Mental Game

Staying Focused in a Group

Keep your head when others are struggling.

Why it matters

You will regularly share a card with somebody having a bad day, and frustration is contagious. Their slow play, their muttering and their mood all land on your round unless you have something in place. This is a skill, and it is mostly about having a bubble rather than about being unaffected.

How to do it

Run your own routine regardless. It is the thing that keeps your tempo yours rather than the card’s.
Stand somewhere settled while others throw, and use the time for your own next shot.
Be decent to them and then let it go. Sympathy does not require absorbing the mood.
Keep your own pace even if the card slows. If waiting is long, stay loose and go through your own plan.
Resist comparing your round to theirs, in either direction.

Common mistakes

Absorbing somebody else’s frustration.Notice it happening, which is most of the defence, and go back to your routine.

Trying to coach a card-mate mid-round.It rarely helps and it takes you out of your own round. Unless they ask, leave it.

Letting a slow card make you rush when it is your turn.Your tempo is yours. Take the same time you always take.

Key points

Run your own routine, ignore the noise.
Do not absorb a card-mate's frustration.
Stay in your bubble.

The drill

Drill · Your own bubble — 1 round with a full routine on every shot regardless of the card. Play a round with a group and commit to running your complete routine on every throw whatever is happening around you — rushed, slow, loud, grumpy. The routine is the bubble, and this is the round where you find out whether yours is solid.

Watch: Dealing With Someone on Your Card During a Tournament You Do Not Like — Scott Stokely