What is your level of play in billiards?
Once I arrived at a billiards and asked at a table if I could take a turn to play, a very arrogant gentleman says to me:
He: “What is your level of play?”
I was thinking for a while and answered him:
Me: “I will show you my level, playing”.
He: “Ok, take your turn but keep in mind that you won’t last long at the table, we are all professionals here”.
I love this kind of people, they like to talk a lot, and then shut them up and make a fool of him in front of all his friends.
Waiting for my turn, I started to think.
My level of play is demonstrated by the experiences that are accumulated at the:
- Do pool drills on a daily basis.
- Practice a lot of different game situations.
- Playing with people stronger than me.
- Surround myself with professional billiard players, because they give you the push to raise the level.
- Surpass yourself every day with the challenges you are presented with while playing.
- Losing quite a few games and reflecting on why I lost, what shots I missed and how I could have played them better.
- Losing fear.
- Keep calm when they make noise, talk to you before the shot, say things to distract you, move the cue in front of the pocket where you are going to pocket the ball.
- Do not get distracted or nervous.
For that you have to be mentally strong and super motivated to face everything that comes, this not only applies to billiards, but also in life.
To know your level of play, look at your experience with billiards.
You are an apprentice or a beginner, when you don’t know anything, the basics or you have a bad grip on the cue stick. Below you will find a free guide to correct that part.
You are semi-professional if you know the basics of billiards, the main effects (up, center and down), secondary effects (left and right) and other topics explained in the sections of each corresponding level (you can find it in the navigation menu).
When you have learned and passed the two previous levels, to become a professional, you must have won at least 1 important tournament and feel that you are already a professional, however, even here the work does not end, you have to keep improving every day.
If your goal is to become a professional player you must have gone through the whole learning process, improve yourself every day, gain more experience practicing.
Defeats make you stronger, so keep going, don’t give up, overcome your fears and encourage yourself to participate in tournaments to be number 1 in your club, town, city, country, etc.
Continuing with the previous story, it was finally my turn.
First of all, don’t get nervous, nerves make you miss shots.
Take a deep breath on each shot, look at the table and create a mental movie of how you are going to pocket the balls and how you are going to place the cue ball.
Okay, I have the movie in my mind, I put chalk on the top before I position myself, I picture each shot in my mind along with the desired spin.
I crouch down, get into position, chin touching the cue stick, on the third swing I execute.
Zaz! first in, second in, third in….
The gentleman starts sweating and speaking says:
He: “The first two were lucky, you don’t enter the third one because it’s difficult”.
The third ball goes in too.
He starts to make noises, to move the cue, to call attention.
I think in my mind: Nothing at all, that doesn’t affect me thanks to an exercise I created for these situations.
I concentrate, nothing distracts me.
I keep imagining the movement of the balls along with the placement of the cue ball.
When you have that situation and you think you are not sure you are going to sink the ball, STOP, look at the table, use chalk, take your time, think about the shot and when you have it, execute.
Another situation that can happen if you have a difficult shot is to make a safety shot.
The man didn’t know what to do, and when he lost, he made an excuse.
Making excuses looks very bad, better accept the defeat, say something like, I must try harder, practice more.
But not something like: “it was luck, today is not my day, it’s because of the cue, I left my glasses at home, I have a lot of time without playing”.
Excuses will make you back down and will not allow you to progress in your game.
Accept defeat and congratulate your opponent.
This is one of the best satisfactions: to shut the mouths of arrogant people who claim to know more than you.
I have a friend who plays little but wins a lot of games because he only plays defensively, in every shot he defends himself so that the opponent shoots with rails or cannot hit the balls correctly, he only shoots the easy balls, that is his tactic.
If you are learning you can use that type of tactic for the moment, however, the best thing to do is to learn how to place the cue ball with different spin to place the ball where you want it.
You do this by practicing, playing a lot, getting playing experience or the easiest way, getting my billiard book called “Master your Billiard Game in less than 3 Weeks“, see what the Belarusian Champion, Alisa Dianisevichus says about the book.
Problems with your Pool Game ?
Be a Billiard Pro in 3 Weeks
Thank you so much".
