From the frying pan and into the fire

Ok. I’ve been on fire. I have only racked a single eight ball rack in all of November. I’ve won all but one rack. On that rack I scratched on the eight and beat myself. I’m not sure why I’m playing so well but it feels great.

The problem is, that I feel I keep making improvements but it’s hard to tell if I actually am. I always learn a lot more from failure and I haven’t failed a lot lately (knock on wood right? Ha) While it feels good, I know that I’m not facing difficult competition. I need to just get owned once and put in my place.

One weird thing happened though. My last match I was up 3-0 in a race to four and the weirdest thing happened. I barely missed the eight, hanging it in the pocket and my opponent walked up frustrated. He took three practice swings and accidentally tapped the cueball on his last swing. I called foul and he flipped out. He looked at me and said, “Really dude?” And made me feel like crap. I said, “sorry, but it’s a team game and I have a bunch of other people counting on me”, but I was really far ahead and wouldn’t have lost. I took the ball in hand but felt really shitty about it.

Lessons Learned:
1) Failure is temporary, and so I must assume so is success. I seem to learn from my failures and enjoy my success. I need to learn to enjoy my failures more and learn more from my successes.

2) I have to stop trying to play referee or being nice to my opponent. It’s not my fault when they fail. I can only control my own play. My opponent knows the rules, and they know what a foul is. I need to learn that the table is not the place to be nice or mean. It’s simply the field in which we play the game.

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