Playing Pool in Gibraltar

A different kind of pool! Image by  Pexels  from  Pixabay Yes, I am having a break this summer. Not so much a summer holiday - just a couple of weeks off towards the end of August to chill by the sea is planned - but a break from pool. That does not mean I'm not playing pool, it means I'm taking a break from intense practicing, or playing in tournaments. The only pool I'm playing at the moment are the ranking series of matches twice a month. And that is enough for me during the summer. Come September, I'll be stepping up the preparation for the competitive league tournaments, cup tournaments, and, of course, the EBA Nations Cup in Cyprus in November. I do wonder if I might come in for some criticism by not being at the table as frequently as I can, practicing shot after shot, and sometimes I confess to feeling a bit guilty that I'm not. But the way I see it, you don't have basketball players running around the courts all day every day, or football playe...

It may be Easter and that may mean a bit of chocolate and a few indulgences here and there, but we are on countdown to the EBA European Pool Championship 2019, so, once today is over, it's down to pre-tournament preparation. I guess every pool player has his or her own particular routine that they use to get ready for a major tournament. I had a chat with some of my pool playing buddies and had a trawl round the internet to see what preparations seemed most popular among players. Here are the most common ways that players seem to like to prepare for a major tournament: Think about what goes in           Intake of food and drink is key to how your body performs in any circumstances, and in            particular in stress situation such as competitive pool playing. Eating well - not too little, not             too much - helps you to stay focused and keep up your energy level...

Photo "Stress on Dynamite" by Stuart Miles courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net ....At playing pool? Well, not so much getting better and better, but at least playing a bit more.  No, I'm referring to the fact that I'm getting better from a bout of sickness I didn't know I had until I ended up wired up to machinery in A&E.  Sounds dramatic, but what they suspected at first was a heart attack was actually a panic attack brought on by a protracted period of stress, which was caused by anxiety caused by goodness knows what, but contributed to by a very demanding period of work. Photo "Stethoscope and ECG" by cooldesign courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net In fact, until this point, I had not realised I was a stress victim - and I don't use that term lightly any more, because I really was unwell, and recovering from this is taking a fair while.  Not only that, I'm generally quite an easy-going person and I don't usually get work...