[Big_Bad_Bern]

Hi everyone, I have been incredibly busy with pool table work lately and playing. I managed to finish 101st on the Canadian 9 ball tour, my goal was to be in the top 100 for my first year on tour but obligations kept me from playing every tour stop and I am quite proud of my finish. Next year my goal is to finish in the top 50.

I did make time to stop in once in awhile to see what was going on at poolchat. Now that I had a chance I finally got to write another article lets see if we can't improve all our games while continuing to enjoy and have fun with this great sport.

Article:

Most people are scared of plateaus! A leveling off in your game means that you succeeded in what you have been working on. How long you spend at a plateau depends entirely on you. Is your plateau exacution based, do you need to hone your fundamentals to a sharper edge in order to continue to improve, or do you need to increase your knowledge. You can increase your knowledge easily by searching out good personal instruction, or picking up some books or video's.

Whenever I find myself at a plateau I am thankful because I know the drills and practice I have been doing have worked, I then go out and learn a new shot or a new position, possibly a new use for spin. I work dilligently on it knowing that it will spur me in the direction of the next level and only revisiting the previous drills periodically to keep them up. If you keep doing the same things you will keep getting the same results and remain mired at that plateau. Don't get frustrated like most people, pick somthnig new to learn and move towards improvement.

I personally am going to work on some new advanced bankshots.

I would like everyone to post what new shot, position, skill or knowledge they are going to work on to spur their game on in the next little while.

Bern

[Pelican]

I really want to improve my focus at the table. I say to myself "concentrate on the shot" but after it is made I can't recall much about it, like I wasn't paying any attention to what I was doing.

I also want to get back to working on my banks. For a long time I did what Larry suggested and just threw all 15 balls out on the table and started banking. I kept a log on how many strokes it took to clear the table. Was up in the high 60's when I started. My best, after a few months of doing it almost everyday, was 17. That was truely the exception and not the norm. If I did it in the mid 20's I was happy. Average was around 28 - 30. I have not done the drill in some time and can see it in my bank game. Need to motivate myself to get back into it.

Thanks for the post Bern. It got me to thinking.

Pel

[Pin]

Pel, if you can't remember much of the shots you've just been taking, that's probably a very good thing indeed.


If you realise that you've been paying attention to something non-pool - listening to the TV/music/a nearby conversation, that's obviously no good.


However, The brain converts short term memory into long term memory when it is functioning with an internal state focus. When you're absorbed in something, your attention is shifted outwards, to take in all this sensory information. The only internal work is subconsciously processing this information and (again subconsciously), deciding what to do and executing a shot.
Because in this state of zone there is this limited internal work, short term memory doesn't get processed to long term memory very effectively. This is why after playing in the zone, it's common for players not to remember too much of what's happened.

[Pin]

At the moment I'm trying to tidy up my stroke. I think I've made some solid improvements to my mental game, and want to see if they last effectively.

After this, I'm not sure what I'm going to go after. Possibly working on a couple of types of shot that give me trouble.