Don’t Give up - Unless You’re Giving up a Bad Habit
Our Women’s Masters Team is a third of the way into the new fall league session. This year, we picked up a fifth player for the league. He won’t be playing with us in Vegas, but we need five players on league night. As an APA 6 in 8 ball, this is his first time playing VNEA or BCA. I’m proud of him for stepping outside the APA box.
During league a couple weeks ago, he missed a shot and his opponent began running the table. With each ball made, I watched in frustration as my new teammate became antsy and anxious. He paced around and finally set his cue down and mumbled, “Its over. I’m sorry. He’s out. It’s over.” I could’ve strangled him…
There are plenty of bad habits I could write about. In fact, I have. I wrote an entire book about them. Some of the worst habits are anything that takes you away from being fully and completely prepared to kill. This is a perfect example. To verbalize the fact that your opponent is out and that the game is over is simply giving up and I refuse to give up. Although he didn’t break down his cue, he may as well have in my eyes.
It’s understandable to be disappointed when you miss a shot or don’t do what you intended to, but I found his display of quitting behavior to be unacceptable. We spoke about it after his match and he tried to explain that he was “being realistic” and knew his opponent was going to get out.
I explained that while his opponent is at the table, he has thoughts of losing to them and what the score will be versus what it should’ve been. And, while my opponent is at the table, I’m planning my next move and expecting them to make a mistake (whether it happens or not). I’m hoping they will miss, scratch, miscue, or even trip and bump into the table and land on the cue ball so I can have ball in hand.
The point is that no matter how good things look for my opponent and not-so-good they may look for me, I refuse to give up. If you’re just going to give up whether it’s mentally or physically, then why play at all? If you’re not going to give 100% whether you’re at the table or not, then you can’t expect 100% in return. Do your best and expect the best!
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