The Keys to Achieving Dead Stroke What is "Dead Stroke"? Dead Stroke is characterized by several different occurrences within your mind and your surroundings. You feel as though you can beat anyone. You feel as though you are capable of doing anything at the table, engrossed in your task and oblivious to your surroundings. The cue IS an extension of your arm and you perform flawlessly as you maintain complete control over your emotions and your actions. Throughout your performance, you maintain high self-confidence, strong focus on the task at hand, a fearless attitude, and self composure. Quite simply, your mind and body are working in complete harmony to create the phenomenon of "Dead Stroke".
But how do we get there?The first step to answering that question is to let you know how you will not get there. You can't "force" yourself into playing in the zone, It just doesn't work. What usually happens, is that you frustrate yourself more by believing that your game will get better by you getting angry at it. This is counter-productive, and you will play worse. Though you can't "force" your way into the zone, there are 5 keys to "entering" the zone. The password is:
C-I-L-A-S.
C- Confidence in your ability
I- Immersion into the task
L- Letting go of mistakes
A- Autopilot
S- Stay in control
Confidence in your ability It is impossible to enter the zone when you are not confident in your abilities. If YOU are not confident in your abilities, who will be? What is self confidence? Self confidence is the strength of your belief in how well you can play. You can tell yourself over and over that you are the best, but if you don't believe it deep down inside you gut, it doesn't mean a thing.
The key to this is being realistic in your evaluation of your true abilities. Knowing your limitations is just as important as knowing your strengths. Telling yourself you can win a match doesn't help much if you don't have the physical abilities to back it up. Confidence can be worked with, though. Identify the things that boost your confidence as well as the things that drag it down. Don't just identify the key factors, identify everything down to the smallest detail, including the way you interpret the general atmosphere of the room when you are slipping and rising. By identifying these key cues, you begin to see exactly where "the line" exists between the two. You will recognize the signs of slipping confidence earlier in competition and be able to treat the symptoms more effectively.
Getting to know your game and how you react to it (positively and negatively) is extremely important, but often neglected by scores of frustrated pool players.
Immersion: Can you become immersed in the task? Most of know how to concentrate, but do we know how to immerse ourselves in the task we are faced with? This relies on focus. We are what we focus on. We focus with our eyes, and our attitudes. If we focus our eyes within the six rails and the playing surface of the table, we can remain focused, but what if it is negative focus? What if we don't like what's going on there?
Nobody feels good when the other guy is rattling off rack after rack and we sit in the electric chair awaiting our next chance at the table. Later on, I will discuss momentum, but for now let's look at ourselves as we sit helpless in the chair. Identify your emotions and your thoughts while this is occurring. It is quite normal to have negative thoughts and feelings, but that can be turned around. It will be impossible to go to the table and expect "Dead Stroke" after you just sat in a chair for 5-10 minutes telling yourself how bad the entire situation is. Adjust your attitude while sitting in the chair. Remain focused on the table while the other guy is shooting, reading the rack, seeing patterns, etc. Concentrate on your breathing and remain "centered". This way you remain at the table, even though the other guy is shooting. Mentally, you avoid getting "cold" and you will keep a good attitude.
This can be practiced by watching others play. While you are at the table, you can remain immersed by concentrating on the playing surface of the table. This is harder than it sounds, but recognize and identify the things that pull your eyes from the table. By doing so, you can see where your focus is being detracted. Every time you lose focus, focus need to be reapplied. Set up a routine that gets you back into focus, and add it to your pre-shot routine.
Letting go of Mistakes It's not so much the fact that you blew the last shot, it's how you process the information from that experience into your subconscious. When you make a bad shot, or miss position, can you put it all behind you and move forward? It's bad enough that you missed the shot, but don't make the situation worse by attacking yourself. Most of us defeat ourselves by dwelling on the negative occurrences that occur during competition. We don't need that baggage hitting us in the butt as we're bending down to run the next rack.
Prepare a plan to deal with mistakes and errors immediately. Understand that mistakes, errors and bad luck happen to the other guy too. We want to be a step ahead of the game and deal with our mistakes positively so that the missed shot doesn't effect our next shot. Errors and mistakes show us what to work on in practice. They are not designed to drag us down, they are designed to show us how and where we need improvement.
Autopilot Can you make it feel automatic? darn right you can! Through repetition, any task can be made to feel automatic and second nature. It's the same thing with focus and concentration. The more it is practiced and applied, the more familiar you become with the task. This takes time, it won't happen overnight. After applying what I call "super focus" you will begin to see a change in your approach to the table.
ControlHow to maintain it - To be in control of what is happening on the table, you must first be in control of what is happening inside of your head. Our emotions are fueled by our reactions to situations. Our reactions are filtered through our attitudes. In pool, remember that there is a fine line between being "overly excited" and being "pumped". Crossing that line can lead us into anxiety, fear and a myriad of other negative emotions. We need to achieve focus, but when there we must maintain it by keeping our goals directly in front of us. Never push your ultimate goal to the side, or move past it in haste. Remain focused on achieving your goals during competition.
Momentum: Where to get it! So you're sitting in the chair helplessly watching the other guy dissect rack after rack. You've got calluses on your butt, but all the while you try to remain calm, self coaching yourself, and reassuring yourself that you'll soon enough reclaim your table. In cases such as this, remember the pendulum theory: Momentum swings both ways. Also, if an object has momentum and it goes far enough in one direction, it's bound to crash into something sooner or later. So how do you create momentum when you don't have it?
Follow this 4 step plan!1) Always remember that when wanting the momentum to swing your way, you must start somewhere!!!! Mulling over the situation helps nothing but to drag your confidence and motivation down further. Keep your focus applied at the table, and when it is your turn to shoot, make it count!
2) View each shot and every opportunity at the table as a chance to turn it all around!!!!!!! Going to the table with a poor attitude will bring about poor results. Maintain an attitude geared towards positivity rather than negativity.
3) Don't wait for momentum to happen by chance!!! Momentum is closely related to your confidence level. Momentum does not swing towards the side that believes he is doomed. Believe in yourself and your abilities and CREATE momentum by boosting your confidence.
4) Believe that every single shot is a spark that lights your flame of confidence. Every shot made should add to your flame of confidence. The more the flames grows, the bigger the fire becomes. It can blaze, or it can smolder. This depends on many factors, but it is an excellent example of imagery.
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