Pleasures of Small Motions: Mastering the Mental Game of Pocket Billiards

This book is a must for any pool player who wants to get better at their game.ALL sports contain three distinct and important aspects.In order of easiest to toughest, these are:1. The physical game: the stance, grip, bridge, cut angle, English etc.There are any number of good books and videos that do a great job of teaching this.2. The intelligent part: this gets a bit trickier and involving calculating the odds, tactics and strategy to perform at our optimal skill level, offense vs. defense etc. You will need a good amount of hard work and experience to gain insights at this level and master the sport. This can only be achieved thru practice and experience over time.3. The emotional part: by far the most difficult part. The key skill that separates the men from the boys; the women from the girls; the wannabe vs the champ; the player in control of themselves vs. the choker.All too often there's way too little good advise about how best to handle #3 above. Most advise, in fact, is pretty bad and actually just plain wrong. You need someone who understands the emotional composition of the human mind to help you navigate this minefield built on top of quicksand.I play the APA pool league regularly and get plenty of free advise from other who have played for many years. I've only been doing it for a few months. I can see that most advise isn't quite what it ought to be.Cue: enter Dr.Fancher, a psychologist who is an avid pool enthusiast. Like Dr.Dave has done an amazing job of explaining pool thru the physics of it, Dr.Fancher has done an amazing job of explaining how best to use the subconscious to output an optimum performance, given one's skill level, by channeling and controlling one's emotions.He has it way out of the park. And that sentence is a gross under statement. There is a whole lot of good life advise itself, if one knows how to use it.Have you felt anxiety at a tournament? Have you missed a shot because a buddy was sneering and jeering at you at a bar table during a friendly pool night with your bros?Have you *ever* had a situation where you missed a shot that you know you can effortlessly make nine out of ten times, only because of situational or emotional pressure?Do you want to make sure you master your emotions and play like a Zen master? Well, maybe you're not "The One" who can play at a Zen master level, sorry. But this book will most certainly help you get closer to that emotional skill level. At the very least, it'll help you get several orders of magnitude better in terms of emotional mastery and will help you improve your performance overall.Dr.Fancher has done an excellent job of explaining the intangibles and presented a course on how to train and channel the intangibles into improving one's game and getting tangible results.As you can see, I'm totally wowed by this book. Get it already! It'll be some of the very best few dollars you've ever spent in your life.Unfortunately I cannot rate this book higher than five stars. It easily deserves fifty!

this book was recommended to my husband to improve his pool game. He has since recommended it to others and said it has good information in it.

Read it 3X, Its a quick read! It will bring you up a level or two.

What is written confirms my approach to the game of pool. As a young boy I played snooker. Many, many years later I began to play pool again, I had to learn the new language of pool. The mental side of the game becomes important as I play in league tournaments. I enjoy the game because of those small motions whether I win or lose. This book is a must read for those who love the game!

Built around the idea of shooting better pool, much of the content here could be applied to any sport, especially one built around acquisition of fine motor skills.

Bought this book on a compulsive whim while obsessing about billiards. Holy crap Tarzan! This little book is changing my life - for the better. This fine piece of work has taught me that to manage endless compulsions, which become obsessive at about three times the speed of light - all I need to do is think about something else. It's that simple. For 65 years my personal management tool box has been empty. Now I have an effective tool to carry in it. SSRI's like Prozac can slow down what I call the motor in my head, thereby reducing the power of a particular compulsion/obsession, but SSRI's cannot actually help manage my OCD thought process as an adult. This wonderful book has given me a new lease on life. I can control my compulsions simply by thinking about something else. Another way of saying it is: I now manage "realistic expectations" as opposed to just bouncing around like a deranged ball in a pin ball machine of despair. Thank you so much Dr. Fancher. Your book has been quite unexpected.

This book is a one of a kind. The author gives a great analysis to all that goes into pocketing a ball.The concept of the mind trains the body begins to dance in your mind. A pool player doesn’t have bad habits, they have you. This book gives all levels of pool players a way to explore development of new habits. The results will be good for the sport.After all, I don’t know any pool players, who don’t want to play better.

I believe this book is a sincere effort to examine mental aspects of pool. It is relatively well written but promises more than it delivers. What's new? Its pluses are accurately debunking of many of the meaningless approaches regularly marketed to players trying to improve their skill and results. Minuses are criticisms of common approaches without offering solid reasons for the criticism. I got a few thing but it is too condescending.

Den här boken gav både många igenkännanden och nya insikter. Mycket kring det mentala är svårt att beskriva lättförståeligt, men den här boken slår huvudet på spiken. Jag fick många aha-upplevelser och har både kunnat förbättra spelet och samtidigt njuta mer av det. Lite mer uttömmande kring praktiska övningar hade gett den fem stjärnor.

Really we presented and explained - well worth a gander - really shows although pool is a psychological game, it's all based in connection to the love of the flow.

book has been around for a while now, I am surprised that it has taken me so long to find it...I am one that struggles with the mental game, I put together nice runs only to miss the game winning ball. Its a short read with only 140 pages, but filled with great information explained in great detail and with practices of how to improve the mental game where other authors or online videos fall short when talking about this aspect.since the writing of this review it has been about 3 weeks i have been putting these practices to work. It has completely changed the way I view the the game, get ready for a match and compete against others. My anxiety level on pressure shots have also decreasedIn a nutshell, this book should be a prerequisite for anybody that plays the and enjoys the game of pool, I read a previous review and the comments read this book may save your game...I believe it will

Gives you insight on what concentration is and how it effects your game. Explains how to deal with distractions. For the amount of money you pay for the book and the info you gain, it's well worth it. At least for me who knew nothing about the mental aspect of the game. I played in a team all my life so switching to a sport where the outcome depends entirely on you, this book helped me to understand what I should be paying attention to. Highly recommended.

El único problema es el idioma sería ideal en formato kindle y en español.Por lo menos para mi.Espero tener buena acogida con mi petición