APA spokesperson Jeanette Lee “The Black Widow” and her husband, George Breedlove, welcomed a new baby girl, Savannah Lee Breedlove, on Aug. 31. Both mother and daughter are doing well. This is the couple’s first natural-born child. Savannah joins sister Chloe, who was born to a surrogate mother last October. Lee and Breedlove are also parents to adopted child, Cheyenne, a foster child, John Kang, and two daughters from Breedlove’s previous marriage, Morgan and Olivia.

“The ability to carry my own child was such an amazing experience and something I have always wanted,” said Lee. “George and I are so proud of our family and take great joy in raising our children in the best possible home environment. The birth of Savannah is truly a blessing for our family.”

The Black Widow is expected to return back to competition in early November. Please join us in congratulating the happy parents!

“You have to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win.” This is something that former U.S. Open Champion Shane Van Boening used to tell me all the time. The first time I ever saw him play was at a pro event in Las Vegas several years ago where he was skunked in the finals. From what I heard, he had an amazing tournament up until that point, and then failed to win one game in the final match. I later asked him about the match and what he thought happened. He replied with two short statements, “That was the most embarrassing day of my life at that point, but it was also the best thing that could have happened to me.”

 

This was interesting and led me to write about the topic this month. Players at all levels get frustrated with losing. Advanced players feel like there is an expectation to win and their pride is hurt when they lose. Beginner players feel discouraged if they are losing often when they first start out. And at some point in every player’s pool career, we will feel as if we’re in a rut. As with most things in life, it’s all what you make of it.  If you were winning all of the time, you would never learn anything.

 

Previously, I wrote about identifying your weaknesses. The time to apply this is when you lose. Losing teaches you several things on many levels. It’s not just about identifying what particular shots you did wrong and what types of shots you need to work on. It’s also about identifying other more conceptual things that are lacking in your game. For instance, here is an example of something I recently identified as an area I need to work on in my game—and it’s actually something I worked on in the past but will now have to readdress.

 

Last year I played every tournament I could enter. I flew over 50 times that year, most of which was for pool tournaments, and I was constantly in competition. This year has been a bit different. I rarely play any regional events and my work schedule in Austin is so hectic that I only travel for the WPBA events, nothing else. That being said, I’ve only competed a few times this year. Going into my first WPBA event earlier this year in San Diego, I knew I would have a tough draw.  All WPBA events are seeded and since missing several events at the end of 2009, I fell out of the top 32 rankings.  This meant I’d have to compete against a top player in the first round and as luck would have it, I drew Karen Corr.

 

Much to my surprise, I was able to pull away with a decisive lead of 6-1 in a race to 9. Having a chance to go up 7-1, I missed a fairly routine 9-ball. Then…I completely lost focus. All of this time off where I was not competing as frequently as I had in the past caused me to not be as conditioned for competition. A few mistakes later, I had lost the match 9-6 and was very disappointed. There’s no shame in losing to a player of her caliber, but I just couldn’t understand how I lost such a big lead. I was determined to work on this, so I played in as many tournaments as I could between then and the WPBA U.S. Open that took place two weeks ago. I just won a tournament the week before the U.S. Open, so I was feeling confident about my game. Once I got into my first match, all of that changed. I jumped out to a big lead—7-2 in a race to 9 and then lost focus again. I quickly realized I was getting lazy with some open run-outs and almost ended up losing the match. I had the same scenario in a later match that I almost lost, but also barely won. In this one I was up 8-4 and got careless. Although I still came out ahead in these matches, it was clear that I still have a lot to work on in keeping my focus throughout an entire match.

 

This type of weakness is not a particular shot that needs to be worked on and it isn’t the result of bad decision making. These conceptual weaknesses are much tougher to diagnose and just as difficult to correct. And many times, they need to be worked on over and over again, even after you think you’ve fixed the problem.

 

Beyond identifying what you did wrong in your matches, losing can also inspire a hunger to win. I think this is perhaps what Shane meant when he said it was the best thing that could have happened to him. Losing can motivate you not only to improve, but to gain a killer instinct that you might have been lacking in the past. It’s only natural to be frustrated, but it’s what you do with that frustration that will define your development. Do you want to focus on the fact that you are losing and potentially stay in this slump? Or, do you want to learn from the losses, take a more constructive approach and use that frustration to motivate you to win in the future? 

 

There will always be a winner and a loser and unfortunately, you will not always be on the winning side of that.  The next time you lose a match, don’t be discouraged. Take it in stride and view it as an opportunity to learn and improve.

Technical Sergeant (Tsgt) Annee Milewski from Scotia, N.Y., has been in the New York National Guard since 1999. She’s been an APA member since 2002, starting out with 8-Ball and then adding 9-Ball in 2005. She’s currently an E6 (Tsgt), 7-level Aviation Structural Mechanic (sheet metal and corrosion control) with Stratton Air National Guard Base, in Scotia, N.Y. Annee has annual deployments to Antarctica in the winter, and Greenland in the summer.  They’re the only unit in the world with a fleet of ski-equipped C-130 Hercules planes, capable of landing on snow and/or ice, in temperatures as low as -55 degrees Fahrenheit.  Prior to that, she was in the U.S. Coast Guard in the late 80s to early 90s, stationed in Hawaii and Boston.

 

While there’s no pool table at her New York base, there is in both Greenland and Antarctica. Annee spends much of her off-duty time practicing. She started playing pool when her brother taught her the basics at the age of 7. But, she really began playing seriously while stationed in Hawaii. She’s made many friends, from all walks of life, and continues to keep in touch with several of them.  In Greenland, pool’s allowed her to get to know a lot more members from her base who work in different sections.

 

“Pool helps me to relax when I’m deployed.  We put in very long days in Antarctica, with 12-hour shifts, in often extreme conditions, with an additional hour or more of travel (each way) between the ice runway and McMurdo Station,” Annee said.  “Shooting pool helps me to wind down at the end of the day, plus it’s given me the opportunity to meet many of the civilians that work down there, who also play pool.”

 

Annee first got involved with the APA when some friends who were playing in the League asked her to join their team. Her 8-Ball Open team is headed to the National Team Championships this year for the third year in a row.

 

“I love the camaraderie!” Annee said.  “Even though the competition is pretty steep in my current League, we all still manage to have a lot of fun, with the teams conversing and joking back and forth.  It’s kind of like a second family, and although everyone would LIKE to win, I’ve yet to meet any poor losers.”

Mike McDaniels of Grand Rapids, Mich., served in the Air Force (Air National Guard) as a Non-Destructive Testing Specialist for six years. He’s also been an APA member since 1995! His job was to verify that the parts on the plane were not cracked or degraded. Mike was stationed at Battle Creek Air National Guard Base in Michigan. During basic training and while deployed, there wasn’t a lot time for pool, but he would find a table to practice on anytime the opportunity arose.

Mike’s father was in the Air Force for 20 years, so they moved around a lot when he was a child. His father would take him to the NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) Club and show him how to shoot pool. At the age of 18, Mike bought his first pool table for $25 at a garage sale. After that, he became more serious about the sport. It was after finishing basic training and tech school that Mike joined the APA. He was approached by the Captain of a local team about joining—the rest is history. Then, while practicing at a bar, he met his wife. She now plays on his APA team, and has for the past 14 years. They play every session—Summer, Fall and Spring! Currently, their teammate Adam Hamilton is serving in Iraq.

The next generation of military in Mike’s family is his son. He’s currently serving in the Air Force at Battle Creek Air National Guard Base as a Security Forces Specialist. Recently, he was deployed to Saudi Arabia.  Mike’s other son hasn’t decided whether he wants to go in the military yet, but it’s an option for him.

With the National Team Championships quickly approaching, I’ve received several questions from players asking for advice on how to prepare for a tournament of this magnitude. While the particulars of what each player should work on will differ, the one commonality between most players is their inability to differentiate between practice and play. These two things have very different objectives and should be approached in different ways.

 

Before the Tournament

 

In the weeks leading up to a competition, you should focus on practicing a variety of things. And when I say “practice” I mean just that. Playing games and meeting up with your team to play against each other is not necessarily practice. What exactly are you working on? Did you improve in that practice session? If you are simply playing against friends with no structure, just for the sake of getting some shots in, then you’re not having a very productive practice.

 

Many players make the mistake of focusing on several things during this practice time and expecting to play perfect all around. This will not help you address specific weaknesses in your game. During each practice session you should pick one particular thing to work on and only determine your success based on that one objective.  For instance, if you notice that you have a problem staying down on the ball during your stroke, pay the most attention to that particular thing during a specific practice time—don’t worry about the other stuff quite as much. If you work on one thing at a time, you can perfect your game better. With too many variables, it’s harder to determine what you’re doing wrong.

 

Your practice time should be divided into two types of practice: drills and competition.

By “drills” I mean anything that you set up yourself and try to execute, rather than playing games. Many players say they don’t like drills because it’s boring. The real reason most players don’t like drills is because it shows you how inconsistent you actually are at some shots and it’s frustrating. If you’re a player that gets bored with drills, try making a game out of it by doing progressive drills. In progressive drills, you’re not simply repeating the exact same shot over and over again, you’re making a slight variation to the shot each time—begin with an easy shot and move to the most difficult variation of that shot. Start with the easy and progress to the difficult—don’t stop until you can execute each of them without missing. If you miss a shot along the way, start over. This way you’re playing a game against yourself. Some examples of good progressive drills can be found in this publication by the San Francisco Billiard Academy: http://www.sfbilliards.com/progpract.pdf.

 

Practicing the competition side is very important. Some people are great players when they’re playing socially, but there are very different mental factors that come into play when you’re actually in competition. Sometimes when I haven’t played in a big tournament in awhile, I’ll enter a random tournament just to get used to the pressure again. While I don’t suggest that you run out and play in every event you can before Nationals, I do suggest that you set up some practice matches against friends or other teams to follow the same tournament format you’ll be playing in Vegas. I do this quite often before WPBA events. One of my weaknesses is staying focused throughout an entire set. So, I will often play races to 9 (like the WPBA format) against different players (one weaker, one stronger and one around my level) to get myself ready for the different mindsets.

 

Have your team set up a scrimmage against another team and play all the matches out in the exact way you would in competition. I know this sounds very similar to a regular League night, but League nights usually have a more social tone to them. If you do this completely separate, you’ll subconsciously place a little more importance on doing well and it’ll put slightly more pressure on you than a regular League night. Sometimes it’s hard to coordinate that many people so you as a player can practice against individual players in the same format that you would play them in a tournament.  For example, find other APA friends and play individual matches against them with the same handicaps that you would use during a regular APA match. This will get you used to thinking in that “race” format and help you mentally prepare for playing against different skill levels.

 

This article by an instructor at the Cue-Tech Pool School is a great resource that first introduced me to this concept of practice vs. play: http://www.poolschool.com/doctor1.htm.

 

The Day of the Tournament

 

The manner in which you prepare on the day of a tournament is very different than what you do in the weeks leading up to the event. The day of the tournament, you’re no longer “practicing.” This is when you’re just warming up, getting acquainted with the tables, getting your arm in stroke and mentally preparing.

 

One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing players spar against each other during warm-up.

You usually have to challenge the winner and the winner stays on the table.  This is a rather unproductive way to warm-up for a tournament. If you miss a shot, you don’t get to try the shot over again and correct what you messed up. And most importantly, you won’t get nearly as many shots in as you would if you were shooting by yourself. But, perhaps the most negative thing shooting against someone else can do for you is hurt your mental preparation. If you aren’t winning much, it can hurt your confidence. If you’re missing a particular type of shot a lot since you weren’t able to attempt that shot again until you figured it out, that might get in your head later when that shot comes up in a match. There are many reasons why this is just not a good idea for warm-up.

 

Of course sometimes it’s hard to find a table that doesn’t already have someone shooting on it. So, next time you want to warm-up for a tournament, ask the person already shooting on the table to just “trade racks” with you rather than play against you. This means you each get a turn to throw the balls out on the table and run them. This will allow you to practice particular shots that you might want to set up and you can re-shoot. I suggest that the first shot you take on any day when warming up is just a long, straight stop shot over and over again. Make sure it’s set up perfectly straight and then try to stop the cue ball directly behind where your object ball was. If you find that the cue ball is squirting slightly to the left or right, then you’re not hitting center ball on the cue ball and are most likely not stroking correctly. This drill helps you get your stroke in order before you ever start shooting anything else in your warm-up. Many times at tournaments you are tired or get lazy in your stroke because you’re playing at different times than you are used to or are just not focusing as well because of the atmosphere. This will help orient your stroke and develop a good habit before you start playing. After that, you can progress from just setting up other routine shots to throwing the balls out and taking a normal run-out. Don’t hesitate to set up a shot again if you miss it rather than just continuing to shoot from where ever the cue ball ends up. This keeps you from having that mental distraction of remembering missing the shot.

 

For higher skill levels, I would also suggest practicing breaking on the table you are going to play on before you play. Many times, the break is a key factor in whether you have the first control of the table—for 7s, 8s and 9s, it can make a huge difference. So know where the table breaks best from and which balls are consistently going in.

 

I know players get very excited about competing in any of the National APA tournaments and you want to do your best while you’re out there.  While playing well is important, also try to remember that you’re in one of the most exciting towns in the world and you get to go there to play a game that you love. Pool is not a matter of life and death, so be sure that you don’t lose sight of the fun aspect of the tournament in your quest to win.