Same Old Story..........

[DrCue'sProtege]

i know everyone gets tired of hearing it, but i just have to vent somewhere. and its been months and months since i have posted anything about this.

but my bad luck/rolls just continue and continue. 90% of the time i dont have any chance to run out. and 5% of the time it would take a superman to get the rack out.

that leaves 5%. so, what usually happens is as soon as i start to break the bad rolls and impossible spreads start, i get down in the dumps, usually mutter out loud "Well, Here We Go Again" or "Great, Another Night Of This Sh~t" and it just snowballs from there.

then, of that remaining 5%, when i do get a chance, i am so mad and frustrated that i cant even make a gimme and i am useless the rest of the evening.

i dont know how many times last night balls would just simply roll into my way/path, and block me.

i have to be the unluckiest breaker in the history of 9-Ball...........

DCP

 

[TannerPruess]

Work on breaking so that you get a good spread.
I suggest the BreakRak by Charley Bond and of course the X-Breaker.

 

[9BallBust-O]

DCP -- man I feel you. Thats like my story. I usually park my cue right in the middle of the table and I get no shot. OR if I do its a shot to shoot safe. NO joke - I was playin the other night and I crack em really firm and I sink 5 balls and I swear on it I was hooked from getting a shot. I have a good break but my luck is just a little worse.

Hey Tanner ... what guy are you in the pic?

 

[mthornto]

I have two thoughts one this:

1) If your 9-ball break sucks so bad, quit playing 9 ball. The game obviously brings you more grief than pleasure. Play straight pool where luck has very little to do with the game. In straight pool, even the break shot is a controled shot where you are playing position.

2) Some see the galss half full, some half empty, and some assume the water is contaminated with lead and they will probably get sick just being in the same room with it.

 

[Pigcarver]

I have two thoughts one this:

1) If your 9-ball break sucks so bad, quit playing 9 ball. The game obviously brings you more grief than pleasure. Play straight pool where luck has very little to do with the game. In straight pool, even the break shot is a controled shot where you are playing position.

2) Some see the galss half full, some half empty, and some assume the water is contaminated with lead and they will probably get sick just being in the same room with it.

You know, he has a point here....take a few months off of nine ball, just play straight pool. And call me crazy...maybe a more controlled break shot on your part??? A cut break perhaps??? And have you read/watched Joe Tucker's racking secrets??? Perhaps, if you took a bit longer and studied the rack, and were playing a shot such as "One in the side with draw for shape on the two" you would have less issue with getting hooked....

Or maybe it's all those babies and puppy dogs you kill...that's just bad karma...j/k

 

[Tom In Cincy]

Time for a notepad

Take a note pad and a pencil and start recording your 'good' and 'bad' rolls then also do the same for your opponent.

On your breaks (when you get a chance to break) chart where you place the cue ball and the results.

Take notes on the tough shape you get from your opponent's misses and the tough shape you give your opponent when you miss.

If this doesn't show the the 'rolls' even out, then you are playing superman all the time or you really need to improve.

I hated 9 ball for the exact same reasons you've stated and it took me forever to start 'accepting the table as is' and just get to work on getting out. I read the book 'Golf is not a game of Perfect' and related it to 9 ball and it changed my attitude enough to make the game a lot more enjoyable and it improved my perspective about 'rolls'.

 

[Raodwarior]

You need some serious work on the mental side of the game. I teach this in my intermediate and advanced classes. If you look negativly at the game your position etc, eventually it will become a self fulfilling prophecy.

Start thinking positivly before you stroke ie. self talk, and watch the results.

 

[UWPoolGod1]

Not everything in the game of 9ball is about running out. If you don't have a shot or are blocked learn better pushout strategies or safety play to enable you to get back to the table. When you get BIH or given the pushout back to you take advantage. You should be able to runout or play another safe down the road and win the rack...if you don't miss of course. Try not to run into object balls during your runout (except on a breakout of course), it only messes things up. On your break outs imagine where the balls will end up after contact and if you will then have a shot or not.

Couple of thoughts...

P.S. while writing this I envisioned a flash program flipping through images of you during play. 1. your down on shot. 2. cueball makes contact with OB. 3. cueball spins into cluster for breakout. 4. cueball sticks behind one of cluster balls snookering you. 5. you throw up arms with cue extended in one hand. 6. clasp butt of cue with two hands above head. 7. swing downward with cue almost hitting table. 8. shaft splinters into 5 pieces.

 

[DelaWho???]

Worst Leave on the Table......That's Where You Found Me

I had this same problem........It turns out I was trying to do too much with the CB to try and get it where it needs to be.......I was using too much low english, trying to soft touch a shot and end up set for the next one...

I started hitting more follow shots and let the CB travel in a natural path to where it needs to go.......I'm using English more sparingly and I seem to be hooking myself less and less..... Then when I do apply English it's more thought out and it's been working out better....

Don't let yourself get frustrated, it'll tighten your backhand up and you'll pull the cue.
Maybe stop worrying about the next shot and hit the shot in front of you. If it's a mental thing and mechanics, and you focus on potting the ball in front of you, you'll naturally hit the cue and the ball will go where it needs to.

But I'm just a ...

McCue Banger McCue

 

[predator]

Are you trying to tell us that if someone gave you Archer's break that your runout percentage would significantly improve? Throw 9 balls on the table and try to run them with ball in hand. Do it 100 times. If your runout percentage is not even close to 50%, then forget about practicing the break. It is hardly critical at intermediate level.

 

[Banks]

If you can run, then go for it, otherwise your immediate goal should be to control the table and to control your opponent's shot. Don't think yourself a coward, you're there to win. The more chances you get to shoot, the more you should win, the better you'll get at running out and in the long run the more runouts you'll have. Slow down your break just a tad to get more control and then take it back up in steps until you don't even think about it any more. I slowed my break down (yeah, I did hate it for a little while and didn't sink as much) and now it is back up to regular not-thinking-about-it speed and my 9-ball break is much better for it.

 

[pete lafond]

DCP -- man I feel you. Thats like my story. I usually park my cue right in the middle of the table and I get no shot. OR if I do its a shot to shoot safe. NO joke - I was playin the other night and I crack em really firm and I sink 5 balls and I swear on it I was hooked from getting a shot. I have a good break but my luck is just a little worse.

Hey Tanner ... what guy are you in the pic?

Think of it this way, the rolls average out so your positioning yourself for one hell of a great tournament when they all go your way. It does stink though, and makes it a little tougher to mentally get into the game.

 

[3kushn]

First of all stop blaming luck (bad luck) Get ahold of yourself. You want to play better then get serious about the game. I'm being a horses a** I know but get a grip. How many times have you seen a pristene pool hall - no dirt, perfectly level..... This is what we have to deal with, so accept it. The game isn't playing against you. You are. The mental part is probably more than 50% of winning. That's where it's at.

Up until I took my last lesson 3 weeks ago I didn't realize how awful my stroke was fundamentally. I don't play pool but for god sakes I thought I could stop a pool ball dead in it's tracks on a straight in. Guess what I couldn't. Believe me I'm considered by a few way above average at controlling a cue ball.

Get someone qualified to analyze your stroke. Like they say. Beginners are taught the fundamentals. Players are taught advanced shots. PROFESSIONALS are taught FUNDAMENTALS. Read it and weap.

 

[DaveK]

i am so mad and frustrated that i cant even make a gimme and i am useless the rest of the evening.

That's the problem right there. You need a level head and take what comes when playing the game. Having said that, you are not playing a game, you are practicing. I still say practice something else and play 9 ball only against competition. The way you're going you will have a bad attitude every time you go to break a rack in competition, all because of these strange practice habits, and that is doing yourself a great disservice.

Dave

 

[Colin Colenso]

Video your breaks.

If they're as unlucky as you say, then we'll be able to confirm it. If not, then you'll have found a solution to your problem.

 

[NineBallNut]

i know everyone gets tired of hearing it, but i just have to vent somewhere. and its been months and months since i have posted anything about this.

but my bad luck/rolls just continue and continue. 90% of the time i dont have any chance to run out. and 5% of the time it would take a superman to get the rack out.

that leaves 5%. so, what usually happens is as soon as i start to break the bad rolls and impossible spreads start, i get down in the dumps, usually mutter out loud "Well, Here We Go Again" or "Great, Another Night Of This Sh~t" and it just snowballs from the

then, of that remaining 5%, when i do get a chance, i am so mad and frustrated that i cant even make a gimme and i am useless the rest of the evening.

i dont know how many times last night balls would just simply roll into my way/path, and block me.

i have to be the unluckiest breaker in the history of 9-Ball...........

DCP

I feel your pain! All in all, I think you are putting to much pressure on yourself to runout everytime. Look at it in a different way. You are practicing! Instead of viewing these situations as bad luck, or saying here we go again, which puts you automatically in a bad frame of mind destroying any chance you have of possibly running a rack, just view these layouts as a new challenge and think what you would do if it happened in a tournament or money match. Try to think of it as a opportunity to play a great safe. The break and run percentage of most players under "A" player status is not very high. On tables layouts like you describe, If your the first to play a good safe, u get control of the table and dictate how that rack proceeds from there.
I think just having a more positive outlook will take you to a higher level.

 

[sixpack]

i know everyone gets tired of hearing it, but i just have to vent somewhere. and its been months and months since i have posted anything about this.

but my bad luck/rolls just continue and continue. 90% of the time i dont have any chance to run out. and 5% of the time it would take a superman to get the rack out.

that leaves 5%. so, what usually happens is as soon as i start to break the bad rolls and impossible spreads start, i get down in the dumps, usually mutter out loud "Well, Here We Go Again" or "Great, Another Night Of This Sh~t" and it just snowballs from there.

then, of that remaining 5%, when i do get a chance, i am so mad and frustrated that i cant even make a gimme and i am useless the rest of the evening.

i dont know how many times last night balls would just simply roll into my way/path, and block me.

i have to be the unluckiest breaker in the history of 9-Ball...........

DCP

DCP,

I feel your pain, I really do. I know the frustration you feel and the place your head is stuck in. But I would also wager that the suggestions people made last time were not tried because "that wouldn't work" or "it's no use"

Until you change the way you view luck, it will never change. I know this from personal experience. One anectdote that really helped me was a golf story by Harvey Penick.

Seems that a young player (who went on to be famous, but I can't remember who) was complaining about his bad luck, complaining about how he was putting himself in bad situations.

Harvey listened to him a bit and watched him hit some balls and said "I'll make a bet with you. I'll bet you that you can't break 76 if I place your tee shot after the drive."

The player accepted. The first hole, the player hit his drive down the middle, and Harvey put it behind a bush. The player chipped it out sideways, hit up to the green and made a putt for par. As the round went on, the player got more and more into it. Finally shooting a 75. The player gleefully accepted the $1 or so they bet. Harvey paid off with a smile and said, you shot a 75 because I put you in those places. If you had hit those shots there yourself, you would have shot an 85.

The point is, the player attached an importance and blame to the previous shot and punished himself mentally for hitting it there.

When breaking, it's true that it's your chance to get a good spread and run out, but on average we only break half the time. If the other player broke the balls the way you did, and didn't make a ball, would you be upset about the fact that the table was not perfect or would you be glad to get at the table with a shot...any shot.

If you extend that to your own break, if you make a ball and are are still at the table, that's a chance to take control and win the game. No matter how you get to the shot you face, it's an opportunity for you to take control of the game. If you look at it that way instead of attaching 'luck' to it and ascribing all these things to happenstance, you'll enjoy the game much more and win much more.

Cheers,
RC

 

[DaveK]

The point is, the player attached an importance and blame to the previous shot and punished himself mentally for hitting it there.

Great post on a great point. A few years back I discoverered that I missed an inordinate number of pots immediately after a poor position shot ... getting on the wrong side or leaving the hit a bit too full or too thin as examples. The problem was shooting while still feeling disappoinment about the result of the previous shot. Now I use a technique where I tell myself "ya, that was not my best effort, but if my opponent left me here after missing I'd be a very happy camper, so let's be a happy camper and shoot it in". It certainly helps.

I also noticed the corollory to this, I miss an inordinate number of pots after executing a spectacular shot. The problem was that I did not pay enough attention to the shot at hand because I was still congratulating myself on the previous shot.

A real short memory and the ability to fool ones self are great attributes for a pool player (or golfer).

Dave

 

[McKinneyMiner]

The point is, the player attached an importance and blame to the previous shot and punished himself mentally for hitting it there. RC

Tap...Tap...Tap...

This is one of the great lessons in pool. Danny DiLiberto talks about it quite often in his commentary of various Accu-Stats matches.

He points out that players are far more likely to make an incredibly difficult shot that their opponent leaves them than the EXACT same shot that they gave to themselves because of bad position play/bad roll.

One of the things I took to heart early on in playing pool is that each situation is what it is. You step to the shot and are confronted with a problem. Reagardless of how the problem originated it is still there and can't be changed. You can only learn from the process, but the shot itself is still waiting for you to cuss, throw your hands up, roll your eyes, slam your cue and then finally take it head on.

It's not easy to think like that (and often I can't seem to do it myself), but it will serve you well if you can pull it off.