[Big_Bad_Bern]

Hello friends here at PoolChat!

In this multipart series I hope to show you how to improve your confidence at the pool table and with it your game.

I believe that confidence is the one thing that stops a good player from being great. But how do we improve confidence. Well confidence is a chain and every link in this confidence chain must be solid and strong in order for the machine to work and continue moving forward. If one of the links break, the machine stalls and sits idle and if the link is not repaired the machine will never move again.

So confidence is more than just thinking, hoping or having an unrealistic belief in yourself and your game. I am going to present you with the tools to build and repair your links and keep your machine finely tuned and moving forward, so at the pace of one a week I will present these articles to allow for discussion and to make sure everyone who wants to can read them.


THE CONFIDENCE CHAIN FOR POOL

1. State of mind
2. Physical tools
3. Mental tools
4. Volatility
5. Pressure
6. Physical appearance / Style
7. Financial stability

1. State of mind:

The very first step towards becoming a confident player involves building it from the inside on a daily basis through introspection. You will have to help yourself by adopting a confidence building outlook.

What does this mean? By creating thoughts and exercises to build confidence, your game will display that confidence. In order to maximize your confidence you need to take a deep honest look at your game. You need to become capable of feeding off your strengths and eliminate your weaknesses (or at least minimize them).

For example if you think ball pocketing is a weakness that contributes to your lack of confidence, then create a routine shooting as many different types of shots as possible until you eliminate that weakness. If you continue to just shoot the same shots you always have this link will continue to be weak.
You need to develop personal habits that will put you in the correct state of mind to keep your confidence chain well oiled and functioning strong.

Try the following steps to keep yourself motivated!

- Make simple shots: Start your day by spending a few minutes making 5 simple shots five times each (not necessarily in a row). Focus on your alignment and set up %100 on each shot and use your absolute best stroke every time.
- Make and keep a list of your strengths: Write down 10 skills or traits that make you a good player or a difficult opponent to play against (i.e. great position skills or strong mental game etc.). You must think this way to be confident! As you improve or eliminate weaknesses add them to this list.
- Change negative outlooks into positive ones: If you lose a match in a tournament, instead of saying “great now this is impossible, only one more loss and I’m out”. Try being happy that you have the opportunity to play more matches for the same money!

Create the outlook you desire and the outcome you want will follow!

See ya next week
Bern

[Pin]

Good to see you Bern.

I like this concept. I'd been thinking about confidence a bit recently, how confidence feels at the table and how it affects my game. But I hadn't got very far.

I like the analogy of the confidence chain.

I think I'll start my 10 things list now : )

[Big_Bad_Bern]

Hi Pin, it is good to hear from you also. Hope everything is well with you and your game. Making your ten things list can only help!

Bern