Last night was league and I would have done better if I hadn’t shown up. Shortly after getting there I started getting a headache, not sure why, but it was just enough to put me in a less-than-stellar mood, but not enough to make me want to go home. I should have, but oh well.
In the interest of honesty in this blog, I’ll go ahead and divulge the rest of the evening. Our players were late, so when we did the matchups, I had to play every round, since I’m lowest ranked player. Normally, I’d be fine with that, but… after my 1st game, I wasn’t so sure. There’s a slew of shots I could talk about, but none of it really matters. What matters is that I missed the shot, shape or just plain made bad decisions. I’ve been trying to figure out just what was the problem, am I ignoring my routine, am I worried about the league, am I still pissed about the tournament, am I getting sick, am I … ? Dunno. I know that all of those thoughts are going through my head while I was shooting. As much as I tried to “clear the mechanism”, I just couldn’t.
The entire night was a disaster. I had so many chances to get out, and any other day I would’ve been out, not last night. After losing my 3rd match, I was so furious I wanted to scream, I went to the bathroom and looked for something softer than concrete and in a fit of anger punched the stall wall. I dunno what thing is made of, but god damn, it’s hard material. Much harder than I anticipated. Scraped up my knuckles and the spaces between my 3rd and 4th knuckles started bruising/swelling immediately. I was really worried I broke something for a while, but it’s fine. Just bruised.
I had to play 2nd in the next round (I was last in the previous round). We needed 2, they needed 1. I took a bunch of deep breaths, tried to clear my head. I won the lag, smashed the rack, didnt make anything. My opponent ran 5 balls and missed. I chose my pattern carefully, but after the 3rd shot, I came up short and tried to scramble to get in-line, but missed the thin cut. I had 4 balls on the table, with one hanging. I hit the duck too hard and went futher up-table than I wanted. I had a plan to get out, but my captain didn’t like it because it involved using a partially blocked pocket. He was right, but I was a little annoyed that my plan had to change. I came up short on the first shot and tried to slice the 15 into the side in what is essentially a spot-shot on the short length. I missed, while also moving her ball in the path of the 8, so if I had made it, I would’ve screwed myself. She ran the last 2 and sunk the 8. I went 0 for 4 last night. Absolutely disasterous. It burns my ass that I *KNOW* the captain will remember that and I probably wont play but maybe once next week. Everyone has a bad night, but… man that was horrible.
I shook some hands, packed up and drove home. I was thinking about not playing at all this week, but I dont think that’s the issue. I could’ve been the amount of time I’ve spent on the big table monday night. It could’ve been a lot of things. I just don’t know. Taking some off isn’t a bad idea – but if I go back to the pool hall, I’m not sure if I want to play on the bar tables or not. My captain insists my problem is that I don’t play on them enough. I know he’s got a point, but I’ve been playing on them enough to know I have a pretty good feel for them now. The problem is I just can’t seem to really enjoy playing on them. I mean, sure, I like playing pool and I like running out and I like playing the game. And after a few hours, I forget it’s not really my table; but when I go to the pool hall, I want to play pool – real pool.
Perhaps that last line is the exact reason I’m not doing as well as I should. I just don’t really find any “awe” in 8-ball like I do with other games. I’ve been really into one pocket lately, and almost have no desire to play 9-ball anymore. I think I need to just pick a discipline and stick with that for a solid month to see how it goes. Maybe that’s what I should do… Only play one game each month. 8-ball for July, 9-ball for August, 1P for September, 10-ball for October, 14.1 for November.
Something to think about.