You played an excellent match. You beat a better player or won a match in which you were not the favourite. A little later, you play again. The next game is not the same.
Execution drops for no obvious reason. Your rhythm changes. Some “easy” balls are missed. Attention does not have the same intensity.
It is not a technical issue. It is a change of state.
Neuroscience describes it clearly. After an intense success, the brain's reward system activates: the dopamine system, associated with success and satisfaction.
The brain records that “the goal has been achieved”. Without you noticing, it lowers alertness.
At the same time, the Yerkes–Dodson law tells us that performance does not improve simply by being more “pumped up”. There is a middle, functional level.
Below it, you relax and drop off. Above it, you tighten up and disrupt execution.
After a big win, most of the time you drop below that level.
So the issue is not the game. It is regulating your state before entering the next one.
A practical way to move from theory to action:
Before starting, take a few seconds. Two or three natural breaths. Simply ask:
“Where am I right now? Too low, about right, or too high?”
If you are too low:
Walk a little more actively around the table. Step more firmly. Make your movements clearer and more lively.
If you are too high:
Keep full control of your movements. Move a little more slowly. As though gently holding yourself back.
Physiology, psychology and energy are not separate. They are the same system.
Change the body → change the state.
In pool, your simplest tool for this is the way you walk around the table.
You do not need to “fire yourself up”. Nor to “calm down”.
You need to enter at the right level.
And this is not only about pool.
At work, after a good deal or success in general, the same thing happens. The “high” is often followed by a “low”.
Not because your ability changed. But because the system's state changed.
The solution is the same:
a small adjustment before the next action.
The result belongs to what came before. Your state belongs to now.
If you find this useful, keep it. If not, move on.