Intimidation Pool, this is a type of pool that does not belong in a league. But of course you are going to come across teams that will do whatever they can to intimidate a player. Be it questioning a shot or commenting about a shot or the team in general commenting about shots. I played such a team this past Wednesday. Although a team might do this there is way to overcome this. Staying calm and taking your time are two such tools.

Teams that have to resort to comments geared towards an opponent to get under their skin is just a sign of poor sportsmanship. During the first game against my opponent I made a kick shot at the 8 ball due to not having a direct shot at it. I hit the rail first and then the 8 ball and then the cue ball hit the rail. I clearly watched it to confirm this is what happened and immediately he said ball in hand. My response was of course no it wasn't and explained to him that the cue ball hit a rail afterwards. Not only did a couple of my teammates see this but also a person who was on neither team confirmed it yet he started saying stuff like “I see how this game is going to go” and “If that was a good hit then I will remember that”. The very next shot he had to go three rails for a hit and his cue hit the 8 ball. Before the cue got into the area he moved the 8 ball against the rail which was not the original spot where it was. So when i went up to the next shot I also said to him by the way it is the opponents responsibility to move a moved ball back to its original spot. So of course he had something to say to that which was you don't have to say by the way. Of course as I am shooting I am hearing his team commenting about me and still going on about the good hit I made on the 8 ball. This type of opponent makes the game not enjoyable.

My nerves where not with me that night as I could feel my body shaking as I was shooting. I need to work on over coming that but people like this do not help. They feed off the ability to intimidate their opponent to make his game weakened. Unfortunately I let him get to my game and he ended up beating me. Next time I will expect this type of tactic from this team and use their game against them. I look forward to the next time we meet.

Till next time, keep shooting.