This weekend I was at the National Intercounty Championships playing pool for my county. Last year I spent a lot of time on the practice table but got very poor results in the county side and one game into the season it's the same story this year. The Nationals, however, was a chance to redeem that and going into it I genuinely felt like I was playing very well and was about to shine. Instead I missed a few key pots and just got murdered on the table. The team also struggled and we got booted out of the event early doors.
From a personal point of view I've been playing long enough to realise the following: bad results and bad performances happen no matter how well you're playing; and sometimes no matter how hard you try you will get into a rut and it will take time to break out of it.
In truth I may be missing a bit at the level that I play at at the moment but I'm still practising and I'll reassess at the end of the year.
On the plus side, however, I got a chance to sit down and watch a lot of our county youth team play and that really helped instill some positve feelings about the game. The team has four internationals and several other good players in it but the way they carried and supported each other throughout the weekend was superb and at the end of it they claimed a national title.
If my playing days are done then maybe the way forward for me is to help the kids come through. There are a lot worse things I could do and older players taking me under their wing is how I progressed in the game.
It's one to think about...
No comments:
Post a Comment