Know your Legend: Geet Sethi, an obsessive-compulsive champion who made music with the billiards cue

For Geet Sethi, bliss on the billiards table isn’t winning world titles or crushing his opponents or even compiling world record breaks. It is something much more basic — bliss for Sethi is his cue moving smoothly.

“When my cue is moving smoothly, I live in the land of myself,” said Geet Sethi in an interview to Scroll.in. “The mind is, you know, sending the signal and when the mind and the body are complete sync, your cue moves smoothly, I think that is what it is… you do that and then automatically you will get the ball, you’ll get the long ball you play with that, you know, that is the beauty of billiards… it is sort of like making music.”

Now making that music every once in a while is easy. Sometimes, it just happens by accident. Anyone who has ever played sport knows what that feels like — when the tennis ball hits the center of the racquet it feels light; when the cricket ball hits the middle of the bat it speeds away; when you strike the right rhythm while running it feels effortless… it just clicks into place but to do this every day with consistency, with the match on the line, is the difference between the good and the great.

On his part, all through his career, Sethi has made a lot of music. He won the World Professional Billiards championship five times (1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2006), the World Amateur championship three times (1985, 1987, 2001) and an Asian Games gold medal (1998). He was also a seven-time national billiards champion and four-time national snooker champion.

But it didn’t always come easy, not even to Sethi. The beginnings, though, were perhaps as smooth as one could imagine them to be.

The early years

“As a kid, I was basically into sport. As a 13-year-old, I was a national level junior swimmer. I was the junior guy who was playing TT at a competitive level as well as badminton in school and basketball too,” said Sethi. “And that was when I first saw the billiard table. We were not allowed to enter the billiard room till then and that year, the rules changed. I was, you know, 13 years old when I first picked up the game. A month or two later, I kind of stopped everything else.”

A year later, Sethi was the junior state champion. By 15, he won the junior nationals. And by then, he was completely hooked.

“You know, I had to keep it moving and keep playing. It’s like, I knew this was it. I knew this was it… just felt right. You know, it felt good. I started learning very fast. And I started improving very fast. For a kid, that’s great. And you’re learning and improving. It’s like a fix, it’s like an intoxication. So you want to get better and better. I think that’s what it was.”

It was around this time that they decided to hold the junior and senior national championships at the same venue. This proved to be a game-changer for Sethi.

“And suddenly, I saw Arvind Savur, Michael Ferreira, Girish Parikh and others. It was fantastic. I would play my matches, then I would sit and watch, and kind of said, ‘wow, what is this game,’ they’re playing at a different level.”

There was also Satish Mohan, who took it upon himself to be Sethi’s coach and mentor. But the moment of realisation came only a little later in 1982, when he won his first major English billiards event — the Indian national Billiards Championship — beating Ferreira.

“I had just passed out of college and got into an MBA programme. And that was when I beat Michael, he had just come back from his world championship and that was the moment of realisation that I really want to do this. I don’t want to do anything else. So, it became a profession in ’82.”

Sethi was still studying so he had a very focussed way of going about his game. Every day from 3-8, he would be at the billiards table, honing a craft till it became second nature. And going professional meant that he took every opportunity to play tournaments in India. He did that till around 1984, which is when he first took the opportunity to play tournaments abroad. And this is when things really changed for him.

He won the 1985 World Amateur Billiards title on debut — the first unseeded player to win the crown — and his confidence soared after that.

“It was more than a kick. Your first world title does something to you, there is a shift that happens deep inside. And that shift is all about confidence. You are the same player, you have the same strokes. But you’ve done it at the platform, the world champion tag just reinforces everything. And you suddenly become a kind of player who keeps repeating performances in matches. The confidence that comes is not visible and it comes in your aura comes into the way you play the way you think. That’s what your first World Championship means.”

Rock bottom

But even then there was something about Sethi’s game that seemed a little off. He was winning titles but he knew his technique was unorthodox. Everything wasn’t in line but somehow, with his natural talent, the body was compensating and it was working. But then in 1989, it all went downhill.

“From 89 to 92, three years, I had a slump, the slump was basically because I got confused about technique,” said Sethi. “So that was a time where again I had to unlearn. I had played for 14 years in a particular way and with a particular technique, I had to unlearn that. I went then to coaches, I went to Steve Davis, I went to Frank Allen in England, I tried to pick up really good technique, otherwise, I was playing instinctively.”

He added: “That three-year period was a period of a different kind of intensity, of frustration and my game became zero actually. I played really bad. Those three years I reached abysmal levels. For somebody who used to make a 300-500 break every day in billiards, I couldn’t make a 60 break.”

It got to maddening levels but his self-belief and positivity helped him forward through a period that would have perhaps broken others. He got the basics down in England and perfected them in India.

Sethi said: “I was extremely frustrated. There were times when I would wake up at 2 in the morning and stand in front of the mirror… try a new stance… check whether my arm was straight or not… really I would do that… I would have gone crazy. If I hadn’t found a solution, it would have not been good. But at no point did I say that I was going to quit because I looked at it rationally and said to myself ‘I played well with a lousy technique, so finally when I get a good technique I have to play well’. So that was the rationale that kept me going.”

But this period was an important one for Sethi. Failing taught him lessons that winning did not. It was difficult but it was essential.

“Learning only happens when you fail. You never learn when you are playing well. Never. You play well and win, there is no learning. But when you lose and play badly, that is the time when you question yourself, you go back to the table, look at the angles. Introspection is part of learning. Introspection and learning, I equate those two words,” he said.

1276 and beyond

And then we arrive at a point which to many is perhaps the highest point of Sethi’s career. A world record break of 1276 (under the two-pot rule) against Bob Close in the quarter-finals, which stood for 15 years before Peter Gilchrist broke it when he notched up 1346 against Ross Elixy of New Zealand, and bagged the first world pro title in 1992.

Sethi’s memories of that world record break remain sharp and it remains one of the few times when he has had an out-of-body experience while playing the game of billiards.

“That was one-of-a-kind of sublime moment, and I was just blowing everything away… you’re an auto mode, your cue is an extension of your arm and, you see something, you know, it’s going to go exactly where it’s going to go. I just remember that it was just flow, the word that I think depicts any large break is flow… uninterrupted flow, where the body, mind and the soul, everything just comes together.

“I’ve had three or four of these moments when I have actually had an out of body experience. I helicoptered. It’s weird to kind of say it, but it actually happened. I just saw myself playing.”

Clearly, Sethi was in the zone. A state of heightened awareness where he was acutely aware of every little change that was occurring on the table. But he was always that kind of player. If there was one word to describe his playing style, it would be ‘intense.’

“I think I was and I still am obsessive-compulsive and maybe you need to be obsessive-compulsive. So, you know, I used to kind of lock myself in a room, I do not watch TV. If I didn’t want anything else, I will just visualise the game. And this is before a four-hour game,” Sethi said.

He further added: “I remember the final was at the President hotel, I beat Mike Russell after an eight-hour match and came back to the room. I remember Kiran was there. I just told her to give me a crocin and I slept. There was no question of partying. The adrenaline rush was over and then it was a complete flat zone, I just zoned out.”

A rivalry to cherish

The man Sethi beat for his first pro world title also turned out to be his greatest rival. Mike Russell is eight years younger than Sethi and he was constantly challenging the Indian master throughout his career.

“He is the greatest modern era billiards player. Without doubt, it’s a no brainer, you ask any billiards players and they will tell you that. The last 70 years, after Walter Lindrum, he is the greatest modern era billiard player, the command that he achieved over his floating white and a very high competitive instinct. In the 90s, I think I beat him a little more than he beat me, by the 2000s, he had reversed this. It’s not being cute or anything, he is just the greatest player in my books.”

Further success followed and then for a period, Sethi put away the cue stick.

“For five years, I didn’t go to the billiards room. I thought I had had my fill,” said Sethi. “But then I started again because I once bent on the dining table and I realised how stiff I had become. So I thought I needed to do something about it. Then within three weeks I started playing well, it all came back, I started enjoying and that is when I said let me go play the world championships in Leeds last year.”

For now, the 58-year-old Sethi hopes he can continue playing for a while more. It won’t be as intense, it won’t be as driven but this time, he is just back for the love of the game.