Back online after robot error

For the second time in a week,
Blogger's robots tagged this blog as spam
and knocked it offline.

After many emails,
they put me back online,
and promised it will never happen again.

Would you trust a robot?

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From One Thing Know All Things...

This past Thursday night was another APA match.
The ball re-arranger was Joel,
who I have played before, and won,
but it was close.
He shoots fast and true,
so El Maestro's advice was to slow down,
and the strategy was working,
but the best of strategy will fail
if I miss, and I did.
He didn't.
He won.

It was the tiniest of tables, a toy.
Lots of clusters in 8-ball.

As soon as I entered the place,
I wanted to get outta there.
(It's the hermit in me!)

The night before I played straight pool
and had some good runs
and overall I played well,
winning both matches by wide margins.
So I should have been strong for Thursday.

I was jittery and apprehensive on the drive north,
but with controlled breathing exercises
I was able to calm my body/spirit
in time for the match with Joel.

I haven't seen him for at least a year,
and as he walks up to me to say hello,
he's coughing and gravelly-voiced,
explaining he's been sick as a dog for weeks,
and me being a germophobe,
the last thing I want to be doing is
breathing his exhalations and getting his bug.

What's with all the head trips?
Why do I allow myself to think other people's thoughts?
El Maestro's advice has always been
to not look them in the eye,
not communicate with them,
ignore them.
It's not about them,
it's only about me, the table, the balls.
He has told me more than once
that I have some need to be seen as a nice person,
and that this is a weakness
which will lead to defeat.

I must learn to completely ignore my opponent,
my surroundings, my past, my future,
everything that is not
Here
(on the table)
and
Now
(preshot routine to follow-through and stay down).

As Miyamoto Musashi said, so wisely:
"From one thing know all things,
From all things know one thing."


(Miyamoto Musashi, the greatest of the samurai)
and one of my favorite philosophers

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Be Prepared

Fast Mikie, as a Boy Scout!

Another Saturday at the pool hall...

I hardly had a chance to warm up
when El Maestro matches me up with Ken J.
who I have faced before
most recently in my Big Win
of almost exactly one year ago.
I won both matches at that meeting,
on the way to winning the tournament.
(click here for that story)

This time Ken J. evened the score
with a 7-3 victory (9-ball).
Ken J. is a very strong player.
I did not play well.

I have noticed in the last several weeks
that my performance curve seems
to start out low and then improve
as the games wear on.
This means I need a way to get into
total focus mode right from Jump Street.
Gotta work on that...

We took a break for some severe gluttony
at the Mexican restaurant nearby,
and upon returning to the pool hall
there was PJ (last Saturday's match)
waiting for a chance to even the score.

I was not expecting this.
I figured I had competition done for the day.
And here I am fat and sluggish again
after an enormous meal.

In the Wild West
a victorious gunfighter
never had to face the same opponent twice.
Not so in pool.
Opponents keep coming back.
There is no peace.
Eternal preparedness is mandatory.

So, again I am caught unaware.
I'm thinking this is El Maestro's plan
to teach me some lesson
in the psychology of the game.

PJ wins, 7-6.
Again, I did not play well.
This pretty much gets PJ even
after my win last week at 7-5,
so El Maestro calls for a "rubber match"
to settle it once and for all.

At this point, I'm almost dead on my feet,
but I can see that there is no escape,
and I will just need to find the strength.
I was hot, dehydrated, low blood sugar,
and very tired.

One of my favorite general-purpose solutions
to unexpected circumstances is to
"Do what you can, and fake the rest"
so I took some water,
a bit of hard candy to re-energise,
and tried to imitate a focused pool shooter.

It must have worked
because I won 7-2.

My day of pool lasted 10 hours
and my back was killing me.
Thirty eight years ago I had spinal surgery
in a failed attempt to fix a herniated disc.
Since then, just standing for any length of time
is a painful challenge.
So pool tournaments are a love/hate thing with me.
It's just another excuse for losing, if I let it.
I gotta get over it, don't I?

As a Boy Scout,
I learned to "Be Prepared"
and I need to bring that into my game.

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Winning Ugly

Last night was the APA team 8 ball match.
It was a struggle.

My mojo was late at the gate, again.
It was a full moon, and cold outside.
Our table was by the door,
so I got lots of chilly drafts
while I was waiting for my match.
When I get cold, it's tough to shoot.
I'm tense, nervous, shaking.
And it's tough to warm up again.

Finally, I'm playing #3 match,
with Ripley,
who has tested me before, maybe twice.
Although I have won, it was a struggle,
so I was expecting more of the same.
And I got it.

He won the first game. I got the second.
He won the third game. I got the fourth.

My break was ineffective
yielding multi-cluster racks, no runouts,
and lots of safeties.

The tables had brand new Simonis 860 cloth,
so they were extra fast,
and the balls tend to skid.

I was having trouble with my right eye.
Burning and itching,
possibly from the cigarette smoke
of the addicts just outside the door,
who seem to need to blow out
the last lungfull of smoke
as they re-enter the bar
right by our table.

I didn't say anything about it,
because I have learned to only speak positive,
to never give voice to a possible excuse.

I did make a couple of nice shots,
but on the whole I was working hard.
There was no flow.

El Maestro's advice:
Trust your stroke.
Shoot soft.
Let the other guy make the mistakes.

My thinking was clouded, it seems,
because El Maestro used a few timeouts
to coach me on strategy.

It helped a lot.
I won, 5-3.

Gracias, El Maestro.

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Saturday Night at the Pool Hall

El Maestro and I are shooting 9 ball for a few hours,
when some young movie star looking guy
starts talking with Tony
and all of a sudden I've got a match.
Race to 7 games in 9-ball.

This ain't no beauty contest,
so I've got nothing to worry about.

With the flip of a coin, I break,
and after several turnovers,
I win the first game.
That feels good.

And then it begins...
He wins the next game,
because I scratch on the nine.
And he wins the next game,
because I leave the nine in the jaws.
And then he wins the next game,
because I have no idea why,
by now I'm almost in a coma.
It's 3-1 his favor.

My spirit is unfocused.
My energy is low.
My mind is unclear.
My mojo ain't happenin'.

I was sluggish from a big Mexican meal.

I felt like Rocky Balboa,
on the ropes,
taking a heavy beating.

It just won't stop.
He hammers me again.
It's 4-1.

And again!
It's 5-1.

Lesser men would have already given up.
By this time they would simply be pushing balls,
waiting for the end.

We have all seen pros on TV,
when the score is real lopsided,
against them,
they almost sit lopsided, slumped,
in a pose of submission,
a picture of undeniable defeat.

El Maestro taught me to
show no fear,
no emotion,
and certainly not submission.

El Maestro also taught me
to make adjustments.

I would just have to
increase my focus,
increase my energy,
dominate the table,
and shoot like I know I can.

Where does it come from
to be able to recover from such
great deficit?
Is it possible?

Fast Mikie,
again,
digs deep,
and speaks:
"Ok, PJ, that's enough of a spot."

Fast Mikie wins the next 6 games in a row.
And wins the match, 7-5.

When I finally got to the hill ahead of him,
6-5,
the pressure was enormous,
my body heat escalated off the charts,
my mouth got sandpaper dry.
I have not yet learned to control my physiology
but I am studying El Maestro
who has great powers in this area.

The last shot I had to go 3 rails
fully around the table for
short side position on the nine
which was frozen to the short rail.
Of course, you already know it worked,
but when I was down on the shot,
knowing I needed this to be a sweet shot
for six games in a row, and the match,
and a major-league comeback victory...
well, the stress was extreme.

It's all about the glory,
I suppose.
Mortals aspire to heroic deeds.

One thing I have learned
is that heroic achievements never occur
if one has given up.
It is the man who persists unrelentingly
who wins.

Heroic deeds require dire circumstances.
Like, maybe, being down 5-1 in a pool match?
Did I allow myself to get so beaten,
so that I could enhance
The Legend of Fast Mikie?

It would seem unlikely, but
Brinksmanship
is a game I play with myself.

I'm naturally lazy,
I resist doing anything at all
unless it is absolutely necessary,
and then, when I do something,
I want it to have the greatest possible reward.

That's when I focus like a junkyard dog.
I can persist like a mofo.
Persistence is my secret weapon.
In itself, persistence requires no talent.
Just put your head down and keep going.
"Never, never, never give up."
(Winston Churchill, during WWII)

It was a good night at the pool hall.

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Back in the APA

Tonight was my first
team 8-ball match in the APA
in a couple of years.

One of the reasons
I dropped out of the APA team events
is because the championships in Las Vegas
allow smoking in the tournament rooms.

Although I smoked unfiltered cigarettes
for more than 20 years
once I quit I became sensitized to the smoke
and now I can't stand to be around it.

On my first and only Vegas
championship tournament
(in 2004, click for story)
the air was so bad
I vowed to never return
until they banned smoking.

And now they did it.
It wasn't APA who did it however,
it was the State of Nevada.
So that means I can go back.

The Masters Triple Play tournament,
The National Singles,
the mini tournaments,
and the team events
are all now "in play" again for me.

So, back to tonight...
I was first up,
playing against a skill level 5.
(Mike H.)
When I last played APA,
I was a skill level 6,
so I needed 5 games to his 4.

I won, 5-0.

I felt comfortable throughout
because it was evident that
my opponent could shoot good
but needed experience with strategy.
All I had to do was block a ball on him,
and he had to let me win.

It almost seems unfair.

I was shooting pretty good.
Two or three dumb mistakes.
But it was a strategy win.
It seems that I am finally getting it.
A few months ago I was clueless.

It reminds me of an old Buddha saying:
"The ox is slow, but the earth is patient."

My favorite shot of the evening:
I break and sink a solid,
and the rest are runnable
except for the 4 ball which is blocked
except for a cross-table bank
as the only option to get out.
There are other easy shots on the table,
but I take the bank on the trouble ball
for the opening shot
and get shape for the rest of the run.

Most opponents would not know
why I would take such an opening shot
and of course when it goes in
(which it did, of course)
they might get the feeling
they are in the presence of a higher power.

Confusion to the enemy!
I love it.

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Surprise match-up

I'm at the pool hall a few minutes early
when El Maestro walks in.

He says he wants me to shoot some "A" player.
(Chuck J.)
I say sure, anybody, anytime, any game.
It's not about Who.
It's about the balls and the table.

He points to some guy
sitting in the big chairs by the window,
but to me the view was all blurred.
I really didn't want to see the guy,
because it really didn't matter who it was.
All players are the same.
Their sole function is to rearrange the table
if I let them.

The essence of the game
is contained within the green area.
And the gray area (the brain).

For the record, I won 7-4
but more importantly I feel that
the win was a fine gift to my instructor
who watched the whole set with great pleasure.
Some of my shots were
truly beautiful.

It was one of those events
where it could be said that
the planets were aligned favorably.


Interestingly,
it was the first day of the New Moon,
a time when my creativity and sensitivity
are heightened.


The day after a long day at the table
is a day to relax.
I started with at least an hour of
stretching and breathing (yoga).
Especially good for the lower back.

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Russian pool

Check out Russian billiards!
Big table, enormous balls,
tiny pockets.
Any ball can be the cue ball,
and you score by sinking any ball,
even the cue ball...

Check out the final shot in this video,
where he uses reverse english ("russian"?)
on a carom shot,
to spin the cue ball into the pocket
for the win.

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In search of the perfect cue shaft...

For the first time in 3+ years,
I am happy enough with the shaft I'm using
to reorder an identical shaft.

What could possibly earn my approval?
The Predator 314 series 2,
with a Quick-Lock joint
and a Moori medium tip,
extra long (30").

All shafts before this have been Predator,
and in normal length (29")
but I have experimented with
the Z-shaft
and custom 314 shafts cut down
to 12.25mm.

I think the extra inch in length helps
on reaching some shots,
and also the overall balance of my cue.

I evolved from a Moori soft to medium
because the soft needed constant attention.

Seybert's gets my business,
because they are easy to work with,
they stand behind their work,
I can order online,
and get it fast.

I ordered another shaft today
because the tip on my current playing shaft
is getting kind of low,
and flatter than I like,
so I did some shaping
to get it to nickel radius,
and roughed it up to hold chalk,
and now it is playing sweet again,
but that's about the last time I can do it.

This was the opportunity to get a backup shaft.
Then I'll send in the one I use now,
for a fresh tip.

A fresh tip shoots sweet.

Watch out, Efren...

;o)

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Las Vegas goes Non-Smoking

In a turn of events which defied the odds,
the state of Nevada passed a law
restricting smoking in Las Vegas,
especially in the hotels,
and that means pool tournaments!

The last time I shot pool in Las Vegas
about 2 and a half years ago
at the National Championships,
the smoke was so thick and disgusting
I swore I would never return
until they outlawed smoking in the pool rooms.

Today I got the official notice.
See this link.

You may be wondering how I did
at my first/last/only tournament in LV...
Read the story here:
Agony and Ecstasy in Las Vegas.

This new development now opens up
the possiblility of rejoining an APA team
to compete for the singles events...

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Practicing Practice

A reader asked me how I practice,
which I figure is a great question,
because I have asked myself that
same question many times.

Here's how I answered him:

My practice sessions are not very disciplined.

Many times I just throw all 15
object balls on the table, randomly,
and then go for the run,
but sometimes I vary the experience with different ideas,
sometimes I try to run them all
from the same side of the table, for example,
or try to run them without the cue ball touching a rail,
or a ball other than the OB.

One thing for sure,
I almost never ignore a missed shot.
When I do miss, I always replay the shot
until I feel comfortable with it.
I feel it is essential to never leave that
negative image of the miss in my mind.

I never practice my 8/9 ball break shots,
first of all because I don't like all the noise,
and second because it seems like work to rack them each time.
How lazy is that!?
;o)

Sometimes I hit all the balls really soft,
other times with strength, confidence.
Sometimes trying a kill shot instead of soft roll...

Sometimes going 2 or 3 rails instead of just one rail
to get position.
Sometimes with reverse english, or none at all,
to see what happens...

Many times I will take the tougher shot,
like cutting a ball down the rail instaed of banking it,
or cutting a ball into the farther-away pocket
instead of the obvious one.

I should definitely practice more bank shots.

If I didn't vary my approach to practice,
I'm sure it would seem like work, or boring,
so I try to keep it interesting.

So, practice for me is not about doing everything right,
but about learning, discovering,
and that never seems to get boring...

Hope that helps.

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My First Two-Pack

TWO!

Last night was my first time
for break-and-running two 9-ball racks in a row,
in a challenge match.

It's amazing what a few years of practice,
and learning from a Master,
can do for a shooter's game.

Next stop: 3-pack, 4-pack, 5-pack, more...

If I can do it,
so can you.

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Praise from El Maestro

The last time Tony and I shot some pool,
a couple of weeks ago,
I ran through a rack of 8 ball,
and then almost all of another rack
(missed on the last shot)
and he actually told me
"Those two racks were PROFESSIONAL quality"

He was referring to the choices,
the shot selection, etc
that I made,
as well as the precision position.

That really made me feel great,
and affirmed what I had been suspecting
for some time:
that my game has taken a step up.
It was only a few months ago
that my 8-ball patterns were awful.

Again today,
after shooting for about 7 hours straight,
he gave it up again
telling me that I was shooting good.

So I guess I'd have to say
I'm feeling pretty good about that.

For the last 3 years,
I thought he wasn't giving my game any compliments
because he was some kind of tough guy.
But all the while it was just because
I didn't deserve any compliments!

But I still have a LONG way to go
to reach his level.
Some of the things he does with the cue ball
are just plain unbelievable
until you see it happen,
repeatedly.

Namaste'
El Maestro!

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