Snooker star O’Sullivan reveals how he copes with stress to remain at prime of sport
W
orld primary snooker participant Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed that he questions why he places himself via the stress of participating in top-flight tournaments.
Appearing on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, the 47-year-old, who picks That’s All by Genesis as a selected observe, describes how his expertise was first noticed on the age of seven and nurtured by his father Ronald who went on to be jailed for homicide.
O’Sullivan, generally known as The Rocket, mentioned his father would drop him from the age of eight at snooker halls which he would name the “creche”.
I grew up in a person’s world from the age of eight
He mentioned that though he was incomes a median of £20-25,000 a yr in winnings by the age of 12, he was not the discuss of his college.
He mentioned: “Snooker wasn’t a sport, everyone liked football, so there were other kids really good at football and they were the talk of the class, so no-one really paid attention to me.
“I grew up in a man’s world from the age of eight. You had this little kid playing professionals who were on the television and beating them and even then I didn’t think I was good enough to be a top-class player.”
He added: “I get people come up to me and they go, ‘We knew you was going to make it’ because of my enthusiasm for the game.”
O’Sullivan, who grew up in Essex, known as his father, who ran a sequence of intercourse retailers in Soho, the “Del Boy in the porn game” and added: “Our garage was full up with dirty videos and magazines, I was never sheltered from it. I enjoyed it, it was a life experience.”
Describing the affect of his father being jailed for 18 years for homicide, he mentioned: “That was hard because there was no hope in a way, it was two decades.
I didn’t want to be the guy collecting the nice big cheque they give you for the 147, I would give all that up to get my hands on the trophy
“It became more about not letting him down, not letting him feel responsible if I mess up, he would surely think it was his fault, it wasn’t an option to fail.
“It was horrendous, it was horrible. I lost my best mate, I lost my backbone. I lost the plot a bit.”
O’Sullivan picked Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain as one in every of his island discs as a result of it was enjoying within the lodge in Thailand the place he was staying when his mom informed him that his father had been arrested.
Then on the age of 20, his mom was additionally imprisoned for VAT fraud, leaving him to take care of his youthful sister.
He mentioned: “I couldn’t deal with it, I was already drinking, partying, smoking dope, hanging round people who weren’t good for me.”
He selected Maybe Tomorrow by Stereophonics as one in every of of his tracks as a result of he would hearken to it throughout rehab at the moment of his life.
Speaking of his 1997 world file for the quickest 147 break, when he cleared the desk in 5 minutes and eight seconds, he mentioned that he was not the participant he wished to be on the time.
He mentioned: “I was anything but a rock but I could do moments of magic but I didn’t want to be known for moments of magic.
“When I had that 147, the guy that won the tournament, I wanted to be him. I didn’t want to be the guy collecting the nice big cheque they give you for the 147, I would give all that up to get my hands on the trophy.”
The seven-time world champion mentioned that when he appears to be like again at his profession, he questions why he has subjected himself to the stress and stress.
He mentioned: “When I see what I put myself through, I think, ‘Why would you do it?’, most people would look at it and not do it.
“When you are pitted against another really good player, top-class player in a venue, perhaps the World Championships because that is the one and only tournament which really stands alone for the atmosphere, for the intensity, for the nerves it brings out in you.
“Trying to play in that nervous state and the build-up can play tricks with your mind and make you go from good form to bad form if you overthink or you freeze. It just gets the better of you. It becomes really difficult and it’s something I don’t enjoy really.”
He mentioned that working was his means of dealing with stress and added: “If there was a pill on the shelf and it said this is going to make you feel happy for the rest of the day, we would all be out buying it, that’s what running does for me and it’s guarantee I am going to feel fantastic for the rest of the day.”
He selected the e-book Running With The Kenyans by Adharanand Finn as his e-book alternative for the desert island and his paints that he makes use of to color dot footage with the artist Damien Hirst as his luxurious merchandise because it was his different essential means of dealing with stress.
Desert Island Discs might be on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 on Sunday May 28 at 11.15am.