One of the flaws of my game has always been consistency. “When I was younger” it was enough to win tournaments, I guess. The occasional mistake wasn’t punished that often and I did have streaks of peak performance. Nowadays however the level of play has gone up, everybody is a monster and my residing hairline is turning into fifty shades of grey, which doesn’t help the matter.
How do you tackle “unforced errors”? We all experience in practice and competition how we play with an increasingly faster pace, float around the table and magically end up on the right side of the ball, all the time. That’s how I like to play, especially straight pool. If I was to take my time on every single shot, I would pass out exhausted after three racks.
Looking back at almost every tournament I have played in the recent past, it wasn’t my opponent that beat me, I f@(!ed it up myself. Making errors because you are nervous, missing a tough shot, kick, safety or getting crushed by the opponent - that’s all okay in my book. But rushing a shot, taking a shot for granted or playing sloppy position - that is not okay.
On Saturday morning I beat Adam Mscisz 🇵🇱 with 9:4 to qualify for the knock out stage, then in the final 32 after a 1:4 deficit I got myself pumped, caught rolls and played well to win 9:5 against Maksim Dudanets 🇷🇺.
Pijus Labutis 🇱🇹 and I have played twice this year already. I beat him in Italy and he got his revenge in the Netherlands. Both of those matches I made many silly mistakes and yesterday wasn’t any different.
I came with a jump shot, a jacked up full length draw shot and any other crazy position that was necessary but on the other hand missed a straight in 9-Ball, missed the easiest position on the 8-Ball and built in another three to four unforgivable mistakes. Final score 7:9, Hohmann finishes 9th!
Pijus went ahead to beat Aleksa Pecelj, Sandor Tot and Alex Kazakis to win the Ljubljana Open. Congratulations, Pijus! 🏆
Back to the question: How do you avoid unforced errors? Maybe I should try and play every single shot with 100% attention, maybe I should practice more to get the muscle memory deeply fine tuned, maybe more physical activity and proper diet could help or doing a ten day meditation retreat!? All of the above?!
As I am writing these words, I’m enjoying the scenic views of the Austrian alps. I have embarked on an eleven hour train ride from Ljubljana to Berlin to see my good friend Ralph Eckert and pick his brain on playing better pool.
I have enjoyed my trip a lot and hope to return next year again. Many thanks to Biljardna Hiša Ljubljana, the staff, everybody involved and organizer Miha Zajc who took great care of me and Happy Birthday to him! My photographer and lunch buddy Alison Chang from Taiwan owes me another electric scooter ride!
Thorsten