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Hi. I've been solidly playing pool for around 4 months now. I have gotten to the standard where I can clear the table in 2-3 visits during a friendly match and am confident at potting. I have recently joined a local pub team and played for the second week tonight. I am really struggling with my nerves before and during the match and can't seem to play well. Today my opponent left the black over the pocket after missing and left me with 4 balls left. I potted the first 3 difficult balls and was left with a easy, long yellow which was close to the pocket. As it was the final, important shot the pressure grew too much and I missed it. I was left really annoyed and disappointed. Has anyone got any advice for me so that I can start handling the pressure/ nerves during a match and start playing as well as I do in practice?
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I was told to remember that there are bigger things happening in the world like wars and famine that put our little pub/club, snooker or pool matches into perspective. You want to win, everybody does, but it's not really that important so have fun.
When you get nervous try breathing exercises, they help me, and have a happy thought, like a pet or something that gives you a happy feeling.
If you've only played a few matches then you are pretty new to it so its understandable you get a little nervous, the more experience you get the less nervous you will be. -
The best way to concur never is not to pretend that you don't have them but to admit you do. This is only natural during an important game and the other guy will feel the same. I think there are a few ways to deal with this.
1. Practice. No-one ever think to practice away from the table - but players like Marco Fu do because he meditates. I am not saying try this but you can do other things. Try keeping calm away from the table -watch your favourite football or boxing match and try not getting excited.
2. Breathing exercises take a deep breath and relax every part of your body and face one by one.
3. There must be a time when you made a big clearance before so try and recall that moment and how you felt at the moment and tell yourself you done it before against a few others, so you can do it again - no big deal. Don't be afraid to miss.
3. Admit nerves publicly - Reverse psychology is a bit naughty but it works. I was once in a match feeling nervous I stopped on my shot stood up and apologised to my opponent and told him out loud that as it was a big game I was feeling extremely nervous. I almost immediately stopped shaking but the next time he had a hard shot I noticed that he was actually now taking more time and his backhand had started shaking. lol
I tend to find humming my favourite tune in my head or something repetitive tune helps free my mind from negative things.
Hope some of this is useful.Comment
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Stress or nerves comes in when you don't have absolute confidence in your abilities or technique to use a more accurate word. Faith in your technique will only come from practice and seeing the balls go in and it's very important to keep your head down at the end of the delivery and watch the result so your brain gets the required feedback.
The nerves will be causing you to do something wrong with your technique and it's usually upper body movement or else tightening the grip too early in the delivery. So you need a single swing thought to focus your mind. If you do get body movement with stress then your swing thought should be along the lines of 'keep chin on cue' but if it's tightening the grip too early this can be resolved by forming your final grip while standing behind the shot and keeping it loose and the grip shouldn't change at all from standing behind the shot up to the end of the delivery. This is a static technique point and not something to think about when down on the shot.
Of course nerves will cause other technique flaws, such as messing with your timing and this can be resolved with lots of practice.
TerryTerry Davidson
IBSF Master Coach & ExaminerComment
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This is might be true, but doesn't tell the whole story. Pool is not that demanding technique wise. US pool with bigger pockets certainly isn't.Originally Posted by Terry Davidson View Post
I have been around many 9ball pool tournaments. Most people who have won our national pool events have technique so bad by snooker standards that any decent snooker coach would faint right there on the spot. They are kind of smooth and with good timing yes, but with so much body/head movement, cue going up and down anywhere but straight, no pause(s), snatching sideways when applying sidespin...Christ almighty...and let's not even get into various grips and stances...etc.
However, those guys know how to win, because they have A LOT of experience of playing under pressure. And they do have absolute confidence in themselves and also have huge overinflated egos which helps a great deal it seems. Very hard to beat.Comment
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I've played local league pool for 11 years now and still get nervous every frame, take a few deep breaths, asses the situation, remember your technique and back your ability, nerves keep you alert, they're only a bad thing if you let them control you instead of you controlling them. Its how you handle nerves that's the key, sometimes you'll get down on a shot and find your shaking, get back up, chalk your cue, take a few breaths and compose yourself then go through your normal routine of stepping into the shot, getting down into position, and most importantly believe you will make the shotComment
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Thanks for the replies. I will try out the techniques and see how I get on this weekend. I really hope I can tackle this problem soon. I know it isn't all about winning but It sure is fun
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nerves is a natural reaction, we all have it and no matter how much experience you have you will still be nervous playing a league match, even the pros get nervous.
what i will say is you learn with experience to not let the nerve dominate you, and you learn to control them. i can remember the
first league match i played i was so nervous, i couldn't stop shaking, all i was thinking about is others are watching. i don't want to let the team down... and so on.
i would say it took me at least half a dozen games to settle a bit and once i got my first win i started to enjoy playing more and relaxing. after all you can't win every game, and you will not play to the best of your ability every time. once you accept that and understand that your opponent too will be nervous you will learn to relax and enjoy the game more.
after all if you weren't nervous you wouldn't be human, it shows you care and want to do well. so try and enjoy it, eventually those nerves will settle down.
AlabbadiComment
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well I play for my local pub UK 8ball pool team ... my record so far this season is P29 W24 L5 so I'm not a bad player although I'm not saying I'm anything special ... and I'm also a bit of a nervous player ...
the way I get round that is by saying to myself before each game, all I want to do is play well ... I really don't mind if I win or lose as long as I play well - obviously it's nicer to win but you can't win every game, but you can play well in every game ... or, at least, fairly well ... and it's amazing how many games you do win by simply "playing well" ...
I'm on a bit of a losing streak at the moment, last week was P3 W2 L1 - played very well in the W2 but played the wrong shot in the L1, I'm not happy but hopefully I've learned from it ... tonight was P2 W1 L1 - I'd fought back really well in the L1 but then went for a precise positional shot which I overran, OK it'd been nice if I got it but what I should have done is screwback to leave a more difficult but guaranteed position ...
those losses hurt (for me and the team) but I'm not disheartened ... just need to learn from them ...
other tips ... if you want to warm up ahead of the match, don't pressure yourself by going for difficult pots, if you miss them you'll get depressed, you are just trying to get your cueing arm going so go for easy pots ...
if possible, don't look at the match sheet to see who you're playing, it really doesn't help if you know in half an hour in advance you're going to be playing their strongest player ... or indeed their weakest player ...
during the match, you will have to make judgement calls as to whether to take the pressure on yourself or put the pressure on your opponent ... no-one can answer that for you but if in doubt, if you don't like the high pressure pot, don't do it, put the pressure on your opponent instead ...
hope this helps ...Comment
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And you think that is funny, to get your opponent out of the game this way!!?? You should be ashamed!! Thats no way to treat your opponent or to laugh about it. So you felt well that you made him nervous? Shame on you!!Originally Posted by Byrom View PostComment
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Nice first post , by the way I don't think he will be that bothered seeing as it was 8 years ago ,you must be bored today .Originally Posted by Addepat View PostComment
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I think its never to late to post this, as other people will see it and think twice before they agree with the poster. Dont you think so too? I think you are the one who is bored today! Yes it a nice first post.....Comment
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I think its never to late to post this, as other people will see it and think twice before they agree with the poster. Dont you think so too? I think you are the one who is bored today! Yes it a nice first post.....Originally Posted by mikee View PostComment
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