Any tips for a beginner?

Positively Ralf said:

I'm a low level league player and I usually put in at least 4 hours of practice during the week. I recently found this game and I enjoy watching it and would like to now learn to play it. Are there any reading materials/videos I should be on the look out for?

I live in lower NY and someone has recommended me private lessons from a player named Karl Slosen in jersey.

Anyways, thanks in advanced for replies.

Click to expand...

There should be a bunch of people in the NYC area to see about lessons. Tony Robles, among others. I would highly recommend Jim Rempe's How to Run a Rack in Straight Pool and his other Straight Pool video, the name of which escapes me at the moment.
Phil Capelle's book Play Your Best Straight Pool immediately comes to mind. Welcome to a great game!!

Play Your Best Straight Pool, by Mr. Capelle. He teaches how to think through the rack and look for things you might not see otherwise.

I am a fellow 14.1 neophyte. Got the book at Christmas, and had a 17 ball run last night, through 2 break shots. Straight pool is a different animal than the 9 ball I'd been playing.

Good luck!

Tony Robles is doing a straight pool clinic out of Amsterdam Billiards some time in the next couple of months. I'll get the details and post them.

I also recommend Phil Capelle's book but it is encyclopaedic so might be a bit much for a new player.

When you say lower NY do you mean state or city? Like downtown Manhattan?

Edit: also 99 Critical Shots has a lot of info about kiss shots and billiards that will come in useful.

Edit 2: The straight pool clinic is on July 15th (flyer).
I was told it would be for Amsterdam's league members but if you're interested, it can't hurt to ask.

I saw Tony tonight at Amsterdam, and he was giving a clinic. Looking at the faces of the people in the clinic, they don't look to be all league members. So, likely his clinics are open to the public. Here is a link to the flyer for Tony Robles clinics. You can reach out to him to re-confirm.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...642.1073741962.100005501885057&type=3&theater

NYC has a wide selection of people to take instruction from. Just out of Amsterdam alone, you'll have

Fran Crimi
Tony Robles
Mika
Hunter Lombardo
Sean Alaska Morgan
Mike Yednak, who runs the 14.1 league at Amsterdam

Just last Friday I saw Phil Cappelle give a lesson at Amsterdam. He literally wrote the book.

Head out to Queens and you can take lessons from Earl Strickland at Steinway. Zion Zvi gives lessons, and so does Lee Kang at Carom Billiards.

petermgates said:

Tony Robles is doing a straight pool clinic out of Amsterdam Billiards some time in the next couple of months. I'll get the details and post them.

I also recommend Phil Capelle's book but it is encyclopaedic so might be a bit much for a new player.

When you say lower NY do you mean state or city? Like downtown Manhattan?

Edit: also 99 Critical Shots has a lot of info about kiss shots and billiards that will come in useful.

Edit 2: The straight pool clinic is on July 15th (flyer).
I was told it would be for Amsterdam's league members but if you're interested, it can't hurt to ask.

Click to expand...

Take a look at this, it's from Mike Sigel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI9BJqyUhrI

2 other tips
- it takes time, esp. new rack breaking
- play for multiple balls at once, never only one ball or a pre-chosen sequence of balls. Or choose Sigel's area technique

If you're running 17 in a row that's not too bad already :grin:
Have fun and good learning!

Something you might want to try: hitting the cue ball low but not low enough or hard enough to draw it. Great for precise position play. Learned indirectly from the great Steve Mizerak.

In my opinion 14.1 is the king of games. It's an evolution and you will need every bridge and shot there is. Learn how to master the rake. Good luck. The toughest thing to do is figuring out how to stay at the table.

I believe you need to reach a certain level of play before you start taking lessons or reading books. My advice would be to focusing on playing first and when you get to where you can run a couple racks the lessons/books/videos will make more sense.

I would have a very difficult time running a couple of racks without knowing how to approach the rack in phases, what to watch for, etc., and I am capable of running a 9 ball rack. I haven't actually run two full racks, but I was able to finish a rack, break and run, and make my break shot on the third rack (I played a safety that ended the run).

The approach to straight pool is simply different, and the books I've read, most especially Capelle's, helped me figure out what I was looking at.

Two elementary suggestions:

1) Always have your next 3 balls clearly in mind. You can't know where to leave the cue ball on your current shot until you know not only where you next shot is, but where you need to approach it from, to get to the shot after that.

2) Re-rack after every miss (leave a break ball). You need far more practice on break shots, than any other; start getting that practice now.

Thank you kindly.

'chu ching'

Corwyn_8 said:

Two elementary suggestions:

1) Always have your next 3 balls clearly in mind. You can't know where to leave the cue ball on your current shot until you know not only where you next shot is, but where you need to approach it from, to get to the shot after that.

2) Re-rack after every miss (leave a break ball). You need far more practice on break shots, than any other; start getting that practice now.

Thank you kindly.

Click to expand...

This is solid advice.

The OP's question about whether to work on things as a prelude to getting into 14.1 vs. shooting 14.1 as a means to improve got me thinking about what I have been doing.

Capelle mentions that straight pool is largely a game of 90-99% shots, meaning that should be the probability of making each shot, if you're really doing it right.

I noticed that I was attempting shots that were too difficult to fall into that 90-99% window. That told me that my cue ball control needed work. Everyone has to make a nail biter periodically to keep a run going, but it was happening too often for me. That told me that my shot selection may also need work.

However, I was also missing a fair number (25% or so) of those gimmes. That told me that there was something wrong with my shotmaking.

I reviewed Tor Lowry's videos, video taped myself, and saw that there were flaws that I have been compensating for all these years. Like a golfer who adapts to his slice when on the course, I had been working around those flaws. You can do that in 9 ball, and 8 ball to an extent. Straight pool exposed the flaws in my game.

First thing I did was make sure my fundamentals were better. Got rid of my elbow drop, fixed my stance, and above all, started staying down on the shots with a solid follow through. This helped immediately. Some long shot drills Lowry talks about were just the ticket.

My advice would be to make sure your fundamentals are good, and then stick with 14.1 with an emphasis on hitting an index card size target for the CB between shots. I'm still working to hit my 5 meter target (20 ball run), but I'm close.

Positively Ralf said:

So far the three things I'm trying to elevate in my game are stop, draw(hardest one for me to get) and follow. I'm doing well but besides that, I'm only hitting the cue ball dead middle. I understand the basics of applying side/english and some of the effects it has on the cue ball but it is something I do not have a full grasp of.

Click to expand...

I forget where I first read about this but a useful practice game for developing your sense of stop and draw is to spread all the balls out on the table and then pocket them in any order - without hitting a rail.

It sounds reasonably straightforward but it will make you plan ahead and force you to try and get into positions where the next shot is fairly straight.

petermgates said:

I forget where I first read about this but a useful practice game for developing your sense of stop and draw is to spread all the balls out on the table and then pocket them in any order - without hitting a rail.

It sounds reasonably straightforward but it will make you plan ahead and force you to try and get into positions where the next shot is fairly straight.

Click to expand...

The Jim Rempe Brainwash Drill is what you are referring to. Rempe said do nothing but this drill for a few weeks and soon you will be raining 100s.


Here is a link to a demonstration by a Demon friend of mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOVQrGgcDxs&feature=share

Here is Andrey Seroshtan doing it about 10 times in a row: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fD...tqs8myB8MYKgRx0iJgQlB4&feature=share&index=14