We don't need no stinking excuses!

Last night, as every Thursday night,
was another APA team 8-ball match,
and our team "101 Excuses"
earned a strong 4-1 win.

My match was a 5-2 win
against a player with an equal skill level.
(Don S.)

So what is it about "excuses" anyway?
It seems that they have an uncanny ability
to leap into the mind at the least provocation,
and many times with no reason whatsoever.

For example, on the afternoon before my match,
the monkey brain starts chattering to me:
1. my shoulder hurts, can I break well enough?
2. my stroke hand hurts, should I take a pill?
3. if I do, will it effect my game?
4. am I due for a loss? (nice win streak going)
5. I feel bloated after big meal, sluggish
6. didn't get enough sleep
7. no pre-match time on the table
8. my opponent called me out. He's ready!
9. opponent has home table advantage.
10. etc, etc, etc...

That's just what's going thru my mind
before I ever get to the table!

Our team isn't called "101 Excuses" for nothing!

Three years ago, when I was a newbie at this,
I was a mess.
I had no way of dealing with
all the mind chatter, the nervousness,
the distractions, the excuses.

And now, I take it in stride.
I've come to expect the demons
to rise up in my mind.
I know they will pop up continuously
if I let them,
and worst of all,
at the worst possible times.

The practice of meditation helps a lot.
Meditation is the practice of quieting the mind,
by recognizing stray monkey-mind thoughts
and simply releasing them
and going back to just sitting and breathing.

With practice,
letting go of thoughts becomes easier.

One thing I have found that
helps prevent the exuses from showing up
is actively engaging in positive self talk,
such as affirmations and visualizations.
It is extremely difficult, if not impossible,
for the mind to have two different thoughts
at the same time.

Therefore, if you busy your mind
with positive, constructive thoughts,
negatives can not pop in.

And, on those many other occasions
when an excuse will find its way into your mind,
deal with it immediately
by thinking of the appropriate anti-excuse.

For example,
today, when I thought that maybe my winning streak
might be getting a bit too long,
and maybe I was due for a loss,
the anti-excuse was to think
that each match is independent of all others,
and that previous wins/losses have
absolutely no effect on each other
(except as I let my mind have such effect).

Other excuses need remedial Action.
Gotta pee? So pee!
Feeling sluggish? Drink a coke.
Nervous? Breathe!
Shooting too quick? Walk around the table!
Distracted? Stand up, re-do preshot routine.

I have used the technique of positive self-talk
in other activities in the past,
but I credit El Maestro with showing me
the deeper secrets as it applies to pool.

As Yogi Berra said about baseball:
"(this game) is 90% mental,
and the other half is physical".

The quote: "We don't need no stinking excuses!"
is a modified form of the original "We don't need no stinking badges"
from the 1974 movie "Blazing Saddles"

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Excuses

APA team 8-ball night again...

All day long, I'm thinking I'm going to lose,
because all day long I'm thinking of excuses.
I'm actually thinking of writing a list
of all the excuses that apply to me, personally.
I almost convince myself that it would be good therapy.
Just once.

As game time approaches,
I realise that I absolutely MUST pull out
of this negative thinking downward spiral.
The only way to do that is to
force myself to think positive thoughts.

Before I start with the positive,
I visualize all the excuses,
written on a list,
and I burn the list,
and watch the smoke disappear
with all my excuses...

This is a technique of
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Now back to the positive thoughts,
I focused on the reasons why I should win.
I think of a few things like experience and knowledge
and skill and intelligence, and the I wonder if
the first letters of those words spell anything,
so I arrange them in different orders
until I come up with a good one:
Skill
Knowledge
Intelligence
Experience
Sorto

S - K - I - E - S

That's easy enough to remember.
(for an open cockpit biplane pilot like me)
So, over and over in my head
I'm thinking SKIES,
and saying the words each letter represents
and filling my head with the thoughts of a winner.
Soon, I'm thinking of other reasons why I should win.
Creativity.
Track Record.
Life Experience.
Wisdom.
Touch.
Karma.
But enough about me...
And I need to keep it simple and focused.
SKIES is good enough for now.
It's the best I can do on short notice.

Tonight, Seth was out to get me.
Same skill level.
Quiet, methodical, good shooter.
He will be a tough opponent.

Or would he?
Does the competitor really matter?
I have been coming to the conclusion
that the opponent is irrelevant
and therefore not to be feared.
Do not look in their eyes.
Give them no power.
It's nothing personal.
Their role is simply to re-arrange the balls,
when/if I miss or need to play safe.

My focus has zero to do with the opponent,
and 100% to do with the table surface, rails, and balls.
Period.

The game of pool is all about green and gray.
The table's green cloth & the brain's gray matter.
Eliminate all other elements
and you have the recipe for success.

These are my thoughts,
over and over.
I'm breathing deeply to relax.

At the lag for break,
I lay the ball within a half-inch of the rail.
But I lose the first game.

I hate when that happens!
;o)

I win the second game. We're even.
He wins again, and now leads 2-1.

I'm thinking I need to bear down...
I win the next 4 games and the match, 5-2.
There was a break and run in there somewhere.
That felt good.

I feel good that
my techniques for dealing with excuses
and for positive thinking
seem to have worked tonight.

After one of the last games in the match,
I felt that I was ahead, but was unsure of the score.
I wanted to check with the scorekeeper,
but El Maestro's teaching came back to me:

Ignore the score.
It is irrelevant.
If I win, someone will tell me.
If I lose, someone will tell me.
There is no need to know the score.
How can it contribute to my game?
Will I play better because I know the score?
Focus only on the table.

El Maestro was right.
(What else is new?)

---

A note about skill levels:
I'm currently listed as a 6 in 8-ball (7 is highest).
The APA uses some secret formula
which takes into consideration all sorts of stats
like matches played and won,
number of innings, runs, safeties, and
the skill levels of your opponents
and who knows, maybe the phase of the moon.

My goal is to achieve the highest skill level.

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