Public Humiliation

Aaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhh!
Oh, the agony of public humiliation!
Even worse, it was self inflicted.

This past weekend I played in the APA 8 Ball Blast,
and lost 2 out of 3 matches.
The one match that I did not lose
was only because the opponent finally hit the wall,
at around midnight, after having been in the competition
starting at 9am.
I didn't start until 5pm,
so I was feeling relatively fresh at midnight.
It wasn't so much that I won,
it was that my opponent lost.

I was such a mess that I lost a game
because I neglected to mark the pocket for the 8 ball.
Where was my mind?

The $50 I won goes to charity,
as is the Fast Mikie policy with all pool winnings.

It is now Monday, and my email to El Maestro
was as follows:

"Maestro... It is amazing how fragile my human nature is.
A couple of days of public humiliation has brought me down from the clouds of an engorged self-image, puffed up with my own delusions of superior pool playing.

How can i play at such a low level at the 8 Ball Blast,
and then come back here to the Fun House and utterly destroy Kevin Jensen in multiple games of straight pool?

How? Why? What do I do about it, Master?"

El Maestro answered:

I have been talking to you for a long time about the singing frog that just would not sing in public. You have to pay more attention to what I`m saying. A while back I told you that your problem was not about making balls anymore.
When I saw you play on Saturday you completely forgot your ritual, the routine that you are supposed to follow before every match,you looked nervous, out of sorts, not confident at all. Your opponent picked up on that and we know the rest.
We will have to go through the pre-game ritual again and I may have to read it to you before you play your next match so that you start to see the difference.
T.

And so it goes. Two steps forward, one step back. I must go back and relearn some early lessons. That's ok. It's not like I expected to be world class overnight. It will take time...