Best Loser: How To Win From Losing A Match In Billiards?

It is always so frustrating when you lose a match in any billiard game. That feeling of defeat can wear you down if you let it. What if I told you that you can actually be the winner by losing matches in pool? Would you believe me?

The truth is a loss is a loss as far as that match is concerned but you can learn so much more from your losses than you can from your wins, which in my book is a bigger win as far as improvement is concerned. Nobody improves if they always win, for one there is no reason or motivation to if you are always winning. If you can learn to analyze your matches and learn from your mistakes and your opponent’s triumphs, you will be the true winner.

I know you are needing to know more, so keep reading as I break down how to best learn from your losses so you can improve and begin winning your matches instead.

Learning From Your Mistakes

Before you play any game of billiards you need to begin the process of making mental notes of your shots and your opponents. By doing this intentionally you are able to recall upon the details of the shots, which is beneficial especially for later practice.

Your opponent’s shots are just as important as yours because you can analyze their strategy and approach to the shots, which may be ways of looking at shots far different than your own. So by doing this you are opening yourself up to more ways of strategizing and learning from what works and what doesn’t.

By taking mental notes of your mistakes in your match, you are creating a list of things that you need to work on. If you practice this list consistently instead of just practicing playing matches, you will improve faster. For example, if you take note that you are struggling with positioning the cue ball for your next shot, then next time you practice, do drills to work on your positioning, until you can put that cue ball where ever you need it.

Learning From Your Opponent

While it may be easier to learn from your own mistakes, don’t neglect what you are able to learn from your opponent. Everybody sees and strategizes differently, some ways of reading the table are far more superior than others.

So always pay attention to when your opponent is shooting, observe how their balls are laid out and try to understand why they are shooting in that particular order. Why do they choose to shoot that ball instead of the other ball first, are they seeing things differently than you are?

This is especially true if your opponent has been playing longer than you and are more experienced. Do they choose to shoot a defense shot when you would choose an offense one? These are things to analyze and take notes on.

Conclusion

Everybody loses at some point or another, and some may lose more often than others. But the true test of character is not how often you loose but rather how you react and accept your losses as well as learn and grow from them.

All successful players have the same things in common, they didn’t start out good, they lose a lot of matches and spent years of practice and training to get where they are now. Even if we look outside of just cue sports but to any successful people or businessmen, they fail over and over again, learning from each failure until they succeed. So the key to success is to fail repeatedly as long as you are able to learn and grow from each failure, you are the true winner.