Post a reply

Skip to reduce stress, improve focus

Postby Sickpotter

Ok, I won't swear to the validity of this but it's an interesting theory.....

To be at your best and on command, Esquire magazine recommends that you skip. “Before a big meeting, a stressful situation, the chance to beat your mom at Yahtzee – any time you need to come through in the clutch, find a way to skip. Jim Fannin, a performance coach who’s worked with guys like Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Delgado, says that it’s hard to skip without laughing, even if it’s at yourself. Laughing adds endorphins to your bloodstream. Endorphins calm you down. Being calm reduces your stress. Reduced stress allows you to regain focus.”

:chin:

Certainly can't hurt <laugh>

Re: Skip to reduce stress, improve focus

Postby Eirebilly

Sickpotter;

I have kind of a serious question, I recently changed my stance (i am right handed) from a more side on stance to a more square stance for somewhat better control. However, i am starting to get a very sore elbow after a while and its affecting my power shots. Do you have any ideas on how to prevent this??

Re: Skip to reduce stress, improve focus

Postby Sickpotter

Changing your stance is a major thing so no surprise your power shots are suffering a bit right now. I wouldn't worry about that, it'll come with practice and power shots shouldn't be all that common if you keep the cueball under control.

My question would be why is your elbow hurting? Does the new stance force your arm higher or lower? I'm guessing higher as those with a square stance tend to have a higher arm. Why this would hurt your arm I don't know. The change IMO isn't enough to be the sole cause, do you play other sports? Tennis perhaps? A good case of tennis elbow can certainly cause problems. Thing about TE is you often think it's all fixed when it's just waiting to come back. I believe the cause of that is stretched ligaments so I'd hazard a guess that any excercise to strengthen the elbow ligaments would be a place to start. Check with a sports doctor though, you don't want to mess with your joints the wrong way ;-)

Re: Skip to reduce stress, improve focus

Postby Eirebilly

Cheers lads, I have been hitting the balls more regularly after finding new found enthusiasm with the drills that i learnt from John and sickpotter. The 74 wasnt done in competition though, just in frames that i have been playing against myself.

Sickpotter, I have figured out what the problem was myself. With the new stance i was gripping the cue in the same way and just as hard. After a trying new grips and trying not to grip the cue so hard (except on the power shots) i find my elbow no longer seems to hurt as much.

Re: Skip to reduce stress, improve focus

Postby randam05

I am a regular 30 break player and get fustrated of finding it hard to make regular 50s and find mid to long range shots tricky and no matter how hard I practice and get some rythm going..it comes to a game and I cannot pot a long one. Why is this?

Also I would love to pracitce 2-4 hours a day as I have a table at home but struggle to get an hour or two without losing my temper and focus. Have you any tips on how to stay focused on that practice table for hours on end? (I admire the players that practice a lot, especially mark williams doing 12-13 hours practice at one point! that is seriously amazing..I cant imagine being able to do 5 hours let alone 10,12,13 hours..genius)

Practicing is my main problem. Being able to get my head down and practice for ages. Before I got the table I couldnt imagine how fun it would be to practice alone hours on end. But now it is a chore. I wouldnt mind if I was a lot better, but cause im borderline of being cosistently quite good (50 break maker) it can be fustrating only putting 30s together and even that isnt as regular as id like.

Cheers,

randam05

Re: Skip to reduce stress, improve focus

Postby Sickpotter

Glad you figured it out.

I'm kinda wondering why your elbow didn't hurt prior to the new stance as you didn't change the way you gripped the cue but I've got a theory. :chin:

I'm no Dr. so this really is just a guess but it would be interesting to know if any feel my explanation makes sense.

With the new square stance your elbow is higher at address causing your forearm to be closer to your bicep. Effectively this puts the ligament on the back side of your arm (the one running through your elbow) at almost maximum stretch at address. On impact the forearm almost hits the bicep and that would put the ligament at max stretch. This would become even more problematic for a power shot as you'd almost certainly make contact with forearm and bicep and seriously stretch the ligament. Dropping the elbow is a way to achieve cue power without ever having the forearm and bicep meet but is harder/less natural feeling to do with a square stance. If someone is used to the side on stance, adopting a square stance and dropping the elbow can feel like your leg is in the way. People then stop dropping the elbow on power shots and cause strain on the elbow ligament trying to obtain the power they want.

Loosening your grip has allowed that ligament to be more relaxed at address which is preventing the overstretching. The injury seems similar to the strains one sees if they run without stretching first.

Sound reasonable?

Re: Skip to reduce stress, improve focus

Postby Sickpotter

randam05, please open your question in another post and I'll be happy to address it to the best of my ability. We're trying to keep each question in a seperate post for easy searching/organization.

Re: Skip to reduce stress, improve focus

Postby Eirebilly

I did change the way i gripped my cue sickpotter. My wrist now stays perfectly inline with my cueing arm. I am still not 100% used to my new stance yet but its certainly better for my control. Next step is to learn how to use effects with better control :D

Cheers for the help.