Pool Synergy Volume 3: ShootingArts on How Life Influences Pool

In the third installment of PoolSynergy, the collaborators have decided to bring on a few special guest writers.  Our special guest for this edition is named Hu, known as “ShootingArts” on the AZbilliards forums.  Hu has been and AZ forum member since  2005, having over 6,870 postings.  The topic for January’s PoolSynergy is on how things other areas of our lives have an impact on how we play the game of pool.  Click Here to go to pool instructor Mike Fieldhammer’s complete listing of articles on this topic on www.billiardcoach.com.

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Outside influences that have affected the way I play pool are simply everything in my life. We all bring our life’s experiences to the table. The main influences are a little trickier to pin down. I was born on a
farm. I feel the ethics learned there are the foundation all else is built on. Hard work was the norm and quitting wasn’t an option. Expecting to have to work hard and never considering that failure is an option are of benefit to any competitor. Any loss on the table is a minor setback, never seen as a major failure or permanent status.

I often worked or played alone from the time I was two or three years old.
The long hours of solitary effort needed to build a winning pool game seemed natural, I was accustomed to such things. We also played group outdoor games at home and at school developing hand eye coordination from an early age. While playing video and computer games definitely aid some
skills they don’t develop the whole body strength and coordination that intense physical play does. When we moved to town the time from when we got home from school until dark and weekends was spent playing ball in the neighborhood. Football, baseball, basketball, strictly according to the
seasons then. There were new etiquettes to learn in city life.

My brother and I started working at my dad’s business when I was twelve. Between customers we played chess for hours on end long before I played pool seriously. The right strategy in chess can defeat a stronger overall player and I feel keeping up with the main pattern and three or four sub patterns on a chess board made reading pool table patterns come easily.

Chess also taught me to take time to consider multiple options, not just one or two. Often our first or second choice on the pool table isn’t the best option. Taking the time to consider all options before starting or if our pattern is broken is a valuable tool. We need to recognize that it probably doesn’t matter if we play a 90% shot or a 95% shot, it can matter a great deal if we have to choose between a 30% or 40% shot. When presented with a very tough shot we have to focus on either pocketing the
ball and letting cue ball exact shape be secondary or playing a safety. However, if we are presented with several high percentage options then we can consider which shot best fits into our pattern for the rest of the table. A simple choice I was presented with when my opponent scratched recently: Ball in hand, side pocket or corner pocket. Both shots were high percentage shots; both shots gave me shape with a little follow. The difference was one shot had the cue ball rolling into shape if it rolled further than planned, the other one had the cue ball rolling out of shape. Both shots were over 90% so my first concern wasn’t making the object ball but future shots. Strategy.

I gained several things from circle track racing, first and foremost I came to understand the importance of the mental game. Circle track racing was where I first realized that a competitor needs a very healthy ego. I was on the track with a couple dozen other drivers that on paper had to be favored to win. Stronger, more experienced, more funds to put into their cars, the list went on and on yet I intended to beat them all. When I realized an ego was needed I decided right there on the spot that I would
start building mine. All winners at any level need and have healthy egos. Some conceal their ego better than others which is more palatable to other people than those that expose their ego to the world but ego is as much a building block of a successful competitor as any other component.

Circle track racing is also where I first discovered “the zone”. Difficult to reach and maintain on a pool table but the highest level of the zone I am aware of is an expanded consciousness and a freeing of the unconscious to control our body’s movements without thought in words interfering. When we plan a run out and then complete it without another thought in words, this is a version of the zone. To find it we have to relax our conscious control of every action and stop trying to micro manage every part of a
shot. In the zone I have planned the results I want in advance and I trust that they will be accomplished if I just let things happen.

To sum up, I brought a strong work ethic, competitiveness, ego, and a tiny dash of ability to my efforts playing pool. Everything came from other parts of my life. Likewise, some of the things learned about competition and about people on a pool table transferred back to other parts of my life and to new pursuits. Everything about a person and their life is a part of the whole. No one thing, including pool, stands alone. To be successful on a pool table our game and playing style should be in tune with the rest of our lives.

Hu (ShootingArts)