I hate losing. Well, maybe that statement is not completely accurate. I guess it’s not the losing that I hate, as there have been many matches where I’ve lost but felt good about it because I knew that I had played to the best of my ability. Last night was not one of those cases. I played in an 8 ball tournament Friday night at Lucky Shot Billiards. I think there were about 20 people in the tournament, and I ended up with 4th place, but I was very disappointed with my performance. Even in the matches that I won, I never really felt in control of my game. Nothing ever “felt right”. In my final match I played a guy whom I know to be a better player than me, and I was hoping to give him a tough match. Alas, I stunk! I had several opportunities during the match to take control of the table due to some weak safeties that he played, but in almost every instance I failed to capitalize on the opportunities and left him with runnable tables.
They say a lot of this game is in your head, and to a large extent that is true, but when you are given opportunities to make a shot and take control of the table, you must be able to make the shot! Ugggh! Enough of my whining. I contemplated playing in the 9 ball tournament tonight at California Billiards, but I still don’t feel mentally with it, so I think instead I’ll just take the day off and rest. I’ll also spend some time thinking about my performance to identify aspects of my game that I need to work on. After all, there’s always another tournament!
Angle of Reflection 