Would this be interesting to you?

I can't wait to finish this one! I just did 630 balls in one standing only taking a few short texting breaks. Im currently going into Friday with only 6 racks to complete and I'm so happy!!!!
I would be willing to bet that 95% of dvd'ers don't complete this drill, this last push was mentally challenging and exhausting as I really wanted to fire the balls in just to complete the ball count. But I did manage to fulfill my end of the bargain as a student and practiced the best stroke each and every shot!

I will wrap this one up and rewatch disk one before going to bed tomorrow, but my thoughts right now on disk one are it's very basic and doesn't offer drills per say as much As it does with general info. I will probably give the bridges another look and hit his sight and fire drill (no warm up strokes) one more time just so I can close out this disk with a clear conscience. The next disk I'll be watching in the series is 9ball, strategy,safety etc. at least it will be more enjoyable to watch! The disk I'm looking forward to is still about a month or so away and that's "position and pattern play" where most of what we know to be drills are at!

Check back around Monday,have a great holiday weekend

i just finished watching disk 2 of the series, in fact I don't know if it was from the long weekend and staying out late with az'er Big Jay I had to watch it twice the first time I fell asleep! Some of Tor s examples kinda run together and I zoned out. So the 2nd and complete viewing I took notes. What I liked at the beginning was his explanation of controlling the cue ball on the break, he mentioned about practicing a stop shot and working up to break speed sorta thing with one ball, I'm gonna hit this for some time tomorrow. Next note was the standard rotation drill we all practice starting with 3 balls and adding a ball for difficulty. I've done this hundreds of times in the past but Tor's difference is to pick all the pockets in advance or you fail. Before when I did this drill I picked my pockets and altered my plan as I blew shape, With tomorrow being Tuesday (short work week) that will allow me to spend 5-6hrs revisiting this before the weekend!

now I have my weeks practice outlined out, it keeps me focused and engaged in the drills!
Next weeks outline will focus on the last part of the DVD, which includes several common safeties in both 9ball & 8ball, break outs, and 8 ball run outs. Along with some spin shots when cueball and object ball are both frozen on the rail. This will take a little time to prepare as I plan to setup racks and shots exactly to the video. At this time I don't know if screen shots with a iPad or sketches on scratch paper will be best??????

A thought about last weeks 2000ball stroke drill, I did close my stance to fix a slight flaw on my follow through (back hand hitting my belly) But i think the most significant gain I got from that drill was the self confidence from being dedicated and completing it! It improved my mind more than my physical stroke, I recommend that drill to anyone to see if they really want to improve or to see if they just like the idea of improving. Finishing is the hard part!
I'll check back in in a few days!

People have mentioned the Ebook, I do have it, it looks really time consuming and I plan on doing those drills after the dvds! At the day of purchase I planned about 6months worth of info but now I think this will take me well into winter!

gxman said:

What grade level would you consider yourself currently? Also what type of table is your home table?

Personally, I need a more disciplined practice routine too.

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I'm a apa 7 (8ball) high run is 4break n runs in a row, i think better ball selection and position play would take me to another level, i have also fell apart in tournaments and sometimes lack confidence. My home table is a 7ft diamond pro-am.

nevadarain said:

Im wondering, did the set come with Secrets 1? I was on there website the other day about to order, and I saw in the set Secrets 2 and secrets 3, but no Secrets 1. Im still waiting to here back from the email i sent asking them this.

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Secrets 1 was on YouTube free I believe. I would think secrets 2 is the same material just expanded on a little better.

i found the break drill to be discouraging, the goal was to spot a ball on the head spot and leave the cue ball as a stop shot and build up speed to a full on break! I struggled with this and want a friend (big jay where are you) come over and slo mo video this! I can stop the cueball at 50% power but adding more power the cueball is hitting the right rail after contact, I'm not hitting cueball where I think I am OR I'm not hitting the head ball where I think I am! This is in my notes to revisit at a later time, Again I'm talking about break speed stop shots!!!! After rewatching the video I think Tor's shot is powered down to perform the stop.

So skipping ahead to the 4 ball rotation drill. I've done this my whole life, played 9ball ghost and recently beat the ghost 7-5 with BIH after break. But since this is my own personal DVD experiment I upped the challenge of the 4 ball drill. Again I'm a decent player but no world beater so forgive me if I state the obvious. My drill is to ramdomly throw out 4 balls making sure they cover the table and not all at one end, pick pockets and cueball routes for every ball before shooting. After the first few attempts I realized just how much I wasn't playing the "correct/bad" shape lines, and how much I just relied on my ball making abilities. After an hour or so with added concentration I was sticking to my picked routes. So.......I upped the drill again by cutting a old poster into trapezoid/pie shape and started to aim for what I call the ball in hand zone on my next shot.

I'm really getting a lot out of this "enhanced version" of 4ball, and might stay on this another week. As I feel it's a great drill for my lazy mind!!!! so far nothing new has been taught to me, but I really feel that my textbook student approach to this DVD experiment is what's helping me the most. I'm actually studying what he covers, I'm taking notes, I'm practicing what he shows, I'm writing about my experience, and the best part is I continue to look forward to practicing (I always just played games)

In case some of you are wondering I'm only putting in 2-3hrs a night and have allotted for another 10hrs combined on Saturday and Sunday. But of course Friday is tourney nite! Tomorrow is more of the same, 4 ball, land on paper! I'll check in later

fastone371 said:

ME TOO!!!

As far as your break drill I dont think hitting a single ball is heavy enough for break practice. You have to use a slight follow shot to plant the cue ball center table. I used to use a whole rack for break practice but I bought a Break Rak, one of my best pool investments!!! I would guess you are hitting the object ball slightly off center if the cue ball is going one way or another.

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I believe the point Tor is making with this stop shot break drill is control. No one will argue the fact that we lose acuracy with speed. And a true stop shot is all control but as speed increases so does our chances of not hitting center or slightly below on cueball resulting in a miss hit (non stop shot) on the single head ball. The single ball represents a way to measure your results. So perform your stop shot and build up speed, once you lose the cueball you no longer have control. It test your mechanics at break speed. Im personally not hitting the cue ball center during break speeds because my cue goes to the side after headball impact. So at that speed I've proven not to be hitting where I think I'm hitting! In my opinion this drill had nothing to do with the scatter of the rack or best location to break from etc. just the mechanics of the stroke. Which I will have my buddy big jay come over and slo mo vid on what's different from 50%-60% power to 100% break power. This is probably why some pros have a killer break with seemingly less effort! It's a perfectly square hit with 100% transfer of ball energy.

Again I'm not a rep or affiliated with Tor or zeroX and nor I'm I a instructor. My thoughts are my own and they are just that "Opinions" I'm just a regular guy that has time to practice and is curious with what can be achieved with REAL world DVD lessons with commitment and dedication!

And if any body has questions or comments please leave feedback, I'm counting on some interaction to help keep me committed.

I also made some outline paper shapezones for my 4ball drill, I place them on the table before I shoot and land in the center. But the problem is the ball changes path slightly on a slow roll when it rolls over it. I cut out 1/8" outlines so I can shoot the next ball without picking up the ball, but my paper was getting creases and not laying flat! So someone like magic rack or anyone in thin plastics business should make these to sell as I find them a great learning tool! The learning part that makes you think is the process you go through laying them down! It's really harder than just playing 2or3balls in advance!