“That’s just how I play now.”
Every once in a while, I find myself matched up against a better player that I haven’t played in years or months. Well, at least that’s how I remembered them. It’s times like these that I can truly see my improvement. When we’re constantly playing with our same circle, the improvements are much less noticeable. It’s not until we beat that player that we remember worshiping from our first year in leagues does it really hit home how much better we now play. And that’s when I have to remind myself (and sometimes them, when they seem so surprised), “That’s just how I play now.”
Last night, I played in the big table 9-ball tournament at Rack ‘Em. The field was small, but I split the pot 3-ways in the end with Adam (great player, somewhat recent transplant from AZ) and Wayne (a super kid who has been working very hard on his game). During the tournament, I drew Tony G. Now, it’s been a couple years since we’ve played seriously and I beat him in the tournament. Neither one of us played our best but afterward we played a few racks of 8-ball where I proceeded to run out and run out and run out and even wondered to myself, “Is this really how I play now? Or, am I just playing way above my head?”
I wrote about a similar phenomenon in a recent article where you sometimes psych yourself out because you play someone that you’re so used to losing to. In this case, I just did my job and trusted my mechanics. Truthfully, the article and the topic for this blog post did come to mind, but the difference was that I truly believed that I was (am) a better player than I was two years ago, six years ago, etc. Therefore, I had the confidence to close out the racks.
Project: Tampa
I have given much thought to a training regimen for myself to prepare for Tampa. Since I am not currently competing as much as I was before, I feel like I’m taking this tournament a little more seriously. Not that I’m necessarily putting more pressure on myself, but I’m actually being very thoughtful about how much I’m going to get to practice before this event. This year, I really want this!
There are now 37 days before the tournament and I want to show up knowing I did everything I possibly could’ve to feel as ready to play as possible.
I put together a training program for myself from now until November 5. I have been following it thus far, but putting it in words here helps hold me accountable:
- Practice everyday for approx four hours, min two hours
- Play in at least two tournaments a week, at least one big-table tourney
- Play at least one set race-to-five (8-ball and/or 9-ball) against someone during each practice session
- Continue going to the gym four days a week
- Turn in at least four 6 Pocket scores a week
- Play against as many different people as possible each week
- Track progress here
That’s all for now. More details to come.
[...] far, I’ve been fulfilling my training commitment to myself. This past week, I worked out five days, hit balls for at least two hours every day, and [...]