The Anatomy of a Shark

The first thing that pops to mind when a pool player hears "shark" is hustler, but this column is concerned with the other pool-related type of shark.

Definition: Shark: The movement, words or occurrences, intentional or not, that cause an a pool player to miss a shot.

Being sharked has to do with the shooter losing concentration, an interruption of the shooting routine or breaking the shooter’s rhythm. Just what is this phenomenon? What can be done to counter it?

INTENTIONAL SHARKS:

The OBVIOUS Shark: This is the one that people normally talk about as to why the shot was missed. We’ve all seen it and, to be honest, most of us have probably done it at one time or another in our pool-playing life. The most famous and most often-used shark is standing in the shooter’s line of sight. Of course, the sharker doesn’t just stand there quietly. He (or she) may chalk his (or her) cue, bounce it on its rubber butt-guard, twirl it like a baton, shuffle his (or her) feet, drink a beverage, talk with his hands, etc. The point is, some kind of motion is made in the shooter’s line of sight in order to diminish his concentration level and produce a missed shot. This type of shark is what I call a physical shark, a movement shark. It will always occur in the shooter’s line of sight. In the same vein are the :

1. Get out the money shark. The shooter is on the money ball and the sharker takes the money out to pay off the potential loss.

2. Quick turn - something’s wrong shark. The sharker makes a sudden move just before the shooter’s last stroke.

Breaking down the cue shark. The shooter is on the set-winning run out and the run looks so obvious that the sharker breaks down his cue.

There are many more of these, but they are too numerous to mention. I do, however, have to mention one of my most hated sharks: the pissy shark - the player that tries to get you upset before the match. This sharker has a two-edged blade. It puts you out of your game because you want to beat him so-o-o bad...Not just beat him - skunk him! You are no longer in your game. The other edge of the sword is that, by sharking you, the sharker boosts his own game because he feels that he needs to try to upset you in order to get the "killer instinct." The sharker usually tries to embarrass you, belittle you or buy you out. It may go something like this: Your match is called and you go to the assigned table. You wait... and wait... then go to the tournament director. The match is recalled. You wait... and wait...and finally return to the director, who calls the player again and issues a "five-minutes-’till-forfeit warning" Your opponent rushes to the table with a minute to spare and says "Play for a hunnert?"

"No, just play," you reply.

"Whatdaya mean? How come you’re in the tournament if ya don’t think you can win? Man, oh man!! I’ve never seen such a ****ing thing! I just left a game for $1000-a-set to play this match, an’ you don’t even wanna play for a ****ing hunnert bucks???!!!"

Now, how do you feel? Why ARE you playing if you don’t think that you can win? Guess what? Your mind is no longer on the game. You lose!

The SUBTLE Shark: This type of shark can occur in or out of the shooter’s line of sight, and is usually associated with sound or words. I was playing in a bar-box 8-ball tournament match, race to five, winner breaks. I was down four to one, but my opponent gave me a chance and I jumped on it. Four racks later I found myself on the eight ball with a squirrelly angle and, of course, the cue ball on the rail. I moved the marker designating the pocket, kept thinking "stroke it smooth," and made the shot. I was happy. Unfortunately, it only lasted about ten seconds! My opponent came up to me and said "You lose."

"What????"

"The marker is touching the diamond, and the rules say that it has to be 'completely within the diamond'," he explained.

Now, the eight ball could not have been made in any other pocket, and I had actually moved the marker from across the table to its present position. Yes, one corner of the marker covered about 1/16th of the diamond. I called the tournament director for a ruling. I lost! I couldn’t believe it! I was really mad. It was a difference of about $500! I told my friends that he wasn’t going to win his next match. When he was called, I went to the table and did nothing but stare at him. My focus was always on his eyes. Whenever he looked around or glanced at me, he was met with a very intense stare. I didn’t create movement. I didn’t say a word. He didn’t win a game. Although this was not one of my finer moments and everyone in the room knew what I was doing, I did nothing that could be called a shark. Ahh, the art of the subtle shark!

Once again, there are many of these types of sharks. One of my favorites is the "squeaky chalk" shark. The sharker chalks his tip producing a screeching sound just as you are about to shoot the important shot. In the "jeez, you’re good shark" - also known as the "nice-me-to-death shark" - the sharker builds up your ego by repeatedly telling you how good you are. He shows empathy for missed shots, buys you drinks, etc. Soon you aren’t working anymore and the sharker walks away with the victory. Hey, that’s okay He’s such a nice guy!

How about the sharker racking the balls that takes five minutes to get the perfect rack and then ‘accidentally’ drops the triangle on the balls when he’s taking it off? Meanwhile, you’re waiting to break and getting impatient. We all know what that does to your game! The slow play shark is also designed to elicit impatience on your part. If there’s no time limit on shots, may the pool gods be with you. Without a shot-clock, the sharker waits for all ball movement to stop before getting out of the chair, and is slow getting to the table, slow to chalk (usually setting the cue on the floor and making a production of it), slow to survey the shot, and slow to get into stance. When he does get ‘set’ and it looks like he’s on his final stroke, he stands up and starts over. By the time you get to the table again, you just want to hit balls and speed up the game. You consequently fall out of your routine and miss. If there is a time limit, this shark can be even more effective - an ‘art-form’ of sorts! The sharker takes exactly the same amount of time per shot, whether it’s a ‘gimme’ or the world’s hardest. It’s not just that; he also has an impeccable skill with time itself. If there’s a one-minute clock, every shot goes off in fifty-eight seconds. If it’s a thirty-second clock, each shot occurs at the twenty-eight second mark. There you sit - waiting and watching. The sharker has an easy nine ball. The ten-second warning is sounded and you start counting silently to yourself, thinking that he may run out of time.

9..8..7..6 he may run out of time.. 5.. he still doesn’t look ready.. 4.. is he going to make it?.. 3.. I’m going to get ball-in-hand.. feelings of anxiety are beginning...2.. he makes the ball! Wow, he sure cut that close! Having this happen to you repeatedly takes you right out of your game. Impatience and anxiety win!

THE ACCIDENTAL SHARK or SELF-SHARK

This type of shark has nothing to do with an opponent. It has to do with the shooters mind-set, concentration, ego and self-control. It happens often and is under no one’s control but your own. Someone walked by your table... A glass broke... the person on the next table moved... a cue fell... a ball flew off another table... someone coughed... the speaker system came on (or went off)... the list is endless! Whenever we miss a shot we should have made, it’s blamed on the ‘accidental shark’. Hey, missing is part of the game. If nobody ever missed there wouldn’t be much to the game, would there?

There is also the shark that isn’t meant to be a shark. At a tournament recently, following a shot I missed, my opponent got down on his shot so quickly that I would have had to walk through his line of vision to sit down. Rather than do that, I moved behind him so I wouldn’t be anywhere near his line and was out of his peripheral vision. Of course, this was the rack-winning ball, and I fully expected him to make the shot I had left him with. As soon as he hit the cue ball, I walked up to the table to pull balls from the pockets. The shot looked pretty good when he hit it but the ball bobbled in the pocket. Well, off he goes! He more or less accused me of sharking him because I wasn’t sitting in the chair. He was quite colorful (was this an attempt at a pissy shark?). Here I was, doing what I could not to interfere with his shot yet - because I wasn’t where I was supposed to be - his miss was my fault. If I had walked through his line and he had missed the result would have been the same. My fault, not his.

Many years ago I had an opportunity to play Jeff Carter. At the time he was a worker in the oil fields of North Dakota raising money to be on the professional tour. We played in the basement of a mutual friend on a Montana nine-footer. He gave me the call-eight and it was close for about three hours. Then Jeff pulled away and dusted me. That was the only time I had met him. A few years later, after he had joined the tour, we ended up in a tournament together. I was in the bathroom and he walked in. Being the sociable person I am, I reminded him of our game in Bismarck, ND and let him know how happy I was for him that he was doing so well on the tour. He kind of huffed and puffed and in an unbecoming voice said "What are you doing? Are you trying to shark me?" With that, and before I could reply, he went out the door. When I play at tournaments that I know are being run by someone with experience, I never look at the bracket. Knowing or not knowing your opponent can also be a form of self-shark. If an upcoming opponent is good or otherwise it can play with your head. Well, wouldn’t you know it? My next match was against the current number three on the tour: Jeff Carter. Results 11-0, I lose. I wish I could say that he was shooting like a world beater but he wasn’t. I was worse. It was a match of give-away for five racks. I was as smooth as silk for six ball runs and then choked once the table was easy. Now, I had no intension of sharking him when we spoke earlier and I didn’t feel that I had said anything that could be taken as a shark. I was feeling bad that he felt that way. In retrospect, lets see... Did I really shark him or did he do a "pissy" shark on me? To be fair to Jeff, he did come up to me later in the tournament and apologize. He really did think that I was sharking him, and his defenses took over.

STOP THE SHARK

So, what do we do to combat being sharked? First of all, we must know when it’s happening. I’ve covered many types of sharks and hope that it will help you realize when a shark is in progress. Maybe there have been times when you didn’t even realize it was happening. Now that you know how to spot it, what can you do about it? The easy answer is to make the shark work for you. Pool is funny. Because it is such a mental game, the mind tries to find every reason for you to miss the shot. That, in turn, plays right into the shark. I was playing for second place in an 8-ball bar-box tournament against someone from the host city. The score was hill-hill and I was on a break and run. I had to leave myself a six foot thin cut/throw shot on the eight ball. There were about 300 spectators with 295 of them rooting for my opponent. I got down on the eight ball but I couldn’t make my mind see the ball going into the pocket. I got up from the shot, looked it over, and got back down into the shooting stance but I was still having trouble. The crowd was absolutely silent and I was feeling the pressure. Out of the blue I heard a whisper, "He’s going to miss it." I immediately got up from the shot and glared toward where the sound had come from. The woman who said it turned a nice shade of red - knowing that I had heard her comment. Like I said, pool is funny. Talking to people after the tournament, it seems that no one else had heard her whisper. I did. I wasn’t going to let her get the best of me. That eight ball was going in. Before I got back down in the shooting stance I knew that I had to see the shot and I had to calm down. It took me two trips around the table. I figured out where I wanted to leave the cue ball, focused my concentration and regained my composure. By thinking of how many times before I had made that same shot, I restored my confidence. Four practice strokes, the stop and lock and one silky stroke later the eight ball was in the center of the pocket. It has always amazed me how I was ready to miss the eight ball, but I got sharked and it turned into a victory. I really wanted to thank the woman but decided that would be bad form.

Make getting sharked work for you. Use it to give yourself the resolve to make that shot. Take it out on the ball you’re about to make. When playing with close friends make a game out of seeing who can shark who. Yes, as with everything else in pool, practice. Practice the art of defending yourself from being sharked. The majority of sharks happen when you are in the down position and ready to shoot. It is absolutely necessary to acknowledge it. Stand up, refocus and make sure everything is right before shooting the shot.

If you feel you have to use a shark, there is only one that is acceptable. Consistently follow your shooting routine, make the ball, win the match, shake hands and be courteous at all times.

By Jay Wegener

· Continue