A Little Vac'ay and Some Site Feedback

Hey everyone, I am here in sunny Riverside, California, spending some time with my in-laws, recuperating from the WPBA San Diego Classic. I felt great at this event but I had some pool-fortune giveneth and some pool-fortune takeneth-ed away. With a bit of luck I emerged victorious in a well-played hill-hill match in the first round only to end up on the other side of that luck in another well-played hill-hill match on the B-side. Just one of those opportunities <...gritting teeth...> to pay more attention to the positives (the quality of my play and valuable lessons learned) and less attention to the results <...bile rising in throat>.

In other news, it's great to know that there are folks out there reading my sporadic musings, even if 75% of them are related to me.

Here is an e-mail I received recently from my friend Bill*:

"When I was a boy, I somehow, and purely accidentally ended up with two t-shirts that had cartoon [tigers] on them. One weekend where I visited [my cousin], again purely coincidentally, I brought both of them and wore them. The [family] became convinced that I was into [tiger] t-shirts. So they bought me some. Then, since I had a bunch of them, I wore them, and then other people observed that I was "into [tiger] t-shirts" and so they bought me more. Eventually, virtually every t-shirt I owned had [tigers] on it. Seriously. It turns out that there are a lot of [tiger] t-shirts out there, and eventually I had an army of relatives who would see any [tiger] t-shirt and think "Hey, doesn't little [Bill] like to wear these things? I think I'll buy it for him!"

Eventually, the idea that I liked [tiger] t-shirts spread and morphed into the idea that I like all-things-[tiger]. So people would buy me [tiger] figurines, [tiger] drinking glasses, [tiger] stuffed animals, etc. This perception that I was into [tigers] survived well into college, where a lady friend of mine once sent me a beautiful glass [tiger] sculpture from Spain, carefully packaged and shipped. To this day, looking around the house there are probably 5 or 10 vestiges of my supposed [tiger]-fancy that are still lying around. My step-family still gets me [tiger] calendars for Christmas. I guess what I'm saying is, be careful about accidentally giving people the wrong idea about your shirt preferences. It can quickly spiral out of your control.

-[Bill]"


* all names and animals have been changed to protect the family involved

-moo

The Dreaded White-Board

I present to you the source of my motivation (and sometimes pain) : My white-board.

About six months ago, I began to feel like I needed more job satisfaction at the end of each day. I needed some sense that I was accomplishing something concrete as opposed to just having a vague feeling of "getting better".

I started setting pool, fitness and mental-training goals for myself in two-month increments. I attempt to learn new skills or refine existing skills during this time by a choosing a set number of appropriate exercises (e.g. pool drills, running, relaxation exercises) I want to accomplish.

Each night, I check off everything that I did that day on the white-board. It is very satisfying to my obsessive-compulsive brain, and is concrete proof of how much work I am doing. (Not included in the checklist are my other daily activities like "Watch Dr. Phil" and "Drink Jagermeister".)

To avoid the emotional roller-coaster of basing my worth as a player on my most recent tournament results, I try to schedule my deadlines for a week or two after a big event. This ensures that my sense of satisfaction depends on my continuing hard work and not on one performance.

At the end of the two months, I reward myself, usually at the mall, based on how hard I worked and how many of my goals I completed.

Unfortunately, I have always been a procrastinator (hem, hem.. notice how often I update my blog) and am usually behind in my own made-up world of pool goals. I try set my goals a little higher than I can comfortably achieve, because I know that even if I fall a little short, I have still accomplished more than if I had set easier goals.

So, of course I am behind this month. Time to start multi-tasking by jogging in place at the table and meditating between shots. Drinking Jagermeister while I watch Dr. Phil. I am brilliant.


Smugly self-satisfied,

LIZ

Stay Tuned

There is nothing I hate more than the audacity of someone who makes a big deal about having a blog and then doesn't update the thing.

Err...Um...

Sorry for the delay, I am still working on my next entry. It will be one where I actually talk about pool and don't just hide behind silly pictures of myself.

Full of Self-Loathing in Forest Hills,

LIZ

Hard Work Works

This is the only picture I was able to find of myself at the 2007 WPBA Great Lakes Classic in Michigan City, Indiana. That's a posterior view of me at the table behind Megan Minerich.

I had a great tournament: I finished 17th-24th and beat one of the top eight players along the way.

The best part was that I knew my good play was the direct result of my hard work since the Carolina Classic. I have been putting time and effort, daily, into my mental preparation and I felt like a completely different player.

The super-duper-extra-bonus best part of this trip was that I volunteered to be bumped from my flight home in exchange for a $400 airline credit. When you're a broke poolplayer, free plane tickets are like winning the freaking lottery.

You never know with those snotty airlines, though. That credit might only be valid for travel within the state of Rhode Island. Or between the hours of 5 and 7 pm on February 29th.

Nice weather we're having...

I didn't think I'd run out of things to say after only four posts.
I hope I never get so desperate that I start posting pictures of my cat.

I have been getting ready for the WPBA event in Michigan City by working hard at pool, fitness and mental conditioning. It takes a lot of positive energy and motivation to keep hard work from being boring, but it's a must if you want to keep from getting burned-out. Unfortunately, I don't have any energy left to make it sound exciting.

Here's a recap of the last week:
Daily meditation and visualization
1 hour a day of exercise
12 hours of drills
2 games of Straight-Pool
2 3-Cushion league matches
1 Nine-Ball league match
Joss Tournament at Raxx (4 Matches total)
Blaze Tournament at Castle Billiards (3 Matches total)
At least 5 more hours of miscellaneous playing
Maintained a consistently positive and intense attitude




Well... my blog will never be this boring (nor this funny).


OK, maybe just one picture of my cat.



LIZ

When Green Shirts Attack!

Apparently, I only own one shirt. Here is a sampling of pictures from 2006:





Being the vain woman that I am (have you seen how many pictures of myself I have posted on this blog?), I had my friend Rob of Poolonthenet.com take some new photos of me in not-green. (See how I worked some more in? Seriously, you guys, I need a Tyra-vention.)



DVF Dress: Lovely. Art School Dropout: Fine with me. Phew! No more green outfit. I don't even own it anymore. I gave it away to Goodwill.


But wait, I just received word that the WPBA has updated their website for the upcoming year...

It isn't possible...

There's no way...

I mean, what are the chances...



NUR! GREEN SHIRT!




Sartorially Predictable in Queens,
Liz


P.S. Thanks to Jonathan Smith, Mitch Heydt, AZ Billiards, Barbara Stock, Rob Omen, the WPBA and South Park for the photos!

The Aftermath

If it looks like I'm about to cry it's because I just returned from going two-and-out of the WPBA Carolina Classic in Rocky Mount, NC!

I had been looking forward to this event for months, but once I was there I felt very low-energy and my performance was flat and uninspired. I have been having this problem in tournaments lately, but this experience was a wake-up call.

I have been working hard on my physical skills, but mental skills also require practice. Duh to me! Why is it that we have to learn and re-learn the same lessons?

Now that the shock of the experience - and the brief suicide watch - are over, it is time to revamp my mental game and get my attitude back in check. To do so, I will be returning to my two favorite resources on the subject:

Mental Toughness Training for Sports
by James Loehr

The Achievement Zone
by Shane Murphy

These two books are helpful far beyond the world of sports. In my years of playing, I have come to realize that you are the same person at the pool table as you are in the rest of your life. Nur!

We have many diversions and defense mechanisms in our day-to-day lives which help us to cover our emotions, but pool comes along and rips off the Band-Aid. If you are anxious and fearful in pool tournaments, chances are that there are other situations in your life to which you respond with the same anxiety and fear.

Conversely, if you set out to help your pool game by learning the skills necessary to build self-confidence, motivation and a positive attitude, you will probably find that you can apply those skills to unscrew the rest of your screwy life.

It's like pool therapy. This is really why I keep playing. If I can conquer something on a pool table, I know can conquer it anywhere.

Annoyingly positive,
Liz