Many times if you missed the end of a pool match but saw the players walking away, you can tell who won or lost from their body language alone.
Not all the time, but many times.
What this shows is that winning is important for most players. Of course it is. Now if you are a pool purist, playing great but still losing should give you at least the satisfaction of a game well played.
At least a little.
But still, in competition it is the win that we want as our result.
Because of this I ask you to fight like a pit bull in every match. We all know that playing pool comes with no guarantee that you will play your best or even your average game every time. So we will indeed experience lapses in playing well and this will occur where it hurts the most, in a tournament or money match.
The trick is to keep fighting like a champion boxer.
I don’t care if you are getting hit with a barrage of punches and tripping all over yourself. You don’t give up. You keep bearing down.
Even if your run outs are just plain ulglier than normal and you are tight and choppy—make it work the best you can.
This is called winning ugly.
There is actually a book called Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert and Steve Jamison and I recommend it. They are tennis players, yet this applies beautifully to pool. If you aren’t dabbing them too pretty, who cares.
Your main goal at the moment is to win.
You don’t want to be the guy with the losing body language after the match. Somehow winning ugly has the magic effect of making you walk out of the arena with your head held high. Who knows, you just might find yourself winning pretty in your next match.
Comon, just gitr done.
If it’s looking ugly, who cares? It’s still winning.
Win ugly if you must.
*Blog originally published here.
Photo: source Editor: Dana Gornall
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