Mika Lappalainen | Friday, 5 December 2025
Interesting week behind, weather had been everything between plus celsius and rain to minus and snowing. So far we have survived with weather and our trails are still good to go, well I don't about Friday as I'm writing this at 3 am. I think they should be okay. So our winter season has started.
Satu and my daughter says that I have manflu. I called that fucking bad flu. Women often says that, we man have this manflu as it hits us harder. My problem is always that I don't get fever which would really launch things. There are studies which shows that flu and different kind infections can hit harder to men, as estrogen protects woman and testosterone can weaker immune system for man. I have never met a man who says after "manflu" or hit to the balls that well it was nice I hope to get one again soon.
Anyway last Friday I drove 470 km to deliver reindeer meat to Piteå. That was one reason, the other one was to have some snooker games and short break before season starts. I visited our friends Stefan and AK. When I arrived I came just on time to have dinner and then we started to play. There were also some other enthusiasts snooker players and we had our turns. I won my first match with new cue so it was good start.
We played until 4.30 am on Saturday, I had short sleep, visit town, had walk and then went back to house. We had breakfast anf continued matches, had short nap, we made dinner (reindeer tartar), more snooker, little longer night sleep, breakfast, more snooker and then it was time to head home. I was there about 41 hours and we played about 20 hours snooker. It was great learning experience and absolutely lovely time.
Monday morning I hit the road from home and started to deliver meat to Southern Finland, I drove 1500 km in 19 hours. Then arrived to my daughter and had sleep. I had some flu symptoms when finishing first drive and on Tuesday I woke up with more, since that it is getting worst. The thing is that I can't really have a rest as there always something at farm. I'm not really working yet reindeer needs to be fed, and as everyone else are taking care of guests I have to do some other things behind.
Back to the title, less is more. While playing snooker I noticed same issue which I have when casting. It is grab from cue or rod. I could pot some really nice shots with difficult angle. There was just two main factors to be right, well probably more yet these two were easiest mostly ruining shots.
My grab from cue, less I holded, more relaxed shot was and accurate. Less power I put, more accurate shot was. Simple and we all know this. I notice that if I started to hit harder I turned my wrist in really end of shots to get power which made cue turn and I missed aiming. So when I was pot speed, no problem. Same issue I have when casting, less I do more I get. I have notice on my casting that when my carry starts to be over 22 meters and reaching 25 meter I start to squeeze rod harder.
That makes me putting more power on rod hand which basically kills the whole cast, so when I'm launching my rod hand is doing too much. I don't know if you have seen Paul holding rod while casting, he is not even holding it, it looks like having pen on his hand not rod. That's what you have when you are relaxed and you do less.
I have clear aim now, less rod hand, less cue hand, more distance, more accuracy. I just have to get rid of this flu and start training.
Have a nice weekend
Mika from Finland