Over thinking it

[Byrom]

I am of the opinion now it does a player no good once they have reached a certain standard to look into certain things in their game - like sighting for example.

Before they reach this standard or when just starting out perhaps it is ok but after you reach a certain level it is harmful I think to delve to much into certain areas of the game I think.

To make myself aware of something I did naturally has effected my natural game very badly and I wish I never read it.

I want actually to try and forget what it is I read that has made me aware of this and get back to playing and sighting naturally and just playing the position and line of the shot without over thinking it - I now find myself down on the shot thinking about how I am hitting the ball angles and contact points and all that back of the ball geometry bumf - where my eyes are looking and what I am doing and this has made me too aware in seeking perfect shots whilst before I got behind the shot saw the shot I needed got down and played it so I think over thinking it has ruined my flow Joe because my natural timing of the shot and my pre-shot routine has left the building like Elvis.

I am now going to stay away from certain threads - Any advice please on how to unlearn this nonsense and forget will be gratefully received as I tried for 8 hours to get it out of my head unsuccessfully and snooker felt like hard work - my concentration was shot at after just half an hour and I felt drained.

[cyberheater]

I find that drinking large quantities of alcohol helps me forget but unfortunately it's very hard to target a specific memory. If the job isn't done, keep drinking. It will get the right one eventually.

[Stupree]

Your journey is very familiar to me mate, although I have no doubt that you have and do play snooker to a better standard than I have. I may not have been lighting up the table with centuries but I had a cue action that I know was pretty technically sound and repeatable without conscious effort, it could of course be improved but most importantly it was mine!

There are two factors in my mind to rewinding your action to a time before you started 'over thinking it'....

1) Allowing a space for your natural action and rhythm to return

2) Accepting the transition in your play

Allowing a space for your natural action and rhythm to return is something that I have been working on and I believe I have cracked it for me. I start every practice session with red spreads by approaching the shot as feels natural, I check the position of the tip against the cue ball, I shift my eyes to the object ball with a comfortable gaze (no intense focus), I keep still, I pull the cue back once and once only and deliver the cue through the cue ball keeping my head still. I continue to do this until I feel a familiar rhythm emerge, and establish itself. I couldn't tell you how many balls it takes but I can tell you that it doesn't feel like a long time before I have a very familiar eye-cue action including feathering.

Here is where point two comes in to play - Accepting the transition in your play. In this warm up at no point am I focused on anything at all, I have no internal dialogue, no desired outcomes, nothing other than the belief that my natural action and rhythm will emerge if given the space to do so. I fully accept that I will miss some shots, I will not find the position I wanted at times, I will get the odd kick, and that the table will misbehave too. These things will happen in just the same way that my natural action and rhythm will return. This is a transition. Just a transition and not the concluded standard of my game.

You are a great bloke, a top forum member, and by the sounds of how you have described your game a pretty decent cueist too. I also know that you are not one to overstate achievements or ability either so you are probably even better than you let on mate!

You are more than capable of bringing YOUR action and rhythm back.

[guernseygooner]

[Stupree]

or that will work

[cyberheater]

Okay. I'm going to try to be helpful this time (I think that joke might have fell a little flat).

Although I'm nowhere near the standard that you are Byrom I do know what you mean by having a million things in your head as you play a shot which are all counter productive to actually potting the ball.

I've come to the conclusion that the only two things I'm going to work on for the foreseeable future is having the grip hand as relaxed as possible and pushing through with the cue. Everything else is of secondary importance.

The reality is that your brain is a remarkable thing. This whole business of standing behind the shot, seeing the line of aim. Dropping down, a slow backswing etc.... None of that is really required or necessary as your brain already knows what the correct potting angle is soon as you've seen the shot and if you naturally allow your brain to guide your body into the right position and allow your natural game to flow then you will automatically pot that ball. I know. A lot easier said then done.

[vmax4steve]

I think pottr summed it up pretty much in another thread when he said go to the table and play like Tony Drago for as long as it takes to get your natural rhythm back.

I was playing last night, badly, and a bloke who was watching told me to slow down. I told him that slowing down only makes me take longer to miss, and I was right as about twenty minutes later it clicked and I knocked in a 48 (robbed by a kick) and then a 57 in the next frame, playing just as fast but subconsciously finding my natural eye rhythm.

I lost it again soon afterwards, but that's the way I am, I have accepted that now and no longer look for consistancy.

[jay686]

Quite right byrom.

I think golfers go thru a similar journey.

Reach a decent standard.Then start tinkering to iron out those little inconsistencies.Then bosh!!!! Taken your game apart,and when you try to put it back together its gone!!!!

I'm so bad now, I sometimes wonder if my century breaks where a figment of my imagination ,or just plain luck and I've always been a 20/30 break player.

Needless to say picking my game apart and tinkering too much destroyed my game.That was many years ago now.Never ever got it back.

I'll be buggered if I'm going to let this damn game beat me though.

[itsnoteasy]

I have been playing very poorly lately, so today after reading what Pottr said and reading my notes from Chris, I went in and this is what I did, I tried my very best to get online, and drop down straight keeping online, I checked my aim once down, I pulled the cue back and just cued through to the object ball, and you know what it came back after a while, my rhythm or timing or whatever was wrong came back. I went on just to do red and black line up putting on a red every time I cleared the table ,got up to eight reds, (not in order ) not fantastic but a great improvement from the last few days, and my mindset was more positive which definitely helped.

[Sidd]

That is a very sound advice Byrom. You know me very well I have done much damage to myself in this regard. I have decided to start over again as soon as my cue gets back to me by going there and like you said and Pottr said and Steve said: just play natural without thoughts in mind... lets see about that.

[Sidd]

I lost it again soon afterwards, but that's the way I am, I have accepted that now and no longer look for consistancy.

Thats not good is it? You must try to relax and find your groove, ok understood, but then you must keep looking for consistency... that is the biggest challenge for a snooker player... how can you simply give up on that.

[Byrom]

Quite right byrom.

I think golfers go thru a similar journey.

Reach a decent standard.Then start tinkering to iron out those little inconsistencies.Then bosh!!!! Taken your game apart,and when you try to put it back together its gone!!!!

I'm so bad now, I sometimes wonder if my century breaks where a figment of my imagination ,or just plain luck and I've always been a 20/30 break player.

Needless to say picking my game apart and tinkering too much destroyed my game.That was many years ago now.Never ever got it back.

I'll be buggered if I'm going to let this damn game beat me though.

I found this post quite upsetting actually - I played all day Sunday and only made one break over 50 - now I know you can get down on yourself for a bad day and there has been other days where I struggled to make 50 certainly - when not feeling well or feeling tired or back when I first started playing but I can brush them bad days off no bother - On Sunday something was different - the way I actually thought about the game - this took a lot of effort and all though the day my head was full of nonsense I found myself aiming whilst down my natural timing had gone and I felt like I was in pap city walking around aimlessly using someone else's arms.

I dont think this matters the same if you are learning the game - or it might do I dont know really - but I did not realise learning something and deconstructing your own game could possibly effect me like it has.

Next time I go I will try all your advice to get rid of this feeling - cyberheater advice drink - always a good one that and v-max advice - speed up and do a drago - which is what I used to do when playing bad - good advice this as it gives you less time to think what if.

and gurnseygooner I already do your advice but llike the image - funny as - remember the film look into the light forget everything bit like this one

As for my old mate sturpee you are right give it time - but I really hope the above post is not true for me.

and if anyone puts up a sighting thread again I am going nowhere near it - if my mate Sidd the original king of the over thinkers can try and do it then so can I I choose the blue pill - with a whiskey chaser or six.


Cheers lads thanks for your help.

[itsnoteasy]

I have come to the conclusion, get shown the basics, then go and practice. I think that's all there is, if it goes wrong it's one of the basics, it's as simple as that, I am not doing them right and I must do better, having a Masonic style handshake hold on my cue won't change a thing.

[Byrom]

masonic handshake grip - please share that one - or is it a secret?

[DG GIBERT]

Ah well that's the answer then think about not thinking, I think.