Confidence

And, speaking of the stick in my hand,
last night I was using a
fresh shaft (Predator Z) with
a fresh tip (Moori slow).
This was against the advice of El Maestro,
but I saw no alternative.
I had lost confidence in my other shaft
after thoroughly inspecting it and finding
that the tip had separated from the ferrule
around the entire circumference.
I felt that it would come off very soon,
possibly in the most important match of
my pool career so far (last night).
I could envision the tip separating,
and me missing a critical shot because of it,
and losing the game, the match, and
my perfect undefeated session,
all because of equipment failure.

Even worse, by using faulty equipment,
I was introducing fear and doubt
into every shot, and would probably not
deliver a full stroke if I was hesitant
about the tip flying off.

It's all about confidence, I've learned.

However, playing the match with a new shaft
has its own set of challenges.
The new tip will play differently,
auditory feedback will be different,
shaft surface feel will be different,
"hit" will be different.
I needed to hit a lot of balls with it
before I got comfortable with it,
but I didn't have enough time
before the match
to hit as many as I wanted.

Both choices suck.
I had to go with the lesser of two evils.

I didn't mention this to Tony, or anyone else,
that I was playing with the new shaft,
against his teaching,
because it would create negativity and doubt,
and it would be voicing an excuse for losing,
before the match was even played.
And this too is the teaching of El Maestro.

So there I was,
I had to choose between two conflicting
teachings of El Maestro.

Again: Both choices suck.

I made the choices, and moved on.
I stood alone in the field of battle.
I won ten battles out of ten.

If I can do it, so can you...