Some of the best poker players can guess the cards in your hand by reading your facial gestures, eye movement, and your moves in the game. And so, obviously, after you understand the rules of the game, the sharpness of your mind matters the most. You’ll only be able to dominate in this game if you have a sense of reading people’s minds.
Unlike poker, however, snooker is a technical game; you need to learn a lot of techniques to play it better. But after you master your techniques and skills, the only thing that’s going to separate you from the rest is your mind.
To understand the psychology of snooker, we need to talk about the minds of some top players. How come some players always stay at the top? What is so special about them? How do their minds work in the game? Let’s start this discussion with the most special one, Ronnie O’Sullivan, the genius of the game.
The most powerful aspect of Ronnie’s psyche is its plasticity. Ronnie adopts different strategies while playing against different players. He changes strategies from game to game. He can also switch to a new strategy according to the situation. With the following few examples, we can easily understand the chameleon nature of Ronnie’s mind.
You might have experienced yourself or heard from other players that they tend to play quite well against good players and play badly against someone who doesn’t play well. In psychology, this attitude is called imitation behavior. With this mindset, you unconsciously adopt the game of your opponent.
This is a prime example of Ronnie’s genius. He deliberately plays carelessly against players who imitate the game of their opponent. Such players lose their killer instincts when they see Ronnie playing carelessly.
When Ronnie uses this tactic, he doesn’t want to make a big score. You won’t see him making centuries during such matches.
Now you know why Ronnie sometimes plays so strange 🙂
Agreeable Nature:
Ronnie is naturally gifted with a mind that helps him sniff the minds of other players. He is always looking for a weakness in the opponent. One of the most common weaknesses in many players is their agreeable nature.
It’s a wonderful trait when it comes to social life. With this nature, you can try to make people comfortable in your surroundings. However, if you try to play snooker with this mindset, you can easily lose your killer instinct. You might lose your focus if your opponent reacts with anger or any kind of upsetting behavior.
And that’s what Ronnie actually does. He is mostly a cool person but against agreeable players, he does express his anger if he misses the ball. For any other player, it should not be a problem at all but for people who deeply care about others, they can get affected by such reactions.
Players With Big Ego:
We all have an ego. It is part of our nature. Some people know how to take care of it while others carry it along with their persona.
If we talk about ego in the context of snooker, it will probably look like this – “Nobody can play better than me, I am the best.” Naturally, a person who believes in himself to this extent has to work quite hard. And therefore, it might work for some people to play with this mindset.
One aspect of this mentality is that such people get super focused if they get upset. Also, they can play quite well when their opponent is under pressure.
Unlike agreeable players, Ronnie plays cool against such egoistic players. He tries to focus on the table rather than the opponent. With these kinds of players, Ronnie tries to enjoy the game and avoid drama.
While Playing Against New Players:
Ronnie naturally adapts his game according to his opponent. But how does he deal with new players? How can he possibly play someone’s mind when he doesn’t know him at all?
That’s why Ronnie doesn’t feel comfortable playing against new players, especially when the match is short, which doesn’t give him a chance to understand the player.
However, Ronnie has one edge against new players. That is his name. It must be a lot of pressure to play against someone who is 7 times world champion. And so, Ronnie tries to use this pressure. He tries to play aggressively against new players. A few good pots might be enough for him to dominate in the match.
I Just Want To Have A Good Time:
You might have heard Ronnie repeatedly saying that he plays for fun. He doesn’t say this for the audience; this powerful message is a reminder to himself when he’s at the snooker table. After all, snooker is a sport, and the main goal is to enjoy every moment of it. But during the match, your mind might get hijacked by the idea of winning. And so, your mind might freeze if you ever feel like losing.
The chanting crowd, the prize money, the trophy, and your pride can try to entrap your mind in the loop of winning and losing. In this particular moment, Ronnie tries to remind himself that he is playing for fun. It’s a game, nothing else; just a source of entertainment.
“The balls are scattered all over the table and some of them are safe with the cushion. But I accept the challenge. Let’s see how I can clear up from here.” This is how Ronnie might think while at the table.
We often get surprised that Ronnie doesn’t feel pressure. Well, he does feel it but he has an antidote for it. His mind is too busy potting the balls, making position for the next one, and the challenge of total clearance. Winning and losing knocks at his mind but he is busy. His mind is too busy in the process while everyone else only thinks of the result.
Ronnie knows how to play with his own mind. He knows how to give space to fun when his mind should be occupied by fear of losing or the excitement of winning.
Here is how Ronnie explain this part; “When I talk about leaving something alone, it’s not the same as pretending you don’t care. It doesn’t mean you are not striving for the best possible outcome, and it’s absolutely not saying that you shouldn’t put the hard work in. It’s about letting go of the outcome. If I want to win another world title, obsessing over it-chassing it- won’t help.” page 82-Unbreakable-
The Entertainer:
Have you ever thought why Ronnie has the most fan following? Why do people love to watch his games so much? Well, that’s because Ronnie is the entertainer.
Before he started playing, the game of snooker was played with a lot of tension and drama. The main reason was that the game was played with a winning and losing mentality. But when Ronnie started professionally, he literally changed the dynamics of the game.
Ronnie plays with style. Watching his game is more like experiencing the live art of drawing. Clearing the table and winning the frame from the point when the opponent already has more than 70 scores on the board. Making 146 and refusing 147 deliberately. Making the highest possible score in 5 minutes and 8 seconds. Doing all such things so effortlessly must be an art, if not magic.
The reason why only Ronnie can do such things is because he likes to perform for the audience. He is the showman. And how does this help his game? Well, in return, he gets energy from the people. They cheer up his performance. It’s more like the comedian performing better when the audience responds to his jokes.
Jimmy White is also the kind of player who loves to entertain the audience. But probably, he was playing in the wrong era of snooker; at that time, the game was mainly played and watched for the result. Who was going to win was more important than how the player actually played. He was probably forced to give up on his natural mindset and play for winning instead. Which didn’t work for him.
Apparently, the writer was not so sure about his analysis here. Until he found this on Wikipedia;
“He reached six World Championship finals but never won the event; however he could win four-time World Seniors Champion (2010, 2019, 2020, 2023), and 2019 Seniors 6-Red World Champion” He probably could win later because the stage is now set for his natural mindset.
Together with Ronnie, Jud Trump, Niel Robertson, and Mark William, also contributed to change the style of the game of snooker overall.
A question; does Ronnie really read the minds? here is how he explained this after narating a story of tennis player Andre Agassi, “I think I can do the same with a couple of my rivals. I can see, from the little tricks they have, when I’ve got them in a place they don’t want to be. You don’t want to use that information. It’s like Agassi said; the hardest part isn’t reading them, but not giving away you can read them. You’ve got to save it for when it really matters-the tight semis, the big finals. And you load it on them until they fall apart in front of you. ” page 90 – Unbreakable
Now Let’s Talk About Mark Selby:
Mark Selby is one of the few players who can play well under pressure. But that’s not all. One of the most unique aspects of Selby’s nature is that he generates pressure. His body movement, facial gestures, and time on the table will make you feel like snooker is not a game but a matter that’s close to life and death.
And since pressure is contagious, most of the time the opponent gets under pressure too. For Selby, it’s more like killing two birds with one stone. The opponent will get weaker with pressure and Selby will get stronger by having it.
One of the greatest players in snooker history was “Hurricane” Alex Higgins. He was doing the same; Alex would also create an immense amount of pressure, which would cause the opponent to get frozen.
The reason why both players love to chase the score is because chasing puts them under pressure. It’s strange but for a player like Selby, more pressure means more focus.
Playing The Table Vs Playing The Player:
You want to know why Stephen Hendry dominated the game for such a long time? He won 7 world titles in 10 years, out of which 5 wins were consecutive. This made him one of the best players in snooker history. It’s because he plays the table rather than the player.
Focus on the table, the balls, and your choice of shot. How you play should be more important to you than how and what your opponent plays. This is the most powerful mentality because you will be able to play your own natural game irrespective of who is in the game with you.
Judd Trump, John Higgins, Mark William, Mark Allen, and some other players have this powerful mentality. They aren’t bothered about their opponent because they’re only concerned about their own game. And so, these players are immune to people like Ronnie O’Sullivan. He can’t play with their minds; because they don’t care.
The Most Unique Mindset:
To be able to play your own natural game irrespective of who is on the table against you is quite powerful. But do you know what is even more powerful? It is to be able to play your natural game irrespective of the situation of the match.
Luca Brecel is the sort of player who doesn’t mind the opponent just like many top players. But somehow, surprisingly, he also doesn’t mind the situation of the match.
This mindset means you will perform the same whether you are leading or chasing the score.
The psychological viewpoint says that you have control over two most important emotions; excitement of winning and fear of losing.
This is almost inhuman.
We don’t know how Luca does it. But in an interview with S. Hendery, he said that he didn’t practice for three weeks for the world champion 2023. Playing during the match was his first shot in the previous three weeks. He also said that he felt excited when he potted the last winning ball. That was the most amazing moment for him, but after a while, everything was normal. Well, that’s not normal at all! How can you become the world champion and feel like nothing happened?
This mindset is quite rare and we don’t know how to explain it!
Take Away:
Now let’s see what we can learn from this discussion. Well, if Ronnie was not in this discussion and he was reading this to learn something from it, he would probably not learn anything. The same applies to Luca Brecel because their minds work differently. And so, it’s better to focus on your natural talent rather than copying others.
However, if you think someone naturally synchronizes your style of game, you should definitely try to copy that. That would be considered an improvement for you, not copying.
Lastly, we would like to add, that snooker itself teaches you the psychology of the game and so if you are improving your game you are learning it’s psychological aspects anyways. However, it’s always great to consider psychology coach if you think that might help.
