New Season Tactics and Selection

With the new season just 1 day away i thought i would put on the BLOG a few key tactics for matches, lets just say we should keep these simple guidelines in our minds when playing, i do this every year in hope someone will take some notice :-)

• Before just potting a ball, try to think why you are potting it and which shot you want to play next.
• Make a clear decision before your first shot of a visit on the outcome of the WHOLE visit to the table; Examples = "clearance including the black" or "get my opponent in a snooker" or "cover that pocket so my opponent can't win"
• If you decide to play safe, think about where you would NOT like the white ball to be if you had to play the next shot
• IF ALL ELSE FAILS, You are playing terrible and feel off form, nothing is going right, here is a winning tip, just worry about keeping your HEAD still and stay down on the shot......The basics always come to the rescue

I think we are all very close as a team in terms of being friends, this is an important factor when playing any team sport, however with pool its slightly different, in MY singles matches all i worry about is WINNING MY GAME, even if we are 6-0 up or 0-6 down, its why i played a few seasons in the Wednesday league as last man.......i am good under pressure as i am playing for ME in the singles, it may be something that can help you out with pressure. If we all worry about WINNING our OWN games the TEAM will benefit.

If we had done a little better in the singles last season we would have been in the top 3 of the league overall, our doubles performance placed us level 2nd in the league on points.....such a small difference as winning ONE more singles frame can swing a match in our favour.

I think the reason we were strong in the doubles last year was that i changed the selection policy, i now try and play four 'on form' players as two pairs, this obviously pays off given our doubles performance last year, thus i will continue that policy this year.....

Best of luck to everyone and all please make the effort to attend every game.

Thanks

Tony