Focus is a fickle mistress

Ugh. 0-4. Ouch.

The fact that in the middle of my match I was on my laptop and answering emergency calls from the New York office, probably did not help. After I took a call at the beginning of my match I felt guilty for not working, and my game slipped.

However, an interesting thing happened...the moment the match was over, I just started hitting balls and they were zooming in dead center pocket.

Hmmm, so, what's the lesson here?
a. I'm thinking too much. Last night,I seemed to alternate between shooting too quickly or being way too careful. Maybe working on my rhythm will help keep my head out of the shot.
b. I was actually pretty confident going into the match. Maybe too confident?
c. I play better when I play early. Maybe I need to stop playing the last match of the night?

While a,b & c are all true, I think the real lesson here is one from the Pleasures of Small Motions..."The simple rule is....to find those goals that engage your attention and interest on that night..."

I like winning. But I really don't mind losing as long as I play well. So, if I'm playing well, I sometimes need to stay on top of myself to keep the actual "win" in mind. When I'm playing poorly, I seem to think only about the "win." Last night, all I was really thinking about was winning and getting out of there so I could focus on work. And, of course, exactly the opposite happened.

Its funny, because just last week in a practice session, I was missing everything (kind of last night). I couldn't find a rhythm. I was either careless or too careful (sound familiar). And then I decided to shift my focus and shoot ALL my shots with draw. Out of 10 shots, I missed only once. Draw shots! With my tendency to put accidental english on them! Crazy. But it was just enough of a shift to get me focused.

So when my mind was occupied at work, and I wasn't playing well, maybe I should have shifted my focus from trying to W-I-N and focused on having fun, feeling the smoothness of the stroke, remembering just how much I enjoy pool and being a student of the game.