August152010
This article is part of Volume 10 of PoolSynergy, a monthly collection of the best writing on pool. After you read it, be sure to check out the rest of the August 2010 edition of PoolSynergy for other great articles over at ForumGhost516’s Blog.
As a recreational player with no pro ambitions, I really don’t have any support, per se. My family supports me, in that they don’t give me any grief about the time I spend playing, but otherwise they’re not involved in my “hobby”.
I’m retired and try to keep my spending on pool limited. I play at a great place that doesn’t charge for table time since I’m in a league there, though to be honest I don’t play there often since I bought a table of my own. I have taken a few inexpensive group lessons, but have avoided the more expensive, and more valuable, individual lessons for budgetary reasons only. I’d love to spend some serious time with a number of the great instructors in my area, and I’m quite sure my game would take a major step upwards if I did, but my money is going elsewhere.
There are numerous resources I’ve used that have been invaluable in providing me the information I’ve needed to get as far as I’ve come so far, and I’m sure they’ll be at least as instrumental in helping me get better from here. I’ve read and re-read a number of excellent books on the game. I find them to provide the most information for the money. I try to stay up to date with new and interesting perspectives on the game by regularly reading posts from the best pool blogs and forums. Since these provide avenues for discussion they are great when I have questions, which is often.
There are numerous resources that have been invaluable in providing me the information I’ve needed
I have watched and continue to watch quite a number of instructional videos as well as numerous great matches and they provide me with a great deal of information. The visual medium is better than books in that it’s almost like practicing, in that your mind can follow along with the action almost as if you were playing yourself. I think I play my best right after watching great pool.
I try to be very open about my game and my desire to improve. That attitude has helped me to get other players to open up with me and provide me with their insights. I have had a few pretty regular playing partners for a couple months at a time and they have all helped me in this way also. Personal feedback can be particularly useful because it zeros in on your actual game, rather than the game you think you have, and it can be a real eye opener if you listen.
Even though the above resources have been and will continue to be indispensable, I feel that my real support system is me. I play pool because I love it, and I work at getting better because the more I know about it, and the better I play, the more I enjoy it. I don’t have a training partner, coach or trainer, so it’s up to me to provide the drive, the discipline to spend the time working on my game.
I work to keep my attitude positive (sometimes a chore), my confidence high (another struggle), and my openness to feedback and new ideas obvious (this one’s easy for me). I’m the only ones who cares about my results, and it’s up to me to achieve my goals. No one will notice, let alone chastise me for not spending time practicing, I simply won’t get any better if I don’t.
I’ve tried a number of things to keep me at the practice table regularly, but the one that’s working best for me is to just spend time at the table every night before I go to bed. I’m a night person, and my table’s in the garage so no one can hear me. I thought that b y having a table at home I’d spend even more time practicing, but the reverse has proved true. I feel guilty when I don’t practice, but I miss the regular playing much more than I thought.
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| Brooke & Jeremiah |
My grand-daughter who lives with us just gave birth on July 20th to my great-grandson Jeremiah, and I’m enjoying spending lots of time with him, so it’ll only get harder to make time for practice. It’s an ongoing test of my commitment to improve to see if I can keep pool high enough on my priorities list to give it enough time to keep moving forward. My deep love of the game and my competitive nature are the drivers, but my lack of progress lately, combined with issues in my non-pool life that are taking my eyes off the game are getting in the way, so I struggle. Stay tuned to see how it works out.
I’d love to hear from those of you who are your own support systems. How do you do it? Have yo developed any tricks to keep you going? Let’s discuss this in the comments.
Links to all past editions of PoolSynergy are on the PoolSynergy – History and Schedule page.
My Previous PoolSynergy Posts
Nov 2009 – Thinking Your Way to More Pool Victories
Dec 2009 – My First Big ‘Aha!’ Moment in Pool
Jan 2010 – Three Outside Influences on my Pool Education
Feb 2010 – Some of My Favorite Pool Players
Mar 2010 – 10 Reasons Why Gambling is Bad for Pool
Apr 2010 – Attitude is Everything
May 2010 – Poolosophy: Pool Student’s Approach to the Game
June 2010 – Fixing Pool – An Outsider’s View
July 2010 – My Relationship with Pool
July152010
This article is part of Volume 9 of PoolSynergy, a monthly collection of the best writing on pool. After you read it, be sure to check out the rest of the July 2010 edition of PoolSynergy for other great articles over at Angle of Reflection.
I love pool. It was love at first sight, too, but it was the kind of hot, passionate love than burns itself out quickly. I first picked up a house cue in my sophomore year at Rutgers and from the first game I was smitten. I played tennis back then, and hitting the ball while on the run was initially so much harder that before I began to play I didn’t think pool would hold my interest. I was so very wrong. Pool was a siren.
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| Jessica – a Classic Siren |
I played 3 or more times a week, several hours at a time, for 2 semesters. I played 8 ball and straight pool and I couldn’t get enough.
The student union where I played was open, airy and brightly lit, characteristics I still appreciate but rarely see. A few of the best players would gamble on 9 Ball constantly, and when one guy lost so much he not only had to sell his cue he had to drop out of school, it had a profound effect on me. There was a lot of sleaze in that group, with hustling and laying down being common practices. I stayed well clear of those guys, but I saw more than enough to taint the game I loved.
On the positive side, what got to me was the cognitive dissonance between the apparent simplicity of the game and the actual endless complexity within it. The basic physics was alluring (I had just changed my major from physics to philosophy, but the Newtonian mechanics of the balls was captivating). Understanding things like how the paths of the balls could be so dramatically affected by top and bottom spin was intellectual, but the game had a strong emotional component to it, too. Knowing exactly what was going to happen, and then watching it unfold before your eyes was so satisfying I just had to have more, and more. But of course I wasn’t a particularly good player, and that satisfaction didn’t come on every shot. My youthful enthusiasm was accompanied by an immaturity and temper when things didn’t go as expected. Knowing wasn’t enough, you had to execute.
The strategic opportunities in games like 8 Ball and 14.1 were prodigious, and since I fancied myself as a pretty sharp guy, I thought this was the game for me. A good hook could be almost as satisfying as a great shot. Sadly, my execution wasn’t up to my creativity, and I started fighting with my pool mistress.
My fling with pool didn’t last. By the end of that sophomore year I was burned out; I broke up with pool.
I transferred to Boston University for my last two undergraduate years and since pool was inconvenient, and I was much busier with studies and work than in previous years, I didn’t play any pool at all. Once thoroughly out of the habit, I never thought about it again until 2005. One day I noticed an old cue from my college days hanging in the back of my closet and within a week I found myself in a pool hall in St Petersburg.
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| Celine Dion |
I got a table by myself and started hitting balls. Within 10 minutes I was overtaken with long forgotten emotions, and I knew that I would never again quit this game. I was just like Celine Dion’s singing of Jim Steinman’s classic, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now. Everything was forgiven, I just had to experience those feelings again. The song still gets to me; play it to feel what I mean.
I’ve been playing regularly for almost 5 years since then, and have loved every minute. Sure, I’ve been irritated on a number of occasions, but I think because I’m older, and I like to think wiser and more mature, that this time the love will continue to grow stronger over time and not die out. Much like the love I have for my wife, that burns more brightly today than ever before, even though in 2 weeks we’ll have been married 30 years.
Links to all past editions of PoolSynergy are on the PoolSynergy – History and Schedule page.
My Previous PoolSynergy Posts
Nov 2009 – Thinking Your Way to More Pool Victories
Dec 2009 – My First Big ‘Aha!’ Moment in Pool
Jan 2010 – Three Outside Influences on my Pool Education
Feb 2010 – Some of My Favorite Pool Players
Mar 2010 – 10 Reasons Why Gambling is Bad for Pool
Apr 2010 – Attitude is Everything
May 2010 – Poolosophy: Pool Student’s Approach to the Game
June 2010 – Fixing Pool – An Outsider’s View
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