Fools Rush In by  Frank  "TheBarber" Almanza ãTricks of the Trade Inc.

 

Fool Rush In

               

               

Well, my match is about to begin in a little while so I’m up at the table trying to get in as much practice as I possibly can in the short time left before kick off. I’m hitting the balls pretty clean into the pockets and feel very comfortable about what I see. I know my opponent for the first match and realize that I will need one of my better outings if I want to survive to the next round on the winners side. I’m thinking, the way I’m stroking and hitting the balls I should be ok. After all, I’m feeling very relaxed, confidant, and hitting the back of the pocket pretty clean, and also moving the cue ball real nice. This should be a piece of cake!

 

                It’s show time! I won the toss for the first break Two balls go in and I have a good shot to start with. As I proceed to run the rest of the rack out and get the first game under my belt I can’t help thinking how good it feels                 to have complete control of what I’m doing.

 

Second break, this time nothing goes in and my opponent has a shot but not a good one. He decides to play safe and does a good job of it. Having forced me into an error, I retreat to my chair and watch him work himself through the rest of the balls to win game two. I say to myself, Hey! Is this guy trying to win or what? What’s going on here? This is my show.

 

                Game four. I finally get a shot after losing game three with some well placed safeties and a lucky shot from my opponent.

 

                Being somewhat upset with the way things are going, I get down on what normally would be a routine shot, but it seems that now I’m having a little difficulty with my concentration. The instant I pulled the trigger I wished I could have brought it back because I knew it didn’t have a chance. With the ball missing the pocket by a mile, I shook my head as I turned and aimed myself for my chair. That target I hit ok.

 

                The next couple of games seemed like something out of the twilight zone. I really can’t remember much, except that I didn’t recognize the person inside me. What an awful feeling that was.

 

                As I watch my opponent work, it’s now obvious to me that he came into this match with his own agenda. To him this was his show and I was just an extra

.

                He finally missed and I got a good shot to start with. Now being down five to one in a race to seven, something has to change for me to have a chance. I’m going to have to open up my stroke and let them fly. Nice run! This is more like it. Maybe I can still salvage this match. After breaking the next game and pocketing a ball, I make an easy combination on the money ball. I break again and have a good chance to run out. After pocketing a couple of balls I miss a fairly easy shot. What? I was going so good.

 

                Well the rest became history. I’ll do better on the loser side, I always do. After all you get to play more, and if you lose, you can go home early. Boy! What consolation.

 

                Does this scene bring back any memories? Been there? Let’s check it out and see what happened. Now the Barber speaks…

 

                Let’s start with the practice part before the matches. Practice? This is not the time for practice. This should be warm up. Big difference! Practice was yesterday and the days before. Like a great player once said, “If you didn’t bring it with you, you won’t find it here.”

 

 

Warm up is to loosen up the arm, and to check out the equipment, you know, the rails, type of cloth; it’s speed, pockets, the cue ball, and other such things.

 

To loosen up, go ahead and try some big stroke shots but don’t put any credence on the results. This is not the match you know; it’s warm up and nothing more. Do allow yourself enough time on warm up to settle down to serious concentration and ball pocketing, because this is what you want to carry over into game time.

 

Going into a match after an excellent warm-up may not always be the best thing. I prefer not to anticipate how I will play from what I did at warm-up. Over confidence from a good warm-up may lead us to unexpected mental changes with damaging results. If we make an error, and sometimes we do, it may shake our confidence and cause us to go into a tailspin that we may never recover from. When you’re at the top of the ladder, there’s no where to go but down.

 

                Of course we need to go into any match with confidence, but we also need to advance with caution. If we make a mistake, accept it, and just realize that there’s hard work in store for us and we need to buckle down.

 

                In summary, for some of us it may not take much to shatter our confidence. We need to go into matches looking for simple and uncomplicated ways to get our job done and slowly build up to our natural rhythm. We may have to bear down harder than we would like to, but as our confidence builds; our natural rhythm will fall into place all by itself. When this happens, if you brought good stuff with you, it will pour out onto the table. Like driving a car we don’t go from 1^st gear to 3^rd gear without going through 2^nd  gear. A smooth flow upward is a solid base to keep us from tumbling down. This is what we need to win the tournament and not just a match.

 

                Remember, “What you practice is what you’ve got, and what you’ve got, is what you brought.”