"If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
?Toni Morrison

When I became serious about pool in 1987, I looked everywhere for the resources to assist my quest for world-class play. I was happy to find several books, tapes, and instructors willing to share knowledge and technique. Most of these experts said pool was 75 to 90 % mental, but when I looked for material to assist me in that area, I could not find it. I was forced into the literature of other sports to discover the latest developments in sports psychology, mental training, and competition dynamics.

I tried everything that looked advantageous. Most of the time I felt like Tristan Jones, the famous and colorful sailor. He set a world record once by sailing a small sailboat in the highest altitude lake in South America, Lake Titicaca. The Peruvian authorities refused to let him return with his boat down the Andes to the coast, so he went out the other way?through the uncharted Amazon backwaters?the Mato Grosso. I have this vivid image of Tristan pulling his little boat up a shallow tongue of water while his native companion beat the water with a paddle to keep the piranha away. Tortured by hordes of mosquitoes, he would sometimes drag the boat for two or three days up a prospective channel before it came to a dead end and he had to haul it back.

I have not reached the ocean yet as Tristan finally did, but I can smell the salt. I've gone from an average ball banger with little competitive experience to a seasoned competitor. I have won tournament matches from national and world-class players and cashed in professional events.

Nothing ever stands still or stays the same, and that includes your pool game. You either progress to a higher level or you regress to a lower. You are either expanding or contracting, as a great sage once said.

The purpose of the Pro Book is to maximize your competitive performance. It contains breakthrough material on the physical game, the mental game, the emotional game. It is designed for players who want to get professional with their training efforts. If you read it, you will get a lot, if you work it, you will get a lot more. Good luck and good shootin'!

Bob Henning