Fail to prepare, prepare to fail? Every player has his own methods and habits during the few hours before he enters the gladiator’s arena. We asked a few of them how they get ready for that moment when they are introduced into the arena.
What’s your routine before a match?
Judd Trump: Usually I’ll arrive at the venue an hour before the match and then I’ll practise for nearly all of that time, to feel as sharp as possible. I will never go out there unless I have practised for 30 to 45 minutes. I need that to warm up, that’s really important for me. Then I’ll usually just chat to my brother until it’s time to play.
Mark Williams: I’ll have 20 or 30 minutes on the practice table. Then I might sit and watch the match I’m following, or chat to (coach) Lee Walker, about anything apart from snooker.
Jack Lisowski: I chill out as much as I can during the day, until an hour before. Then I have something to eat, have a shower, get into my uniform and try to arrive at the venue as close as possible to my match. I hate having to hang around the venue before a game. Actually that was one of the plus points of the Covid time for me because when the hotel and venue were all in the same bubble, I could stay in my room until just before my match. I don’t always practise before I play. The work should be done before a tournament starts. If I’m trying to find something on the practice table just before a match it means I’m bang in trouble.
Anthony McGill: If I’m playing in the evening, I’ll try to practise in the morning, then have some lunch, and then try to have a sleep in the afternoon. It’s important to get that rest if you have a night match, because sometimes you might not be finished until midnight, so you don’t want to be falling asleep at the table. Before the match starts I’ll just sit down in a quiet spot and calm my mind.
Chris Wakelin: I’ll pick a time to get to the venue, one hour before I play. Usually I’ll practise for 15 minutes to get my arm moving, using routines to make sure I’m hitting the ball right, controlling the cue ball and getting the pace of the table. Then I’ll chill out and have a cup of coffee, chat to my friend Jason and take in what’s coming up.
Do you eat before you play?
Trump: Yes, before I get to the venue. I’m not fussy what I have, I just fuel up with something like yogurt and granola. I know some players struggle to eat before a match, but I’m happy to stuff my face!
Lisowski: I’ll eat as much as I can so I don’t get hungry during the match. I don’t have a particular pre-match meal but I avoid junk food.
Williams: Recently I have been to eating more healthily, having bananas or nuts as snacks, and doing more exercise. That has helped as I get less tired towards the end of matches. I have won a tournament already this season so something must be working.
McGill: Before a match I just eat a few dates. Novak Djokovic eats dates during tennis matches so if it works for him then that’s good enough for me.
Wakelin: I have something to eat about two hours before the match. No closer than that as I don’t want to feel full and lethargic out there.
Hossein Vafaei: If I am playing in the morning, I’ll only wake up one hour before the match, so I don’t have any breakfast. But generally I will make some nice healthy food for myself, two or three hours before I play. I like to book an apartment where I can make myself busy by cooking and listening to music. I have lost 12 kilograms by eating proper food and cutting out junk. I make Persian food like Ghormeh Sabzi which is a stew with meat, vegetables and herbs.
What’s the most nervous you have ever been before a match?
Trump: Probably when I was 18 or 19 and struggling to break through on the tour, I was losing a lot of matches at venues. Since then I have very rarely been nervous before a game, in fact the bigger the occasion the more relaxed I am. The most relaxed I have ever been was before my Crucible finals in 2011 and 2019.
Williams: I very rarely get nervous. Just think – what’s the worst that can happen? If you lose you go home. I remember being at the Crucible, in a dressing room before a match, and I could hear my opponent throwing up in the toilet next door. I was chuckling away, thinking that if I was like that, I wouldn’t bother.
Lisowski: Three occasions spring to mind: When I was 15 I played Mitchell Mann in the final of Junior Pot Black at the Crucible. Then my first pro match at the Crucible against Barry Hawkins in 2013. And when I played Ding Junhui on my Masters debut in 2019. Playing in big arenas like that for the first time is not easy.
Vafaei: I only got nervous when I was very young. The only other time I remember was my first semi-final, against Mark Williams at the China Open in 2017. I lost that match really badly 6-1.
Wakelin: I don’t get nervous before a match, but sometimes I do in that moment when you walk into an arena, especially if it’s a big crowd. You can’t really prepare yourself for that mentally. When I reached the final of the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast, that was a new experience for me, it was such a big occasion.
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