Today I keep glaring at my left wrist, because that always helps, right? It's been hurting a little. Not the intense pain that has caused me to stop shooting so many times over the last several years, more of a dull ache that I fear could transform into actual pain.

So I've really thrown myself back into pool these last several weeks. That's why my wrist is hurting and that's why I'm concerned about it. I'd like to write more about throwing myself back into pool, but I'm making no such promises.

Still playing. A lot.

Distractions that, um, distracted me for several years are gone, at least for the moment. I needed something to occupy my mind, and I've rediscovered the simple pleasures of shooting balls into holes.

Okay, fine. There was just one distraction. It's not like I'm the first person this ever happened to.

Anyway.

Back in January of 2001, I had Grady Mathews in my basement for some lessons. Yesterday I watched the DVDs I made of that session. I noticed a few things:

1. I asked a lot of stupid questions. It seemed like I was expecting that there was some big secret to banking balls, and if I asked Grady enough times he'd finally reveal that secret just to get me to shut the fuck up.

2. Grady had incredible patience with me. This was nice, as it told me that I probably wasn't the most retarded player he'd ever given lessons to.

3. I shot almost every shot way too hard.

4. In January of 2001, I was the world's fattest person. In the background of some scenes, you could see Greenpeace people lurking, just in case there was any trouble from whalers.

I don't even know if this blog works anymore. I guess I'm about to find out.

Today I shot banks for eight straight hours. That's more pool in one day than I've probably shot in the last three years combined.

I suck from lack of practice, but I had a lot of fun.

And I bet I'm going to be really sore tomorrow. I can already tell that my feet will be killing me.

44 to go.

Today was a pretty good day, considering the circumstances.

I got this strong urge to shoot some pool. I don't know why, I just did.

I didn't even want to shoot against anyone. I just wanted to knock some balls into some holes. Sometimes, like tonight, that's all I want to do. Simple, but effective.

So I went to this Royal something-or-other place. It sucked. It was a nightclub with some pool tables. I wanted the exact opposite, except without the nightclub stuff.

I can't even remember the name of the place I went. The something.

That narrows it down.

All I wanted to do was knock some balls into some holes. But I was not about to back down from a challenge. Not this time.

It took about 10 seconds for one of the local "sharks" to detect me. It took about 60 seconds for us to negotiate a game, with a "friendly" wager and a "fair" spot.

It took about 5 minutes for me to realize that, in that particular little pond, I was the big fish.

The pussy quit me after a couple of hours and several hundred dollars. I don't really blame him except that he'd originally acted like he had money to burn.

The thing is, nobody up here knows how to play banks. Oh, certainly, people know how to bank, many of them much better than me, but to play the game of banks requires a special mindset. One that I possess, and others up here don't.

Like taking candy from a baby.

So, the thing is, for those of you who are here because I got runner-up in some pool blog thing - I apologize.

I haven't updated this thing in months. I have no plans to update it with any more frequency in the immediate future.

My stupid personal life took precedence over my pool playing.

Fucked up, I know.

One of my New Year's resolutions - the only one I've really stuck with as it turns out - would be to shoot more pool.

To shoot pool every day was my original goal, though I've since realized that it won't be possible, because there are going to be days when I never see a pool table. But, so far, I've managed to shoot every day this year. At least a couple of hours every day.

I'm taking things very slowly, being very cognizant of my left wrist, because if I mess that wrist up again it'll be weeks before I can make a proper bridge. Don't want that. Not at all.

So I'm sleeping with my wrist brace on, and I'm being very careful when I shoot pool.

It's been banks for the most part lately. No big surprise there I don't suppose. I've sprinkled in some nine ball every now and then. Sometimes nine ball helps me get into alignment more quickly than banks does.

Tonight, for the first time in months, I managed to bank nine in a row. Then, to rub salt into my no-camera-having wound, I threw the balls back onto the table and banked three more. So, that's twelve. Pretty good for a chump, I think.

I'm not even going to promise to update this blog more often. It wouldn't fool anyone by this point.

Well, between the worst cold I've ever had, and the worst back pain I've ever felt, my practice time has dwindled to almost nothing. I've gone weeks without even picking up my cue.

But maybe I'm getting better now. I played for a bit tonight. I played 8-ball, of all things.

I know, not much of an update, but here it is anyway.

Still practicing a lot, though not so much for the last few days as I've been sick.

Anyway, today I redid the main movie page. It was taking way to long to load up. So now you have to go to each movie's individual page to actually watch the thing.

There was also a problem with one of the clips. It kept freezing on me. I've reloaded that clip to my server so I hope the problem is correct. I can't test it just yet because the corrupted clip is in my cache.

I never said this would be an exciting entry.

Are you sitting down? Good, because - get this - yesterday I actually left my basement and played pool in public.

What I did was, I went over to this Louisville Billiards Club place, and I practiced for about three hours.

My intention, going in, was to get on a 4x8 table. Past experience has shown me that it's pretty damn hard to miss a bank on a 4x8, once I get used to the optical illusion that causes everything to come up short. So I was just going to have some fun making banks for a while.

Once I got there though, I changed my mind. I had a sudden fear of getting lazy, and losing whatever physical progress I've made over the past few weeks.

So I grabbed the first 4.5x9 table instead.

Nobody approaches me to play. I suppose that was fine. They probably would have wanted to gamble, and I'm not into that anymore. I just used my time to work on noticing table differences and adjusting to them.

The table yesterday was weird. It was absolutely filthy, for one thing. And that filth probably caused the other thing. Balls banked off the short rails had an amazing tendency to go long. I mean, every damn time they'd want to go long. I guess this probably had something to do with how the balls weren't sliding as much as I was expecting them to. They'd pick up roll almost immediately after they left the rail, and that would affect the bank angle. For cross-table shots off the long rails, this wasn't noticable at all.

But I adjusted I guess. It took me a while.

Practice was much better today. I had a lot of fours, a few fives and sixes. Nothing spectacular though. Seemed to have better luck on most shots with my grip hand about an inch more forward than comfort allowed. I don't know if that's something that will carry on past tonight though. Most physical elements of my shooting style don't last very long.

Anyway, I've mentioned before in various venues that I've always been much more of a feel player, than a mechanical one. To me, it's always been preferable, and more successful, to shoot what feels right instead of what I calculate is right. Everyone's different. Most top players use a blend of FP and MP styles, I think. Even if they won't admit it.

When I switched to banking, years ago, I found that the accuracy needed to bank well was so much greater than the accuracy needed for regular shots - well I felt that I had to become a more mechanical player to have any kind of success. My thoughts on stance and alignment, such as they were, simply did not lead to the type of consistency needed to bank balls with any kind of regularity.

I think the thing that I've come to realize, or at least recall, over the past few days has been that being physically mechanical, and therefore consistent, doesn't necessarily mean that I have to be mentally mechanical as well.

So this is something I've been working on. Feeling the shot, but shooting with a consistent physical style. It's a little tough. Physical tension can lead to mental tension, and mental tension is the last thing an FP wants. Conversely, mental relaxation has a strong tendency to cause physical relaxation. And too much physical relaxation can lead to sloppy shooting.

But it is possible to disconnect the two approaches to shooting.

This is something I'm working on. It's frustrating, but it's fun.

And fun is why shoot.