{"id":2610,"date":"2009-12-12T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2009-12-12T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/?p=2610"},"modified":"2009-12-14T00:15:20","modified_gmt":"2009-12-14T06:15:20","slug":"pool-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/2009\/12\/12\/pool-stories","title":{"rendered":"Pool Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billiard Tales: The most memorable pool story that made you a ‘better’ player<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mike Fieldhammer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c December 2009
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This article is the first of a series of posts written in coordination with other pool bloggers. This first month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theme is BILLIARD TALES. To see others, go to: http:\/\/www.pooltipjar.com\/2009\/12\/poolsynergy-volume-ii\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Pool stories.\u00c2\u00a0 I love to hear them.\u00c2\u00a0 I find the more players I talk to, the more little gems of information fall into my lap. This month, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to highlight small tidbits from four of the best players in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. I struggled to select one great and memorable story that made a major impact on me that elevated my game, so I decided to pass on four small tips gleaned from great players.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Wetch. <\/strong><\/em>Jimmy and I were at a major tournament watching a race to eleven between two players. One a legitimate pro and one with loads of talent and the ability to beat anyone, but not as seasoned in the pro circuit.\u00c2\u00a0 The rookie played hard and happened to get down 7-2. From the bleachers, Jimmy and I could see the player losing steam and not playing with the same determination as the first part of the match.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy said to me, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the worst thing he can do. Now he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna get punished by that guy for a long time.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 I asked Jimmy to explain further.\u00c2\u00a0 The upshot is that by giving up he was letting his opponent gain confidence and knowledge for the next time they drew each other.\u00c2\u00a0 He would have an edge on that player by knowing that he only had to get halfway to the finish line and his foe would ease up and he could coast in for the win.<\/p>\n

The trailing player should have fought harder with every turn at the table and made the match a hard fought victory for the other guy no matter what the score was.\u00c2\u00a0 Showing no give up, sometimes even in an un-winnable situation, the player will have a twinge of respect for showing determination and fighting to the end.\u00c2\u00a0 That type of reputation might be more useful for the next match up than the alternative.<\/p>\n

Lee Heuwagon. <\/strong><\/em> Years ago, Lee saw the frustration in my eyes after getting bounced out of a tournament earlier than I had hoped. We started to discuss my disappointing performance and he suspected that I was putting too much pressure on myself.\u00c2\u00a0 It is true that I felt I should have done very well in that particular tournament.\u00c2\u00a0 I went in with high hopes. My preparation for the tournament was as good as it could have been. I had been practicing and the field was one that I really felt I had a chance to win. Maybe all these factors took me out of my best game because the high bar I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d set was exerting undue pressure. His advice was that when it is time to win, it will happen.\u00c2\u00a0 He suggested that I focus on playing the great pool I was capable of and that winning would come easier if I relaxed and let it happen.<\/p>\n

The magical blend of high level play, confidence, and determination is still a complicated equation. Learning from every experience but not beating yourself up about it is a more productive and pleasant way to deal with an early exit from a tournament.<\/p>\n

Demetrius Jelatis. <\/em><\/strong>Demi is a real student of the game. Every serious player would benefit from watching Accu-Stats<\/a> matches.\u00c2\u00a0 Demi has found inspiration in some matches so compelling, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s able to commentate matches from memory from seeing them so many times.\u00c2\u00a0 His unusual advice about the DVDs is that you should watch some sub-par matches too.\u00c2\u00a0 Pat Flemming\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s company denotes recommended matches in their catalog with an asterisk to help customers select great discs, and they are great. Many of them are semi-finals or finals matches with an incredible level of play.\u00c2\u00a0 The players who win tournaments are usually on a roll, playing tremendous pool and shooing in the high 900\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s according to the Accu-Stats rating system.\u00c2\u00a0 Demi says that players can be fooled and discouraged to see such high level pool.\u00c2\u00a0 I think we have all seen a shot or a miraculous run-out that has made us groan and during the appreciation, thought, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe how good that was. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I could do that in a million years.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

This kind of blue sky thinking isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reality.\u00c2\u00a0 Every top professional is human and they have bad matches, bad tournaments, and bad months.\u00c2\u00a0 Demi suggested watching some early matches that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the Accustats asterisk.\u00c2\u00a0 These matches sometimes show top professionals struggling to run out. They may show great exchanges where safeties and silly mistakes are made. These can be the types of games that happen to you and maybe you can see some familiar shots and learn from them.\u00c2\u00a0 It also might just make the pros less intimidating and give you the confidence to know that you too can play with the pros.<\/p>\n

Beau Runningen.<\/em><\/strong> Beau means business. At only 25 years old, he has demonstrated the patience and wisdom of a player one might expect to see in a player twice his age.\u00c2\u00a0 Local players talk about the guy who did nothing but break for 2 hours straight, or the guy who didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pocket a ball during an hour long practice session because he was working on safeties.\u00c2\u00a0 Beau takes every part of a tournament seriously beginning with planning for a tournament months in advance. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got notebooks full of diagrams, drills, match notes, and the like.<\/p>\n

All this planning and preparation seems to be regurgitated on the pool table. Beau makes run out after run out look routine. In fact he makes them look boring, which is really a compliment. No nail-biting shots, no wild chances with the outcome unknown, just the facts. Taking inspiration from Beau\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention to detail and serious approach to every aspect of the game can do wonders for your game. In fact, my New Year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resolution is to make a plan, work that plan, and repeat.\u00c2\u00a0 Repetition of good habits breed good habits.<\/p>\n

This article is the first of a series of posts written in coordination with other pool bloggers. This first month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theme is BILLIARD TALES. To see others, go to: http:\/\/www.pooltipjar.com\/2009\/12\/poolsynergy-volume-ii\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billiard Tales: The most memorable pool story that made you a ‘better’ player Mike Fieldhammer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c December 2009 This article is the first of a series of posts written in coordination with other pool bloggers. This first month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theme is BILLIARD TALES. To see others, go to: http:\/\/www.pooltipjar.com\/2009\/12\/poolsynergy-volume-ii\/ Pool stories.\u00c2\u00a0 I love to hear them.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-strategy","category-mental-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2610"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2613,"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610\/revisions\/2613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billiardcoach.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}