Exactly! I've been playing the 10-ball ghost a lot lately. I beat it 8 sets in a row now and felt pretty good about myself! I tried doing it without BIH and lost 9-1. I'd have lost 9-1 if all I had to do was make the one ball to win. Made me realize I suck at breaking...
BITD Steve Gumphrey was the best 9 ball player in the DC area. With the break and BIH I would beat him, but without BIH I needed the break and the slop 7. This was long before the template came along, and my break has always been a POS.
If you keep changing things, how do you know whether you are better off? Maybe if you put the energy into the original way you were doing things you might have made more improvement.
This is to say that not all new things are better. The grass isn't always greener. It is a trap because often people perceive overall improvement when they change things simply because a change is inherently a temporary step backwards, but the early learning curve of anything is very fast.
I completely changed my stance and stroke of a dozen years at 25. I didn't think I got better as quickly as if I had just refined what I was using.
