Pool
I’ve been playing quite a lot of pool recently. Some chance factors led to this, primarily some Irish friends taking the game up shortly before I visited. I used to play a lot (it could be argued that pool was effectively one of my undergrad minors), but have never been particularly good.
Before starting to play again recently, I read some books on pool, more or less at random—The Hustler & The Champ: Willie Mosconi, Minnesota Fats, and the Rivalry that Defined Pool and Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler. The first book was interesting because of its historical details, many of which were completely unknown to me (for example, I had no idea that pool was such a popular sport in the early part of the 20th century), but it wasn’t as enjoyable as the latter, which covered more contemporary players and was as such perhaps more accessible.
In any case, reading those probably primed me to get back into it, and so I have. I think I’m a little more relaxed playing the game than I used to be, as I used to tense up quite easily. At the moment, it’s a good activity for me since it requires focus, and hence takes my mind off other things.
The kind of focus required is interestingly different from that required by table tennis, which is another activity I enjoy and have been doing recently. Table tennis seems like much more of a flow activity, but that’s an entirely personal judgment, as table tennis may be the activity that brings me into the flow state faster than any other. Pool doesn’t quite do that, and requires more effort to get there, and even more effort, I think, to stay there.
Even so, though, it’s been good recently, despite the fact that I haven’t been able to string together any really good runs (and hence haven’t been able to really hit the flow state). It’s been a good activity for my mind, and has been quite relaxing, no bad thing at all.