[Big_Bad_Bern]

Don’t be blinded by perfection

As pool players we sometimes get caught up in trying to be perfect, you know never miss a ball, always maintain just the right angle etc.

The problem with this method is that becoming concerned with attaining perfection leads to seizing up, steering our shots or paralysis by analysis. You cannot tell your body what to do with words, you must just visualize it and allow it to happen (you need to know the theory behind follow, draw or stop and how to execute them efficiently before you can allow it to happen). Do not get attached to the results when practicing just shoot the shot and observe the result from a detached perspective, allow your mind to workout how to attain the desired outcome naturally without direct involvement from you.

This is what we are really striving for, perfect play without trying or effort.

Don’t be blinded by perfection, allow it to happen!

Bern

[Pelican]

Nobody makes every shot, nobody gets every shape. We just got to live with that fact.

[Pin]

I read something similar in pleasures of small motions recently:

As players, we might shoot a hard shot and, after much trying, make it several times. We focus on the times we've made it, and disregard all the times we've missed.
Because we've made it a few times, we reason that we're capable of making it, so should be able to make it every time. We don't acknowledge the fact that our experience might show that we make it 40% of the time.

Then we get frustrated when we miss it in a big game.


Similarly, we remember the times we played our very best, and reason that we should always be able to play that well.
We don't recognise that natural variance will always mean that sometimes we play better than our normal level, sometimes worse. We don't recognise what our average level of play is.

Then when we come to the table and have an average session, instead of being happy that we're doing ourselves justice, representing our skills accurately, we're frustrated that we're not playing as well as we 'can'.



This really hit home when I read about it. I'd imagine most of us have made these mistakes.

Setting high standards for yourself is great, but overestimating your ability will lead to taking tactically poor risks at the table and will lead you to get frustrated with yourself most times you play (because by definition, the nights when you play unusually well won't come up all that often).


On the bright side, I'm finding that having learned and implemented quite a lot of knowledge on the mental game, after I've had time to loosen up and get into my stride I can usually produce pool reasonably close to what my 'unusually good' nights used to be.
(Forgiving myself for my mistakes is one important part of achieving this!)