Would this be interesting to you?

I just bought the compete zero x videos, and im gonna do every aspect of what the videos say, starting at the beginning and not looking ahead on dvds until each drill or advise is practiced or completed. I plan to start this next Monday after my weekend tourneys. If enough people on here think it would be interesting I could write up something about my DVD boot camp experience ether daily or weekly including times and what drills etc. also give my thoughts and opinions along the way. I'm expecting about 6months to complete

Does this sound interesting enough of a read for me not to waist my time reporting on it?

I watched the first DVD today. After watching the complete disk I went back and re watched and practiced what he was covering. I'm fortunate to have a tv near my table.

First up: common bridges, although I feel my fundamentals are ok I went and did them a few shots any way. Over balls, off rail, open, closed, etc. this took about 15min. Stance, grip, elbow I spent another 20-30 min on.

Next up: was aiming, for reference Tor used ghost ball images and have you visualize the aim line during setup. I did 3 racks of balls where I lined up and shot with out adjusting my aim or using practice strokes. Get down and fire! I think I only missed one ball rattling it in the corner. Great!!!!!! I see the aim line! So far every thing is pretty basic.

He recommends a 2000 stroke drill which takes some about 2 weeks to complete. Basically setting up a ball on the spot and focusing on fundamentals and followthrough. Hitting them with exact rhythm and pre shot routine concentrating on a slow back swing.

This is where I stopped. During this drill you must not play or shoot a ball until it's completed! Again whether people believe in this or not, I'm going with it. I'm curious of the end results if or how much I improve. Please don't turn this into seek a real instructor thred!!! As Tor states early in the DVD a fundamental coach or instructor would benifit all players.

So stopping here I'm about to head out for my weekly tourney and plan to start the 2000 ball drill tomorrow. (133 racks is a lot of balls)

Hopefully I can get this more entertaining as we go!

3hours into the stroke drill, I focused on a few things here. Consistent Preshot routine, pause on cue target spot, slow back stroke and straight and equal follow through. I set up on the rack spot and shot into corner. After the first rack I realized I was firing them in with out much aiming focus so the next rack I reduced the pocket size about an 1/8th over the ball size at that entry angle (I used a tv remote to block pocket) and on the third rack I proceeded to move balls just out of reach to force me to move my feet and work on my preshot routine.

I have to admit racks 5-15 were the toughest! To stay focused and to remain on task was challenging but On rack 21 I switched to the other pocket to avoid shooting a groove into the cloth something clicked mentally!!! I was throughly enjoying this drill!!!! I stayed after it to finish off 40 racks. (600balls) At this point it's a good stopping point as I reached the end of one side of my scoring beads and I'm kinda hungry. I plan to switch ends of the table tomorrow but might have to put it on pause do to my daughters graduation. But I will get it done by Friday.

jasonlaus said:

Thanks for the updates. Been on nights since last time I saw you, might go to the monday night at ride the 9(day off).
Jason

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I can't get out much the next few weeks, birthdays, graduation parties, followed with family vacation, but if your interested ike runnels is hosting a bar box 8ball on valleys in manteno Illinois may 27th which has been decent in the past but may spill into Sunday

BasementDweller said:

This could be an interest read. Thanks.

I've always thought Tor's stroke drill could be a bit dangerous. How is a player supposed to know that they aren't actually reinforcing a slightly off center hit on the cue ball? I think I prefer hitting the cue ball up to the end rail and back since you actually get feedback on that shot. Wouldn't it suck to shoot a shot 2000 times only to find out that you weren't actually cueing straight?

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lol, I have thought about this and how many good players are out in the world that haven't seen a coach or instructor? I'm going into this like a science experiment. I'm gonna do his drills and do it to the best of my ability. I'm a recreational player who thankfully has a great job that doesn't rely on my pool skills. Lol bottom line is this, can a average guy improve watching dvds?? I'm gonna find out!

If some of you are wondering about my current skill, I'm a 8ball 7, that has run 4in a row in tournament play, and can also blow up and lose it in a matter of seconds! So I'm exactly like most semi serious recreational players!

Another update,
I'm up to 60racks (900 balls) and I honestly fixed two flaws maybe even three! 60 racks is a lot of time to critique yourself and you really start to pay attention to the small finer things around racks 40-50. I noticed early on using a cell phone recording I had a slight see saw in my stroke causing me not to hit true center, thanks slo pro app!!!! I'm now more level with my stroking and haven't picked up on any see saws lately. And the major one was I wasn't "consistently" following through perfectly straight. I used a carpenter chalk line and made a straight line to center pocket and noticed my cue was always left of the line on follow through. (not bad but a few millimeters) the culprit was my back hand hitting the side of my belly. So I corrected this by moving my body/feet less square with the table allowing a little more room for my cue. I honestly could not of known this with out the chalk line!!!!! The third is a little tricky so I'm not convinced as of yet, but I believe I'm hitting closer to the inside of pocket going from spot to right corner pocket. I'm gonna play with this next time with blocking the pocket on the different sides and prove this out.

Also another thing I worked on was sliding/skidding the
ball different distances before natural roll took over. I was getting it to break on distances I marked along the line with chalk cubes. This I felt would be useful controlling long distance stop or stun shots (slight forward roll after contact) that's it for now, 1100 more to go!

I got to 1275 balls, and have 2 nights to complete the next 48 racks, although I'll probably have it completed tomorrow night. I've remained faithful in Tor's plan and haven't hit a ball or played a game since I started this. I'll admit the thought of reinforcing bad habits did cross my mind, but then I was reminded by a friend that some of the pros have bad fundamentals but they work for them! I can honestly say whether my stroke has flaws or not, it's definitely more consistent and straighter than before! And after adjusting my stance to give my back hand clearance I realized that strokes and stances are fixable if recognized! As much crap as I talk about stroke instructors, I may visit one once I complete this DVD set.
One of the tricks I'm using to keep this lesson interesting is, I'm not watching any farther into the DVD then what I can practice before moving on, this keeps me wanting to see what's next, next update will probably be Sunday.

Ohhh and a special thanks to new AZ member Big Jay for texting me every ten minutes giving me crap for not using a cueball!