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(This is today’s bit of advice from the book Safety Toolbox.)

There are times when, no matter how you struggle, the balls don’t roll your way. For some reason, the billiard gods have decided that today is your day to suffer all of the bad luck they can offer to you.

The layouts continuously favor your opponent. Or, you are allowing him to have easier wins than he deserves. Or, the whole evening is a waste of time and you wish you hadn’t bothered taking your stick out of its case.

You could just give up. Consider that day a total loss and even assist him in beating you. Then you go home, nurse your wounded pride while kicking yourself up and down the hallways of your mind. For whatever reason, the day is going down as one of the ten worst pool days of your life.

All right. If you are going to lose, then stop trying to win. You always wished you had some serious time to practice your safeties in competitive situations. Now is the time. Whatever the evening is going to cost, make it pay by returning at least the minor enjoyment of making your opponent work harder – a LOT harder.

Consider every shot an opportunity to apply every safety tool you’ve learned. Take pleasure in the quality of each effort. Instead of focusing on getting position for a run, concentrate on moving balls into awful locations.

How about working on some of those two- and three-rail controlled defensive shots that you didn’t think were worth the time to practice? Or, instead of trying to pocket a ball, kick it into a location that screws up any possible playing pattern. How about practicing the art of creating clusters?

Try out every terrible situation you can dream up. If you have to be there and it isn’t going to be fun for you, then force your opponent to suffer with you. Misery does love company.

In other words, do not go mildly and quietly onto the loss column. This effort may even turn a couple games your way. After a while, you might even enjoy your opponent’s complaints about not playing fair. There is no rule that says you cannot concentrate on making his life difficult.