Let’s have your reports on the weekend. Did you WIN OR LEARN? For me, I was filming this weekend at Auch and learnt a LOT about French strategy and how they can be exposed sometimes. During the week I played twice with a local guy who is a bit of a lost case. No one really wants to play with him as he is so erratic it’s crazy. I won both meat competitions with him as it was a deliberate idea to bring out my best game. It forced me to play as close to 100% as I could in the shooting position and whilst we had 1/2 easy ish games the others were epic battles in the dark. Once I had the jack I threw it into the nightmare places that no one goes! Next to the string in case I needed to shoot the jack if he dropped 3 points…..I had to do this multiple times. And whilst it’s only a 3 game competition for meat it’s highly contested and I won lots of respect for my strategic play, accepting my partner and my utter determination NOT to lose. He was happy as he has not won anything for ages and went around telling everyone how great he was 🤣

Many players, especially from Thailand and Vietnam, give the boule a quick glance right before shooting. At first, I thought this might be counterproductive, but after seeing how well they play, I realized there’s more to it. It’s likely tied to concentration—perhaps a way to block out distractions and stay in their own zone. Does anyone have information on that?

Let’s have your reports from this weekend. What went well and what didn’t. What did you learn? For me I played a different comp every evening this week and was tinkering with my gesture. Nothing huge just attempting to replicate Kantaros style. I got battered today by a MUCH better team and I learnt that I need to change tactics much quicker when my instincts kick in. In addition I don’t need to focus so much on boule to boule shooting IF the terrain allows for rafle style as I only just beat a team who shot every boule that way with a high percentage of carreau and they didn’t care.

Coaches Corner - My analysis of tactics during this game in Aubenas National Pètanque 2026 https://youtu.be/UVRq7mG9P64 Here is my first tactical review of a game I filmed yesterday at the Top 300 Veterans in Aubenas. I think it showcases an interesting situation at 11/10 and the choices that led to the eventual demise of one team. Is this the sort of analysis you want or something different. What would your choice of tactics be here. Vote below or add a comment

Hi everyone This sartuday i was attending a pétanque tournament in the 77 dept with like 135 doubles teams so quite interesting I was doing the pointer and may be you know or not but i decided to get some double click mechanic counter to count the number of very good points against the total one in order to compute some pourcentage of success shoots. (May be a bit crazy, but as I’m not always sure about my performance) the figures went like this - first game, i ended with 66% of nice points (19/30), the oppponents were a bit strong at the beginning but i start to realize that when you put your boule very close to the jack several time, some people start to be a bit upset - Second game, I ended with 81% (18/22), the opponent were i would say not always in the game - Third game, i ended with 75% (15/20), this was the most interesting game and the hardiest too, after the first end which was around 6m, all following were around 10 and in this one i played 3 excellent shoots. I’ll come back later on that one - Last and fourth game, we lost (in 1/8eme) at 12, and my pourcentage was really poor like 33% with (7 on 21) points, and the opponents were to be honest looking to be the easiest, we didn’t play the game and i was unable to point correctly After the deception i think it’s time to get the value : - First i think give too much importance on my feeling regarding opponents, like if i feel there are stronger or look easier win, basically I’m not playing the game correctly. And even with my experience of meditation I’m accepting my thoughts but it come back and certainly kill my play. If you’ve any tips and/or video ( @Kevin ORourke i didn’t watch all your video yet tbh) - Second coming back on my 3 best shoots, frankly those are the one i was in the flow i think. I can drop the boule almost where i wanted, i even do a very close jack between 2 opponents boule located in front at 30cm to the jack at 10m, and i was able to put mine going through the two, doing a little curve at the end to get just behind of theirs at 15cm. The two games and half basically was able to put so many boules where I want it was like a dream. For this i know keys were aware, present and visualization + routine it was fantastic. My friend playing with at a moment said I’ve no words at the end :)