second-guess themselves and wonder what they could have done (or should have done differently) because another forecast needs to be issued; we don't have time to sit there and feel bad about a bad forecast.

Now, don't get me wrong.  We do evaluations and after action reports and check stats, run scenarios on past events, etc.  But that is something down the road that we do.

The very next day we need to come on shift and we need to forecast the weather and have that quarterback mentality.

Same thing for pool.  If you are thinking about that shot you missed, that means you're not thinking about what's going on in front of you right now.  You're mind cannot do several things at once and you got to give yourself the best chance to play your best, and therefore you need to stay in the present.

I know I've said this a hundred times.  So, now today is 100 + 1.  :)