Hendry + Playing on tv

[Le Ball Sack]

OK, we all know that hendry has about 2 decades of experience of playing on tv.
So why is it that he can no longer seem to win matches that are shown on tv. Yesterday I heard i think it was DT sais that he knocked in 8 tons in 11 frames in practice against another player or something. How can he be so good and still lose to a nobody?

[Ekphantos]

I don't quite get what playing on a TV table has to do with that....
Practicing and match playing are two quite different things (look at Jimmy White), maybe it's problems with concentration, losing focus, who knows?

[Semih_Sayginer]

agree EKPhan...nowt to do with tv...its competition.

he has far too many unforced errors these days, be it focus, concentration, confidence, or whatever.

in years gone by he won lots of frames at one visit, due to few unforced errors. nowadays it aint happening, and even "lowly ranked players" can make a fight of it and win.

hes still awesome in practise, but that aint much good to him

[Le Ball Sack]

exactly if its not the tv cameras getting to him why can he not emulate the things he does on the practice table on the match table? He can concentrate in pratice and whatever why not on tv?

[Semih_Sayginer]

exactly if its not the tv cameras getting to him why can he not emulate the things he does on the practice table on the match table? He can concentrate in pratice and whatever why not on tv?

too many unforced errors these days, be it focus, concentration, confidence, or whatever.

...............

[Le Ball Sack]

that still doesnt answer my question, hes NOT making these mistakes in practice

[Semih_Sayginer]

its MHO of why he isnt winning too much in matches, and, as theres no factually correct answer then its the best i can do. if its not good enough for you....oh well

[Ekphantos]

that still doesnt answer my question, hes NOT making these mistakes in practice

Don't you think it is easier to focus when not under pressure? With age staying focused gets more difficult and I'd guess even more so in a stressful situation.

[Gaia69]

Don't you think it is easier to focus when not under pressure? With age staying focused gets more difficult and I'd guess even more so in a stressful situation.

Oh no, this age bullsh** again... Hendry's only 38, he's still far from retirement house! Does Peter Ebdon seem to have focusing problems? I don't think so. And yet he's just one year younger than Stephen Hendry... IMO age is not the problem, maybe lack of motivation, maybe he's bored, maybe he puts too much pressure on himself during matches, I don't know... but you're not old when you're 38

[Ekphantos]

but you're not old when you're 38

That's true for the general population, but not in sports.
"old" age is relative, a 35 year old alpine skiier for instance is old, as most people quit about this age. In snooker I guess 40 would be considered as quite old now.
Of course everybody is different, so maybe with Stephen Hendry it's motivation or trying to hard, not problems focusing, I don't want to argue about that as I just don't know.

[Gaia69]

That's true for the general population, but not in sports.
"old" age is relative, a 35 year old alpine skiier for instance is old, as most people quit about this age.

Can you really compare very physically damaging sports like alpine skiing and sports like snooker? Of course I agree that a 35-year-old alpine skiier can be considered as "old" for his sport, but snooker is not exactly a "physical" sport (we wouldn't see players with obvious overweight like Stephen Lee or Shaun Murphy if snooker was really physically demanding). It's much more an "intellectual" sport that requires mental strength rather than body fitness. That's what I mean when I say that 38 is not old... brain is not deficient yet!

[david16]

it was inevitable that Hendry as he got older was always going to find it more difficult to replicate his practice table from when he clicked his fingers out in the arena from when more than the occasional opponent has found a way to beat him in more sigificant fashion than it all just down to lady luck shining on them and/or the rare below average Hendry performance. It happened to Steve Davis the same way after all a decade earlier.

When you've lost your aura of invincibility and more players believe they can beat you and are beating you, it's kind of difficult to think in matches positively the way you used to that you are going to run through the remaining 6 frames of a session without dropping a frame or do a 5-1 or 6-1 of the last 6 or 7 frames of a session.

[david16]

Can you really compare very physically damaging sports like alpine skiing and sports like snooker? Of course I agree that a 35-year-old alpine skiier can be considered as "old" for his sport, but snooker is not exactly a "physical" sport (we wouldn't see players with obvious overweight like Stephen Lee or Shaun Murphy if snooker was really physically demanding). It's much more an "intellectual" sport that requires mental strength rather than body fitness. That's what I mean when I say that 38 is not old... brain is not deficient yet!

But in snooker there is what you call battle scar and scar tissue.

As I say it's easy to have a clear mind and focus on the job in hand easily when you are continually winning tournaments regularly and not many opponents are threatening an upset, and you're unbeaten in specific tournaments or venues. But when more opponents start beating you and quite regularly including at tournaments you were previously unbeaten at, it becomes much harder to focus the way you once did when you were beating most opponents all the time and winning 80 to 90% of the time against others most the time.

Hendry's thought process has changed as time has gone on, and a few defeats at tournaments once previously thought were unthinkable have clearly damaged his thought process.

How does Hendry suddenly turn around over 10 years of psychological damage, and think positively as though many of these defeats he suffered at the Crucible and Masters at Wembley, UK Champs etc never happened?

[david16]

I don't quite get what playing on a TV table has to do with that....
Practicing and match playing are two quite different things (look at Jimmy White), maybe it's problems with concentration, losing focus, who knows?

The way I view things, Hendry's probably not the only man who's making 8 centures in 11 frames in practice. But we'll never see anybody making 8 centuries in 11 frames in a match because the pressure is far too great, and the pattern of play ensures that such achievements won't happen. Assuming the same pattern of Hendry one way traffic virtually every time he enters the arena is a but silly. Dennis Taylor should surely know by now that seeing Hendry reproduce all his 1990's achievements is not going to happen again.

There are probably many players in exhibitions and even more in practice producing similarly exceptional snooker. But do they all do it in the matches? But you don't hear of an Ian McCulloch or a Fergal O'Brien e.g. failing to reproduce 6 centuries in 8 frames or 5 centires in 7 frames of an exhibition or a practice session in the match.

But in match play snooker there's far more to trying to win tournaments than making a century break every 2 or 3 scoring visits to the table. Hendry is far from alone in failing to replicate his practice table form out in the arena.