Are you sitting down? Good, because - get this - yesterday I actually left my basement and played pool in public.

What I did was, I went over to this Louisville Billiards Club place, and I practiced for about three hours.

My intention, going in, was to get on a 4x8 table. Past experience has shown me that it's pretty damn hard to miss a bank on a 4x8, once I get used to the optical illusion that causes everything to come up short. So I was just going to have some fun making banks for a while.

Once I got there though, I changed my mind. I had a sudden fear of getting lazy, and losing whatever physical progress I've made over the past few weeks.

So I grabbed the first 4.5x9 table instead.

Nobody approaches me to play. I suppose that was fine. They probably would have wanted to gamble, and I'm not into that anymore. I just used my time to work on noticing table differences and adjusting to them.

The table yesterday was weird. It was absolutely filthy, for one thing. And that filth probably caused the other thing. Balls banked off the short rails had an amazing tendency to go long. I mean, every damn time they'd want to go long. I guess this probably had something to do with how the balls weren't sliding as much as I was expecting them to. They'd pick up roll almost immediately after they left the rail, and that would affect the bank angle. For cross-table shots off the long rails, this wasn't noticable at all.

But I adjusted I guess. It took me a while.

Practice was much better today. I had a lot of fours, a few fives and sixes. Nothing spectacular though. Seemed to have better luck on most shots with my grip hand about an inch more forward than comfort allowed. I don't know if that's something that will carry on past tonight though. Most physical elements of my shooting style don't last very long.

Anyway, I've mentioned before in various venues that I've always been much more of a feel player, than a mechanical one. To me, it's always been preferable, and more successful, to shoot what feels right instead of what I calculate is right. Everyone's different. Most top players use a blend of FP and MP styles, I think. Even if they won't admit it.

When I switched to banking, years ago, I found that the accuracy needed to bank well was so much greater than the accuracy needed for regular shots - well I felt that I had to become a more mechanical player to have any kind of success. My thoughts on stance and alignment, such as they were, simply did not lead to the type of consistency needed to bank balls with any kind of regularity.

I think the thing that I've come to realize, or at least recall, over the past few days has been that being physically mechanical, and therefore consistent, doesn't necessarily mean that I have to be mentally mechanical as well.

So this is something I've been working on. Feeling the shot, but shooting with a consistent physical style. It's a little tough. Physical tension can lead to mental tension, and mental tension is the last thing an FP wants. Conversely, mental relaxation has a strong tendency to cause physical relaxation. And too much physical relaxation can lead to sloppy shooting.

But it is possible to disconnect the two approaches to shooting.

This is something I'm working on. It's frustrating, but it's fun.

And fun is why shoot.

Still practicing for a few hours every day, but today was different. And not in a good way.

Today I lost it.

Whatever it was. Whatever had been helping my mental focus and guiding my aim, it left.

Today was a real struggle. Balls weren't going in, and the urge to quit was very strong.

But, I didn't quit.

I sucked, but I didn't quit.

That's gotta be worth something, right?

Right?

Just to sort of keep up with my resolution to update this damn thing every now and then, I'll write an entry.

A brief one.

Every day, starting last Saturday, I've practiced my banks. This is completely different than what I've done for the past year, which is play banks.

My practice sessions are focusing, once again, on consistency of style. Specifically, I'm forcing myself to take three - not two, not four - practice strokes on each and every shot, not matter how simple.

I don't know if this is really helping, but it feels good to be actually doing something besides just banging balls around.

Plus, my right shoulder is quite sore, so I must be practicing enough.

I was thinking about two things today, while I sat at the DCC and watched players more fortunate and/or better than me play their second and third round matches.

The first thing was that living so close to the tournament is a bit of a mixed blessing. It's surely nice to be able to drive home each night. Sleep in my own bed. Just chill out for a while, away from the tournament and its hustle and bustle. But, and this is something that I only noticed yesterday but which probably started last year, but it's a little bit too easy to just quit and go home. I'm sure that, if I'd driven several hours to get here, and if I were staying at the hotel, then I wouldn't have been nearly so quick with my decision to not buy my way back in. This may be something I'll want to consider next year - just getting a room at the place and staying there.

The second thing was a continuation of some of yesterday's thoughts. There are some really crappy banks players. I mean really crappy. I watched a guy yesterday get ball-in-hand five times during his match, and each and every time, without fail, he chose the wrong shot and missed it. Then the fucker won his match anyway. I saw him today. He's still playing, though I can't imagine that he's still undefeated.

But that's the way these random draws work. Charlie Chumpchange somehow keeps drawing players even easier than himself, and I get the guy who took 12th last year for my first match. I'm not complaining. It's random. But it's also annoying, and it makes me understand a little bit of that gambling mentality which has eluded me for so long. It kills me to see some of these people still playing when I'm not. It almost makes me want to challenge the whole fucking room to a race for a gazillion dollars. Just to prove my abilities. Establish a more realistic standing for myself.

There are two things holding me back from issuing that challenge.

First, I don't have a gazillion dollars.

Second, I suck.

I suppose, if I had to make an excuse, I'd say that it was the table.

Not that there was anything wrong with the table. It's just that we didn't get along. At all.

And the thing is, when a player and a table engage in a battle of wills, the table will win. Every time.

I totally failed to adjust to the table. It's as simple as that. I lost 3-1. I didn't buy back in.

I didn't shoot nearly as badly as I'd feared, and I didn't shoot nearly as well as I'd hoped. Three or four shots, had I made them, might have made the difference in the match. But I didn't make them. Oh well.

Of course, it didn't help matters any that the guy I played took 12th place (out of almost 500) in the thing last year. I didn't know that until after the match though. During the match I was thinking that he was getting very lucky by leaving me shit to shoot at 90% of the time. Now I'm thinking that there may have been some intent behind his leaves. Asshole.

I guess that if there are any lessons to be learned from this, besides the obvious one of leave your basement and play on different tables so you can learn to adjust you fuckhole, they would have to be eat something sometime during the day so you're stomach isn't growling at you while you're trying to shoot, and work on your softer shots you ball-slamming idiot.

(crossposted to main blog)

I'm off work until Tuesday!

Tomorrow is the start of the Bank Pool division of the Derby City Classic, which I play in every year. I'm actually looking forward to it this year. Unlike last year when I was sorta dreading the thing, and it showed up in my play. Or lack thereof.

This year my mental state is much better than it's been for a long time. Problem is, my actual game is pretty shitty.

My practice sessions have lately taken one of two distinct flavors. Either I don't miss a ball for several hours, or I don't make a ball for several hours. Unfortunately, the latter outnumber the former by a fairly wide margin.

Oh well though. It should still be fun. And it will almost certainly be better than going in to work. I will miss going to the bar and seeing my friends *coughHatGirlcough* though.

I've gone ahead and purchased my entry for the DCC banks.

I'm so out of practice this year.