The Psychology of Loosing - Billiards Book tag:billiards,book,acs,snooker,pool

(SANTA CLARA, CA) Allan P. Sand has just released another book in his Billiard Gods series. "The Psychology of Losing - Tricks, Traps and Sharks" documents 80+ ways that players can be sharked and distracted from playing their best. The book teaches defensive gamesmanship.

Sharking has always been a problem in table billiards. If this was just a book on how to shark, it would be banned in billiard parlors and pool halls across the world. It is not a guide to distractive behavior. It is a reference that describes individual types of sharks - AND provides the solutions and counter-responses to stop them.

The types of sharks are not only the silly coin jingling and line of sight tricks that teenagers love to use against each other. There are dozens of psychological needles that are barely felt and rarely recognized. Often, the only record of their existence is the string of wins by an apparently average shooter. 

What makes this book so important to the pool-playing public is that it finally reveals the entirety of subtle and unsubtle gamesmanship. Many of these are effective simply because they are not recognized as a shark. Even a single read will protect you from dozens of common sharks.

This book is as real as it gets. The material is common to pool halls, home tables, and bars. The social levels covered range from the highest, richest of places down to the lowest, grungiest bar. Once learned, any type of shark can be identified and stopped. Without effective tricks, such user have to depend on real skills.

The research took more than 15 months of dedicated effort. Most of the material came from the memories and experiences of long-time players. Bob Jewett & Eric Harada (San Francisco Billiards Academy) were major contributors. Dozens of old geezers who don't want their names known were interviewed and provided their experiences. To ensure complete coverage, hundreds of players identified what bothered them. A few dozen were selected for testing of the counter-responses and validated in real-time.

This book is available printed and in ebook formats (PDF, ePub, Mobi, and LIT). It is part of a series, designed to help shooters play better by using their brains first. All books are available at the web site. The author has been playing for more than 45 years. He is an ACS Instructor and on the ACS Marketing Committee and the ACS Player/League Development Committee.