««
Back to issues list
Dec 26, 2004 :: The Monk's Monday Lesson #3
Time To Pay The Fiddler
After the match is over, you should steal away to a quiet place and reflect upon how the contest went. Take a moment to learn from your encounter. Process your thoughts in an orderly fashion and be willing to see the truth this match was trying to teach you. If you are not willing to learn the lessons of the match, then you are destined to repeat it at another time. This is why some players stay at the same level year after year.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Did my opponent completely out shoot me?
Did I have any chances to win this match?
Did I give my opponent a chance to win by missing a shot?
How did my opponent win this set?
Most of you will find that you did have a chance to win. When I first began to compete, my focus was on getting a chance to win. Once I achieved that goal, I then turned my attention to taking advantage of that opportunity. We almost always get a chance to win a match. It is rare when someone runs the set on us. If our opponent was lucky, we put him in a position to be lucky by missing a shot. Find the lesson in the game and learn from it.
I often take comfort by knowing I was not out classed or out gunned in a match. I always tell myself I will do better next time. I am greatly relieved that I did have a chance to win. I was not defeated. I could have moved on to the next level if I had not missed the shot. I lost because I missed a few opportunities that came my way. If I am willing to learn from my mistakes, then I won’t have to repeat them.
I am not hard on myself. In fact, I like myself when my courage is strong enough to face the man in the glass. Sometimes it is just time to pay the fiddler. There is a special evaluation test evaluation test so you can rate your recent losing match. Log on to www.themonk.com to take that test. See what kind of score you get. I will send you a personal letter with my thoughts on your evaluation.
Don’t be the player who cannot differentiate between what you want to learn, and what you do learn.
Take your time going through each lesson. There is knowledge in each one. That knowledge only becomes skill when it is applied. Sometimes you cannot acquire the knowledge until you master the skill. I want you to be the player you are destined to be. Together we can spend some time learning this great game.
Balancing Act
(A side note from Samm’s Side Pocket)
Unless you are a professional in this game, most of you probably have other priorities in your life. Let’s face it. Even the pros have other responsibilities outside of just practicing. Whether it’s a full time job, a family, pets, or hobbies, there is always something else that seems to take precedence.
So, how do you juggle and balance all these things? How do you prioritize your practice time between all the tasks in your life?
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer for this one. The first step is to determine for yourself, as The Monk has asked us to do in the past, what your purpose is. Defining what your purpose is with this game means knowing what you want to accomplish and understanding what that means to you.
Once you recognize what your purpose is, you can go from there. If your goal is to become a professional pool player, obviously, practicing becomes more of a priority to you than if your goal is to become the top shooter in your league. Therefore, practicing would be much higher in your food chain.
Like you, I too have other responsibilities. I balance my family, my business and my training. Before I identified what my purpose was, I would work on tasks in blocks at a time. I would spend a day or two working on projects until they were completed, leaving me too exhausted to practice by the end of the day.
Sometimes, I would go for a days at a time without practicing because I was so intent on finishing what I was working on.
I now understand the importance of practicing and the effects it has on my performance. Although running a business is a full time job, I also consider my training to be a full time job. I enjoy both, but must view them equally as important. And, as any full time job, there is discipline required. You would never show up to work late or not at all and just tell your employer that you didn’t have time to work, would you?
At this point, I have a fairly consistent practice regimen. It was difficult for me to make the transition, but it had to be done. I now drop what I’m doing when it comes time for my daily practice session and just practice. Of course, it takes time to overcome that initial preoccupation with what I may have been working on. It often takes me a couple racks of stop shots before I am able to fully immerse myself into my practice. However, at least I know I will practice every ingle day. Unless there is a time sensitive task to complete, what I was working on will still be there tomorrow.
So, decide for yourself what your goal is with this game and determine where practicing falls in your food chain. It can be a balancing act to manage all the responsibilities in your life, but you will definitely reap the benefits from knowing your purpose and prioritizing your practice.
You know you’re a D Player when…
12. You place your beer in the pocket while you’re shooting.
13. The first thing you look for in a house cue is whether or not it rolls straight on the table.
14. You shoot a jump shot by scooping the cue ball.
Here is your opportunity to demonstrate a soft punch stroke. Note the track line when you use the punch stroke. The cue ball will gently walk to the desired area.
You will need to work on your soft punch stroke. Shoot stop shots by going low on the cue ball at a very gentle speed. Do not draw the ball back. Stop it dead in its tracks. Make sure the cue ball goes in a direct straight line in this lesson. If you get a slight curve here, you are allowing draw to creep into your punch stroke.
Try some long full table stop shots. Note how low you need to go on the cue ball to stop it dead in its tracks. Work on long stop shots until you can shoot them with a nice soft click. You will be surprised by how important it is for you to develop the ability to deliver the punch stroke at a variety of speeds.
