Jasmin Ouschan getting some energy
For me fitness is a strategy to build and maintain power, flexibility and endurance. Since there is no winter or summer break in the billiard sport, fitness became more and more important to me over the last few years. But it is not about how fast you can run around the table or to play the ball harder, but to be in a consistently perfect shape in order to bring consistent performance and to be able to withstand the stress of tournaments and travelling. In order to improve mental acuity, the body and mind should be balanced. If the body is tired, your mental performance will also suffer.
The billiard movement is very one sided, which means that one side of your back and your arm muscles are more trained than the other side. You can already see muscle differences when working with kids. With age these can cause problems. With a specific muscle and stretching routine these differences can be balanced.
For me as a billiard athlete, it is important to have a lot of endurance since a tournament extends over several days and any one tournament day can last for many long hours. The stress of travelling and the accompanying jetlag adds to the demands on the body. With special weight training I train all the muscles to make sure they are balanced. Additional to the endurance and weight training, I also do flexibility training followed by stretching to keep the muscles and joints smooth. That also helps me to warm up for a match. In the billiard sport the feeling for the balls and the table is very important and cold and inflexible muscles certainly hamper the ability to achieve that feel.
Training should be fun. So it is important to change your fitness routine every now and then and also to give your muscles a new challenge. By doing that you can prevent it becoming boring and give your muscles new challenges to face. Sometimes I do my fitness routine outside, jump on my bike or go and play some tennis and squash. That will assure you have a lot of fun and it will also train new muscles. I also like to listen to some music while I work out, because that just gives me an extra portion of motivation.
Fitness training is a personal choice and it is also clear that not every program is something for everyone. Try to find something that works for you and stick with it. You’ll build good fitness habits for life and have some fun while you’re at it.
