Hump Day Break
I gave myself the night off tonight because I felt I deserved it.
I had some laundry to do (that never got done), some other work to do (doing some of it right now), and some errands to run (including 9 holes of golf with a good friend earlier today).
Monday night’s practice was an interesting one.
I decided to head over to Rack ’Em in Aurora. I hadn’t been there in a while and rumour has it that our US Amateur qualifier will be held there so I wanted to make sure I got some time in on those tables.
I split a set with my friend Eric that I hadn’t seen in a while. He just got there shortly after I did and wanted to play a few games while he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish with league. We alternated 8ball and 9ball.
After he left, I experienced an unbelievable high when I ran over 8 racks of not letting the cue ball run into another ball. I spread all 15 balls on the table and just kept going and going. It was invigorating! I have to admit that in the first two racks, I graced a couple balls but at least I made the shot! The final shot that I missed was a fairly easy one that I just took my eye off of. I had allowed my concentration to slip. I think I ran approximately 128 balls. Sweet!
Next, my friend Brian showed up that I also hadn’t seen in a while. We wanted to play one set of 8ball and one set of 9ball but they kicked us out after our 8ball set. I won, 5-4 after being down 3-0. I had a slow start. I was not stroking the balls very confidently in the beginning and it really reflected in my positions.
Last night, I was back at Steaks.
I got a pretty late start so I just threw some balls out and started hittin’ ‘em in when a presumptuous man approached my table while reaching down for the rack and said, “Let’s play.” “Excuse me?!” I said. “Let’s play some,” he responded. “No thanks. I’m practicing.” That’s my usual response. To which he asked, “Are you sure?” That’s hilarious! It took a few more demands from me insisting that I didn’t need his company before he finally stepped away from my table.
Afterwards, I got heckled from another drunken spectator and just began hitting more balls and trying to stay focused. I admittedly was struggling with my attention and competitiveness during all of this.
As I looked over, my friend Greg was practicing by himself also and I asked if he wanted to play a couple games before they kicked us out. He had attended my clinics before so it was nice seeing him practicing some of the things we’d gone over. He happily obliged and I never gave up one game out of about eight. It was a true test for myself to take the games seriously even though I knew he was a weaker player and I was supposed to beat him. I was glad to see he played well, also. My break was huge & flawless and my patterns were impeccable. I was proud of myself for taking it seriously and making the three tough 9 balls that I had.
It’s back to work tomorrow.
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