vendredi, décembre 29, 2006

PETER BÖCKER'S INTERVIEW

Peter Böcker is one of the greatest carrom player in Europe. He has won lots of national and European competitions. Just have a look on the Eurocup statistics http://www.carrom.ch/ and you will understand. Moreover, Peter is known for his ability to slam. So, I naturally wanted to speak with him about his very rich carrom experience. I really want to thank Peter Böcker and Michael Lüning (Chairman of Dortmund Carrom Association) for their help. Question : Did you immediatly love this game ? Peter Böcker : Yes of course. Q : For you, what is so interesting in carrom playing ? P.B. : Tactic, strategy and planing positions. For example, if you playing dart, you have two possibilities. Either you reach the goal, or you didn´t. In Carrom, a player who has weaker pocketing than his oponent, he although can win the game. Q : What part of the game do you prefer ? P.B. : I love every part of the game.
Q : You're a great carrom player (Eurocup winner in 2002, 4 times in Eurocup final) with a great experience of international games and high level. How did you do to improve your level so high? P.B. : For every kind of sport you need practise. Many players are able to pocket coins, but only few players (in Europe) are able to control the position on the board. Not the player wins the game who is pocketing the difficult coins, that means e.g. if I´m in a difficult position and I have only difficult coins, I´m not going for single pocketing. I will try to change the position of the difficult coins, so that I will have a better position afterwards.Observing the games of better players and using video material from other players or my own games (I have a lot videos of games I played).
"IT'S NOT THE GRIP, IT'S THE MIND" Q : What kind of grip do you use ? Have you ever change your grip ? How do you describe your grip and its advantages? P.B : I play with the index finger and cover it with the thumb and the middle finger. I have changed my grip one hundred times, e.g. the Eurocup Championship 2002 I won with the scissor-grip (It´s not the grip, it´s the mind). Every grip has advantages or disadvantages, e.g. with the scissor-grip you need a lot of space. With my grip you need less space. Q :You played against the best asian and indian players. Whose opponent made you the best impression ? P.B. : Every Indian Top-Player impress me. The best carrom game I ever seen in my life was Nagsen Etambe vs. Mahendre Etambe 1989 in Heidelberg, Germany. Q : So, now, let's speak about white slam ? You have done a lot of white slams ? Could you in several words explaining what is the best way to manage a white slams ? PB: I've played 133 white slam and 5 black slams. It’s impossible to explain it in a few words, but in gerneral you need a good break and after this a good break building. Q : Which kind of break to use? Very strong, heavy which explodes all coins, just the power to pocket one coin...? P.B. : Which kind of break you use depends on the player. On a quick board with a quick frame (e.g. Precise, Diamond) you don´t need a strong break. On our german carromboards you need a stronger break, because the frame has not so much rebound. In general it makes no sense to break as strong that only one or two coins coming out.If you break too hard and the white coins coming out, so they touch the side frames and running back in the middle, then the break was too strong. "BREAK BUILDING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FEELING ONLY WITH KNOWLEDGE" Q : How do you build your series of pocketed coins ? Which coins do you play first (the easier, you choose with your feeling, you play coins that can be pocketed but impossible to use for a double ?) P.B : What you mean is the break building. Of course it´s difficult to give an answer, because after a break you never will have the same position. In general, a good player is in 90% of the breaks in nearly the same position. For example, 5 or 6 coins coming out of the bunch. 3 coins stuck in an uncomfortable positon in the center. Then you look which of the “open coins” you can use to open the difficult ones (by using special shots like cut, bomb, glance etc.). If you find a coin like this (e.g. a coin to play a bomb lying on the thick shot line) keep this coin. At first play the easy ones, then you use the bomb. Break building has nothing to do with feeling only with knowledge. Q : How do you do when you pocketed 8 coins and the queen and that only one coin stay on the board ? Did you have interior speech as "just be concentrated or go on"? P.B. : Just go on” Q : Do you think that the ability of doing slams should come naturally or do you think that players should try to train especially thoses technics, train to do white slams specifically ? P.B :: It don´t come naturally, it needs pratice and knowledge. "ONE HOUR OF WATCHING AND OBSERVING CAN BE MORE HELPFUL THAN ONE OUR OF PLAYING" Q : What piece of advice would you give to players that want to improve their carrom game ? P.B : Watch and learn. Many players are not interested to watch other people playing. For example. One hour of watching and observing can be more helpful than one hour of playing. Of course you have to practise regularly.
Q : What kind of striker do you use ? Do you think that the striker is important or for you no matters which kind of striker, it's the people who shot that is important ?
P.B : What kind of striker you use depends on the material (e.g. potato starch or boric powder). The striker should have a weight of 15 gramms. Q : On the very well done and wealthy web site http://www.psca.ca.pn , man kind read "carrom the game of control and concentration". To reach your top level, you are comfortable with those issues of control and concentration. Did you work on the mental part of this game or are you naturally "strong in your head" ? P.B. : I´m not naturally mental strong. I took me many years to learn this. Q : Could you tell me some words about your carrom club ? P.B: My Carromclub is the biggest and most successful Association in Germany. We do a good a job. Take more information on our website www.carrom-rcs.de Q : How do you imagine the future of carrom in 50 years ? P.B : I hope that in 50 years as much people are playing carrom like in India today.

4 commentaires:

Harpreet Singh a dit…

50 years we play like india what does you mean india well then you can think in 50 years where india will be you should say that we will beat india man well in 50 years you can be my opponent in international matches.
Harpreet

Anonyme a dit…

thats nice collection in this blog keep it up

Anonyme a dit…

come with recently changed grip and play with me. Grip changes the game and thinking of player to . i know mind plays important role but if you change grip your game changes too for small time. you have to practice to make that grip fit. I think a player whose grip is good and he can play well through it. There is no need to change the grip

Harpreet Singh a dit…

why rnt u updating ur blog???????????