A great night at league

I don't know why I get so nervous when I go out to play 8 ball on our league nights.  Yet, every time I'm out, my heart races in anticipation of proving that I'm a half decent pool player.  In reality it shouldn't even matter how I do during the regular season.  Our regular season actually doesn't mean much as far as the standings go.  Unless you're in first place, then the stats are not particularly relevant.  In the end every team ends up in the playoffs and everyone makes it into the money.  The best teams will go on to win Vegas trips, so there is motivation to do well in the playoffs.  Which means that playing in a regular league night is nothing more than an opportunity to have fun, and earn some bragging rights with your teammates and opposing players.  Why do I feel like I'm playing for the world cup then?

I don't know to be honest.  I think it's a combination of several things.

• I am a very competitive player, no matter what the sport is.  To be more specific though, I'm very competitive with myself.  If I think I could have done better, I get very mad at myself.  I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well and do not like it when I under perform.  I put in a lot of hours practicing during the week between games.  I focus on improving my game and do plenty of drills to help bring up my abilities.  I even have a coach to help me out.  With this invested effort that pays dividends between games, I feel that it should also show up on league night.  I know I'm improving and I can see it in my practice, so I want to make sure it's not wasted effort and have it prove itself on the table during league night too!
• I also want to make sure I don't let my team down.  Yes I know the games don't mean anything during regular season, but our team gets pretty pumped when we win and often quite down when we loose.  I want to make sure I'm a top contributor so I guess there's pressure to do well from my team.
• I don't want to embarrass myself on the table in front of my peers and opponents that I play against.  I want them to know that I belong in this division and that I even though I'm a fun guy to play against, I'm also a decent competitor who has earned the right to play at this level.  I don't want to be "that guy" everybody knows.  The one who they feel is an automatic walkover. 
• We also play with a low man rule.  This means if you're the low man for the night, you have to sit the next night.  I love to play, so I don't want to sit.  That means I have to shoot better than the next guy/girl on my team.
• As part of being a competitive person, I also have the desire to be at the top of the pack as well.  I want to be the best player on our team.  I like the knowledge of being the best player on the team even though there is added pressure that comes with that.  I love reading the stats from week to week and seeing my number go up and up.  It's fun having a rivalry with 1 or 2 or 3 players on my team.  It makes us all strive to be better which I think is pretty normal for a competitive person or team.

So with all these things contributing to the excitement I get when I go to play pool, it definitely has an effect on how well I do.  I find that my heart races, and my muscles tense up.  It affects the way I hold the cue, and how well I stroke the ball.  My aim is affected and my shots start to falter.  Once I start playing poorly, I start to loose confidence in my ability and it just magnifies the problem.  The mental game really gets to me.  I think once I master the mental game, I'll be master on the pool table as well.  When I play from a calm and confident place, I actually play very well.  

Knowing all of this makes last night's league night a moral victory for me.  Out of a possible 40 points I managed to score 35 last night.  This means I also won 3 out of the 4 games I played in.  Not only did I win 3 of the 4, but in the game that I lost, I was only 3 balls shy of winning that game too.  I was only 3 balls shy of having a perfect night on the score board.  

I have a lot to be happy about as far as my performance goes.  To be fair the team we played last night was not as strong as the previous teams we've played this year.  However, despite the fact that they did not run us out on every game, I still played well enough that I would have beaten anyone from the previously played teams as well. I moved the ball around on the table nicely, and I executed my game plan on the table well, and I made the shots I needed to when it was important to do so.  I made some great safeties to retain control of the table and I made some difficult shots to get myself out of trouble when I was in a tough spot.  I played well and it was reflected in my scores.

I should be able to retain my 7 average and possibly even jump it up to a 7.5.  I also ended up being top player on our team for the night.  I think my stats overall are moving in the right direction.  I need to build on this momentum now and continue to shoot well.  As Darren (my coach) says, the more often I play under pressure situations, the more I will be comfortable with it and as a result the more often I will do well, and improve as a player.  I need to play under pressure more often to learn how to deal with it and improve as a player.  I think I'm getting there.  I'm already looking forward to next Tuesday!