iusedtoberich said:

4) No one has a clue what you're talking about.

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Fair enough. It's laid out on the CNN link as well as sports and network news channels. I suppose it was a political move - tariffs and all. Still eliminating a tournament threat by abstention is pretty cold.

You mentioned Lee so I'll venture the you don't know what you don't know axiom.

Anyway - and truthfully, I found Lee insulting and annoying RIP. (That should make me more friends huh?) That's only texting in the Aim Pit so maybe my bad.

I find Johnson a curiosity. Pigheaded enough. Does he know anything? Waiting...

4) No one has a clue what you're talking about.

Patrick Johnson said:

What if we could just aim our cue like a rifle with the tip at the contact point and instead of stroking it simply pull a trigger to shoot it at any preset CB speed? Would taking the stroke out of the equation mean more accuracy/consistency or less refinement/creativity?

If your only motive is winning, fun or not, is the stroke an advantage or a drawback?

pj
chgo

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The answer is both. There have been mechanical pool cues. One was on the market not too many years ago for around a hundred dollars, might be still out there. The computer pool games answer your question I believe. VP3 I believe it was let me duplicate a shot over and over. No creativity or refinement, perfect accuracy and consistency.

The gamers started a pool site with the intention of having tournaments and allowing gambling. Like most such enterprises they created a backdoor for superusers. I cashed in every tournament I played and several of the creators contacted me privately wanting to know who I was, assuming I was a superuser too. Nope, but with perfect aim and stroke I was a pool playing son of a gun!

Feds shut them down, the interstate gambling thing. I did demonstrate repeatedly that a pool player on a computer could spank a gamer that wasn't a pool player even if they had superuser capabilities.

Hu

ChicagoJoe said:

How often are you chalking?

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Every 2nd or 3rd shot since it only needs a light brush swipe rotating the chalk when you remember. It is oval so you just rotate the chalk but you can tell if it starts wearing uneven. And my cues have soft tips that accept the light brush of chalk so much better that a hard tip, or at least it sure seems like that to me.

Oikawa said:

It would be word games if it wasn't the original question and the reason I made this thread in the first place. Many people believe that it's not only harder but flat out impossible to perform certain shots without a smooth/well-timed stroke. E.g. two balls on opposite spots, drawing with side into corner pocket such that the CB never touches the end rail. Very delicate shot, not possible on certain cloth/tables/rails, typically requires cheating the pocket so pocket size helps. Easier with a good stroke 100%, but many people, including some good players, insist on the smoothness of the stroke being the "magic ingredient" that somehow turns it from impossible to possible. Literally, not just increasing the percent of success.

The fact that the thread is 80% about the benefits of good timing in general (ignoring the premise of the thread) is very expected. And I appreciate the discussion either way. It's a closely related topic, although one that almost everyone agree with. Highly doubt anyone in this thread questions that good timing helps in consistency. But natarddrho's answer was definitely not word games, he simply answered the original question precisely.

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I would agree with you without that one phrase, about needing the same impulse. I could jump to the moon with the same impulse as a lunar rocket. Most of us have seen crazy things in a pool hall or on a bar table. Not repeatable without perhaps the ability of Venom, but as a one time instance, not absolutely impossible. I have seen cue balls land on top of lights, small lights. I saw a beautiful break, except for the minor detail that the shooter jumped the ball over the rack of balls he was shooting at, over the table, over the near end of the next table, and into the balls sitting there ready to be broken in another minute.

I can make many impossible things possible if I add the caveat "with the same impulse". If you want to add that, many one in millions things become possible. There were two bullets found on a battlefield. One had struck the side of the other one, jammed inside of it, and they stayed together to be found. The odds were one in tens of millions or more. Not impossible but as I said earlier, the kind of thing impossible to duplicate on demand.

You are trying to win arguments that something isn't impossible when there is some possibility of something happening from the beginning of time to the end of time, damned near anything is possible. If somebody makes a large bet on you making a pool shot and gives you a year to do it, you fail and I would say the shot is impossible for you.

Speaking of which, being a poor boy I'll cap the bet at ten thousand dollars that I can make a pool shot that you can't make in the next month. We both have to post. Want in? I will demonstrate the shot in one try and give you an unlimited number of tries in that month. Nothing to it!

Hu

Texas One Shot is still going strong! Of course I did not ask for any money. I do have the game officially Trademarked in the US, EU, Japan, UK, Australia, UK and pending in India. No special equipment is needed to play. The rules are based on a game we all know, 9 Ball and are found free online, The game changes the reward system from shooting again for making a ball to shooting again for moving the 9ball, Hit the lowest ball on the table and make the 9 move shoot again, if the 9 falls you win! Try it, you will like it!

gregcantrall said:

And oh yeah learning to write left handed too. Which brings a story. But true. A Dear family friend could take pencil in each hand and write mirror image in beautiful script. She played the piano and organ without a script. Played by ear and oh so beautiful. Mrs Kenny.

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I had a friend that wrote the same way if I understand you correctly. He wrote left handed and backwards at the same time as writing right handed. The left hand text was at least equal to the right hand other than being backwards. I would be stretching things to describe writing from either hand as beautiful! One thing I checked, his right hand writing didn't degrade when writing with the left hand at the same time.

I think the original purpose of the thread has been covered. Long distance review can go a long ways, as can reviewing video yourself. Often reveals issues a person would swear they didn't have! However, nothing beats real time instruction by a well qualified instructor.

There is an old saying that a doctor that diagnoses his own health issues has a fool for a patient. A bit harsh and I wouldn't go that far but the basic thought is sound. You can't diagnose your own issues as well as a good instructor can and the camera only gives one view.

Blackjack on here used to give video analysis. He would have people shoot the same shot ten times then reposition the camera and shoot the same ten shots again. I think he used three angles, maybe more. I lost touch with him long ago, I don't know if he still does this. David Sapolis if I didn't butcher the spelling. Good guy and very sharp pool player. Back when he was active on here he would have been my first choice. Not sure if he is still available. Then again, a friend is a local instructor. Never paid him but we spent many hours together on a table playing with things. Scott Lee and I played around together on a table a few times too. Never had a paid lesson but that is only because by the time I was aware of instructors I was also aware my time for pool greatness was past! In my seventies, maybe I'll come out smoking if somebody starts a super senile league!(grin)

Sometimes one sentence is pure gold. It will take someone else to say that sentence.

Hu

ShootingArts said:

Lou, the first three sentences are mine, the rest his. The qualifier, "if you produce the same impulse" makes his statement true. if you produce the same impulse is the catch. What he has said is if two impulses are exactly the same they will give the same result. True enough, but the different strokes aren't going to give the same impulse the vast majority of the time.

One definition of "impulse" from physics: a force acting briefly on a body and producing a finite change of momentum:

If I give exactly the same impulse to a cue ball with a feather or a freight train I will get the same result! His statement as written can be defended as true. On the other hand, try to deliver the same impulse with a half inch stroke and an eighteen inch stroke! He is playing word games.

Hu

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It would be word games if it wasn't the original question and the reason I made this thread in the first place. Many people believe that it's not only harder but flat out impossible to perform certain shots without a smooth/well-timed stroke. E.g. two balls on opposite spots, drawing with side into corner pocket such that the CB never touches the end rail. Very delicate shot, not possible on certain cloth/tables/rails, typically requires cheating the pocket so pocket size helps. Easier with a good stroke 100%, but many people, including some good players, insist on the smoothness of the stroke being the "magic ingredient" that somehow turns it from impossible to possible. Literally, not just increasing the percent of success.

The fact that the thread is 80% about the benefits of good timing in general (ignoring the premise of the thread) is very expected. And I appreciate the discussion either way. It's a closely related topic, although one that almost everyone agree with. Highly doubt anyone in this thread questions that good timing helps in consistency. But natarddrho's answer was definitely not word games, he simply answered the original question precisely.

I started playing pool in Los Angeles 58 years ago and some things were better then and some things are better now.

The Billiard Palace in Bellflower, a little Southwest of LA, is where some of the best players played, I watched Billy Johnson aka Wade Crane play Richie Florence for three days straight. The first set was for $8,000, The second set was for almost $8,000 and the last set was for Richie's cue, his new Cadillac and cash.

Richie lost all three sets.

The room was also famous for the PayBall game played on the 5 x 10 snooker table. PayBall is a 6 Ball ring game where you would win money for each ball pocketed and double the amount when you make the six ball.

Typically the game started for $10 - $20 but it would quickly go up from there.

I watched a game when just before Cole Dickson broke the rack while playing for $100 - $200 asked, "Make it $1000 for a break and run out?" Everyone said yes. No one did while I was watching.

The one thing that was absolutely better was it was easier to play for money, I started for .50 cents a game.

I didn't lose much because I didn't have much money and while it is what some players will tell you, you have to play for something if you want to get better, it's true.

I am not recommending anyone to play for money but in my case I wanted to beat a guy I didn't like and I improved my game until I could beat him.

Beating him for fun was not as good as beating him for the few dollars I won.

The best thing about pool today for me is I can watch the best players in the world sitting in front of my computer.

Only if you're thoroughly versed in CPG/CBL.

SSP said:

Your opponent can do all the assessing he wants when it's his turn......

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Totally agree with you. Staring at the ball after your shot doesn't change anything, simply makes you an irritating nob