You Play To Win The Game!
Know what the difference is between a good player and a champion? Killer instinct. Some people have it and others are just too damn nice for their own good.
Why am I bringing this up? I was flipping through this month’s issue of Pool and Billiards magazine and noticed a very telling quote from Iris Ranola. Apparently, when she played Corrine Johnson and was hill-hill, Johnson missed what she referred to as “an easy out” (for me, there are no easy outs) and Iris finished her off. After doing so Iris apparently came up to her and said “I am sorry. I was lucky”. What? You’re sorry for taking advantage of an opponent’s mistake? You never apologize for taking advantage of a gift.
Iris Ranola is an extremely solid player with a ton of potential and can hang with any player on the WPBA tour, but the difference between making the redraw and winning a tournament is not feeling bad for being fortunate. Like most sports, pool is about taking advantage of mistakes. In an alternating break format, the only way you win is to take advantage of your opponent’s mistakes. Quarterbacks throw bad passes, pitchers make bad pitches and pool players make bad shots. When you start feeling bad about taking advantage of these mistakes, you’re setting yourself up for a loss.
Being a champion is just as much about the mental game as it is about your skill on the table. J-Thug is a perfect example of this. Jeanette’s pool game isn’t nearly as good as some of the other players on the tour, but she has one of the best mental games I’ve seen. She doesn’t apologize for taking advantage of situations and she knows how to work an opponent over. She finds a weakness and exploits it. She’s not there to make friends, she’s there to win.
Being friends with your opponents is fine when you’re off the table. When you’re playing though, you play without hesitation or remorse. Just like Herm Edwards says, you play to win the game!
This is going to hit home for a lot of people, especially women. I have this problem a lot, and I know a lot of the women on my tour (OBCT) experience the same thing because we are all such good friends. I’ve practically gotten to the point that I look forward to going to tournaments because I get to see my friends, hang out and catch up. Then, I play a little pool in between.
I understand that having a killer instinct is crucial if you want to go far (ie. WPBA) with your game, but for those of us that love the game and just want to play, I think its OK to be ‘nice’. Sure, I get super upset when I lose to someone *I* think I’m not supposed to lose to, but I have no one to blame except for myself because I choose not to practice.
If only there could be a happy medium with killer instinct and nice. So, I’m curious, what should have someone in Iris’s position say to her opponent after a win like that? I’ve been in that position many times, and most of the time, I genuinely feel bad for my opponent for missing that “easy out”.
Nothing more really needs to be said. You shake hands, pack up your cue and move on. Everyone there knows that the mistake cost Corrine the match, so there’s no need to apologize or even bring it up. There’s a big difference between the regional tours and the WPBA (or at least there should be). With a tour like the OBCT, most people are there to catch up with friends (which is fine, btw). They don’t want to go pro which was clearly demonstrated by the “I don’t want it, you take it” situation that led to Bonnie Plowman getting the tour exemption (only to no show almost every single event).
If the WPBA is truly a league of the world’s best women players, they should be far more interested in winning matches than making friends.
Good post PCN — I too have struggled with this concept in the past and attended the “Olga & Borana bitch school” thus learning that “mercy is a disease” (Mika Immonen quote hijack!) Before the match, it’s smiles and laughs, on the table it’s WAR, then have a drink and laugh about it afterwords.
BTW, in reference to Iris, Tony mentioned to me once that in the Filipino culture, there’s a modesty they like to exude so many of them say, “I got lucky,” after matches as a sign of respect to their opponent & to show some humility. For them it’s not a weakness, it’s part of their culture — But for us other folks, I concur completely! It’s the Achilles heel to many players, especially women.
I completely agree! I , too have went through the phase of being nice when I played…but back in the day I was always noted for my killer instinct…where I earned my nickname for a little while as KIT….Killer In training, since I was just learning the game. You definitely need a combination of both luck and skill to win a tournament. But, it is true that you can’t play your match ‘feeling bad’ for your opponent, otherwise you crack also. Over time you have to learn to push past that and execute on every opportunity and mistake if you want to win….assuming that is your goal. Without it, you will begin playing your matches feeling guilty rather than taking the so-called gift and running out.
I’ve heard this quite a bit that women have trouble building that killer instinct. I don’t quite understand it, but then again its been made abundantly clear that I don’t quite understand the fairer sex either, so that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. I’ll tell you what really kills me though. Watching players miss a shot early and having it torpedo their entire match. Being able to tie it off and move on is something that coaches should teach before they even get into the basic fundamentals.