All great players know that developing mental skills in competition is crucial to their success at the table and while sitting in the chair. Pocket billiards instructors, including myself, have not done a great job of explaining why developing this trait is vitally important. We usually say that it must be developed, then we develop various teaching plans and mental exercises, yet we never get into the how and why these skills will impact you in competition.
There is also the truth that many players resist this training, either being fed by their ego that says they are mentally superior, or by merely just blowing it off. Have you ever heard of anybody becoming proficient at anything without having to practice? Probably not. If a wrestler did not physically condition himself, his opponent would mop the floor with him quite easily. The need for physical skills in sports as well as the game of pool is evident. We need to possess a stroke, aiming, pocketing ability, getting position. The problem is that all of these physical skills are visible. The mental game is invisible. As a coach /instructor, it is my job to explain why we need various mental skills and how they should work in situations that you will encounter at the pool table.
Without going too far deep into psychology terms, I will start off by explaining what happens when players are strong in some areas of the mental game, but are weak in others. This chapter will make the mental game visible to you. We will start by separating our mental skills into 2 categories: Offensive Mental Skills & Defensive Mental Skills
OFFENSIVE MENTAL SKILLS
Offensive Mental Skills allow an player to dominate during competition. Offensive physical skills might include a powerful break that makes 2 or 3 balls consistently. The player is always making a ball on the break, spreading the pack, and getting a clear shot on the lowest ball. After that, Player X is able to run out the rack. Games are strung together, and this gets Player X ahead of his/her opponent. When these offensive skills are clearly well developed in Player X, other players know Player X is a contender. Offensive skills and abilities are absolutely necessary to be a world class pool player.
Offensive mental skills can also allow a pool player to dominate an event. Tremendous competitive desire causes the best players to put in extra time learning new skills to take their game to a higher level. A clear example of this is Allison Fisher. Allison deserves to be where she is at because she puts a lot of time in at the practice table. It is quite obvious that she doesn’t practice just one specific area of her game, she practices it all. She develops and fine tunes her entire game and is always trying to learn new skills that will enable her to stay ahead of her competitors. In competition, Allison’s competitive desire helps her rise to the occasion and overcome great efforts by other players to defeat her.
A drive to set and achieve goals keeps the game’s best players striving for improvement, identifying and eliminating weaknesses and keeping training intense, realistic, and focused.
The ability to visualize success allows the best players to practice for excellence and keep thoughts simple and practical. For athletes under pressure, self-talk skills help them think in a positive and useful way. This will keep the player from mentally battering themselves in competition when they are not performing well.
The ability to develop effective competition plans is a critical mental skill for all players, as pool is a game that has frequent decision making. A willingness and ability to commit to a plan of training and competition is an offensive skill that allows players to give 100 percent in competition and get the most out of new and innovative training methods. They do not leave their best game at the practice table. They bring it with them.
Comfort with risk is an essential offensive skill for competitive situations where too much caution can be the difference between first and tenth place. The ability to maintain a relaxed "competitive" approach is a related skill that allows players to act without hesitation and avoid the danger of cautious over-thinking. An excellent example of this is Earl Strickland. Earl very rarely over-thinks a situation. This keeps him focused on the task at hand, which is overcoming the obstacle that is before him. No matter what the risk, Earl never talks himself out of the shot.
Finally, confidence in skills and the competition plan allows players to stay on the offensive in their matches and throughout the tournament.
Offensive Mental Skills & Their Impact on Performance
Competitive desire - Helps motivate players to improve skills and "battle" for the win in a tight contest.
Competitive desire - Assists players in achieving personal bests, keeps intensity high and constantly improves the process of learning, training and competing.
Visualization skills - Allows players to see a path to success and keeps their thoughts simple during competition. The best players are able to see the run out in their minds first, then they make it an accomplished fact on the table.
Self Talk Skills - Players skilled in self-talk are aware of the language in their heads and actively adjust it to stay positive and action oriented. They do not mentally batter themselves when things are not going their way.
Competition planning - Helps athletes make decisions before competition, so that during the event they simply can execute rather than decide. This keeps the player from wearing him/herself out mentally during the match.
Ability to commit - Allows players to give 100 percent during competition and lets them stay with new approaches long enough to see a benefit in training (such as changing a specific technique).
Comfort with risk - Players that have developed this skill understand that taking risks at certain times reaps rewards, and that a winning approach sometimes requires a willingness to lose (fear of losing may prevent risk taking).
Relaxed Competitive Approach - When athletes are competitive, they are relaxed, mainly visual, looking for opportunities rather than danger and avoid hesitation. They do not over-think their situation.
Confidence - Confidence is the offensive skill that makes it easier to set high goals, see and believe success and execute good competition plans. Always remember that confidence is the prerequisite to consistency.
The word that may best describe pool players with extremely strong offensive mental skills is predator. These players are focused, intense, athletic, looking to win and ready to take advantage of the opportunity for success that competition provides. Without these offensive mental skills, players may be good, but they will never be great, and they will never become champions.
DEFENSIVE MENTAL SKILLS
Defensive skills help pool players succeed consistently and in all conditions. Defensive physical skills might include Efren Reyes’ ability to remain calm in the most pressure filled situations. It also includes Francisco Bustamante’s ability to respond positively after he has missed a few shots. It also includes Karen Corr’s ability to respond to offensive surges in a match by her opponent. When a player’s defensive skills are strong they are consistent performers, winning big events as well as small events. They are resilient and easily adapt to changes in their environment.
If offensive mental skills are necessary for excellence, players need defensive skills to maintain excellence, handle adversity and allow them to be at their best at the big events like the U.S. Open. Defensive mental skills also help players be resilient and consistent in any conditions. A player’s desire for excellence in training results in practicing the way they should compete in an organized, efficient and useful manner.
Controlling competitive anxiety becomes more important as the significance of the competition increases. The further the player advances in the tournament, the stiffer the competition will be. This will create anxiety if the player has not experienced that level of the tournament before. The ability to control anger and frustration before and during competitions allows players to quickly gain balance and recover from errors or problems in the environment or the equipment. The best players are able to put mistakes and bad shots behindthem. They do not dwell on them during the match. They understand that after the match, they can evaluate their performance, not during the match.
Control of energy levels falls into three different defensive mental skills:
1) ability to raise intensity level,
2) ability to recover emotional energy between efforts, and
3) ability to adjust energy up or down depending on the competitive situation.
The skill of quickly recovering from performance setbacks is a defensive mental skill that pays dividends in lengthy competitions or competitions with repeated efforts such as pool tournaments. Flexible response to changes in the environment may be most important at big events (top level tournament) where environment
changes the most.
The ability to focus, despite distractions is also critical at events where distractions increase in
proportion to the size and importance of the event. It is one thing to be able to focus and concentrate well
at a local 9 ball tournament, but the U.S. Open 9 Ball Championships is a completely different environment
with greater challenges. With distraction being ever-present, you need to develop the ability to reapply
focus and concentration when it is interrupted by distractions.
Finally, mental maintenance skills or the ability to maintain simple, effective thoughts under pressure is often the difference between having a great plan and executing it. These are phrases you can repeat to yourself that will maintain your confidence, focus and concentration. This is an extremely important skill to possess in those times where you miss easy shots, or you are unable to make a ball on the break. These phrases are designed to keep you positively focused.
The key words that describe defensive mental skills include: balance, resilience, and invulnerability. Players with strong defensive mental skills are individuals that others count on for consistent performance at tournament after tournament, big event or small.
Defensive Mental Skills & Their Impact on Performance
Desire for excellence in training- Pool Players should train as they compete, practically and efficiently, avoiding the problems of over-training and under-recovery.
Controlling - Allows athletes to stay in control, which is especially critical as the events get bigger and athletes become vulnerable to anxiety.
Controlling competitive anxiety - Allows athletes to stay in control, which is especially critical as the events get bigger and athletes become vulnerable to anxiety.
Controlling anger and frustration - Allows athletes to save energy for competition, control thoughts and stay on task, even when real problems exist.
Energy management(raising intensity) - Allows athletes to "ramp up" energy when the situation calls for it.
Energy management (recovery between efforts) - Allows the player to use the recovery time available so they have needed mental and physical energy throughout the match/tournament. This is especially important during tournaments where you have breaks between matches that will vary in length. Top players understand that what they say or do in between matches (either mentally or verbally) is just as important as what they say during the match.
Energy management (adjusting energy) - Allows players to be aware of the correct energy level needed for a given situation and to make quick adjustments, up or down, for physical and mental readiness. The player is able to maintain mental energy by remaining simple, yet flexible in their approach.
Recovery from performance setbacks - Allows players to quickly "bounce back" from mistakes, defeats or bad luck and yet retain positive and useful thoughts. This will keep the player from dwelling on missed shots, missed position, or scratches. The focus remains positive and the player is able to leave the self evaluation until after the match/set/ tournament.
Flexible when environment changes - Allows players to quickly adapt to change, tolerate disruptions to routine and see all changes as opportunities. Flexibility and adaptability to playing conditions and environments prevents the player from performing well ONLY in certain conditions, situations, or environments.
Focus despite distractions - Allows players to stay on task, keeping all five senses oriented only towards useful signals, even when all five senses could get pulled away from the task. Many players can be easily distracted by someone walking by the table during their final stroke, or by loud music, or an unexpected noise. The best players have a rehearsed focus recovery routine that they will perform to reapply their focus.
Mental maintenance skills - Allows players to be self-aware, noting changes and variations, making adjustments needed to keep thoughts simple and effective.
What does the Offense-Defense Model add to the usual list of mental skills needed for competition? An important item is the way to explain the behavior coaches see in players. Here are a few examples:
A player with a strong desire to dominate expects and plans to win and is dominant at the local level, but he/she always makes big errors in higher level competition. This player may have excellent offensive mentalskills, but his/her defensive mental skills probably need some work. He/she may lack control of competitive anxiety, in part because of the overwhelming desire to win or because the energy level gets so high at big events that thinking suffers, and he/she makes basic errors. This player may be resistant to working with a sport psychologist or a coach because the strong offensive mind perceives discussing anxiety as a weakness. This is VERY COMMON among pool players. He/she needs to understand that anxiety is normal, and the unwillingness to deal with it is a weakness.
A player gets in a rut. His/her playing have not improved, and he/she always loses to the same players over and over again. This player never plays terrible, but observers know he/she has more potential than is shown in active competition. This may be an player with good defensive mental skills but he/she may be missing offensive mental skills such as confidence, comfort with risk or drive to set and achieve goals.
A player is unbeatable when on a roll, but he/she can also go into the tank for months at a time. He/she may have deficits in defensive mental skills, making him/her vulnerable to distracting thoughts and unable to do mental maintenance. This player is probably also lacking offensive mental skills and needs to improve in the areas of competition mental planning, self-talk and confidence.
Offensive mental skills allow players to achieve greatness. Defensive mental skills gives them consistency and resiliency. Combine the two, and you have a dominant player. Players that are missing one or the other of these skills are tremendously frustrating to coaches and instructors, because you know they can perform so much better than they do. If this model of mental skills is useful to you, talk about it with your coach/instructor. By tying these invisible mental skills to visible results and using the simple Offense-Defense Model, you will no longer resist the idea of developing mental strength. Taking the plunge and actually taking an honest, objective look at your mental game is the first step towards greatness!!!
There is also the truth that many players resist this training, either being fed by their ego that says they are mentally superior, or by merely just blowing it off. Have you ever heard of anybody becoming proficient at anything without having to practice? Probably not. If a wrestler did not physically condition himself, his opponent would mop the floor with him quite easily. The need for physical skills in sports as well as the game of pool is evident. We need to possess a stroke, aiming, pocketing ability, getting position. The problem is that all of these physical skills are visible. The mental game is invisible. As a coach /instructor, it is my job to explain why we need various mental skills and how they should work in situations that you will encounter at the pool table.
Without going too far deep into psychology terms, I will start off by explaining what happens when players are strong in some areas of the mental game, but are weak in others. This chapter will make the mental game visible to you. We will start by separating our mental skills into 2 categories: Offensive Mental Skills & Defensive Mental Skills
OFFENSIVE MENTAL SKILLS
Offensive Mental Skills allow an player to dominate during competition. Offensive physical skills might include a powerful break that makes 2 or 3 balls consistently. The player is always making a ball on the break, spreading the pack, and getting a clear shot on the lowest ball. After that, Player X is able to run out the rack. Games are strung together, and this gets Player X ahead of his/her opponent. When these offensive skills are clearly well developed in Player X, other players know Player X is a contender. Offensive skills and abilities are absolutely necessary to be a world class pool player.
Offensive mental skills can also allow a pool player to dominate an event. Tremendous competitive desire causes the best players to put in extra time learning new skills to take their game to a higher level. A clear example of this is Allison Fisher. Allison deserves to be where she is at because she puts a lot of time in at the practice table. It is quite obvious that she doesn’t practice just one specific area of her game, she practices it all. She develops and fine tunes her entire game and is always trying to learn new skills that will enable her to stay ahead of her competitors. In competition, Allison’s competitive desire helps her rise to the occasion and overcome great efforts by other players to defeat her.
A drive to set and achieve goals keeps the game’s best players striving for improvement, identifying and eliminating weaknesses and keeping training intense, realistic, and focused.
The ability to visualize success allows the best players to practice for excellence and keep thoughts simple and practical. For athletes under pressure, self-talk skills help them think in a positive and useful way. This will keep the player from mentally battering themselves in competition when they are not performing well.
The ability to develop effective competition plans is a critical mental skill for all players, as pool is a game that has frequent decision making. A willingness and ability to commit to a plan of training and competition is an offensive skill that allows players to give 100 percent in competition and get the most out of new and innovative training methods. They do not leave their best game at the practice table. They bring it with them.
Comfort with risk is an essential offensive skill for competitive situations where too much caution can be the difference between first and tenth place. The ability to maintain a relaxed "competitive" approach is a related skill that allows players to act without hesitation and avoid the danger of cautious over-thinking. An excellent example of this is Earl Strickland. Earl very rarely over-thinks a situation. This keeps him focused on the task at hand, which is overcoming the obstacle that is before him. No matter what the risk, Earl never talks himself out of the shot.
Finally, confidence in skills and the competition plan allows players to stay on the offensive in their matches and throughout the tournament.
Offensive Mental Skills & Their Impact on Performance
Competitive desire - Helps motivate players to improve skills and "battle" for the win in a tight contest.
Competitive desire - Assists players in achieving personal bests, keeps intensity high and constantly improves the process of learning, training and competing.
Visualization skills - Allows players to see a path to success and keeps their thoughts simple during competition. The best players are able to see the run out in their minds first, then they make it an accomplished fact on the table.
Self Talk Skills - Players skilled in self-talk are aware of the language in their heads and actively adjust it to stay positive and action oriented. They do not mentally batter themselves when things are not going their way.
Competition planning - Helps athletes make decisions before competition, so that during the event they simply can execute rather than decide. This keeps the player from wearing him/herself out mentally during the match.
Ability to commit - Allows players to give 100 percent during competition and lets them stay with new approaches long enough to see a benefit in training (such as changing a specific technique).
Comfort with risk - Players that have developed this skill understand that taking risks at certain times reaps rewards, and that a winning approach sometimes requires a willingness to lose (fear of losing may prevent risk taking).
Relaxed Competitive Approach - When athletes are competitive, they are relaxed, mainly visual, looking for opportunities rather than danger and avoid hesitation. They do not over-think their situation.
Confidence - Confidence is the offensive skill that makes it easier to set high goals, see and believe success and execute good competition plans. Always remember that confidence is the prerequisite to consistency.
The word that may best describe pool players with extremely strong offensive mental skills is predator. These players are focused, intense, athletic, looking to win and ready to take advantage of the opportunity for success that competition provides. Without these offensive mental skills, players may be good, but they will never be great, and they will never become champions.
DEFENSIVE MENTAL SKILLS
Defensive skills help pool players succeed consistently and in all conditions. Defensive physical skills might include Efren Reyes’ ability to remain calm in the most pressure filled situations. It also includes Francisco Bustamante’s ability to respond positively after he has missed a few shots. It also includes Karen Corr’s ability to respond to offensive surges in a match by her opponent. When a player’s defensive skills are strong they are consistent performers, winning big events as well as small events. They are resilient and easily adapt to changes in their environment.
If offensive mental skills are necessary for excellence, players need defensive skills to maintain excellence, handle adversity and allow them to be at their best at the big events like the U.S. Open. Defensive mental skills also help players be resilient and consistent in any conditions. A player’s desire for excellence in training results in practicing the way they should compete in an organized, efficient and useful manner.
Controlling competitive anxiety becomes more important as the significance of the competition increases. The further the player advances in the tournament, the stiffer the competition will be. This will create anxiety if the player has not experienced that level of the tournament before. The ability to control anger and frustration before and during competitions allows players to quickly gain balance and recover from errors or problems in the environment or the equipment. The best players are able to put mistakes and bad shots behindthem. They do not dwell on them during the match. They understand that after the match, they can evaluate their performance, not during the match.
Control of energy levels falls into three different defensive mental skills:
1) ability to raise intensity level,
2) ability to recover emotional energy between efforts, and
3) ability to adjust energy up or down depending on the competitive situation.
The skill of quickly recovering from performance setbacks is a defensive mental skill that pays dividends in lengthy competitions or competitions with repeated efforts such as pool tournaments. Flexible response to changes in the environment may be most important at big events (top level tournament) where environment
changes the most.
The ability to focus, despite distractions is also critical at events where distractions increase in
proportion to the size and importance of the event. It is one thing to be able to focus and concentrate well
at a local 9 ball tournament, but the U.S. Open 9 Ball Championships is a completely different environment
with greater challenges. With distraction being ever-present, you need to develop the ability to reapply
focus and concentration when it is interrupted by distractions.
Finally, mental maintenance skills or the ability to maintain simple, effective thoughts under pressure is often the difference between having a great plan and executing it. These are phrases you can repeat to yourself that will maintain your confidence, focus and concentration. This is an extremely important skill to possess in those times where you miss easy shots, or you are unable to make a ball on the break. These phrases are designed to keep you positively focused.
The key words that describe defensive mental skills include: balance, resilience, and invulnerability. Players with strong defensive mental skills are individuals that others count on for consistent performance at tournament after tournament, big event or small.
Defensive Mental Skills & Their Impact on Performance
Desire for excellence in training- Pool Players should train as they compete, practically and efficiently, avoiding the problems of over-training and under-recovery.
Controlling - Allows athletes to stay in control, which is especially critical as the events get bigger and athletes become vulnerable to anxiety.
Controlling competitive anxiety - Allows athletes to stay in control, which is especially critical as the events get bigger and athletes become vulnerable to anxiety.
Controlling anger and frustration - Allows athletes to save energy for competition, control thoughts and stay on task, even when real problems exist.
Energy management(raising intensity) - Allows athletes to "ramp up" energy when the situation calls for it.
Energy management (recovery between efforts) - Allows the player to use the recovery time available so they have needed mental and physical energy throughout the match/tournament. This is especially important during tournaments where you have breaks between matches that will vary in length. Top players understand that what they say or do in between matches (either mentally or verbally) is just as important as what they say during the match.
Energy management (adjusting energy) - Allows players to be aware of the correct energy level needed for a given situation and to make quick adjustments, up or down, for physical and mental readiness. The player is able to maintain mental energy by remaining simple, yet flexible in their approach.
Recovery from performance setbacks - Allows players to quickly "bounce back" from mistakes, defeats or bad luck and yet retain positive and useful thoughts. This will keep the player from dwelling on missed shots, missed position, or scratches. The focus remains positive and the player is able to leave the self evaluation until after the match/set/ tournament.
Flexible when environment changes - Allows players to quickly adapt to change, tolerate disruptions to routine and see all changes as opportunities. Flexibility and adaptability to playing conditions and environments prevents the player from performing well ONLY in certain conditions, situations, or environments.
Focus despite distractions - Allows players to stay on task, keeping all five senses oriented only towards useful signals, even when all five senses could get pulled away from the task. Many players can be easily distracted by someone walking by the table during their final stroke, or by loud music, or an unexpected noise. The best players have a rehearsed focus recovery routine that they will perform to reapply their focus.
Mental maintenance skills - Allows players to be self-aware, noting changes and variations, making adjustments needed to keep thoughts simple and effective.
What does the Offense-Defense Model add to the usual list of mental skills needed for competition? An important item is the way to explain the behavior coaches see in players. Here are a few examples:
A player with a strong desire to dominate expects and plans to win and is dominant at the local level, but he/she always makes big errors in higher level competition. This player may have excellent offensive mentalskills, but his/her defensive mental skills probably need some work. He/she may lack control of competitive anxiety, in part because of the overwhelming desire to win or because the energy level gets so high at big events that thinking suffers, and he/she makes basic errors. This player may be resistant to working with a sport psychologist or a coach because the strong offensive mind perceives discussing anxiety as a weakness. This is VERY COMMON among pool players. He/she needs to understand that anxiety is normal, and the unwillingness to deal with it is a weakness.
A player gets in a rut. His/her playing have not improved, and he/she always loses to the same players over and over again. This player never plays terrible, but observers know he/she has more potential than is shown in active competition. This may be an player with good defensive mental skills but he/she may be missing offensive mental skills such as confidence, comfort with risk or drive to set and achieve goals.
A player is unbeatable when on a roll, but he/she can also go into the tank for months at a time. He/she may have deficits in defensive mental skills, making him/her vulnerable to distracting thoughts and unable to do mental maintenance. This player is probably also lacking offensive mental skills and needs to improve in the areas of competition mental planning, self-talk and confidence.
Offensive mental skills allow players to achieve greatness. Defensive mental skills gives them consistency and resiliency. Combine the two, and you have a dominant player. Players that are missing one or the other of these skills are tremendously frustrating to coaches and instructors, because you know they can perform so much better than they do. If this model of mental skills is useful to you, talk about it with your coach/instructor. By tying these invisible mental skills to visible results and using the simple Offense-Defense Model, you will no longer resist the idea of developing mental strength. Taking the plunge and actually taking an honest, objective look at your mental game is the first step towards greatness!!!