On 6 May 1954, a twenty-five-year-old medical student, Roger Bannister, achieved something nobody had officially accomplished before.
He ran a mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds.
For years, the four-minute barrier had been one of the greatest obstacles in athletics. Many athletes had tried, but nobody had succeeded.
Bannister believed he could do it. He trained methodically, set a specific goal and eventually achieved it.
What is interesting is that just forty-six days later, John Landy also broke the same barrier.
What had changed in those forty-six days?
Certainly not the physical capabilities of the human body.
But something that had previously seemed impossible had now been shown to be achievable.
This is where I want to draw a parallel with pool.
How often have we heard an athlete say:
“I cannot run out this rack.”
“I cannot beat this opponent.”
“I can do it in practice, but not in a match.”
How many of these difficulties are genuinely technical, and how many relate to what the athlete believes they can achieve?
Coaching uses a tool called creative visualisation: consciously imagining an action before performing it.
For example, before a shot, an athlete can imagine the object ball entering the pocket, the cue ball's path and its final position.
They can also imagine completing a difficult run-out or handling a crucial moment in a match correctly.
Imagining something does not mean it will happen.
Technique, systematic practice and competitive experience remain essential.
Visualisation, however, can help the athlete prepare better for what they are about to do.
Personally, I believe that we often create mental images without even realising it.
So why not try to use that ability deliberately, with a specific goal and under our own control?
Instead of imagining only what could go wrong, we can also mentally rehearse how we want to execute correctly.
You do not need to believe you can do everything. But you do need to avoid ruling something out simply because you have not achieved it yet.
This is one aspect of the mental game we will explore in the articles to come.
The Mental Game of Pool — Article 1