Cementing The Gains

Myelin and neurons and skills, oh my!

As described in my last post, I burst through a performance plateau this week and am now shooting at a much higher level.  My biggest fear this morning was that it was all a fluke, and that today I would revert back to my previous performance level.  Nope.  I had an intense two hour practice session today and I continued performing at a much higher level.  Now it’s time to focus on reinforcing the gains so that I don’t revert back to my old self…but how?

In order to understand how to hold the gains, you must first understand what’s actually going on in your body.  Ultimately, our brain is the computer running the show, and in order to hold on to a complex activity (or skill) the neurons in our brain must grow a fatty substance called myelin.  When we are completing complex tasks (like making cut shots, planning and running routes, etc.), certain very specific neurons in our brain start firing, and the myelin substance wraps around and reinforces the neurons so that we can complete the tasks more efficiently and accurately.  Over time, the myelin creates a “superhighway” in our brain that is very specific to the task that we practice.  This is how we learn.  There’s a great explanation of this process provided by Daniel Coyle, author of the fantastic book The Talent Code.

My plan over the next couple of weeks is to repeat my intensively focused practice sessions daily to make sure I “hardwire” the improvements into my brain.  This is my opportunity to make the improvements stick.  No more slacking around!

Poolsynergy Gift Ideas

Welcome to PoolSynergy, a monthly collection of some of the best writing in pool.  This month our host Melinda asked each of us pool bloggers to recommend one book and one DVD for the holiday season.  I found it very difficult to pick just one book, so I’ll be presenting two.  Also, I’ll mention a DVD that has given me the inspiration to keep going even when I had bad days and felt like giving up.  Ok, drum roll please…here we go! 

The Talent Code

Book Recommendation # 1:  The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle.  Without a doubt, this book has made the biggest contribution to my development as a pool player…and the book has nothing to do with pool.  In fact, it never even mentions pool.  However, if you are serious about improving your game, I highly recommend you buy and read it.  You see, a few years ago I decided to ‘retire’ from pool…I was very frustrated with my lack progress as an APA level 6 player.  No matter how much I read, studied, and practiced the game, I just couldn’t break through to a higher level of play.  I gave up.  I had fallen for two misconceptions:  (1) “I’m an old geezer and I’m over the hill.  In order to get really good at pool, you have to be a child prodigy…right?”  WRONG!  (2) “Playing at a very high level requires that you spend at least 5-10 hours a day at the practice table, right?”  WRONG!  These are just a couple misconceptions addressed by the book.  In the book, Daniel reviews some of the latest research into the fundamental characteristics that all world class performers share regardless of their chosen specialty:  tennis player, soccer player, singer, actor, violinist, pianist, chess master…it doesn’t matter what field these people operate in…all share many of the same traits.  The book also reviews the latest discoveries in neurological science that describe the physiological and neurological basis for talent development.  Talent is actually a biological process, i.e. anyone can develop world class talent…you just have to go about it in the right way and approach it intelligently.  Now you can learn their secrets.  This book is a must read!

The Pro Book

Book Recommendation # 2 – The Pro Book by Bob Henning.  This is the best pool book I’ve ever read.  It introduced me to the concept of ‘reference shots.’  Here’s Bob’s approach:  Learn to execute the basic shots in this book extremely well.  There are about 16 basic shots, and some variations of these, which bring the grand total to around 45 shots.  During actual game play these shots come up quite often, but more importantly, almost every other shot that you encounter will be a simple variation of one of these reference shots.  When I bought the book earlier this year, I spent about 1.5 to 2.0 hours every day for two months on the standard position routes and drilled and drilled and drilled on them until I ‘owned’ them.  I also incorporated several concepts from The Talent Code into my practice routine…and the results were unbelievable!  My ball pocketing, position play, and route planning abilities skyrocketed.  Whereas I once operated at an APA skill level of 6, in just a few months I was able to progress to being one of the top skill level 7 players in APA system that I play in.  Yes, I still occasionally have a bad day, but those days have become more and more infrequent.  I’ve also taken the concept of ‘reference shots’ and applied it to many different aspects of the game.  If you can only buy one pool book, this is the one I recommend.

Predator 14.1 World Championships

DVD Recommendation – I don’t have very many pool DVDs.  I’ve watched and enjoyed some TAR matches, but I think the most inspirational DVD that I’ve seen was the 2009 Predator World 14.1 Championship match between Mika Immonen and Thorsten Hohmann.  Why?  Straight pool is, in my humble opinion, the ultimate test of a player’s skill.  It requires great ball pocketing, position play, route management, cluster breaking, and safety skills.  It’s really exciting to watch a player run ball after ball, rack after rack.  I’m not sure what it is, but there’s just something about the 14.1 break shot and the transition from rack to rack that amazes me.  It’s like the players can control something that inherently seems completely random.  Ahhhhh…real magic!

Well, that’s all for my recommendations.  If you want to read about the books and DVDs recommended by other PoolSynergy authors, visit Melinda’s blog here.

As Stubborn as a Mule

Today was day three of my frustrating struggle with shots 23 through 28.  Until today I had been logging an average success rate between 50 and 60% on most of these shots, seemingly unable to make any improvement regardless of the effort exerted.  The only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that the shots were possible, as demonstrated by my occasional serendipitous success.  Certainly, the amount of variation that I had from shot to shot was completely unacceptable.  I continued to struggle during my practice session today, and finally ended the session with a success rate around 55-60%.  Again.  Arrrgggghhh! 

I unscrewed my cue and put it away.  I sat in disgust to cool off a little before heading home to write a blog post about my third consecutive day with little progress.  As I sat, I thought back to Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code.  I thought about the characteristics common to most athletes who attain world class status:  drive, determination, an intense focus as they continue to push themselves to the very edge of their comfort zone, not afraid to fail, breaking down actions into tiny discrete steps, learning from their mistakes, making minor corrections, and continuing to drill and drill and drill at the edge of their capabilities until performance improves, then putting the pieces back together and moving performance to another level.  I said to myself as I’ve said many times before, “Hey, if they can do it, so can I!”  Yes, I’m stubborn.  Was I planning to go home with today’s track record in tow?  Hell No!

I yanked my cue out of the case and screwed in back together.  I reaffixed the tiny adhesive dots back on the table surface and set up shot 23.  I didn’t care how long it took, I wasn’t going home tonight until I had at least figured out this one shot.  I made my first attempt but didn’t like where the cue ball landed.  “OK, on the next attempt, maybe a little more spin, a little less power, a slight elevation to the cue, and a little more draw…..”  Nope.  “OK, this time….”  Over the next 150 shots, I continued to experiment with different variables until I found a combination that, for me, almost always sent the cue ball down the correct line.  Stopping on the target is, of course, another matter all together.  I was finally able to achieve an 80% success rate for shot 23, and decided to move on to shot 24.  About 100 shots later, I had also achieved 80% on shot 24.

I had had enough.  My left shoulder ached, my back and right side hurt, and my shooting arm was sore. I never thought that a pool workout could actually make me feel like I’ve been to the gym.  How many shots had I taken today?  800?  1,000?  No matter.  I’m very happy to have conquered these two shots.  I guess I’ll take some Motrin, get some rest, and strive to get back to the table again tomorrow to see if I’ve retained the improvements from today.

The Scoreboard

The Scoreboard

Today I established a dashboard to monitor my efforts as I improve my pool playing skills and transition from amateur to professional pool player.  My current training program is modeled after the approach presented by Bob Henning in his fantastic book, “The Pro Book.”  In his book Bob presents 16 basic shots and some variations of each shot which total around 124 shots.  My plan is to master five shots per week over the next six months.  I figure if I master all of these shots, my skill level will have increased to somewhere near the pro level.  “Mastering” a shot means being able to successfully execute the shot 80% of the time on demand.  If you’d like to track my progress, just click on “The Scoreboard” tab located at the top of my home page.  The due date that I have established for mastering all 124 shots is August 31, 2010.

To enhance my training efforts, I will also be incorporating the concepts presented by Daniel Coyle in his book, “The Talent Code.”  Some of the key concepts from Daniel’s book related to training and putting yourself into the sweet spot to gain maximum return on effort include:

1) Isolating an action.  Can you describe the shot you’re trying to learn in five seconds or less? If not, break the shot down into components and study each separately, such as:  a) visualizing and planning the shot, b) getting into position, c) stroking, d) shooting.   Also, it is important to have a precise, HD-quality mental image of yourself performing the desired skill in your head before you shoot!

2) Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.  You should be making, and fixing, mistakes.  Also, you should be varying the speed of your shooting routine: slow, super-slow, and fast (or normal).

3) Combining the individual components into a fluent performance.  You should be zooming in and out, isolating your attention on each component, then seeing how it all fits together in the larger picture.

For more information on maximizing your training efforts and learning the secrets to achieving world class performance, visit Daniel’s excellent blog here.

Blame it on Myelin!

Figure 1

Arrrrrgggghhh!  There is one particular shot that seems to be my Waterloo.  I have depicted the shot in Figure 1, and I have no idea why this shot continues to give me problems.  Earlier today, I had a few minutes between meetings, and I stopped by the company billiard table (yes, I’m spoiled) figuring that I’d throw the balls out and practice for a couple minutes.  This shot came up at least 4 times, and I missed three of them.  HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?  How can I make shots that are easily ten times more difficult, and yet I still miss this easy one?!

Thinking back to Daniel Coyle’s book, The Talent Code, Daniel explained the role of myelin in the brain, and how it helps to create nerve signal superhighways.  These superhighways enable a person to recreate thoughts or actions relatively effortlessly and repeatedly.  For example, when you first learn to ride a bike, the nerves involved in maintaining your balance have not been optimized by myelin, so you have difficulty maintaining your balance.  When you practiced riding your bike (and failing) over and over again, the nerves involved in motor coordination developed thicker coats of myelin, and soon you developed a ‘talent’ for riding bikes.  The ‘talent’ learned was not just cerebral, it is actually a very real biological structure that has been built in your body.  That’s why people say that you never forget how to ride a bike.  In actuality, the issue is not that you don’t “forget,” it’s that your body has been physiologically programmed to remember the skills necessary for bike riding.

Back to pool.  Why do I keep missing this simple shot?  The only explanation that I can come up with is that throughout my years of playing, I’ve always had trouble with this shot, and whatever error in aiming I’m making, I’ve been reinforcing that error over and over again.  Hence, I’ve biologically programmed my brain to miss it.  When I get down to shoot the shot, my brain says, “Yes, that’s it.  Go ahead and shoot.”  When I actually pull the trigger and shoot, guess what?  I miss!  Damn Brain!  DAMN MYELIN!!

How do we rectify this situation?  I need to build a new neural pathway that delivers the expected results, and somehow block off the pathway that leads to misses.  Sounds like I need another deep practice session to work just on this shot and try to build a new habit.  Easier said than done.  Building a new habit that is so closely related to an old (bad) habit is going to be very difficult, because throughout the process, my brain will be screaming, “NO!  Don’t do it that way! Do it MY way!!”  Arrrrggghh!

Well, enough talk.  Time to get back to the table.

Planning for success

I just looked at the calendar and realized today is December 12; over ten days since I last practiced.  I wrote a post three days ago, humorously (at least I hope so) coming up with excuses for my slackness, but I still haven’t managed to make time to get to the table.  What the heck is my problem?

It actually is true that I’ve had some distractions lately, but none of them constitute a valid excuse.  What I need is some discipline.  If Nelson Mandela could sit in solitude in an eight foot by eight foot concrete prison cell for 30 years, then come out and accomplish what he did, what possible excuse do I have for not being able to master the pool table?  (Yes, I saw Invictus last night.)  I need something or someone to kick me in the rear and hold me accountable.  Hey, wait a minute, when I first started this blog, wasn’t that my original stated purpose?  To publish my daily progress so the world at large could hold me accountable for sticking to my plan?  Yes, I guess that’s correct.  (I just had a troubling thought: what type of person sits at his kitchen table at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon writing this sort of stuff, then publishes it for everyone to read?  Am I suffering from some form of psychosis with delusions of grandeur?  Hummm.)

Upon rereading the previous paragraph, looking for spelling and grammatical errors, and Googling psychotic disorders, I just realized what’s missing.  THE PLAN!  I never actually established any sort of plan.  Sure, I have lots of technical knowledge, and I was motivated by Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code, but where’s the Plan?  I never came up with a Plan?!!!!

Dummy!

(Pregnant pause…)  Ok, I just skimmed The Talent Code again, and here’s a breakdown for those of you who are too lazy to read the book, and would rather rely upon the Reader’s Digest version of the Reader’s Digest version of the Reader’s Digest version of the Talent Code:

The secret to talent development:

1. Deep Practice (Building Myelin)
2. Ignition
3. Master Coaching

That’s it.  For now, I’m going to focus on deep practice sessions.

The secret to Deep Practice:

1. Chunk it up. See the whole picture; break it up into chunks; slow down the action.  Focus on fundamentals.  Play on tight tables.  Remember, precision is everything!
2. Repeat it. At least 5 days a week, 2 hrs/day max.  Deep practice is exhausting.  Most people, regardless of the sport, can’t maintain deep practice for more than 1-2 hours.  Most practice beyond this is relatively non-value added and may actually detract from skill building because you fatigue and start developing bad habits.
3. Feel it. Work at the edge of your abilities.  This is uncomfortable.  What I’ve learned from pool is that my brain almost always (99.5%) knows when I’m going to miss a shot before I pull the trigger…I just get impatient and refuse to listen.  Listen to your brain you Dummy!  Pool is not a race!!!

Here’s my initial Plan:

The Month of December 2009

Sunday – Day off / Planning Day.  Activities include:  (1) Review progress made over previous week.  (2) Plan next week’s schedule.  Options include: Make current drills harder, add new drills, etc.

Monday – Deep Practice: Rail shots and other trouble shots

Tuesday – Deep Practice: Position drills

Wednesday – Deep Practice: Bank shots and Combinations

Thursday – Deep Practice: Position drills again

Friday – Deep Practice: Burt Kinister’s 9 pointed star practice routine.  If you miss a shot or lose perfect position on the next shot, stop shooting!  Reset the previous shot and shoot it again.  Repeat it until you get it right.

Saturday – Day off / Coke Bottle practice at home

So there.  Now I have a plan.  No more excuses!

Eureka!

I recently experienced a set of events so profound, which excited me so much, that it took me a full two days to calm down enough to allow me to sit and write about it.  Where do I begin with this story?

In Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code, Daniel describes a curious phenomenon that he refers to as the HSE (Holy Shit Event).  If you’ve read chapter 4 of his book, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  The HSE is the feeling you get when a person who is “just like you” suddenly displays a quantum leap in skill level.  It’s the feeling of, “Where did that come from?”  Daniel describes the scene well:  A person in the process of developing talent is being watched by an outside observer, and the outside observer, while watching, is “…dumbstruck, amazed, and bewildered, while the talent’s owner is unsurprised, even blasé.”

I experienced a mini-HSE event on Monday afternoon, then another one on Tuesday.  As described in my blog posts from last Friday and Saturday, I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about shot making fundamentals and practicing away from the table (see October 28 & 29 posts).  This Saturday, I conducted a two hour deep practice session at Santa Clara Billiards working primarily on my stance, stroke, and bridging as they relate to rail shots (see my November 28 post).  The Saturday deep practice session was fantastic, and I thought about it all day Sunday.  On Monday, I stopped by Edgie’s Billiards in Milpitas, CA with the intention of doing another hour of follow-up work from the Saturday session.  When I walked into the room, guess who was already waiting for me?  Mike! (See my post “Eating Humble Pie” from November 16).

The Eureka Shot

Mike asked if I wanted to play a few games.  I had originally intended to do some deep practice work that day, but I didn’t want to be antisocial, so I accepted.  I broke the first rack but didn’t make any balls.  Mike made a couple balls, calculated that the table was too difficult to run, and decided to play a safe and leave me with a very difficult shot.  The shot that he left me is diagrammed to the right.  (There were other balls on the table, but they aren’t relevant for this discussion.)   I stood from my chair, walked to table, and an eerie calm feel over me.  I thought, “Hummm. This shot looks familiar doesn’t it?” It was almost the exact same shot that I had practiced on Saturday; it’s my “new friend”!   I carried out the exact same pre-shot routine that I conducted during my deep practice session; focusing on the approach, foot positioning, stance, level cue, rock solid rail bridge, smooth calm stroke, and then I pulled the trigger.  Cue tip and cue ball collided, the cue ball traveled up the table, cue ball and object ball met with a gentle click, the object ball rolled slowly up table at “pocket speed,” traveling to the far right corner pocket without touching any rails and with just enough energy to barely fall into the pocket.  A perfectly executed very difficult shot!  But here’s the funny thing: I wasn’t at all surprised; I was just doing what I had practiced on Saturday.  I stood up without saying a word, walked around the table, and kept shooting, and shooting, and shooting.  An hour later I looked up, and I was leading 8-1.  It wasn’t until I started unscrewing my cue stick that I realized that I had just played a nearly perfect match.

I know there will be good days and bad days.  I had a couple bad days recently, but after the Saturday practice session, it seems that I’ve somehow magically rewired my circuits.  My arm and body seem to be listening to my brain much better than before, almost on autopilot.  I had difficulty falling asleep Monday night.  When I woke up on Tuesday, it seemed almost like a dream.  I thought to myself, “Is it really possible to turn yourself around that quickly?  Surely not.  Probably just a fluke”. I was itching to get back to Edgie’s and practice more.  When I arrived the next day during my lunch break, Mike was not there, so I warmed up and hit practice shots for thirty minutes.  Everything seemed fine.  Everything was clicking.

Then for fun, I did something that I know I’m not supposed to do.  I grabbed two handfuls of balls, threw them out on the table, and started practicing run outs.  Usually when I practice run outs, I throw five or six balls out on the table, then try to pocket them in numbered order, similar to a game of nine ball.  This is one way to judge your progress and ascertain where you are in your skill development, but not necessarily the best way to practice.  I can usually run out about 40-60 percent of the time with six balls on the table, depending on how seriously I’m concentrating.  I looked at the spread in front of me, and realized that I had thrown out eight balls instead of six.  I have occasionally run out eight balls, but the percentages are very low, probably in the range of 2-10 percent.  “Oh, what the heck,” I thought.  I approached the table and started shooting.  I ran the table.  “Hah!  Bet you can’t do that again!” I chided myself.  I threw out eight more balls, and started shooting in order.  I ran out again.  A slight increase in heart beat.  A shortness of breath.  I threw out eight more balls.  I ran the table for a third time in a row.  Unbelievable.  I threw out eight more.  When the balls settled, two of them rolled up next to each other to form a cluster.  I was unable to break the cluster during my run, so I couldn’t run the fourth set.  I threw out another eight, and ran it out.  Now I’m freaking.  I stopped, sat in a chair, and looked around.  No one else was in the room, except for a handful of three-cushion players who weren’t paying me any attention.  I looked at my watch.  My lunch break was over, and I had to go back to work.  I guess it’s better to quit while I’m ahead.

Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, the big shopping day!  I live in a small condo in a residential /retail community named Santana Row, located in San Jose, California.  There are many benefits to living in a planned community.  Within a five minute walk of my front door, there are over one hundred restaurants and retain shops, and there’s rarely a need for me to drive my car.  There is one drawback however: Traffic.  Holiday traffic to be exact.  This morning, cars and trucks started arriving between 5:00 or 5:30 as bargain hunters descended upon our little neighborhood looking for big discounts on electronics and other household items.  I’m happy to see that shoppers are out and about, which of course is good for the economy and our community, but between the shoppers, the spotty California rain that arrived earlier today, and the traffic I would have to fight to drive anywhere, I think I may just stay in.  No problem for me; I’m still recovering from yesterday’s gluttony and I’ve got plenty of work to do here at home.

As I sit here at my kitchen table with a pot of hot coffee brewing, I’ve been thinking a lot about my match with Octavio on Wednesday at the California Billiard club.  There were two shots off the rail that came up at least twice during our match.  In all four instances, I missed the shot, and as a result, Octavio ran out.  See Figures 1 and 2 below.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Borrowing from Daniel Coyle’s concept of Deep Practice, I’m going to dedicate my next practice session to these two shots.  I will set them up and shoot them over and over again until I own them.  I will shoot them until they don’t present me with any fear or trepidation.  I will shoot them and shoot them and shoot them until I can make them in my sleep.

My concern with this type of repetitive practice is that there is a danger that the monotony could lead to laziness and a lack of concentration.  How do I address that?  Maybe I will imagine there are two or three people watching my practice sessions closely, judging me on my performance.  Maybe I will enforce a thirty second wait period between each shot.  This will force me to slow down and take time to think before each shot.  Yes, that’s the plan.  A thirty second wait period to force me to evaluate my stance, bridge, and stroke between each shot.

So that’s it.  Tomorrow I will travel down Stevens Creek Boulevard to Santa Clara Billiards.  It’s a great place to go if you want some quality solitary practice time at a table.  The pockets on table number two are triple shimmed to make the pockets extra tight.  This forces you to be more precise in your aiming and helps to increase your accuracy.  After shooting on a triple shimmed table, the pockets on a regular table look like bushel baskets.  I’ll work on these two shots, focusing my efforts on stance and stroke, and also do some work on my bridges.  I’ll give you a report tomorrow.