Playing Pool with God

Let's talk about some pool. This is one of my favorite pictures...I've always said that if there isn't a pool hall in heaven, i'm not going. As you can see, there is is a table.

I was shooting the other night before a match and my cue was on auto pilot. The cue ball rolled perfectly on the green and all I had to do with my cue was point and shoot. (note: she is a female cue). This is shooting under no pressure - just fun. Now the turning point for me....

It was my turn to shoot a match, and all of a sudden I couldn't make a ball no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't even vision the balls making it to the pocket. I stood up, walked away as my opponent shot and took a deep breath. I realize the mental part of the game had taken over - worst part, is I let it.

My weaknessness range from facing a difficult shot, to dealing with an opponent's good fortune, to playing a player much better than myself, to playing in front of an audience --

How each situation affects you is really up to yourself. If I let myself get discouraged when the opponent gets more than his/her fair share of rolls (due to the pool gods), nobody but myself is to blame when it adversely affects my concentration for the rest of the game or match.

Another common mental barrier experienced by myself is getting nervous when playing before an audience or playing an important match against a much stronger opponent. I know we all get nervous -- even the best in the world. What separates the winners from the losers is that the winners handle that nervousness to the extent that it is no longer a barrier in their way to success.

To wrap it up, I blew the most important game of the season at Slick Willies. Not only did I let myself down, I let down the people that are the most important to me in my billiard world, my teammates [Dave, Patrick, Clay, Michael, Scott, Ronnie & Phil - without you guys, the league wouldn't be as fun or challenging]. I made horrible decisions, didn't shoot with confidence and doubted every single shot. It is okay to feel edgy before or during an important match, as long as you still perform well under those circumstances. This I failed to do. This was our playoff match to make it to regionals. It was the rubber match and the hill game. I had no doubt that we would dominate at regionals if we got there.

I made a promise to myself to never play like that again and let them down a second time. Getting over that mental barrier...that my friends, I need to learn.