Gather around the billiards table and play a game of 8-ball because the benefits are astonishing. Continue reading to learn about the 8 mental benefits of playing pool…
Pool is one of the best indoor games you can play for quality time with friends without having to break a serious sweet. Aside from recreation, you can also gain certain mental benefits.
What are they, you ask? Let’s dive in:
1. Focus Building
It is not easy to take a shot.
There is a fear of missing the shot you need to overcome. Furthermore, as the game gets intense, you need to keep an eye on your angles, build an offensive and defensive strategy, and determine the direction of gameplay.
All of this can help build the focus of an individual.
2. Improve Critical Thinking
You improve your logic by playing billiards.
A good example is being stuck on the decision of playing a bank shot or going for a cue ball jump shot. The longer you play and the better you become, the more opportunities you will notice on the table and in life.
Both intuition and critical thinking can be improved.
3. Improve Cognitive Skills
You will almost never see the same layout of balls in a pool game. Every break leads to something new.
With more game layouts, you gain additional experience for each new layout and shot.
The way you process and calculate every move can improve your cognitive skills by reinforcing imagination, memory, decision making, and creative problem-solving.
4. Better Hand-Eye Coordination
Each game of 8-ball you play has the ability to improve your motor coordination. As your muscle memory and control becomes refined you will be able to take your shot in a manner that is timed, smooth, and efficient with respect to the intended goal.
With pressure building comes the requirement of keeping your focus on your eyes and hands so improvement of hand-eye coordination is directly proportional to the number of times you play the game.
5. Mental Mathematics & Memory
In pool, you need to perform mathematical calculations and choose the most efficient shots you can.
Often, you will find yourself in situations where you don’t have a clear shot and defense becomes your only option.
Training your mind to think and practice mathematical problems and perform mental calculations for each shot can better memory and mental clarity.
6. Pool Slows Aging
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Copenhagen found that people who played pool experienced healthy and active aging that positively impacted their everyday lives, quality of life, and general.
Billiards has the ability to immerse both the elderly and the young in their local community and keeping them socially active. Plus, it’s a very suitable exercise as the game naturally sways between active and passive periods. Meaning the players can continue on for hours without getting extremely fatigued.
7. Stretching & Balancing
Playing billiards sometimes forces you stretch your body. In order to get the right angle for your next play, you might have to sprawl out across the table or remove one leg from the ground to give you the balance you need.
Bending across the table and playing a shot on one foot help to boost overall balancing.
8. Burning of Calories
Most people have a misconception that playing pool doesn’t burn calories as billiards isn’t thought of as a strenuous exercise.
You may not have to run or have to recover your breath while playing the game, but the movement of your hands, feet, and walking around the table will start to add up.
In fact, people say an average pool player may walk one mile during the running time of one game of billiards. You may not think of it as much but it is definitely better for your health than sitting in an idle position, in front of a television.
