Some days you just can’t seem to find your game. Normally automatic shots go awry, your cue ball speed control vanishes and you first overrun your position play and then begin to come up short.

The problem only seems to get worse the more you play. This is because as you get more and more upset about the situation you also get more and more tense and pool is not a game that can be played with a tense arm or an uptight mind. Anything that harms your self-confidence is a real predator on your game.

This happens to everyone, even the top pros. It is actually nothing to be alarmed over. Everyone has their good days and their bad. But you don’t need to just accept it. You hold the cure to the problem and you just need to use it to unlock the power of your skills.

There are many ‘keys’ in your game that can be checked when things are not going so well. Try each of them when your game deteriorates and see if you can find one that will snap you back into gear. Here is a checklist of keys:

1. Relax the shooting hand and wrist. Tension is a game-killer. It shows up often in the shooting hand, causing it to turn up suddenly at the end of the stroke, or to grip the cue so firmly that the cue cannot properly impart English to the cue stick or causing the stroke to become jerky as the arm can no longer ‘flow’ through the stroke.
2. Check your stance. If you have some tension in your back or legs it may cause you to address the table differently. You may be turned slightly more in one direction or the other than you normally are and this will, in turn, throw off your aiming system. Your eye communicates graphically to your arm and it does so from its normal base of operation. If the base has been changed then the information it gives out is no longer accurate. Just step back form the table, look at the shot with your feet square to the shot and then step in to the table and address the ball as you always have. Go back to square one.
3. Check the bend in your knees. Unless you are Jim Rempe you shoot with your knees slightly bent. If muscle soreness, fatigue or nerves have caused you to ‘straighten up’ your stance then again you are trying to aim from an unfamiliar platform. Do the same as in number two above and approach the shot again.
4. Check your bridge distance and how firm it is. Try moving the bridge hand a little closer to the cue ball and make sure your loop finger is firmly guiding the cue shaft and has not gotten so loose that the cue is wobbling as it passes through your bridge. A soft, long bridge is not as accurate for most players. Unless you are from the Philippines. Then you can shoot with any length bridge you want and it doesn’t seem to matter.
5. Check your pace. Nerves can make you speed up until you are no longer taking the time required to properly aim and execute your shots. It can also make you slow down to where you ‘study long, study wrong’. Pace is very important. Your game is like a piece of music and if the metronome keeps changing speed it can be pretty noisy. When your pace has changed it is a good time to take a short break from the table. Go wash your face and hands and take a few deep breaths. Visualize yourself at the table and see yourself shooting in your normal pace. If you have gotten too fast, take an extra walk around the table. It will help calm you and may give you another insight into the shot ahead. Never speed up or slow down to match the pace of your opponent as this causes you to play his game and puts him at an advantage.
6. Check the height of your head over the cue stick. When you are shooting your head should be at a constant level above the cue stick. That level has gotten lower and lower over the years and now most top players shoot with their chins in very close proximity to the shaft. If your head begins to rise up into a position that is higher than normal then again you are feeding your aiming computer information from an unfamiliar position.
7. Check your backstroke. In golf one of the most basic flaws that can creep into the game is too fast of a backstroke. The same goes for pool.
8. Are you staying down on the shot? If you get the ‘yips’ and start to rise up from the shot earlier than normal then you aren’t giving your shot the time to work. Make sure you are keeping your head down until the cue ball strikes the object ball.
9. Check your equipment. If your cue tip has flattened it will not respond in a familiar and comfortable way. It may also begin to miscue. Reshape as required. One thing that can really throw you off is if you have ‘dinged’ your shaft in a place where the ding hits your fingers as you stroke. This minor irritation can steal concentration from your shot. Take a moment and rub the ding out. For a quick fix put a drop of water on the ding and then rub over the area vigorously with the neck of a glass bottle. The heat from the friction of the glass on the wood will cause the water to expand inside the ding and push the ding out.
10. Check your attitude. If this is one of those days where you would rather be doing something else, go do it. It’s really difficult to think about position if your mind is concerned with how you need or want to be doing something else instead. Don’t worry, that table won’t move. It will still be there when you take care of whatever it is that is distracting you.