Project: New Shaft (Days 20, 21, etc…)
The final three days logged in with my new shaft can be summed up in three words:
Good, Bad & Ugly
The GOOD (Tuesday)
Last Tuesday night, my friend “Gray” met me at Table Steaks for a practice session. This session started of a little rocky. We played two sets of Equal Offense and I only barely scored a 34 in the second set, both having a few goose eggs. We won’t dwell on that.
But then, we decided to play some 10 Ball sets. I lost the first set 7-5 and won the next two 7-3, 7-3. I really started to get in stroke and almost even made a little break through with my stroke. I just kept reminding myself to stay smooth and loose. I could really see/feel a huge difference when I would execute a shot without a loose grip/stroke.
After we were done, I stayed a played a couple songs on Guitar Hero. Yeah!
The BAD (Wednesday)
The next night was the weekly 10 Ball tournament at Table Steaks South. Before leaving the house, I joked with Mike about my usual third place finish. I felt pretty geared up when I arrived because I’d just had a great 10 ball session the night before and I felt really confident about how I was hitting the ball.
In fact, Danny Medina and Melvin Sharp “The Black Rattlesnake” made an appearance on this night. While I was warming up, Danny even stopped me to ask my name, then said he’d been hearing about me and that he liked the way I hit the ball. Really? Well, quite honestly, I wasn’t hitting the ball that great during warm-up and unfortunately, it would only get worse throughout the evening.
South can be a great or not-so-great place to play depending on whether or not you can handle it. The tournament is played in the pit, set much lower than the seating. The railbirds sit all around you and can watch, analyze, and commentate each and every move you make. When you’re on, it’s a beautiful, exhilarating feeling! When you’re not, it only gets worse…
It was the strangest thing. I didn’t even feel like I was me. I felt like I had no control over what was happening. I lost my first match when I hung a 10 ball at hill-hill. The cue ball was in the jaws and I had a goofy bridge. No excuse, the 10 was only a few diamonds away and it was nearly hanging in the pocket. I felt like I was drugged or something. Later, my friend Monte told me I seemed really preoccupied. Interesting… What could it have been?
Melvin just put me out of my misery in the next round, 4-1. He played relentlessly and afterwards reminded me that I had beaten him the last two times we played and that he was due. Fair enough. Back to the work for me.
The Plain Ol’ UGLY (Thursday)
On Thursday night, I was subbing for the make-up round for this team. The make-up rounds don’t start until league is over, usually after 9pm, so I was able to play in the 9 Ball tournament at the Cue Club.
Looking forward to just getting the bad taste out of my mouth from the night before, I couldn’t wait. Oddly, I still didn’t feel right warming up. Then, first rounds were called and I drew a friend of Laura and Melissa’s called Ramona (I’ve since learned it was Ramona Biddle). I figured it was one of their WPBA friends, but I didn’t care. I was looking forward to seeing how my skills matched up again a new WPBA peer.
I started off the first rack pretty strong after she missed a safety on the 2 ball. I still didn’t feel great, but was just working really hard for every single shot. It was so strange. I didn’t feel nervous at all. In fact, you know how you can usually tell when you’re about to miss a shot? We’re not lined up right or we’re distracted and we shoot it anyway? Well, I didn’t feel any of those things. It was so frustrating. I was ahead 3-1 and ended up losing 5-3. I easily could’ve won 5-1 but, again, just couldn’t get it together. By then, she was all warmed up and started playing great. Bad combination for me.
Next, I ran over and played out my 5 bar table 8 ball games very quickly, had two table runs, and only missed two shots. I ran back over and played my friend Caela. Still not feeling back up to par, I really had to bare down. I’ve always looked up to Caela and I usually tend to let that get to me. As not-myself as I was feeling/playing, a few lucky rolls and some just-make-the-ball-ness helped me pull through.
Unfortunately in my next match, I played, quite possibly, the worst pool I’ve played in a very long time. It was so sad and embarrassing. I lost 5-1 to a player I should’ve beaten 5-0. I had a chance in every single game. Though he could pocket balls quite well, he was not a runout player because he had no cue ball control. I did everything I could to lose that match and I did. I missed a 7 ball, an 8 ball, and a 9 ball, all which easily should’ve been made. Frustrating, I know.
It really sucked because, though I’m not thinking about this at the time (or maybe I am, I don’t know), I hadn’t played in that tournament with many of those great players in so long. That’s the toughest competition in town and when I used to play amongst them regularly, I couldn’t run more than three balls on a big table and I definitely would dog the 9 ball out of nerves. Well, I don’t do that stuff anymore, well at least I’m not supposed to. But I did it all on Thursday night.
Oh well. I’m not worried I’ll fix it.
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[...] I begin, I would just like to mention that I “fixed” the problem from Days 20 & 21 when I was experiencing some unexplainable ugly pool. I couldn’t figure out at the time why [...]