Gave two lessons this week and always, when teaching you learn. I was explaining the slow backstroke and smooth follow-through which reminded myself how that's been lacking in my play recently. Couple with the fact I am working on my next video which is about staying down on the shot. Bringing those things back to my practice table...all of a sudden my cue ball control (or confidence) is better. And reviewing the video showed how much slower I was playing.

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Except I was not playing slower. Oh sure, my pace of play or time per shot probably went down by just a bit. Sure. But rather, paying attention to a slow backstroke, a smooth follow-through and staying down, brought DELIBERATION back to my game. Lo and behold, there I was walking the table more, making more firm decisions about where I wanted the cue ball, and performing my shot entry steps more purposefully.

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I tell you, what Straight Pool teaches you more than any other game is the mind and body working together. You can get away with limited thinking playing rotation games. But with Straight Pool you have to be fully present. And when you are a natural, deliberate pace of play automatically surfaces. If you find yourself playing too fast, simply slowing down how fast you are moving around the table is not the answer.

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The opposite of fast is ... deliberate.