petie
Verified Member
I am still kind of green compared to most here, been playing pool for going on 7 years now. I have felt pressure against better players and sometimes have risen to the occasion and other times my arm tightened up on me. As I am gaining confidence it happens a good deal less, I think its all about the time and experience you have in competition with tough players who will punish you if you miss. I have played some awesome pool against guys who were hacks, no pressure and just free wheeling knowing they would not make me pay.
I hope as time goes on and I keep getting more experience and my confidence grows I will have less moments of freezing up. Imagine playing Efren and your hill hill at the US Open One Pocket, you need 1 ball its a tough cut down the rail and if you miss Efren has open balls by his hole, you know if you miss he is going to punish you and you will think of what could have been, being able to beat Efren.
These thoughts can creep up in your head and your muscle memory gets a little screwy and you dog it. We can all sit here never being in that situation and say we would just make the ball no problems or thoughts, the reality is many players have dogged it to Efren. He should have lost several tournaments he won but players dogged it against him. You do not know how you will perform until your under the gun.
An honest man. Cornbread used to say, "I like to bet enough to put a tremble in the other guy's arm." It never seemed like it effected him that much.