Snooker player O’Sullivan shares how he manages stress to maintain his competitive edge..

Ronnie O’Sullivan, the world’s best snooker player, has disclosed that he sometimes wonders why he subjects himself to the strain of competing in elite competitions.

The 47-year-old, who chooses Genesis’ “That’s All” as his selected song, makes an appearance on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. He talks about how his father Ronald, who later went to jail for murder, fostered his gift when it was first discovered at the age of seven.

The Rocket, also known as O’Sullivan, said that starting at the age of eight, his father would leave him off at snooker clubs, which he referred to as the “creche.”

Even though he was winning an average of £20-25,000 a year by the time he was 12 years old, he said that he was not the talk of the school.

“Snooker wasn’t a sport, everyone liked football, so no one really paid attention to me because there were other kids who were really good at football and they were the talk of the class,” he added.

From the age of eight, I was raised in a world dominated by men. Even when I saw this little child playing pros on TV and defeating them, I didn’t believe I was skilled enough to be a top player.

“People come up to me and say, ‘We knew you were going to make it,'” he continued.

O’Sullivan, who was raised in Essex, nicknamed the “Del Boy in the porn game,” his father, who owned a series of sex stores in Soho, and said, “Our garage was full up with dirty videos and magazines, I was never sheltered from it.” It was an event in life that I relished.

He spoke on the effects of his father’s 18-year murder sentence, saying, “That was hard because there was no hope in a way, it was two decades.”

It became more about keeping him happy and not letting him feel guilty if I made a mistake because he would undoubtedly believe that it was his responsibility and that failing was not an option.

It was terrible, just terrible. I lost my backbone and my closest friend. I kind of lost the plot.

One of O’Sullivan’s island disc selections was You’re So Vain by Carly Simon, which was on at the Thai hotel where he was staying when his mother informed him that his father had been detained.

After his mother was incarcerated for VAT fraud when he was twenty years old, he was left to take care of his younger sister.

“I couldn’t handle it; I was already partying, drinking, smoking dope, and hanging around with people who weren’t good for me,” he remarked.

He selected Stereophonics’ “Maybe Tomorrow” as one of his songs as, at the time, he would listen to it when he was in recovery.

In reference to his world record-breaking five minutes and eight second 147 break in 1997, he claimed that at the time he was not the player he wanted to be.

“I was anything but a rock, but I could do magic sometimes, and I didn’t want to be known for those moments,” he remarked.

“I wanted to be the person who won the tournament when I had that 147. I would give up everything to win the trophy; I didn’t want to be the one picking up the large check they pay you for the 147.

The seven-time world champion admitted that he doubts why he has put himself under so much strain and stress in the past.

“After seeing what I put myself through, I ask myself, ‘Why would I do it?'” he remarked. “Most people would look at it and say no.”

Perhaps the World Championships are the only competition that truly stands alone for the atmosphere, the intensity, and the nervousness it induces in you when you are matched against another extremely skilled player, a top-class player.

If you overthink or freeze when trying to play while anxious, your mind may fool you and cause you to veer from excellent form to poor form. Simply said, it overcomes you. It gets pretty challenging, and I don’t really love it.

He said that he used jogging as a stress-reduction strategy and continued, saying, “If there was a pill on the shelf that said this will make you feel happy, I would take it.”