What goes so badly wrong?

[tedisbill]

I posted on here about a week ago about how I was playing well and wanted to try and improve to get a century.

I have a lot of 50 breaks, and most weeks I'll get a 70.

I played today, my highest break was 24. I literally could not do it. I couldn't pot, couldn't get position. Absolutely crazy. So frustrating. I couldn't make 15 it was THAT bad.

How does that happen? How can I play so bad today? What am I doing wrong?

After a few frames of that, my confidence was through the floor.

[nullsys]

I can only speak from experience in other hobbies, mostly music.
Some days your body just doesn't want to play ball. There's so much going on behind the scenes, chemically your body might be exhausted, overloaded or simply wanting to do other things.
It's amazing how a cookie, bad takeaway three nights ago, or even slight temperature change can effect us.

If we were perfect all the time, the pro's would be knocking in 147's every frame lol.

However, I know this doesn't help, so maybe some coaches or more experienced players can add something?

[Particle Physics]

The pros when things are going wrong, will go on the practice table with a coach and do routines. The coach spots what has changed or what has gone wrong, and gets the player to adjust. Even the best players can have bad patches. It's usually down to technique, getting the basics right, because by now, you must have banked all the angle memories necessary. It could be many things; grip, stance, sighting. Like nullsys says, it just takes one little thing, and it can go badly askew. The key, as I found today is to put pot some simple balls, like a blue ball into the middle or a line-up etc. This can help identify what's wrong and what feels good. When you're potting big time, you're in the flow, and your pace around the table and rhythm will be natural. When the confidence goes, we slow down, try too hard, snatch the cue, push the cue offline, and miss basic shots. Well, at least I do.

Maybe a video might be a good idea; one of the coaches on here could analyse the video to see if any improvements could be made. Video the misses too, that's the point.

Good luck.

[Souwester]

Some days you can pick up a cue and it feels really really good. Other days you pick it up and think "is this my cue?" because it feels so awful. Really don't know why. When the cue feels good, you play well.

At this time of year, especially, I tend to suffer with the humidity. If my hands are constantly clammy, the cue gets a little stickly too, and no matter how many times you seem to wipe it, it never feels quite right.

[tedisbill]

What goes so badly wrong?

Thanks for the replies.

I think confidence is massive too. Once I struggle like that, it's just awful. I'm scared of every shot. It's almost like I'm willing the ball into the pocket instead of just potting it.

Might practice on my own tomorrow. Try and get some confidence back.

[hotpot]

Somedays you just have too accept you had a bad day at the office and leave it at that . Tomorrow is another day , i agree with southwester that sometimes you just dont feel comfortable or right , whether that be from a technical or mental side .

[Particle Physics]

Some days you can pick up a cue and it feels really really good. Other days you pick it up and think "is this my cue?" because it feels so awful. Really don't know why. When the cue feels good, you play well.

At this time of year, especially, I tend to suffer with the humidity. If my hands are constantly clammy, the cue gets a little stickly too, and no matter how many times you seem to wipe it, it never feels quite right.

Got my glove in the post this morn. Fantastic. Best £2 I ever spent on anything snooker related. Didn't bother cleaning my cue once today because I don't need to anymore. If anything, cueing is slightly too smooth. More glide, less friction also = more power and spin.

[vmax4steve]

I posted on here about a week ago about how I was playing well and wanted to try and improve to get a century.

I have a lot of 50 breaks, and most weeks I'll get a 70.

I played today, my highest break was 24. I literally could not do it. I couldn't pot, couldn't get position. Absolutely crazy. So frustrating. I couldn't make 15 it was THAT bad.

How does that happen? How can I play so bad today? What am I doing wrong?

After a few frames of that, my confidence was through the floor.

After a few misses you start to get anxious and take your eye off the object ball and look at the pocket before you have struck the cue ball to see if the object ball is going in................absolutely fatal.
The first miss could have been something difficult enough to make you anxious enough to do it or easy enough to take it for granted and do it and it just snowballs.
Concentration through relaxation is the key, but it sure isn't easy.

[Inoffthered]

At this time of year, especially, I tend to suffer with the humidity. If my hands are constantly clammy, the cue gets a little stickly too, and no matter how many times you seem to wipe it, it never feels quite right.

I hear you on that one. Since last Tuesday ( for me anyway ), it's just been to hot to play.. I'm forever wiping cue down with a damp cloth. I play so much better in the Fall..

[alabadi]

I posted on here about a week ago about how I was playing well and wanted to try and improve to get a century.

I have a lot of 50 breaks, and most weeks I'll get a 70.

I played today, my highest break was 24. I literally could not do it. I couldn't pot, couldn't get position. Absolutely crazy. So frustrating. I couldn't make 15 it was THAT bad.

How does that happen? How can I play so bad today? What am I doing wrong?

After a few frames of that, my confidence was through the floor.

I wouldn't worry if it is just the once or once in a while, it happens to everybody. just put it down to a bad day at the office.
you only need to worry if it happens too often.

obviously you can play or you wouldn't be getting 50s or 70s, so i would suggest when you feel that nothing is going right in practice just call it a night. however in a game you can't just walkaway, so i would just calm yourself down take deep breaths and concentrate on your technique and know in your mind that you can play.

technique is usually the first thing that goes when we get under stress, we tense up and things get worse so we get more frustrated and things go from bad to worse.

to what causes it can be a multiple of things. stress, lack of sleep, temperature change even something like not having a proper meal, something on your mind.

for a human being to reach his full potential there has to be the right conditions, (maslow's hierarchy of needs) it states One must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization.

this may be a bit of Psychology however for one who really wants to reach the top in any walk of life sport job or otherwise these basic needs have to be satisfied or one may find themselves fluctuating between levels of the hierarchy. i.e different levels of success

Alabbadi

[Particle Physics]

I wouldn't worry if it is just the once or once in a while, it happens to everybody. just put it down to a bad day at the office.
you only need to worry if it happens too often.

obviously you can play or you wouldn't be getting 50s or 70s, so i would suggest when you feel that nothing is going right in practice just call it a night. however in a game you can't just walkaway, so i would just calm yourself down take deep breaths and concentrate on your technique and know in your mind that you can play.

technique is usually the first thing that goes when we get under stress, we tense up and things get worse so we get more frustrated and things go from bad to worse.

to what causes it can be a multiple of things. stress, lack of sleep, temperature change even something like not having a proper meal, something on your mind.

for a human being to reach his full potential there has to be the right conditions, (maslow's hierarchy of needs) it states One must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization.

this may be a bit of Psychology however for one who really wants to reach the top in any walk of life sport job or otherwise these basic needs have to be satisfied or one may find themselves fluctuating between levels of the hierarchy. i.e different levels of success

Alabbadi

That's a really interesting post mate, I'll have a wee gander at what Maslow says.

[hotpot]

Got my glove in the post this morn. Fantastic. Best £2 I ever spent on anything snooker related. Didn't bother cleaning my cue once today because I don't need to anymore. If anything, cueing is slightly too smooth. More glide, less friction also = more power and spin.

Where did you get youre glove muck , think i,ll have to get one as my hands are so clammy this weather .

[Terry Davidson]

tedisbill:

When a player is having a bad day it's usually something has gone off in his technique. The two most common problems are moving on the backswing or delivery and not driving through the cueball (acclerating through).

A solo practice session should help or even better when you're playing bad to have another experienced player take a look. However, to effect an immediate fix as it's most likely one of the two above, concentrate on keeping your chin on the cue and having no head or shoulder movement from the time your hand hits the table all the way through until AFTER you deliver the cue. (Any head movement in the backswing is mirrored in the delivery too.)

Accelerating through the cueball consistently is a difficult thing to learn if you haven't been doing it and I suspect this might by why your ability changes day-to-day. In solo practice experiment with REALLY loosening the grip (loosen it too much at first) and see if that helps. Remember to not tighten the grip in order to accelerate the cue. All of this comes down to timing and rhythm which can be affected by the body's rhythms.

Terry

[Particle Physics]

Where did you get youre glove muck , think i,ll have to get one as my hands are so clammy this weather .

Afternoon HP,
from ebay, it was a nylon elastic jobby,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3207959043...84.m1439.l2649

They've got some without fingertips that I might buy too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3007526729...ht_5104wt_1037

Not sure about the red insert and how the stitching would feel with a cue on top. It should be cooler on the hand than a full fingered glove which is warm, but not hot.

The stickyness problem outweighed what folk might say, so I bought one!

[tedisbill]

What goes so badly wrong?

Thanks for all the replies.

Thanks again Terry. Always good advice!