Fear of failure

I had a serious bout of failure after my new stick came in. I’m not sure how much of it was me learning the new equipment, and how much of it was me falling into a fear of failure. A slump is an interesting thing and it felt to me more mental than physical. I'd been losing league nights since my equipment came in, and it's scary.

One league night, I won the first game and scratched on the eight on the second game and mentally fell apart. My opponent just beat me rack after rack after that.

I know equipment doesn’t make the player but sometimes if you dress the part you start feeling like a better player. I think, honestly, I was falsely afraid after doing so well that I was going to fall. I had a true fear of losing all of the progress I’ve made.

Today helped. It was eight ball and a race to three. I won the lag and all three racks. I broke and ran the last rack up to the eight ball. Almost a break and run, but I played a safety on the eight because I couldn’t break it out earlier. I left my opponent in jail against the eight and the cushion. They had to kick with even all their balls on the table. It was an awesome safety. I ended up with ball in hand on the eight. It took everything I had to play safe because I really wanted the break and run.

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