Back on the Baize...

I’m on a good run at interleague at the moment, having won 11 out of 12 frames against some decent opponents. I’m well aware there are stiffer tests ahead, but I’m trying to do simple things well and it’s working so far.

I’m putting in some table time and I’m on course to be in decent shape when I make my return to county next year. I’m also hoping to qualify for county by finishing in the top eight of the county-wide interleague, which pits the best players from different leagues in Surrey against each other.

In my most recent match, we played an all-ladies team and they had some solid players. I met a few of the newer county ladies, too, and this was good. I also saw a teenager play and her temperament was superb. I went over and had a chat with her parents later and, after explaining that I wasn’t some sort of weirdo, said I’d like to spend some table time with her because I think I could help her game improve.

I’m really excited when I see potential and I think I could help her develop into a really good player. It’s a path I’ve trodden once before when I spent some time with a county junior player and helped him become an England international.

If I’m going back to play county pool, I also like the idea of helping to bring somebody else through. It will help focus me and give me a defined pre-match routine for practice and it will also mean they get something out of it by practising with me.

It’s something I’ve learnt from a decade and a half of martial arts: by teaching others we help refine and define ourselves

I hope she and her parents realise it’s a genuine offer and don’t peg me as some sort of freak.

Back on the Baize...

I'm returning to competitive pool next year. I've missed playing and it's been too frustrating to play a little bit and keep my hand in by playing interleague and not perform well enough. 

So I'm 'negotiating' getting a table at home and sorting out a return to playing county next year. The goal of going back to county is obviously to get back into the A Team and secure another trial for the England team. I'm looking forward to it. 

So I'm starting to factor in one regular session every week to get some form and consistency back. It will be a long road, but one I'm looking forward to travelling again.

Happy Birthday...

Today I am 44 but the Missus is ill so it's been quite a low-key affair.

I was also at a big pool tournament yesterday, playing my final high-level, competitive games for some time, but as soon as my team was knocked out of the event, I decided to make the five-hour journey back home rather than enjoy our customary Saturday night out in Great Yarmouth.

A decade ago, such nights out were usually brilliant but also very messy affairs. And waking up in a freezing cold caravan with a raging hangover was quite simply the price you paid for letting rip when you were away on a boys weekend. But the thought of repeating that particular bit of history has become less appealing every year...

I was also talking to several of my pool-playing peers at the weekend and many were discussing families and kids and setting a good example to the younger players... and I suddenly realised it wasn't just me. We've all grown up. Even the most unlikely candidates.

We had a good run as party animals, though. And we have some crazy times to look back on. Not to mention some very successful tournaments. And they are times I'll genuinely cherish.

But waking up next to the Missus, coughing and all, this morning was well worth the very steep fare and five hours on various trains and Tubes to come home from the event a night early.

And I even did some gardening when I got home, too. And house-cleaning. And cooking. I am clearly now a domestic goddess. And a fortysomething one...

Pool: Game Over...

At the weekend I played my final county pool match for a while at the National Inter-county Finals in Great Yarmouth.

The weekend started with the trials for the England Pool Team, which I'd qualified for after finishing in the top seven of all the county players in the south-east of England. I've had two England trials before and at one I totally bombed out while at the other I almost made the team. But these were more than a decade ago when I was a much better player. In truth, I was just delighted to roll back the years and make the trials for a third time on the back of a very good season last year.

At the trials themselves, I was flawless in my opening game and won 3-0, then had a tough draw in my second game against a friend of mine, who's a very talented young player. I lost this 1-3 and apart from playing one very poor shot I didn't do a huge amount wrong. In truth, he was just more clinical and aggressive than I was and he deserved the victory with two top-drawer clearances.

In my third match, I missed a half-chance in the opening frame, then battled from a losing position to put myself in front in the second. I then played an awful shot that cost me the frame and I didn't get a shot in the third frame as I went down 0-3.

In my fourth match, I played somebody who's one of the best amateurs in the UK and won a tight first frame then narrowly lost a tight second. At 1-1 he then broke and cleared up, and at 1-2 down I broke and watched the white kick in off three balls to give him control of the table and watched him finish the game to put me out 1-3.

I had a tough draw, I was a little unlucky and I only played three bad shots in the 12 frames I got any sort of shot in. But the truth of the matter is that's all it takes at that sort of level and I wasn't match-sharp enough or anywhere near aggressive enough on the day.

In the team event, I struggled for fluency and missed good chances to get myself up and running. The team played pretty well in patches, though, and two or three of our players were exceptional so we did pretty well. There are worse places to bow out of county pool for a while than on the back of an England trial and losing in the semi-finals of a national tournament on a Sunday morning.

But my county odyssey's been fun and the good days and the successes make the bad days bearable. And three regional A Team titles, one regional B Team title, three England trials, one national title and the county record for the largest number of A Team appearances is not a bad haul from 15 years as a Surrey county player.

The real joy of it all, though, isn't the trophies or the victories. It's the fellow cue men and cue women you befriend on the way. I've met several of my best friends because of playing pool and I'm part of a network of such a diverse bunch of people up and down the UK, most of who I'd always happily have a few pints with. That's always been the best thing about it from my point of view.

And in a year or two when the batteries are recharged and I've made inroads into the other things I want to do, I may be back. Who knows? There's maybe another title or two or another England trial left in the locker yet. And 600 county A Team frames would be a better record than my current 527...

Positional Play...

One of the most basic things to master when you're playing pool is positional play but this basic concept can be an elusive and tricky one.

If you have any form of several-ball clearance on the table then you can have one sequence of potting the balls where the white will travel all over the place and another where the white will barely travel at all. The latter option is obviously the safest option because you have less chance of going in-off or of the white knocking into something else and deviating off path. You obviously have to leave yourself alternative options but the main thing is you have a definite plan and a fixed route, then if you deviate from that plan you always know what route you need to return to at some point during the clearance.

It's also a similar thing in martial arts: position in everything, whether you're applying a wrist lock in hapkido, a one-two combination in boxing or a kimura in BJJ. If you're not in the correct position in the first place then the chances are you're not going to succeed in getting the lock, connecting with the punch or tapping with the submission.

I'm currently planning a few radical changes in both my professional and my artistic lives and I'm bearing in mind these lessons about position: go too early and the position will not yet be established, go too late and I may have missed the boat. I'm consequently using the theory of position to get the timing just right.

So the next six months is now going to be about positioning myself and making sure the cornerstones of my new three-year plan are all in place because, quite frankly, it's time to shit or get off the pot with a few ventures and other ideas I've been kicking around.

It's potentially excitingtimes.com at Brooks Towers...

Pool: The Final Frontier: Part II...

I was supposed to be retiring from playing pool at the end of last season but my interleague team and my county team qualified for the final knockout stages of two national tournaments. I also qualified for the trials for the England team, too, so after seven weeks of not picking up a cue I'm back on the practice table putting in the hours for a last hurrah. For a while at least...

Forcing myself to go out to do something I've always loved doing is probably a sign that I've chosen to have a break at just the right time, but I am enjoying the discipline of timing my run to the tournaments so I'm hitting peak form at just the right time. So a few recent sessions on the pool table and some improved form, then a snooker session with a 46 and a 66 break thrown in are all good signs with two weeks and plenty more table time to go.

The idea of not playing pool has opened up lots of exciting possibilities and it means I'll be able to commit more time to my writing and my martial arts training and the theatre company I'm now back working with. The prospect of time freed up by not playing pool and not having to practice for matches and tournaments is quite invigorating.

I miss the people, though, and when the opening county match of the season was held last weekend it felt very strange not to be part of it. But I think that will get easier.

Pool: The Final Frontier: Part I...

The final county game of the season was a few weeks ago and I ended it on a high note by becoming the most capped county A Team player in Surrey history. I also won three out of four games to take my end-of-season tally to 26/40 and qualify for the trials for the England team.

The latter, of course, presents something of an issue as I'd already told everybody involved that I was taking a break for a year or maybe even two to focus on my writing and work with my theatre group in Guildford.

Even worse, after a trying start to 2013 I've sort of fallen back in love with the game... but I'm sensible enough to know that if I don't take a break from playing local league, interleague and county pool and all the regular practice sessions that entails then l won't be able to give the opportunities I now have the focus and the time they need.

But with the England Trials and the Inter-county Finals to come, plus a last national event in Yarmouth in April to, I guess the cue won't be getting put in the loft just yet.

It's not bad problem to have, though, and I'm doing well if it's the biggest thing I have to worry about...

Big Break…

The truth is, of course, it probably won’t be a big break at all. The last time I planned to stop playing pool, snooker or any other cue sport for any length of time I went stir crazy after four months and was back playing in a money league after six. As much as I sometimes wish otherwise, it would seem potting balls on a baize of any description is something of an addiction, but it’s also one off those meditative, relaxing practises I need to keep my equilibrium.

The masterplan to take a year out at the end of the season is already gathering pace, though, and in my head it’s like I’ve almost made the leap, which is when, of course, I’ve started playing some good stuff and have started to enjoy playing competitively again.

But I need the break. I have a play on next year and it’s important I put everything I can into making it work so that it’s not only artistically and personally satisfying but so that it also leads somewhere in terms of commercial success, whether that’s getting it staged at a bigger theatre or using it as a platform to tout my writing skills and land writing gigs elsewhere.

On my theatre CV I have a huge amount of artistically credible work as a writer, director and producer: Fringe theatre plays on political and feminist issues, a large-scale community play in Docktown, a community musical in Elvis: The Howden Years, a theatre-in-education tour on domestic violence, a play commissioned by a London health authority on care in the community, the latest show about The Forgiveness Project… And I’m proud of that work because it suggests a continuity of commitment to good causes and a socially responsible and responsive theatre practice.

The one thing I’ve never done, though, is to sit back and take a really businesslike approach to my theatre work and think: How I do make this go somewhere else that will directly benefit me?

So the answer I’ve come up with is to put a comedy on that I’m currently writing with an eye on box office success. I also want to direct this or at least co-direct it and I’m going to run it like a business so I want it to make money and I also want it to have a life after that and be taken on elsewhere. To do that I need to ensure I get some theatre producers in the audience. If I want to get other work from it then I need to ensure I also get some commissioning editors and dramaturg folk along.

This whole process is obviously going to take a lot of work so it’s goodbye competitive pool and hello theatre world. I’m back and I’m hoping it will at least be with a bang of some sort…

A Load Of Old Balls: Part II...

The trip to Yarmouth to play at the National Inter-county Eightball Pool Championships was pretty poor.

As a team we didn't really perform very well until the last match and I didn't have too much in the way of clear-cut chances in my games. Throw in a bit of bad luck and it wasn't great individually either.

The great thing about going to an elite competition, though, is it allows you to see how you compare against the best of your peers. As a team we just came up a bit short and individually I also just came up a bit short. I wasn't the only one, though.

But I had a good season last year and played some decent stuff along the way to help get us to Yarmouth, and I've also started this season pretty well this year and I'm putting the hours in on the practice table again.

Every year I think it will be my last season as a lot of my pool-playing peers have now retired. But I'm really enjoying playing again and my form's starting to return so there may be life in the old dog yet.

It's 15 years and counting doing this. I could make it 16 at this rate...

A Load Of Balls: Part I...

It's March so it's time to head to the National Inter-county Eightball Pool Championships at Great Yarmouth.

I've been going to pool events here for more than 20 years, whether it be county, interleague or three-man team competitions, and the novelty of staying in a cold caravan park with over-priced beer where the only respite is to head into Great Yarmouth to sample the 'delights' of its seafront nightlife wore off many years ago.

The golden rule used to be 'What happens in Yarmouth stays in Yarmouth'. Not that anything did ever happen for me. It's never been what I was or what I wanted. So I tended to just get drunk. But even that's changed these days. Far too old to do that now. I can't bear the hangovers any more...

So me and the Missus are curled up on the sofa the night before I go and we're discussing what delights the weekend will bring and the Missus offers her wisdom:
'Just don't bring any sexually transmitted diseases back.'
'I won't. But if I do pull I'll pretend it's you while I'm fucking them.'
'It's fine,' counters the Missus. 'I often pretend you're other people when I'm fucking you.'

I married well...

England Expects...

My pool protege secured a place at the trials for the England Junior Team at the end of last season by finishing as one of the highest-ranked junior players in the South-East of England. And a few weeks ago he attended the trials – and got through and won a place on the England Junior Team.

I was made up for him, not only because he's worked hard at his game and really made the effort to move up to the next level, but because at 15 he's not even 50 per cent of the junior player he will become – and he's already in the England Junior Team.

I've also enjoyed working with him and practising with him once a month because the things we've worked on are things I do automatically but going through them again has made me analyse how I go about things and it's made me make improvements in things like concentration and being methodical. After all, I can hardly instil solid basics into somebody else if I'm struggling to do them myself.

It's also made me think about what I could do as far as being involved with the county pool scene could offer when my playing days come to an end. And at the moment that could be when the 2012 season finishes as there are other things I want to do and commit time to. But I've said that before...

Who knows? If I can help one junior player with potential become an international then maybe I can help a few more? It's food for thought.

More Balls...

I captained my last interleague pool team six years ago and when I surrendered my role as captain I promised myself I would never do it again. Not ever.

This was because the highs of winning matches and playing well in events never equalled the grind of chasing up players to ensure they could be at matches, organising transport and sorting out the venue. Captaincy at this level remains a job designed to grind the good will of even the most enthusiastic player into bitter mush.

Fortunately when I took over the captaincy of my local interleague pool team at the beginning of the year all that was a distant memory, despite the best efforts of the Missus to remind me.

Then before the new season even got under way a few players droppped out and a few others explained they had other commitments... and the title-chasing side I had inherited was suddenly in a state of disrepair and needed a bit of rebuilding.

This rebuilding process has now started and the core of the side is still there but it may take a while before it is at full strength again.

One of the plus points to come out of this, however, is I've decided to take a local junior player under my wing and spend some time bringing him through the ranks to strengthen the side in years to come. This happened with me when a long-time county player spotted some potential and started playing against me and taking me to events and helping me improve and that's what I intend to do with my Protege.

It's also good for me because seeing the Protege hungry to learn and improve all the time has made me realise I still love the game and want to improve again myself.

Who knows? I may not quite be ready to hang my cue up yet...

Going Potty!

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...

Drunk...

The final county pool game of the season is always a messy affair as several of the team usually venture out for a few drinks afterwards. And that's a few more drinks than the usual few post-match drinks too.

And as my friend Shaggy and two of the Croydon fellas were my drinking companions for the evening, and as it was my last blowout before knuckling down for my black belt test in four weeks, it was never going to be a sober night.

Previous evenings out with Shaggy have ended with him in hospital after falling off a pavement and breaking his ankle, and the two of us being threatened with death by a man carrying a bike in Hampshire. Fortunately as we also had two mutual friends along for the evening – and thanks the delights of a pub near Reading station that was packed with London Irish fans – the night was lovely and incident-free. Our little group even made friends with two local girls who'd been to watch the rugby.

In fairness my head was not a good place to be on Monday morning and I had distant memories of weeing in sturdy plastic bag on the train when I found the only toilet was broken, then carrying it home until I found a drain to pour it down. But at the time I think I decided it was what Hannibal in the A Team would have done in an emergency weeing situation so I felt I was in good company.

But now there's no more stupidity. It's knuckle down time. I have a black belt to earn and four weeks to nail my final preparations. Gulp...

The 500 Club...

It's been a good year in my local pool league and in my interleague pool team, too, but 2010 has been a largely frustrating year at county pool. To put it simply, I can't buy a frame and I'm about to return my poorest A Team stats in 25 years.

Even worse I've put the hours in on the practice table but the results just aren't coming. It's true I've missed a few absolute sitters to win a few extra frames this year but it's also equally true that I've been shooting dead in too many frames, meaning that whenever I come to the table I'm in major trouble to begin with.

On the plus side, however, I did play my 500th frame for my county pool team at the weekend and I won it as well. Although I did miss a straight black in the middle to win it on my first opportunity.

It means I now join quite an exclusive little club in the history of my county pool team. It's not a major achievement in the grand scheme of thing but it's a nice one. I've not only being good enough to play that many frames at that level but I've been committed enough to stick around and play that many frames.

When the season is not going well on the table at least I have that crumb of comfort to cheer me up. And, of course, the season's not over yet so there's still time to turn it around. And there's always next year. Probably...

The Zen Of Pool: Conclusions...

An article I wrote for my martial arts school's magazine...

‘From one thing know ten thousand things…’
Miyamoto Musashi

Some facts… I’m good at eightball pool. At 16 I was invited to play for my senior county team and some 25 years, two trials for the England team and one national title later I’m still playing at county level. So I’m still good.

The problem with being good at something, though, is that it’s a constant battle to maintain standards. When you can do something to a high level it’s frustrating when you struggle to maintain that level. So being good at something does carry problems.

Fortunately at hapkido I never experienced these issues. Having no martial arts experience and limited ability any minor success in class was a triumph rather than a failure. And as much as it annoyed me to pretty much get everything wrong for the first two years I didn’t beat myself up about it. After all Hapkido was something I did for fun.

Some seven years later and with a black belt grading looming, however, and that’s not an excuse I can use any more. I’m no longer quite so useless and the desire to maintain a standard is now as necessary in my martial arts studies as it is when I grab my cue and head off to a match.

So inspired by the above Musashi quote I decided to apply the lessons I’d learnt from my cue sports discipline and apply them to the martial arts one and see where I went…

Stance
The bedrock of any cue sport is the stance. The theory is that if you have a balanced stance you are much less likely to move on a shot, which is a common cause of missing a shot. In short the more solid your base the better chance you have of lining up correctly behind the shot to deliver a smooth stroke to hit the white ball.

In hapkido the stance is also a vital factor. A solid base and distribution of your weight allows you to unbalance and throw an opponent, to launch kick and punch combinations, and to torque your hips to generate additional power without losing balance or leaving yourself vulnerable. In both disciplines a stable connection to the floor is vital and a good stance is quite literally the foundation of everything.

Delivery
In pool how you ‘deliver’ the cue is a key factor. Beginners struggle to maintain a smooth stroke when holding a cue. Their legs, bodies and arms move so when they aim at the white ball they often tend to stab at it from a variety of angles because they haven’t mastered the ‘delivery’ of the cue. To ‘deliver’ a cue through a shot requires a fluid motion that starts with a backswing then accelerates the tip towards the white ball until it strikes it before it returns to a starting position. It is a simple and elegant motion that is neither dramatic nor exciting but consistent and smooth.

To my mind delivering a kick or a punch requires a similar understanding of the mechanics involved. Punches and kicks are fluid motions that have a definite start point at their initial chambering and a definite contact point as they strike their target before reverting back to a guard position.

Both disciplines have ‘delivery’ systems that rely on repeating simple, fluid mechanical actions. But such simplicity in both disciplines in only based on hours of practice.

Focus
Maintaining focus when playing in tournaments can be a demanding experience. Most individual matches last about an hour and if you get to the later stages of the event you’ll have won four or five matches and will have spent up to nine hours in the venue. To help retain focus during matches I have mental routines I go through before getting down to play the shot to ensure I’ve analysed the situation and worked out my best option.

I adapted some of these habits into hapkido so now if I’m sparring I try to maintain a certain body shape. It helps by programming my body and mind into understanding that I’m sparring… in much the same way that touching my watch when it’s my turn to take a key shot at pool reminds me to take the time to check my options.

Interestingly the issue of focus is one area where the study of hapkido has influenced my pool game. I realised a while ago that it’s no accident that my best hapkido lessons usually follow a ki class. And that’s because my body is relaxed and my mind is clear so I can easily tune into what I’m doing. So if I’m struggling with a technique instead of getting annoyed I mentally step back from myself and analyse what’s wrong.

And this is something I’ve brought into my pool game a lot in the last year because if you make a mistake at pool it’s often tempting to try to rescue the situation by playing a high-risk but low-percentage shot. And in my youth I was able to get away with that approach but these days I no longer have that same on-the-table aggression so I’ve borrowed a lesson from my hapkido and I step out of the situation, analyse and find a smarter option.

Conclusion
The main truth I’ve rediscovered, though, is if I want to keep playing pool at a high level then I have to put the hours in on the practice table. And that means running drills to keep my basics consistent. And the same lessons apply at hapkido.

To quote Musashi: ‘The key is training. One must continue to train.’