The Year in Review

Just like the school year, my pool year ends in June. Of course, I would much rather be posting about one of my team's imminent trip to Vegas and extend the year through August. But, there are limits to my creative blogging.

Jim McKay died the day of our LTC.....and the agony of defeat was present. Sometimes, the luck of the draw matters more than anything. All of my teams were saddled with the toughest draws, last minute handicap bumps, and unfortunate rolls. But we had a good time, and all went out swinging.

A few thoughts about this year.....

1) Too many swirls. I couldn't help but think of a friend's tattoo, as I headed off to pool in the evenings. Its a very nice, but incomplete tattoo....a tulip design surrounded by swirls. She had impulsively selected a particularly painful place for the tattoo and only made it through the basic flower part of the design, and a few of the swirls, before the pain became so unbearable, she could hardly speak. As she looked down at the many curls stenciled out on her skin, and knew there was no way she could finish it out...... she managed to blurt out through her tears"....too.......many.........swirlllls...."and then passed out. While not quite that painful, I have say that three teams is too.....many.....teeeaaammms. Definitely, too much of a good thing. I'm glad I followed through on my commitments, but I am overjoyed to be free to cut back. Woohoo! Clean apartment and laundry here I come.

2) Gotta check those biorhythms and tide charts. In the past two years I peaked around December - February. I'm not sure I understand why, but I know that the past two years I've felt kind of burnt out by the time June came around. I know that serious athletes are careful to train in a way that allows the to peak or be near peaking around their key events. Part of the challenge for me is that I work in a seasonal business that is particularly stressful from April-June. (This was compounded this year by too many swirls at the same time). I guess I have to find a way to accept that I may be able to play less during this time, but do the things that make the most difference in my game.

3)More colors in the crayon box. I like salad bars and an insanely extensive spice rack. My refrigerator is two-thirds full of condiments (a friend of mine refers to this as condimentia). As much as I need a certain amount of routine, I also need lots of variety. Now that I have freed up some of my league time, I am going to diversify. More match ups with friends and some cheap tournaments. More 9-ball and maybe even try some 3-cushion. If I do join another team, it will either be 9-ball or a non-handicapped league.

4) Balance, dammit, balance! There is more to life than pool. And when the rest of my life feeds my happiness and confidence, I believe that it shows up in how I play. Not that on a given day I can't rise above whatever else is going on, but over the long haul, taking care of one's self pays dividends on the pool table as well.

5) Wax on. Wax off. A couple months ago, I ran into a fellow league member....Actually, a more accurate description would be, a fellow league member interrupted me while I was practicing. I was shooting a drill. He spent about 20 minutes explaining to me why drills were a waste of time (I suppose that talking to him while paying for a table was a good use of my time), and I should only spend time trying to run out a rack. His justification for this was that I would never run into the same pattern in a game and therefore the drill was completely useless. Jesus, I thought everybody has seen the Karate Kid, but just in case you missed it, too:



So, thanks very much for the advice and for interrupting my practice session. While you may not be impressed, I'm happy with my progress looking back over the year and I know that the drills build confidence, allow me to gauge progress, and basically work.....I will continue to wax on, wax off through year 3.

Its gonna be fun.

Is it possible to play your heart out each and every time?

I just have to make a quick post before I try and get some sleep--a rhetorical question to put out there into the blogosphere. I played pretty well tonight, but still lost, as did my team. It was the finals, but my team is already qualified for the local team championships, so there wasn't that much at stake for us. I could tell even during practice, the other team wanted it more and was willing to play their hearts out for it.

Not that I didn't try.

But last week, although the stakes were the same (with the added incentive that winning meant we got to play another week, and a personal quest to finally win on that god-forsaken, red-felted bar table), and yet I was able to dial in and do what it took to win. I played my heart out, and even if it had gone the other way, I think I would have felt great. This week, I shot quite well. I even had my first break and run. But I rushed some key chances early on, and then took a few too many risks later. And even if things gone the other way, I'd feel better, but not great. Because I didn't play my heart out.

There's just something about giving it your all.

I sometimes wonder why I play pool. Yeah, I like the social aspect. I like the intellectual/strategic side. I like learning. I just like watching colored spheres collide on felt (blue or green, thank you). But at the end of the day, its the chance to play my heart out and for just a little while, give my all towards one, maybe silly and ultimately meaningless goal. There's nothing quite like it. And when you don't do it, you know.

So maybe its not possible to play your heart out every time. But I got a lot of pool coming up over the next two weeks, and I'm going to try.

So many teams, so little time

Wow, it gets crazy at the end of the season if all your teams have been playing well. My little juggling game of never having two nights in a row just doesn't work come playoff time....which leaves very little time to write about it. And as much as I wish that ALL my team won last week, I'm not crying too much that only one emerged to the finals. Another week like this, and I would be completely burnt out by the time the local team championships roll around.

I played fine this week, but especially proud that I was able to anchor the winning night. I made some mistakes early on and let the other guy get on the hill--and then I really beared down and forced a safety battle where I knew I'd have the advantage. After that, I seemed to find my stroke. I just played smart, waited for my shots, and won.

Its funny, if I start out strong, I sometimes start to get nervous once I get on the hill. I can still focus, but it takes some work. This time, once I could see the finish line, even though it was hill-hill, I was completely focused and completely relaxed. When I started that last game, I felt like I was the winner already.