Over confidence, nerves, anxiety...

[Sidd]

Quite funny but true this.

Any suggestions on how to overcome the following? Or whether the following really exist or is it that my mind is playing tricks on me ?

I have a highest break of 67. I always aspire beating it and also making a century. Whenever I am in the 40s I get excited and anxious. Last afternoon I was in real good form and in the first frame first shot took a long red and went perfect on the black then carried on with three more blacks and two blues and then missed an easy red. I was on 44 and knew I was playing well and can go on easily. But whenever I reach 40s or at times even 50s this thought comes to my mind that I am about to beat my 67 and believe it or not at that only point I would miss an easy pot. Happened ot me three times so I know it is happening.

Is this anxiety caused by the fact that I get excited that I will be scoring a higher break ? or is it that after potting many balls in a row I get a little over confident thinking I am potting em all and then miss an easy ball, which another player might never miss- like during my last 55 break I placed a three quarters black off its spot and just needed CB above black for the next red- how easy can this be??? and I missed it on 55

Finally, is it the nerves that I cant keep tamed under such a situation? I do think I have got good snookering nerves but then well what is going on here and how to control whatever it is that is going on here

[mythman69]

I think I have the same problem Sidd. I try hard to make sure that as I start to build a good break that I concentrate even on the easy ones. Having said this I still seem to miss an easy pot (after getting good position) and the break ends.



The other thing that seems to end my breaks is poor position but I am working on that. If I miss a certain shot then I will practice it after the game and normally don't miss them so it must be a psychological rather than skill issue. Maybe I am trying to hard once I start to build a break rather than just play the shot as I would when practicing it. Blacks seem to miss more often too.

Any suggestions welcome!

[j6uk]

I remember those days and miss that feeling, most experienced players would say the same thing, I think that's what gets you hooked in the first place.
To get more comfortable in amongst the reds is simply about 'hard graft'. My recipe is: untold hrs of sparing with like minded snookerheads, marinated with 'self motivated' undeterred practice.

[luke-h]

Quite funny but true this.

Any suggestions on how to overcome the following? Or whether the following really exist or is it that my mind is playing tricks on me ?

I have a highest break of 67. I always aspire beating it and also making a century. Whenever I am in the 40s I get excited and anxious. Last afternoon I was in real good form and in the first frame first shot took a long red and went perfect on the black then carried on with three more blacks and two blues and then missed an easy red. I was on 44 and knew I was playing well and can go on easily. But whenever I reach 40s or at times even 50s this thought comes to my mind that I am about to beat my 67 and believe it or not at that only point I would miss an easy pot. Happened ot me three times so I know it is happening.

Is this anxiety caused by the fact that I get excited that I will be scoring a higher break ? or is it that after potting many balls in a row I get a little over confident thinking I am potting em all and then miss an easy ball, which another player might never miss- like during my last 55 break I placed a three quarters black off its spot and just needed CB above black for the next red- how easy can this be??? and I missed it on 55

Finally, is it the nerves that I cant keep tamed under such a situation? I do think I have got good snookering nerves but then well what is going on here and how to control whatever it is that is going on here

My advice would be treat every ball as if it's your first, i always used to miss blacks because of the value but i think if you approach every shot with the same routine then every subsequent ball is just that, another ball. allows me to flow more freely

[Terry Davidson]

Sidd:

luke-h has it right and so does j6uk. Try and play other players who make centuries even though you might lose, you will (or at least should) learn a lot. Also, keep the exact same pre-shot routine for every shot and never either rush yourself due to over confidence or slow yourself down as you approach the magic number.

Concentrate on your one 'dummy' or swing thought too for every shot.

Terry

[Jetmech]

You might be doing it but I found counting when doing line ups helped a lot in getting used to getting and beating high breaks.

I always count during line ups as well. At one point, my highest at line-up was 84, and whenever I was in the 70-ties, the nerves started to kick in. With lots and lots of 70 breaks as a result.
Then one day I did beat that 84, great feeling, and surprisingly went straight on to my first century (still in line up that is, of course). Strangely, I was not nervous at all when approaching the century.

In a frame, and certainly in a competitive match, I must admit that I sometimes I still get anxious as well. And yes, the easiest of pots are being missed when approaching my top break.
(currently aiming for a half-century, as my top break stands at 47)

Best regards,
GR.

[matt926_uk]

I get my best breaks when i get into 'the zone' and stop thinking too much. I read about getting into 'the zone' after googling it and found out you can practise getting into this state, however it still eludes me most of the time

[Sidd]

I get my best breaks when i get into 'the zone' and stop thinking too much. I read about getting into 'the zone' after googling it and found out you can practise getting into this state, however it still eludes me most of the time

Now thats interesting ... so what did you find.. how can you practice getting in to the zone??? Share mate .. it will be useful for all of us here

[Jetmech]

I get my best breaks when i get into 'the zone' and stop thinking too much.

Funny. I have the exact same feeling after I made a considerable break (which for me is 30 or more).
It's like the entire world around me has disappeared and it's just me and the table...

And indeed, very hard to get into, and never lasts long (enough).

Best regards,
GR.

[matt926_uk]

o.k, without going into too much depth, what i found out is that you can over-try and under-try, both can be detrimental to your performance. If you are over-trying, or over-thinking then your brain is not in a relaxed state, it is in the beta wave state. This is when you make mistakes because there is too much going on, your anxious and your natural flow is impeded. When you are in 'the zone' your brain is in the alpha wave state, basically you are on auto -pilot, everything is relaxed, you are not thinking and you are playing instinctively. Getting into the zone is not easy, sometimes it just happens. Did you ever make a big break and think, how did that happen? it felt so natural and relaxed like you weren't thinking of anything it was just automatic, this happens to me now and again, sometimes i can't even remember much about the break at all!
Anyway, you can get into the zone easier by having good positive feelings. Sidd you say that you do breathing exercises before you play which are good, that is a good start to get your mind and body relaxed. Then you can think about positive things like loved ones or good experiences which can be anything really as long as they get the endorphins flowing. There are other exercises that you can do before you play that you can find if you search for them.
During play, you want to be outwardly focused, open up your peripheral awareness. This is when you can play on auto-pilot , be aware of everything all around you and try not to be inwardly focused. Easier said than done, ha! Another important thing is to enjoy yourself, if your having fun then your more likely to get into 'the zone' And play without fear, fear leads to anger and anger leads to the dark side, no but seriously play without fear because if you are fearful this will make you negative and anxious and you will be in the beta wave state.
I enjoy reading about sports psychology and i try it out when i play snooker. If you do a google search for 'getting into the zone' there are a bunch of websites that will tell you similarly what i have just written here . There is an exercise on one of the websites that is supposedly a good practice for getting into the zone. I've tried it and can't really say if it works or not, these things aren't easy to do, if they were everyone would play well all of the time which isn't possible because we are only human.
I can only say that i know when i've been in the zone and its usually when i make a 60 or 70 odd! this one time i played an A team player at our club and i just felt so good it was really wierd i must have been in the zone for 4 frames because i beat him 4 nil, i made three 50+ breaks and hardly missed a pot. I wish that could happen all the time!

[matt926_uk]

Funny. I have the exact same feeling after I made a considerable break (which for me is 30 or more).
It's like the entire world around me has disappeared and it's just me and the table...


Best regards,
GR.

that's a nice way to describe the feeling!

[DeanH]

Funny. I have the exact same feeling after I made a considerable break (which for me is 30 or more).
It's like the entire world around me has disappeared and it's just me and the table...

And indeed, very hard to get into, and never lasts long (enough).

Best regards,
GR.

that's a nice way to describe the feeling!

as others have called it, this is what I call "the zone" that I (we?) want to achieve
It is perfect in the pool league situation, all the noise of a pub disappears.
"be one with the table"

[tedisbill]

The only solution I have to this problem really, was to just play more.

When I first started and a 30-40 was a good break for me, I just found that if I played more often and found myself on 30-40 more often, I just got used to it.

[DandyA]

as others have called it, this is what I call "the zone" that I (we?) want to achieve
It is perfect in the pool league situation, all the noise of a pub disappears.
"be one with the table"

I don't get there often but I've certainly experienced it ... not the whole noise of the pub disappearing but it seems very remote as if you're on a different planet ...

[SonicWave]

For the zone, I listen to the balls.. They make no noise, so I hear nothing.. You'd find something that works for you..