My Struggle With Myself :(

[finabb]

My highest is 82 then 77 then 72.
When i got these breaks I thought after 'I dont remember much of that break' and I think thats because I hadn't over thought what i should be doing.
I was struggling last week to get over 30's because I was saying in my head the normal things, walk in head down follow through etc but once I started not thinking about these and let my 'memory' play the shot I got a 66.
I was told; think about what you're doing in practice and in a match it should be natural.

[tvietp]

Hey jimmy i had a similiar issue with you as I had a long period of time where i wasn't making any high breaks and suddenly broke out with 91, 84 and 72 performances and the biggest thing is I find is not to look for the high break...Take it shot by shot and thats essentially what you do the second you start tallying the points in your head as you're in the process of performing a high break you lose focus even if its at a minuscule level...At least that was my issue...I personally find that the pressure of potting goes up significantly when you suddenly realize that you are on a high break and by that i mean you set a goal of doing a 50+ break so you in your own mindset try to set up for higher colors just to achieve that break for instance i was once at a 43 but had a shot that was relatively easy to pot but hard to hold for a black when i could've just pushed through and made a two way play for a pink or blue shot then i missed the set up(that was difficult) got the initial easy ball in but left myself a harder black and crap angle for the pink...I corrected it in the future by not thinking about what "points required" i need to get past my goal and just focused on what was the easier way to set up and I believe setting up is personal comfort level on shots and a perfect example is stephen hendry's preference of the side pocket on some shots...If you look at his 147 vs jimmy white he used that side pocket on a few shots that some people might've run away from...set up for shots you are really confident with and i'm sure you'll achieve that high break soon enough...This is just my take on it that is

[stjimmy18-1991]

Cheers guys.

I've officially broken up from uni today. I've been putting in a moderate amount of practice over the last week. I've stopped putting 20+ breaks in my breaks list since im on over 140 now and they are too common. Which can only be a good thing!

Since i posted my breaks list on here, (27th April), i've had 10 more 40s and 20 more 30s. Its been basically a month since then.

Here it is at the mo, i'll leave out the 20s:

30+ (42)

30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 31, 31, 31, 31, 31, 31, 31, 31, 31, 31, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 33, 33, 33, 34, 35, 35, 36, 36, 36, 36, 37, 37, 38, 38, 38, 39, 39

40+ (20)

40, 40, 40, 41, 41, 42, 42, 42, 42, 42, 43, 43, 44, 44, 44, 44, 46, 47, 48, 48

50+ (3)

50, 51, 58

60+ (1)

60

My aim for the summer is to have over 100 30+ breaks at the end of it, and around 50 40s, as well as more 50s and 60s. I also want to have a 70+.

Incidently, even though i'm not good enough to mount a challenge, i'm going to be entering the first PTC, just for a laugh and a bit of experience.

I'm also going to enter some EASB events in the coming season

I've also got a really big event coming up in the summer, i'll post about that soon.

If anyone here is on twitter by the way, you're welcome to follow me @tornado147

[stjimmy18-1991]

Hi again chaps.

Wow, what a session i just had!! I can't believe it, i had my first 80, an 81!! I'm over the moon! The ton was there but i twitched an easy red! Wow, what a buzz!!

It hasn't sunk in really yet, but its amazing to think that just a month ago i hadn't made a 50 break, and now ive just hit an 81.

I also had a 61, 44, 40, 38, 35, 32, 31, and two 30s today.

I'm on cloud nine at the moment!

[cantpotforshíte]

Congratulations mate on your 81 and 61 breaks! I bet you're still buzzing....

When I read your previous post a few days ago I thought that perhaps you were missing something, I mean you'd made sixty two 30+ breaks to only four 50+ breaks, and 50+ breaks aren't really that much more difficult to make.

There's obviously nothing much wrong with your potting and straight forward positional play as you make so many 30+ breaks; so I was thinking maybe it's a mental barrier, or perhaps shot choices that were robbing you of more 50 breaks.
If it was just a mental barrier, then congratulations on blowing it out of the water yesterday!

As it's rare that more than 5 or 6 reds are readily available on coming to the table, 50+ breaks require more developing type shots, and careful shot selection, something that I'm going to try hard to address myself over the next few weeks. Basically I'm going to look out for cannons and going-in-to-the-pack shots that'll still leave me on a guaranteed red that's over or near a pocket; shots that take offending balls out of the way to free up other balls for potting, and I'm going to make an effort to always finish on the right side of my next ball (ie when I'm on a red in amongst the reds, I'll be thinking about where my next red is coming from after the colour - and when I'm on a colour I'll be thinking about where my next colour is coming from after the next red).

Somebody that I was practicing against the other day made a 147 against me (he's a very good player and has made plenty of them in his time). It was the first time I've been privileged enough to be on the end of one, but to be honest, the positional play was so clinical, it wasn't as exciting as the ones you see on the telly (that have a few difficult recovery shots, tough pots and round-the-table positional shots to recover positon etc.) He simply dissected the table bit by bit, and there wasn't one shot that you or I wouldn't have expected to make.

So I've come to the thinking that big breaks are all about making life easy for yourself . Congratulations again, and good luck.