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Dec 01, 2004 :: Please Whitelist The Monk
Tournament Preparation
Step 9
The tournament begins the day before your match is called. Once you arrive at the site, you are officially in the tournament. You have entered the arena. Let all thoughts be on this task. Playing one match at a time begins the day before the event.
You Be The Coach
Coaching is not an easy job. I saw a lovely lady line up for a combination on the seven/nine. She had ball in hand. She leaned into the shot.
This required her to send the seven into the rail, back into the eight, across the table for a kick on the nine, with the nine caroming off the moving eight ball and veering into the corner pocket.
She turned to me after her failed attempt and said, “I had to go for it.” All I could do was nod yes, and smile. You gotta love this game!
The Game Face
Sammantha has a game face. In one of her matches she played a safety on the one ball. After the shot, the one settled directly in front of the corner pocket, with the cue ball two inches in front of the one ball. She returned to her chair somewhat dejected and I leaned over and whispered the question, “Can she see the one?” Sammantha did not crack a smile. I thought that was funny.
What’s Real and What’s Imagined
Sometimes our knowledge is real and other times it is imagined. If you ever wondered why the cue ball did not go where you expected it to, perhaps you are operating on imaginary knowledge.
It is very common to plan on learning something and think we have acquired the skills we intend to learn. When our game breaks down, we learn we have not learned after all.
Winning and not Winning
How do you define “winning?” Is it claiming lots of money? Is it getting the biggest trophy? Is it beating the most people? What does winning mean to you? Have you ever played a match where you know that you played well and maybe even better than your opponent but still lost that match? Maybe your opponent got some fortunate rolls.
This happens more often in 9-ball than in 8-ball. Or, perhaps you’re at the level where you’re breaking and running most racks. In this case, it’s just a matter of whose break it is, what kind of spread you got on your break, and what the format is.
Unfortunately, the strongest player does not always win. They will win more often, but not always. No matter what level you’re at, you should be aware of when you play a winning game. If you believe you played your best game, gave 100% to every shot, and stand behind the decisions you made; then be proud of that. You can not control the outcome of the rolls and how your opponent plays. If you gave your finest performance and got outplayed, then applaud your opponent for playing well. If you gave your finest performance and got unlucky rolls, then accept that you did what you could.
Do not punish yourself for losing a match if you played well. And, only you know if you gave 100% to every shot. If your goal is to simply win the tournament then that’s easy, you could find any little $5 tournament around town to rob. If you just want to beat people, just play people that are worse than you. But, if your goal is to become a better player, then be proud of a worthy performance, regardless of the outcome.
Only one person can walk away a first place winner. Of course it’s disappointing not to win a tournament. But, if you delivered a first class performance, you can not be disappointed with that. If you gave the same performance and won, you would be pleased. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, your winning performance is something to always be proud of, regardless of the outcome. So, the next time you lose a match but know that you played well and someone asks, “What happened?” you can say “I lost, but I played well.”
