How skills fade with time or lack of practise

I’ve recently joined a private members snooker club in the area that we’ve just moved to.  I’ve not played for I would guess at least 15 years.  I did not have a cue, and as will be shown, not much of a clue either.

Over the week-end, I got down to the club, with my new cue, and was invited to join some doubles.  I was a little nervy, I don’t know the members, how the table plays, my cue, basically, very little.

First thing I noticed was that I could not get my chin on the cue due to a neck problem which was as a direct result of an old lady driving into my door many moons ago.  She was on her way to a hospital appointment on a frosty morning, and literally could not see out her front windscreen.

Then I noticed that I did not have the reach on the table I once had.  It quickly became apparent I did not have the technique, the cueing action I once did, which meant I was not so accurate.  On one shot, I was playing up the table and trying to do a delicate, intricate shot between the green and brown balls that were very close to each other.  With the passing of time, I’d forgotten that playing up the table like that, affects the pace and direction of the cue ball due to the nap on the baize. 

Some of this no doubt I can improve on, some I would have to accept will restrict my ability.  With the passing of a couple of days, I thought how this is true of our driving too. 

I was training with a PDI the other day, doing some Part 2 training and looking at the overtake routine.  As he quite rightly pointed out, the actual car you are driving is a factor for assessing if the overtake is sensible, the power of it.  Think of all these business people bombing up and down the country using pool cars that they have very little knowledge of how the car handles, or the power. 

Although I’ve no personal knowledge of it, a break in your driving for a lengthy period would probably result in the feelings I discovered on the snooker table the other day.  The realisation that you may have forgotten certain techniques for overtaking, parallel parking, judging distance or speed of other road users, anticipating what may occur up ahead.  And of course, as we age, certain factor s creep in that may limit our ability.  I’ve been offering ‘refresher’ lessons for full licence holders at just £14 an hour ever since I started, all bar a couple of business chaps who wanted to sharpen up their driving skills, I’ve not had anyone who is prepared to say that they actually need some more training, and yet, as I’ve discovered this weekend with my snooker, there must be hundreds if not thousands of people that would benefit.  I wonder how many collisions occur each year  that could be attributed to drivers not appreciating their limitations, and not seeing the need for some refresher training.