A Mind for Pool: How to Master the Mental Game

A Mind for Pool: How to Master the Mental Game
Average customer rating:

Great book

A mind for pool - and life

putting things in perspective

The first quantum leap in your game

Success At Last!

A Mind for Pool: How to Master the Mental Game
Philip B. Capelle
Manufacturer: Billards Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Billiards & Pool | Individual Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
Bodybuilding & Weight Training | Training | Sports | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0964920417

Book Description

To realize your full potential at pool you've got to master the mental game. A Mind For Pool gives you a complete course on the thinking side of pool. From the very first day that you pick up a cue your attitude towards things like practice, change, slumps and instruction all play an important part in your success as a pool player. The better you play, the more important the mental game becomes. In fact, when excellent players compete, the winner is most often the one who has learned to best handle the pressure, sharking, unruly crowd behavior and many other potentially game ruining factors.

A Mind For Pool reveals the erroneous thoughts that can undermine your developments as well as your ability to compete successfully. In every instance the book then goes on to show you a more constructive way to view the situation. In the process you will learn how to concentrate on your game, minimize the impact of bad luck, win tournaments and much, much more.

A Mind For Pool gives you 120 bite sized lessons on all facets of the mental game, each one a self contained unit. Each lesson is summarized by Capelle's Laws for Pool. You'll also find quotes from history's greatest thinkers that serve to reinforce each lesson. A series of 80 checklists enable you to easily evaluate all parts of your mental game. Icons point out tips, insights, warnings and pool facts.

Customer Reviews:

Great book.......2005-08-15

Any book from Phil Capelle on pool is a great book. Try "Play your best nine ball"

A mind for pool - and life.......2005-03-10

This is such a comprehensive book about the role of the mind in pool that much of its advice and lessons could be applied to any difficult endeavor that involves siginificant behavior change. In other words, people could apply the knowledge imparted in this book to dieting, stopping smoking and so on. The information is so universal and valuable that it could help anyone - not just pool players.

With regard to pool, it would be hard to imagine another resource that is so comprehensive yet so readable and well-organized. I am just a beginner at pool yet this book offered me lots of tips and suggestions so that I learn the fundamentals as well as the many mental aspects of this great sport. I imagine that a seasoned player would get even more out of this book because of its emphasis of staying positive when competing.

Just a great book - well worth the price.

putting things in perspective.......2003-02-05

a great analysis of the mental side of pool. Lots of information on the competitve side of pool: how to gear up, dealing with slumps and streaks, etc. Just as important, he emphasizes that pool should be enjoyable, whatever one's manner of enjoyment might be, from very leisurely to ultra-serious. To sum it up, "There is so much to love about pool that it is simply foolish to waste any time on the negatives." I have to second this; browsing this book alot lately has made me want to play, learn and enjoy the game again, after several months of hardly playing at all. Capelle certainly does not dissappoint.

The first quantum leap in your game.......2001-08-03

I am a nearly everyday pool player. Pool is ground zero for me. I have lost and gained many relationships because of my passion. But, since I've only played seriously for a year, I still am a true student of the game. I examine each book and video I find thoroughly from cover to cover picking things out that are useful and skipping through the stuff I'm already familiar with. When I purchased this book I was very pleased to see no descriptions on stance, grip, or physical technique. Everything covered was completely mental. Having already participated in league play and tournament play, I was already quite aware of the triumphs and dissapointments associated with winning and losing. But having those feelings brought to the surface and examined was a true revelation. Two months after completing the book I won the chance to comete in the Camel 8-Ball Singles Championship in Las Vegas. I took 9th in the nation, with much credit to this book. Losing in the second round, I was able to use the book's information to help come back strong all the way to my last match. And when I lost that last match for 9th place, I was able to recognize that I had done well, but that my mind in pool was still too immature to have done better without more 'luck'. Since then I have gone on to consistently beat my teachers and look for more challenging and experienced players and am more prepared now than ever to challenge them and learn from them.

If you are a true 'student of the game', then this book is a must have in learning how to be a better 'student'. Read it and you will realize your first quantum leap in your game and your life.

Success At Last!.......2000-03-15

I've got an eye for detail and a "bod" for sin. Now, after reading this new book, I've got a mind for pool! I am truly on my way to mastering this game! See you on ESPN! Thanks, Phil!

A Still Forest Pool: The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah (Quest Book)

Average customer rating:

buy this if you are really serious about practice
Heartfelt and illuminating
Pay attention to this book.
From the master himself
A Deep Forest Pool

A Still Forest Pool: The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah (Quest Book)
J. Kornfield
Manufacturer: Quest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Buddhism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah
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The Mind and the Way: Buddhist Reflections on Life

ASIN: 0835605973

Book Description

A Buddhist master offers insight for the West.

Customer Reviews:

buy this if you are really serious about practice.......2002-01-11

a still forest pool ... i like the imagery . it's more than just a title though .

don't expect to find too much guided meditations in this handsomely bound ( and equally handsomely titled ) book . the basics were all there for me to start practicing , but its not a manual on meditation . its much more than that .

i liked the anecdotes , each a gem of wisdom . it verily beckons us to descend off the heady heights of the mountain to start practicing here and now , in the mundane grind of everyday life . this is where it all happens .

mr. kornfield must also be commended for a fine job of putting this book together . each little vignette isn't haphazardly thrown together . this is a book best read slowly , a few pages at a time .

highly recommend it for all those who are really serious about practice .

Heartfelt and illuminating.......2001-10-25

This book is a collection of short dharma talks given by meditation master Achaan Chah.

Achaan Chah was abbot of one of the largest monastery complexes in the Thai Forest tradition. He welcomed and trained many western seekers who later returned to the west, becoming influential dharma teachers in their own right.

In this book, Achaan Chah largely eschews "theory" in favor of encouraging his students to practice. Don't expect academic discourses on Buddhist psychology or other esoteric topics. These talks are short (rarely more than a couple of pages), direct, and very inspiring.

Take your time reading this book. If you allow yourself a little time to digest the meaning of each piece, you might experience more benefit than attempting to read the book through in one sitting.

Pay attention to this book........2001-06-19

Achaan Chah's teachings are like a breath of fresh air floating among some obscure and mystifying old texts. Some of his other books are available on the web at accesstoinsight.org for free, and anyone who is interested in getting a flavor of his teaching should read these.

The measure of any buddhist book meant for people who are practicing buddhists is whether it makes you want to get right back to meditation. This book is very inspiring in that regard. It's message is clear: (and I'm paraphrasing) "Put down this book! There are no answers in it! Go back to meditating!" He says this in a number of different ways, so it's hard to read more than a little bit of it at a time. It's good for when doubts about what you are doing arise. Or when you begin to feel distracted, and perhaps tempted to put your energies into trying to transform the world outside of yourself, or even into trying to transform yourself. Then, it makes you feel like you should stay on your path.

What I find most satisfying about this book is its directness and its deep wisdom about meditation practice. This isn't one of those new-age type buddhist meditation books; it doesn't harp incessantly on becoming one with the universe, and assume that you have already done so. This is buddhism at its finest--a repeated command to find out everything for yourself within yourself, to pay attention, to let it go. His entire teaching is summed up on page five: "Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing." Those of you who still remember the Beatles might see a similarity to their song: "There will be an answer. Let it be."

Achaan Chah was a monk in the Thai forest tradition, and perhaps the most famous one in the West. In case you are not familiar with the Thai Forest Tradition, it is a tradition that began in the late 1800's that combines the physical rigor of the Zen of the olden days, with strict observance of the precepts and some of the traditional "acetic" practices from the very olden days, such as receiving food by going on alms rounds, wandering in the most fearsome forests, and eating one meal a day. The Thai forest tradition emphasizes meditation for the development of calm and wisdom, as opposed to the study of texts, or other practices.

This book was admirably translated, and the selections carefully culled and arranged. It is one of those books that you will want to read very quickly at first, and then very slowly between times when you meditate, and also a book you will want to refer back to frequently. In my opinion, it is the only book you might really want to own if you are serious about "letting it be." Every time you feel like reading a book, it will tell you in a variety of ways, often warmhearted and humorous, that you are looking in the wrong place if you think there are any answers in books; or that if look for answers in a deliberate fashion, you will find any.

From the master himself.......2001-04-24

The authors bring us right into Ajaan Chah's non-attachment and full enjoyment of life. Read this book--Chah won't give you a break in freeing you from your fetters. :)

A Deep Forest Pool.......2000-04-25

Excellent for both the advanced practitioner and the novice. Rather than the usual obscure metaphors often used in Bhuddist teaching, Jack Kornfield conveys the wisdom of his teacher with clarity and depth. This is a book that can be merely read to obtain an idea of "what Buddhism is about", or it may be digested, chapter by chapter for a deep experience of the Dharma (Buddhist practice). I own and study many books, but if I could only keep one, it would be this one.

Tranquility Fountains: Projects for a Serene Lifestyle

Average customer rating:

Don't Buy a Fountain... Make One!
I haven't tried following any of the patterns yet, but......

Tranquility Fountains: Projects for a Serene Lifestyle
Mickey Baskett
Manufacturer: Sterling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Decorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Create Your Own Tabletop Fountains
Simple Fountains
Quick and Easy Container Water Gardens: Simple-To-Make Water Features and Fountains for Indoor and Outdoor Gardens
Simple Fountains for Indoors & Outdoors: 20 Step-By-Step Projects
Tabletop Fountains (Water Garden Handbooks)

ASIN: 0806927593

Book Description

Transport yourself to a babbling brook on a summer afternoon, listening to water flow over well-worn rocks or rush down the mountainside. Now imagine that same peace and serenity in your own home or office. You can re-create that wonderful tranquility by building, in a small space, almost any fountain you can imagine. Luxuriate in the faint, honeyed sound of water cascading down an agate slab onto softly worn stones below, or gurgling up through a tower filled with glass marbles...the rustic elegance of an Italian urn engulfed in moss...a sleek meditation table made from a round salt shaker. Add potted plants, fog, candles, light, or scent to create dazzling special effects that engage all the senses. Whether you construct one of the 29 projects here or fashion your own personal creation, your tabletop fountain will float you down a stream of relaxation, far away from the strains of everyday life.

Customer Reviews:

Don't Buy a Fountain... Make One!.......2002-02-03

If you've been thinking about purchasing one of the many table-top fountains that are now available on the market, check out this book first! It features many beautiful, original designs that you are not likely to find in stores. Instructions are detailed and systematic and the finished projects are lovely. After seeing these fountains you're likely to want to make your own instead!

The book starts with a description of materials used to construct fountains with general information about where these materials can be obtained. I was a little disappointed that the book did not have a "resource" section that included mail order and internet companies that could provide the construction materials needed.

The second section of the book describes general construction instructions that can be applied to just about any fountain you are considering. This is really good information, because you can use it to construct a fountain of your own design... rather than using a specific design from the book. Since many objects , both unusual or very ordinary can be used in fountain construction, you may never look at simple household items again without considering their potential use as a fountain piece.

The next section does however, contain many step by step designs for some truly wonderful fountains. My favorite is a fountain composed of a cup on it's side with water spilling out over cascading saucers. Also unusual is one called "Tile Towers", which is composed of gorgeous marble tiles, and "Concrete Tower", which is composed of a custom made concrete piece. Very unusual is a fountain called "Gooseneck Lamp Fountain" which is, as it states... made from a gooseneck lamp! There are also more traditional styles that use copper tubing, slate or river rocks.

I also liked the way the author used a lot of plants in his fountains. I've never really seen plants used in store bought fountains and they really do add a wonderful touch to the overall design.

I think these fountains would make wonderful gifts, as you can design them specifically to match the decor style and color scheme of the recipients home or office. Well worth reading, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys crafting, gardening or even meditating. I agree with the subtitle... these amazing fountains truly are "Projects for a Serene Lifestyle".

I haven't tried following any of the patterns yet, but.............2002-01-12

this book didn't disappoint me. For craft project books I look first to large, lush photographs to inspire me, and then to easy-to-understand instructions on materials and how to assemble. This book has it all. These projects could all be reproduced fairly exactly by a reader, but it's up to you to tweak and make it your own. I especially love the fountain that uses building material foam to sculpt a little mini-volcano with areas for tealights and plants. Recommended!

Lotus and the Pool: How to Create Your Own Career (Odyssey Guides)

Average customer rating:

A tool for self discovery

Lotus and the Pool: How to Create Your Own Career (Odyssey Guides)
Hilda Lee Dail
Manufacturer: Shambhala
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Guides | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This book offers a totally new, holistic approach to career development, involving the wisdom of the unconscious—expressed in dreams, symbols, personal myths, intuitions, and memories—as well as the analytical skills needed to set goals and plan strategies. It is designed for anyone who has to make important life decisions—whether in choosing a field, changing careers, trying to get more satisfaction out of work, planning for retirement, or reentering the job market. Based on the principles of creativity as revealed in the world's creation myths and in the techniques of artists, poets, and inventors, the book presents a ten-step process of creative career development. Case histories from the author's counseling practice demonstrate the process at work, and a workbook section gives exercises to help readers: Examine past successes for clues to aptitude and values Analyze the success factors that characterize their achievements Use imaging and other creativity techniques to discover their own inner symbols and personal myths Develop an action plan for finding or creating their ideal career

Customer Reviews:

A tool for self discovery.......2002-12-03

When I first read this book about ten years ago, I was floudering about in a very unfulfilling career with no idea what made me happy or how to incorporate the happy, successful part of my life into what I did for a living.

I'll be truthful and say I didn't do all the exercises, I skipped some of the meditations and hopped and skimmed through a number of chapters. Nevertheless, some very important processes that I did complete were rather profound and did eventually lead me to move to a better city, and make career choices that were much more closely aligned with who I really wanted to be.

The book is most useful in getting one to stop focusing on the intensly negative experience of not being in balance. Of feeling stuck and unfulfilled. It is at it's best a guidebook for discerning the you who wants to be actualized.

I give it four stars because it doesn't have an index and that makes it a bit difficult to navigate between the steps described.
OTherwise, I think it should be regarded as a standard reference in the field of career counseling.

The Mind Pool
Average customer rating:

Flawed but interesting SF remake of The Count of Monte Cristo. 3.6 stars

Another space opera.

Flawed, often hard to get into, but a must-read

Something Missing

interesting enough to overcome the lack of plot

The Mind Pool
Charles Sheffield
Manufacturer: Baen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Sheffield, Charles | ( S ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Adventure | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
High Tech | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0671721658

Customer Reviews:

Flawed but interesting SF remake of The Count of Monte Cristo. 3.6 stars.......2006-05-23

..
More accurately, Charles Sheffield's THE NIMROD HUNT, revised as THE MIND POOL, is explicitly an hommage to Alfred Bester's classic THE STARS MY DESTINATION, as Sheffield makes clear in his intro to the revised ed.: "I wanted to emulate the multitude of ideas...the blowzy rococo decadence of [Bester's] future society." Good line, that. And that part is pretty neat, and the best part of the novel. Bester explicitly based STARS on Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo (which you can read online for free).

Unfortunately, MINDPOOL never really manages to integrate the good bits into a successful novel -- it's very episodic and disjointed, and deteriorates into pulpy silliness towards the end. I don't know if his first cut at it, NIMROD, was better.

Huh. I guess Sheffield's Matin Link, introduced as a semi-joke in "Marconi, Mattin, Maxwell" (77), was intended as a mechanical jaunte-device all along...

Anyway, I like the idea of successive remakes -- though it's been too long since I read MONTE CRISTO to recall if any of that survived into the Sheffield -- or indeed, if Sheffield knew of this influence on Bester. The endless, cross-generation sfnal internal dialogue, to paraphrase Greg Benford.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

Another space opera........2006-03-14

I did finish the book but it barely kept my interest enough for me to do so. The story does not amount to much really and there is not much of an ending at all. So much more could have been done with the idea of several aliens, one manmade construct and one human coming together in a mind meld.

Flawed, often hard to get into, but a must-read.......2003-06-22

Charles Sheffield's The Mind Pool is a rework of an older novel, The Nimrod Hunt. Centered around the hunt for a renegade artificial life-form, the novel paints a mixed picture of the future, with humans living in harmony with alien species, genetic engineering rampant and uncontrolled, a divided, violent, and irrelevant Earth, and a militaristic outer system.

This is a difficult book to get into. Initial chapters are tedious and there are a lot of key characters who inter-develop as the the book continues which devolves quickly into a confusing mess. Sheffield's humour barely holds the story together as empathy with the main, distant and too many, characters seems close to impossible, and the reader is expected to take in a little too much, from different technologies to the behaviors of three wildly different species. The book, initially, also seems to live up to its back-cover synopsis, which in science fiction can be a bad thing, especially if the synopsis seems to be written to appeal to John W Campbell.

The novel is saved by a number of factors: Sheffield's humour, naturally, helps. Certain characters become fleshed out and sympathetic. Some time about half way through the novel the pace and understandability of what is going on becomes quicker and easier. And then there's an absolutely beautiful twist concerning the very subject of the novel - and I say beautiful not just to describe the twist itself but the subject matter and the novel at that point, which just turned my opinion of the book on its head.

This is a flawed novel. You should read it anyway.

Something Missing.......2003-06-21

The Mind Pool tells the story of a future in which humans have encountered only three other intelligent species in the explored universe. The explored universe is essentially an ever exapanding sphere that radiates out as probes continue to move out through space and everything within this sphere is easilt reachable using "Mattin Links."

What I find intiguing about this story is the description of three very different alien species and how they are thrown together with humans, the only "aggressive" species, to form a team. However, I felt that this particular plot point wasn't dealt with in an engrossing manner. The whole novel felt somewhat pieced together and was shorter than it should have been. The catalyst for the story, the Morgan Construct that poses a threat to the universe and the teams are sent to find, felt almost forgotten and I was unclear what role it served in the story except as a launching point.

I enjoyed the story, but there were so many aspects to this universe that I would have liked to learn about and I felt like none of them were really explored in any depth. There was a subplot that was apparently left out of the original version of this story, called The Nimrod Hunt, that I felt was a hinderance to the story rather than adding anything and the author added back in merely because he was fond of it. The ending was somewhat confused and just seemed to stop and I wasn't really satisfied. I think I will pick up another of his books that isn't a rewrite of an earlier story and see how I like it.

interesting enough to overcome the lack of plot.......2003-02-10

The Mind Pool is a very odd book. For one thing, the story is very obtuse and quite frankly, boring. The two main characters are so similar I found it very difficult to keep track of which was which. And put it all together and it really wasn't that bad. The world in which The Mind Pool is set had enough interesting qualities to overcome the lack of plot. There are enough unique and interesting subplots going on that at times Mind Pool was a real page turner. Clearly Sheffield has some very interesting ideas, but is just not that good at wrapping them up into an actual novel.

At the Pool of Wonder: Dreams & Visions of an Awakening Humanity

Average customer rating:

At the Pool of Wonder: Dreams & Visions of an Awakening Humanity
Marcia S. Lauck , and Deborah Koff-Chapin
Manufacturer: Bear & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Dreams | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Dreams | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0939680610

Average customer rating:

Color and Health 1919

Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Memory Improvement | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Self-Help | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Auras & Colors | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1417980532

Dialogue and the Interpretation of Illness: Conversations in a Cameroon Village (Explorations in Anthropology)

Average customer rating:

Dialogue and the Interpretation of Illness: Conversations in a Cameroon Village (Explorations in Anthropology)
Robert Pool
Manufacturer: Berg Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1859730167

Book Description

The etiology of the Wimbum people in the Western Grassfields of Cameroon is described through an examination of the way in which the meanings of key concepts, used to interpret and explain illness and other forms of misfortune, are continually being produced and reproduced in the praxis of everyday communication. During the course of numerous dialogues, witchcraft, a highly ambivalent force, gradually emerges as the prime mover. As destructive cannibals or respectable elders the witches are the ultimate cause of all significant illness, misfortune and death, and as diviners they are also the ultimate judges who apportion moral responsibility. Even the ancestors and the traditional gods turn out to be fronts behind which the witches hide their activities.The study is on three levels: a medical anthropological exploration of explanations of illness and misfortune; a detailed ethnography of traditional African cosmology and witchcraft; and an examination of recent theoretical issues in anthropology such as the nature of ethnographic fieldwork and the possibility of dialogical or postmodern ethnography.

Average customer rating:

The Mind Pool
Charles Sheffield
Manufacturer: New York: Baen Books, 1995
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LVDYP6

Average customer rating:

The mind's eye
Jake LeQueue
Manufacturer: American Literary Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1561671223

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