Lemme know what you think...

[Kick]

hey guys

not posted here for a while, got any advice for a snooker player in need!?!?!

read here for what i mean

http://snookerkick.blogspot.com/2006...day-to-go.html

basically playing bad at the moment, got tournament on sunday....

[The Statman]

This tournament could not come at a worse time, and i don't know when my next chance will be to represent myself.

Wrong. It could not come at a better time. You're new to the game – well, new again, if you like. You may not do very well but you will learn from it, and be able to advance from there.

When I started playing again a couple of months ago I set myself a target of 'mid december' to get back to where I was before I took a break. That date is now here and bollocks have I got anywhere near, it's one day to go until the biggest game of my life...

No it's not. The biggest of your life so far, but I presume your life is far from over. It is an important stepping stone on your journey which will take you to bigger and bigger days

However my biggest problem is my attitude. It's one thing changing the way I play or the cue tip I use, but my attitude can't be changed overnight, right now I want to put away my cue and not play for at least a year. You can see my problem going into a major game, which i'm hoping will inspire me.

With that rant out of the way, I want to try and give myself some confidence. I've re-tipped my cue, which I hope will give me a better feel for the ball. When I re-tipped my cue after the first one broke, i've never been the same, not able to get to my previous best of 30. The tip I have been using up till tonight was, in my opinion now, too big. I'll have a few hits tomorrow with it, but i'm on the **** all day as Forest are playing Leyton Orient at home and will be battered, so if i don't play well at 10 sunday morning it may well be due to hangover, which I could live with.

Don't. You will surely now expect to do badly, just because you expect to be in an unfit state to play. Watch the match but don't get sozzled.

I'll set myself a goal of just getting by the first round (Last 16 sounds better), or equally as important getting further than my friend who is also playing on Sunday (and beat me 4-1 tonight)

Try making your goal just playing well, or better than you have been. Don't worry about getting beaten just because your opponent was playing better than you, and don't worry about how well your friend does; that's of no consequence to how good your game is. If you play well but still lose, that is not so bad. Try to be a bit philosophical.

...depending on how Sunday goes, maybe the last ball I hit for the foreseeable future. Playing snooker at the moment is a chore for me. Why pay for the experience of beating myself up and leaving often angry and low in confidence?

Why make it a chore? Sure, I have had recent worries about form (see my rant here – www.thesnookerforum.com/showthread-t_2447.html) but it is only perseverance, not giving up, that will get you through the bad bit.

I think you are being too hard on yourself, and setting yourself unrealistic targets, particularly given your current state of mind.

As you will see from my thread above, I got extremely frustrated for a while. I've been playing the game for 20 years. I'm not an exceptional talent by any means, but I was playing well below my capabilities, and yes it ****ed me off.

It turns into a vicious circle – the worse you play the more possed off you get and the more ****ed off you get the worse you play. So you have to conquer either the '****ed off' or the 'worse play' to break the circle. You're obviously having trouble breaking the worse play so I suggest you try to convince yourself not to get ****ed off so much by it and accept that sometimes you'll play bad. It'll come back in time.

Good luck.

[The Statman]

It occurs to me that my reply comes across as a little rude and abrupt, and it was not meant to be – so I apologise for that.

I really think it is in the mind. I am lucky to have a reasonably good temperament, but all the time I see kids at my club who get wound up so much about poor play that it drives me insane.

You're 20, by no means past it, and if you can convince yourself that whether you get beaten is not as important as whether you get beaten when you could have done something about it, you'll be able to improve better.

I genuinely wish you well. You say your highest break is about 30, so you've obviously got plenty of scope for imporvement judging by the amount of enthusiasm you seem to display – just don't let your head get in the way of things.

[Kick]

thanks for your reply, to be honest i just wanted some peoples opinions, and yours will be taken on board, your right i am being too hard on myself, hopefully i'll post here when my game improves.

i won't give up and i'll stop setting unrealistic targets, maybe even stop setting myself targets and start enjoying my game, because if i don't enjoy it, i don't play well.

thanks again!