Preparing for a tournament

[renniwevarb]

How do you prepare for an upcoming tournament?

I've been thinking of this as it seems like I keep losing tournaments because I under-perform... It is easy to accept it when you lose to a better player, but when you lose to yourself, it's hard to swallow

Just wanna learn more from the experienced folks here.
Any kind of training schedule that you keep to? Solo practice duration vs Match practice with your playing buddies?

And the very important part that I think I lack is mental preparation, which I believe is causing me to under-perform. It is not that I can't play, my form has been good going into a recent tournament. But I fumbled due to my poor mental strength and lost of focus.
How do you mentally prepare for it too?

[Luke Hooper]

to be honest, i would like to know an answer to this as well as i feel this is very similar to me...under the pressure i can never seem to get into anything, maybe not pressure, but you know the watching eye and the fact its a tournament and stuff..ive never really hit a massive break or played to what i personally feel would be an acceptable standard for me..

i think its all about keeping your cool and just chilling out and not worrying, after my pink ribbon experience with Dave Harold, i think that will help me to cool down when playing in other tournaments as i realise it doesnt get much harder than playing a professional, so if i can do that, and that wasnt too bad at all, why cant i do the lower tournaments?..

i think over time and more tournaments it will help.. i just generally practice a lot on my own, and practice quite a bit playing games against friends although its good to play lots of people because once you know how a certain person plays you dont want to get in the rutt of thinking your playing that person each time as everyone sees each shot differently and no one really plays the same as each other...

i just generally think keeping calm and taking your time helps...easier said than done.

all the best.

[lennon11]

i feel strongly that most people over practise when approaching an important match/tournament.do good quality practice(like hard match play,very,very concentrated solo practise,but make sure its 100%,as soon as the practice drops even by 5% stop that days prctice)

[Snookster]

Hi,
From my own experiences of playing on the pro am and professional tours.
Practice with people better than you, get used to being a ball spotter.
Watch and learn, don't get down just cos you may be getting hammered and watch the improvement, this will help you mentally for matchplay.
As far as tournaments go, i used to go in as many as possible, at first getting beat 3-0 but the more i gained experience and learnt how to handle myself under pressure.
Then the improvement in matchplay will follow, it's all about dedication and temerament.
As the saying goes.
You have to learn to lose before you can win.

Good luck

[thinsy]

Hi,
From my own experiences of playing on the pro am and professional tours.
Practice with people better than you, get used to being a ball spotter.
Watch and learn, don't get down just cos you may be getting hammered and watch the improvement, this will help you mentally for matchplay.
As far as tournaments go, i used to go in as many as possible, at first getting beat 3-0 but the more i gained experience and learnt how to handle myself under pressure.
Then the improvement in matchplay will follow, it's all about dedication and temerament.
As the saying goes.
You have to learn to lose before you can win.

Good luck

This sounds similar to me.... (exept the playing pro and pro-am tours!!)

I remember being happy with my days play once because I had won 4 frames by making two 80 breaks and two 70 breaks...... Ok I lost 16 frames and had 10 centuries knocked in against me but I still played well

Regular thrashings against this player made me the century break maker I am today (well... that I was a year or so ago!!!)

[Terry Davidson]

First of all, always remember that even at the pro level most players do not play as well in tournaments as they do in practice. Witness Hendry who always says he plays so well the practice but can't bring that game to the match table.

Secondly, take the advice given here and play in every possible tournament you can play in so you get used to match conditions and especially pressure.

Most matches between players of nearly the same skill levels are lost through one player making crucial mistakes. I just lost a match in the Canadian Championships through 2 REALLY stupid mistakes (how many people have lost a match through the 3-miss rule?).

The last point is your own mental attitude and a positive attitude (meaning lots of confidence) comes from believing in your own technique. I still get a little nervous my first couple of frames in a match because I don't believe in my own technique 100% yet and the only way to achieve this is following what's already been said here, make your practice sessions very demanding and increase the difficulty as you master one type of practice routine.

As an example of the above, a lot of players put the cueball on the brown spot and shoot the spots as a little warm-up before playing or practicing. I'm sure with your breaks you can do this with ease, so do 2 things to make this more difficult. Hit the cueball hard enough to get 4 table lengths or more and see how close to the brown spot the cueball comes after 4 lengths hit with more power. Next, place the cueball against the baulk cushion and try and get first 2 lengths over the brown spot and once you get that then try to get 4 lengths. Believe me this is difficult from tight on the cushion, but once you master it it will give you a lot more confidence in one important aspect of tournament play and that is shooting off the baulk cushion either for a pot or a precise tick-off safety to return the cueball to the baulk cushion.

Hope this helps

Terry

[renniwevarb]

Thanks for all the valuable advice, am currently taking a short break from snooker to review and reset goals to make my preparation more focused.

Technique is important, can't emphasize it enough. But the issue is when your mental state denies access to that technique during competition, it totally kills you off. You start feeling that the cue you're holding is not your cue, the legs you're standing on are also not yours (similar to how Steve Davis described it as he walked up to over-cut that last black in the classic final).

I've been reading up some sports psychology books, there are little pointers in them that has helped me a little. Golf books are good reads too, the mental aspect can really be applied to snooker too. The point I'm trying to say is that many players including me don't really spend much time in the mental department but too much time in the technical and it shows during competitions as compared to normal practice matchplay where you make the mistakes you never would have made in practice.

I hope many more will feel free to share any other ideas or experiences here, and use this thread to help me and many others who find it hard to perform in competitions.