Topic: A melt Down

[grandmaster]

Sure you can! I call it the "Blue Dolphin" on the rocks... H2O.

[gitablok]

OoooooooKaaaaaaaaaay,

Blue Dolphin...............................on the rocks..............................right.

Mixed with?.......lol

[gitablok]

Iceman, the conductor example is just a word picture used to show the division of conscious vs subconscious tasks that go on normally and get screwed up during a meltdown. Take driving a car, you drive it but how much do you think about it yet you stay on the road and stop at stop signs without even giving it a thought. A new driver will think about everything they do and make all kinds of mistakes.

I know what you're saying but this is a bad anology for me. You see I'm an UPS delivery driver. We are trained to always think of every action we do behind the wheel at all times as we drive. Knock on wood , two months away from 14 years safe driving.

And I hate to say it but it sounds like you got played in Archery. Remember the movie Pumping Iron? Arnold stated how he would always identify his greatest competition and do everything to room with this guy in order to climb into his head and distract him from the competition at hand. Seems to me this guy singled you out as a threat and treated you as such.

A little story. Although having established myself as a decent pro goaiie in the mid to late 90's, I was a bit of an unknown quantity. Warming up on a table by myself, Todd Loffredo walks up and says hey block me, I need to warm up. I give only token resistance because I know what's up before it even starts. After pounding his 5th or 6th shot in a row he says I want you to block me for real. I tell him hey I am, you're just that good. I look him in the face and smile, he looks back also with a smile. He realized I knew he was trying to gain intel on my defensive style. Mental jousting like this and many other ways takes place all the time at tourneys. You need to be able to recognize it and respond accordingly.


ICEMAN

[Old Meister]

Dang Iceman, you're a tough SOB I can tell. Lol. The archery lesson was by a friend, not a competitor as he shot a different style. But what the lesson really was was that I performed without thinking up until that point. I didn't know how to shoot when I payed close attention to every detail. And that lesson kept me from being a flash-in-the-pan performer. I had to then build a base of known skills. 

That is a pretty cool story about Todd Loffredo. I have to admit I fall short on being cagey in that manner. Well you warned us that you like to play the "game". So did you play him and how did it go?

[gitablok]

If I remember correctly, It was in Atlanta at the Masters Open. Because of a delayed flight out of Dallas, I just barely made it in time to sign up for the pro pro master draw. This was back when we never really knew what ball we would have from major to major. Being pro means you don't get to play as many meaningful events, but this event always drew a large number of players. Considering you had to be at least a pro to play, every match was usually closely contested so it meant something to play and win this event.

I was literally the last person allowed to sign up for the event. So minutes before the event was to start, here I am trying to figure out how the tables play when Todd walks up. After that scene I figure I'd better find out who I drew. On my way to the front Spirit Molice tells me I drew Fred. I respond Fred, who the hell is that? He laughs at me saying yeah right, Fred.....Rico. I'm thinking SWEEEET. But I'm also thinking Rico's ability will give me an opportunity to get used to the tables because I don't want to be the first player not to win this event at a Major after having drawn Rico. So I go to see who we play first round. It's a local pro who I knew very well, young, upandcoming, and very talented, James Castillo aka Sparky. His partner was a pro master speed demon of old that everybody knew, yep, Todd Loffreddo.

Talk about a double edged sword. I had previously played against Todd 4 times before, winning twice. Once with Steve Murray and once with Charles Britt. At the time Todd was playing goalie for Terry Moore. His experience with me was when he was playing goalie but he would now be playing front so I think that's why he came up to me earlier trying to gain intel. Todd knew I had a good push from back but I jokingly warned him I didn't know where the ball would be going because of lack of time getting used to the table. After scoring two goals in the first game in holes I was not trying to hit, I looked at him and said, I gave you fair warning. Rico and I won that match and ended up winning the event, from the losers side.

Thankfully, I was not the first to break Rico's streak in this event.


ICEMAN

[Old Meister]

Is there any video on Youtube  of you playing? I'd love to see your game.

[gitablok]

Not that I know of. If I can ever find it again, I had a dvd of Thor Donavon( one of the sports great pull kickers ) and I, when we teamed up to play Championship Doubles. We had a good tourney placing 9th considering we had never played together before. We lost to the two teams who I considered to be the best "teams" playing the event, Dave Gummeson and Tracy MacMillen and Todd Loffreddo and Fredrico Collingnon.

The match that was taped was against Rico and Todd. I was very satisfied with my play because I had the world's best forward scrambling for points. I believe my blocking percentage was 66 percent. It got to a point in the match on must have points he would call time out and put Todd up for the shot. Even though we lost 3 straight, I recieved compliments on my play from both Todd and Rico. Todd said had he not known Thor so well over the years, who knows, they might have been in trouble, but he did so he shut Thor down.

Thor and I had a blast playing together. He's a great competitor. He even listened to my advice a couple of times, lol.

If I run across it again, maybe I can get it loaded up for viewing.


ICEMAN

[Old Meister]

That would be great. Wow slowing down those guys means we might have to rename you Iceberg. While playing in Portland, one of the things I got into was going from a nervous herky jerky defense to a relaxed just outside of time reaction defense with relaxed muscles. I think that created more problems for the snake shooters than anything. I know I always hated a "lazy" goalie when I wanted reactions to play off from. I like to defend the pull with an open defense using the far man so there is no dead man. To block the short I do the goalie dance while staying loose with some movement on the two. It was working pretty good but I did get burned on the straight a few times, that goal seems wider than the TS tables.

[Steve]

I can see that a good mental game is great when you can use it in time to many times game over then its I should have done this or that, I did learn at the last tournament to make my adjustment right away my hand was slipping on my rev fakes (euro pin) so pull shot time worked great my golie was Steve Ruither from Kazoo mi gave me some good advice he even called a time out when I had the ball.

[Old Meister]

There are some that play and there are some that "play". This is the feeling I get from Iceman. Everyone gets so serious about the game but you can get played on a lot of different levels. When it is Death serious how cool it is to detach yourself from that and "play". Why not?

[Steve]

Wow A pool player my old room mate was an A player City champ I saw him run 106 balls not bad I was a B player long way from an A what is your stik of choice, mine is Muecci,

[gitablok]

Wow A pool player my old room mate was an A player City champ I saw him run 106 balls not bad I was a B player long way from an A what is your stik of choice, mine is Muecci,

I shoot with a PFD custom cue. Paul Drexler. The shaft I use is the latest rage in pool and rightfully so. It is of similar construction to the Predator shaft but has a better feel to it.

Check this out, its pretty interesting.
http://www.obcues.com/


ICEMAN

[Steve]

That`s a nice shaft looks like the fly rod construction do you like the tip