🎱 Winning Isn't Everything

Greetings to all the sharks, hustlers, and sandbaggers! Welcome to Stroke of Confidence - your go-to newsletter for pool tips, mental strategies, and inspiration to level up your game.

Just FYI this is my very first edition of this newsletter, so I am extra thankful to all of you for being here from the very beginning. Let’s share our knowledge and make each other better at this great game.

This week’s topics:

• Practicing effectively

• Forget about winning

• Chris Melling magic

Let’s dive in:

⭐ Skills & Drills

Effective practice sessions

So many of our subscribers have told me that consistency is their biggest issue in their pool game currently. This is a constant battle for players at all levels, so don’t feel like you are alone in this. I believe that consistency in games starts with consistency and purpose while practicing.

One of our favorite pool channels to watch on Youtube is Bob Keller’s “Shortstop On Pool”. Bob’s recent video on how to get the most out of your practice sessions is one that we found particularly helpful and important. So often we get into bad practice habits that end up doing more harm than good. Bob goes in depth about the different types of practice you should be including in your routine and the benefits of each.

Watch Bob’s video below to see how you can improve and maximize the effectiveness of your practice sessions and make sure to subscribe to his channel for more helpful videos.

Want your video featured in the Stroke of Confidence newsletter? Reach out to us at [email protected].

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🧠 Mindset Mastery

Detach from winning and losing

One book that has taught me a lot about having a strong mental game is Inner Tennis: Playing the Game by W. Timothy Gallwey. The book may be about tennis but its overall lessons can be applied to many sports and areas of life including pool.

In Inner Tennis, Gallwey talks about how most of the pressure we feel when playing doesn’t come from the game—it comes from us. We get so wrapped up in winning that every shot starts to feel like it says something about who we are. That mindset creates stress, tight muscles, and a racing mind—not exactly a recipe for smooth pool playing. Gallwey’s big idea is to let go of the need to win and just focus on playing and being present. When you shift your attention to what’s actually happening—how the cue feels, how the shot lines up—you quiet the voice in your head that’s judging everything.

Thinking about the whole match can feel overwhelming. Instead, focus on winning this rack, this safety battle, this next shot. Build momentum with small victories—they stack up and shift pressure to your opponent.

When you’re not trying so hard to impress or prove something, you play looser, smoother, and honestly, better. Missing a shot stops being a crisis and starts being useful info. When you remove pressure to win, you make room for your best game to emerge. Ironically, that’s when you often do win.

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🤯 Get Inspired

The magic of Chris Melling

Chris Melling is one of my favorite players to watch navigate the table. I love his smooth stroke and his creativity to figure out patterns in 8 ball. I’ve heard his stroke called a a conveyor belt, which I think describes it well.

As I mentioned before, many of our readers strive for better consistency. Having repeatable stroke mechanics will go a long way toward helping with this. The consistency of how Chris Melling delivers his cue and strokes the ball no matter the speed of the shot is something we all can aspire to.

Check out the video below to see some of his best highlights from 2025 so far, and see why he is one of my favorite players to watch and learn from.

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That’s all for this week! We appreciate all of our readers feedback about what they want to see in our newsletter. We want to keep each newsletter brief and easy to digest, so if something you requested was not covered, stay tuned for it in a edition in the near future.

As always, stay confident, keep it fun, and shoot straight this weekend. We’ll see you next Thursday for more!

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