As the Tewksbury area league is new to me I do not know may of the people, teams, or places that I am playing at.  Even though the venue or people change at least the game of 9 ball does not change.  So we played at our home location as the home team this week.

So the first four people play and it is between me and the captain as to who is going to play.  We decide to flip a coin so I call heads.  So I ask him, since I won the toss does that mean I play or I get to choose who plays?  He says you get to choose and once again I tell him, your the captain its up to you.  So he tells me to play.  This is my second 9 ball match playing as a 7.  They throw a 5 up.  First rack goes about even.  Next rack she goes with 10 unanswered points.  I start making a come back and during one of the racks I almost have a break and run but I scratch on the 7 ball.  During the last game sh breaks runs a few balls then misses.  I get down to a tough combo shot with the 8 and the 9 ball that I should of made and ended the game as I only needed one more ball.  I miss that shot.  She goes to try to make the 8 ball and rattles it in the corner pocket leaving me a duck for the last point I need.  I ended up winning 14-6.  The person I shot against was a good sport in all.  She had a good attitude even though she was on the loosing end of the match.  Playing people like this, win or loose, makes the sport more enjoyable for everyone.

I felt as though I was not at the top of my game but thankfully my consistency is getting to the point where I don't need to be at the top of my game all the time.  My best game of yesteryears is becoming my constistent game of today.  My bad game seems to be making less of an appearance due to this as well.  That is the goal of every pool player:

1. Make it so your bad game rarely appears. This game will appear 10% to 20% of time.  But as you continue to practice and become more consistent this percentage will lower even more.  I think right now I am around 10% of the time I am just not shooting up to par.

2. Know that your regular game is always improving.  This is the game you are going to shoot 75% to 85% of the time.  Getting this piece of the game to be more consistent is really the goal of any player.  It is the game that you are going to be playing most of the time.

3. This is the top of your game.  It is going to appear 5% to 10% of the time.  This is when you are shooting and you feel as though no one can touch you.  When you get better at being consistent with your regular game you allow your top games' percentage to go up.  Consistency is really the key to any part of your game.

So by improving the game that you are going to be playing most of the time, your regular game, the line between your top game and regular game can become blurry.  This goal means you are eliminating your bad game by becoming more consistent, and allowing your regular and top games to shine through.