Your opponent

[misspentoldage]

You practise by yourself. You play against an opponent. How can you/should you deal with the difference?

[CoachGavin]

Your opponent

In practice you can work on specific areas of your game, repeat shots over and over, work on your technique and work on routines and experiment with new ideas. In matches you play to win. You forget your technique and think about tactics and shot selection. You are aiming to try your best to win the game.

[Byrom]

In practice you can work on specific areas of your game, repeat shots over and over, work on your technique and work on routines and experiment with new ideas. In matches you play to win. You forget your technique and think about tactics and shot selection. You are aiming to try your best to win the game.

Yep - that's about the perfect answer.

[misspentoldage]

'Forget your technique' is interesting. I find when I'm playing badly I'm over-conscious of mistakes I'm making in my technique. Playing well, technique rarely crosses my mind.

[mchpddl1]

How to stop quering myself on technique during a match?

[luke-h]

i Find that speeding up helps me, go with my first shot that i think off and usually my game improves.

[Viktortheman]

'Forget your technique' is interesting. I find when I'm playing badly I'm over-conscious of mistakes I'm making in my technique. Playing well, technique rarely crosses my mind.

That is the case for me too! Sometimes I just go down and take the shot without even thinking about the stance, grip, bridge etc and it the game is flawless (to some extent lol). Trying too hard not to miss is a common mistake that should be avoided and really, the only thing you can do is practise practise and practise...but this is a strange one: when I haven't played for like 3-4 days and I go back to the table again, the first 30 minutes or so are the best minutes I ever have. I play to perfection and have a pot success rate in the 90s. Is there anyone here that can explain how this is possible? I think it's about my mind since I just go down and take the shots (without thinking about the technique) but then I start to miss and the technique issue starts to occupy the mind once again.

[CoachGavin]

Your opponent

If your thinking about technique during a match it might mean you have doubts about it. Tell yourself before the match that you will stick with your technique. Prepare yourself that even if you miss every shot you will keep the same technique. Just try your best to win.

[CoachGavin]

Your opponent

After the match you can address any technical problems not during it.

[sammyts]

As CoachGavin says practice is the place for tinkering, in matches you need to forget about technique and fully focus on the match. You will probably find Viktortheman this is what you are doing to begin with, then questioning yourself once you have missed a couple of balls.

[Giggity1984]

Steve Davis says to think technique on your own, and play position in a match.

[alabadi]

I don't think of technique per say when playing a match, however I have to start playing like I play in practice because I completely play different in a match.

what I mean is I abandon all the planning for some weird reason. in practice I'm think where I want the white to be, so I plan the height & strength to achieve the shot. in a game I don't I just get down and play, and its effecting my positional play.

[ace man]

I need to tell myself words like "relax", "smooth" etc during cue delivery sometimes because I don't have 100% real confidence in my technique, only inflated one. This quantity of pep talk rises as I go from solo to a friendly match and then to a tournament match with full dress code. It works for me.
Last weekend I was playing our national snooker league (club amateur stuff), got on pretty well. Scored many 20s and three 30s, could have been much much more. Lost in semis to a better player who put 75 on me in one of the frames. And yes, opponent did have an effect on me. I knew I had to play very well, but still somehow I saw myself winning the whole thing prior to even hitting a single ball in that semi final?? Not sure why I got so cocky inside my head. Anyway, it backfired badly, could not got going. Still, reasonably happy with this semi, because I haven't really done anything at those tournaments for a very long time.

[alabadi]

somehow I saw myself winning the whole thing prior to even hitting a single ball in that semi final?? Not sure why I got so cocky inside my head. Anyway, it backfired badly, could not got going. Still.

we all do it Pal don't worry, its good to have confidence, and the will to win, eventually it will happen.

reasonably happy with this semi, because I haven't really done anything at those tournaments for a very long time.

well done, now you have been to a Semi maybe you will end up in a final soon and then one day be a winner.

[ace man]

well done, now you have been to a Semi maybe you will end up in a final soon and then one day be a winner.

Thanks. Though I have won this competition before, but that was a few years ago and the competition has stiffened up since. Last year I didn't play in any tournaments at all because I had many business trips, job obligations etc.
First tournament after such a pause I lost early, did not win a single frame. But at this second event played much better, although I was a nervous wreck .