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Has something mesmerizing to observe how the snooker players get that the tacos end up directing the ball to the exact point, although the movement may seem incredible or the angle, impossible. Among the best of this sport that attracts thousands of followers in countries like Great Britain or China, without a doubt, Ronnie O’sullivan , this English 44 years old, icon of this discipline, and that looks for these days the greening of its curriculum in the World of snooker which is held in Sheffield (from 2 to 16 August, Eurosport). Champion in 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2013, has been number 1 ranking is also on five occasions. Among their records, leading the table of tacadas (hit without fail, all the balls consecutively, which gives 147 total points) with 15, the most tacadas accumulates (1.017) or the more quick: 5 minutes and 20 seconds. From here the nickname of “the rocket”, “Rocket”.
With all livestock, more than twenty years of professional career , with a unique ability to hit with two hands, and the experience of those who know that it has nothing more to prove, it is still a perfectionist to the extreme, always very critical with himself. Still feel the pressure and that fear to lose, to fail, to not be the best. “I have stage fright most of the time. They are not nerves, it’s fear of the stage, thinking ‘I am not able to do this, I can not do it’. But when I get to the time of the move and it’s like, ‘I have to do it, I am not going to play?’ So what I do, though sometimes I feel really sick, but I say, ‘I have to go out there and do it’. And once you do, it’s not so bad,” ABC explained in a interview with other international media. “It is not a matter of life or death and I feel that I don’t want to be anywhere else at that time. But it is the same as always: when you post, and your reputation is at stake and all expect you to do something magical. And this is not taking a wand. Then comes the pressure. The outside, which I did not do very well, and the own, when it comes to it and you have to fulfill in the party. This pressure I like, and I’m good. It is the one that I think makes me play better.” Hence, it is to feel comfortable in Sheffield, a tournament that has not been allowed access to the public for the crisis of the coronavirus.
17 days in a row
Account of his first world earned that either the pressure or the concentration you were supposed to too much effort. “Winning the first time was sort of a relief, then… he’d just thought he might be playing 17 days in a row. I am happy it is over, because yes there is a effort for quite a long time , but I am ready to run 10 miles the next morning (has a mark of 34 minutes). Or you could have two days off and return to racing. Many of my matches are fluid, quick and downright painless,” he continues. One of the criticisms that have poured in recent times is the lack of competitiveness between the young players that come to the circuit, which considers that they do not have sufficient capacity to maintain a good level for a long time, what, in your opinion, has driven down the quality of the sport and reach to bore the viewer.
And how do you get someone who has won everything to maintain the passion of when I started and to continue learning? “If Tiger Woods would have chosen the basketball, it would have been fantastic. They are natural athletes. A bit like me with the ball. I understand the ball, I looked at it and I know how to hurt it, and how to rotate, how to stop it, how to make an effect. I know how to handle it. But I need people to teach me techniques. People tell me: ‘look, have you tried this? And once I teach it, I know how to do it. I said, ‘well, have you seen this that I can do? And that makes your range game to be more”. O’sullivan also works with a sports psychologist, Steve Peters, because he understood that there was a depression of the snooker that he did not enjoy the game. I just wanted to win. “Sometimes I feel a little flat and I need a little bit of pressure, and something that I pique to say to her: ‘Come, I will teach you how to do this.’ I think that many of the best athletes need a little conflict to motivate them”.
Clinical detoxification
Also off the table, O’sullivan has had to deal with more than one opponent. His father went to prison for murder when he started to take off. And has gone through clinical detoxification. “In 2000 I was always party too much and I couldn’t say no. I went to a clinic for detoxification and then I got a few periods of abstinence . But I think that my life is always in need of some excitement. I understand addiction and I understand that I am a person addictive, so now running is what keeps me with that emotion and makes me overcome other addictions. If I know that I’m going to have an addiction, at least one that I keep in shape and be healthy. I don’t want to remove because it stimulates me. And that made the snooker would have more importance in my life. What else am I going to do with my time? Bars and pubs are banned, so I’ll try to make the best of the snooker. I don’t like losing, I like to compete. So that’s why I think that since the year 2000 give the best of me. Obviously the spell has not always been top of table all these years, but it has not been by addictions, but by personal issues. I think that if 20 years ago somebody had told me that today wouldn’t be here, I would not have believed it.” Trying to remain the best.
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