- Adrenaline & Antihistamine really are interchangeable. When I take antihistamine, it makes my heart beat and mimics the feeling I get under pressure. I also discovered that after the surge of adrenaline from winning a big playoff match, as I did recently, that my cold symptoms disappeared for 24 hours. Weird!
- I'm realizing that the the mental game trick for me is less about letting go of winning as it is letting go of the fear of losing. Looking back at it, this should have been obvious.
- I think that even in my meek, lower-level realm of league pool, I'm actually learning to "give weight". In OMGWTF's post about Derby City, she confessed to wanting to beat the entire world in pool. After she had done that, she would spot the world and beat it again. Most of the time in my little APA world, people really only complain about spotting games and how hard it is. This past week I played a 2 who was an very good shooter, and probably should be a 3. But, still I think I was the better player, and it was fair to spot him a game. This wasn't a conscious decision, but I realized after the fact it gave me a lot more confidence to accept the handicap as an indication of actual skill (at least when its in my favor), rather than whine about it being unfair. Spotting games puts the pressure on and makes me a better player.
- I'm starting to believe that I may, in fact, play my best under pressure.
- In practice, I'm having a hard time focusing on drills and want to just shoot. This is an ongoing problem for me, but its especially hard as I come up on events that I'm preparing for. I'm not sure if working on the drills undermines my confidence that my game isn't good enough and I don't have time to change anything. Right now, I'm just following my gut, doing my stroke drills and working on pre-shot routine while shooting racks. I'll try to get back to shot making drills next week.
That is all. Time for more coffee.
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