Success vs. Joy

- XXXIV -

It All Comes Back to Learning

In billiards, the skills required for compiling a break or the ability to consistently hit a quarter ball or to control the behavior pattern of three balls simultaneously are not easy to acquire. A player has to study how a ball moves, even by the minutest fraction of a millimeter. There is no substitute for practice. You cannot treat serious sport as a leisure activity, something to be done at the club after a day of hard work at the office. For those who treat the game in this manner, playing billiards is a form of entertainment. It provides the opportunity to socialize. But will the game bring joy to a casual player? Almost certainly, no! Entertainment, yes; true joy, no!

Every time my game hits a low, I get back to learning. That is the only way I can regain my ability to play well, to execute strokes in a perfect manner – an ability that I know I possess. When my body and mind are not in perfect sync, I catch on immediately, and then proceed to work on honing that perfect alignment.

Chapter XXXIII :: Chapter XXXV