Preparing for important events (??)

Today, I will play my first snooker tournament. I've played in many billiards tournaments, but snooker (english billiards) is a tougher game, with different tactical and strategic patterns, and rules.

How did I prepare? I played 8 hours of chess yesterday....I figured the best preparation was no preparation at all, and that I would figure everything out on the table. I wanted something concrete first, to base my future practice on.

So my question is, have any of you ever found no preparation to be the best preparation? Details, please.

 

When death finally comes a callin’ no preparation is the best preparation


Hotwater

 

I imagine I'll deal with it in the same way I deal with any adverse emotion, and then I won't know or feel anything to care.

 

I think something like no prep works best. If its something that I need to be well rested for and thinking straight Ill make sure I am. Other then that I try not to overthink anything. If its something I know and am good at it just comes. When I start over thinking and planning I just screw up my natural flow.

 

Yes, I used to get this too. I used to be a fairly advanced gymnast - training about 20 hours a week - and of course entering competitions.

Over time I came to refuse to train on the beam the night before a competition. Anything else fine, but not the beam.

I almost never fell off in training, but musta been pre comp nerves and I would fall off so much in training the night before a comp that I would end up effecting my own confidence, ... so not training on the beam, meant no falls, which meant no kicks to the confidence, and of course that I could compete on top of my game mentally.

At competitions too tho, I would turn my back and not watch any of my team mates, coz even seeing one of them fall could start making me nervous. Worked great too - I always fell if I trained or watched others, ... never fell when I did not train and turned my back on the comp.

 

Thanks a lot for sharing. Gymnastics is close to my heart because my sister, and three of my cousins did it competitively. When I was a child I spent a lot of time cheering them up in the stands.

In billiards, to warm up before a match, I only take easy shots for two reasons:

a) for the same reason you didn't do the beam the day before a competition; so a miss doesn't shake my confidence;

b) because billiards is a game of percentages, and contrary to crowd cheering sports, tournament winners usually take easy shot after easy shot and rarely go for tough shots unless they have nothing better.

 

Well.....how did it go?

 

Postponed till next weekend, unfortunately. I'll try to post whenever I play. Sparred some at the snooker hall and was hitting them good. Thanks for asking.

 

Your welcome!

I hope the trend then continues and you do as well or better next weekend!

 

Thanks a lot!