A friend of mine recently opened a drinking establishment, commonly referred to as a bar. Shortly after her grand opening, I dropped by with a friend after work to see how things were going. Of course, I COULD have stopped in, chatted with her and gone on my way, but I thought, what the heck, I’ll have a beer. Well, “A” beer, turned into two, then three…. and then nature called.
You could immediately tell that this bar had opened recently. Why? Because the men’s room didn’t smell like a men’s room, nor did it LOOK like a typical public men’s room. The walls were freshly painted, the fixtures were in tact, and not one sign of grafitti…. not one scatalogical limerick to be read. The only item to be seen in the men’s room, were three identical signs, placed at eye level, above each of the urinals. They read:
Aim!
Flush!
Simple. Concise. As a friend of the bar owner, I took special care TO FOLLOW the instructions, and returned to my beer. If you’re as obsessed with craps and dice influencing as I am, there are few things that you come across in your daily life that you can’t also apply to precision shooting. So, as I’m sitting there nursing my last beer, my mind goes back to the simple, concise sign in the men’s room, and how I could apply it to throwing the dice. So, I take a pen out of my briefcase, and on my napkin, I wrote, “Bathroom sign.”
The following evening, before hitting the practice table, I took the napkin out of my briefcase and sat down at the computer. I created a sign, almost identical to the urinal sign I’d seen the night before, only this time it read:
Aim!
(inhale)
Throw!
You see, I’m a firm believer in simplicity. If instructions are concise, then it is much more likely that they’ll be followed. I’ve been doing this (dice influencing) long enough that my sets and grip are done virtually by rote memory. Where I have difficulty at times is FOCUS. So I posted my sign at eye level, right above my throwing station. For the first 10 or 20 throws, I looked at the sign, read it, turned toward the table and followed the instructions. After a short while, I had no need to look at the sign, the three words were burned into my minds eye. From that point on, after I had set and gripped the dice, I turned my eyes toward the practice table. When I found my landing zone, I pictured in my mind the 3 worded instructions I’d given myself, and followed them.
What ensued was one of my best practice sessions ever! The sign is still posted and I continue to use it as a simple instruction every time I go out to the garage to practice. In fact, I can “see” my sign any time I want now, it’s THAT burned into my mind.
Will a sign or something similar help you? Who knows. First you must master the physical factors of dice influencing, the “mechanics.” After that, the ability to focus your mind at the tables will be your largest challenge. Find a way to consistently focus your mind when you’re shooting, and you’ll have more success at the tables.
By the way. The next time you’re in the men’s room, do everyone a favor and ….
Aim!
Flush!
~woof~
