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The Shot: One decision determines everything else...

J
HawaiianEye said:
I used to say "if I can SEE the shot, I can make it".

When I said "see", that meant conceptualizing all of the individual parts of the process in my mind and getting feedback from my mind and body that all systems were "go" to do what I was attempting to do.

When people get up and down multiple times on a shot, it means they aren't "seeing" the shot. They are having doubts or second thoughts about some part of the process, whether it has to do with their mind or body.

Once you have played at an advanced level for a period of time, you have obtained most of the physical skills required to remain at that level or even move up to a higher level. At this point, it becomes more of a mind game where you have to ensure you are "seeing" every shot before you pull the trigger in order to improve your consistency and mental state while playing the game.
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I say this now: "if I can SEE the shot, I can make it"
But as you know, saying so and doing so are two different things.
Seeing the shot essentially means understanding what must be done to make the shot.
But doing what must be done is a completely different challenge.

But it is also a rather straight forward task, but only if you know how to accomplish it.
For instance, aligning the cue stick. You need to know how.
And you need to know the criteria that must be met to align the cue stick correctly.
Then you need to confirm that you have indeed met those standards correctly.
And you can't do any of this half ass.

If you pull the trigger thinking that you will make the shot but still miss,
maybe something subtle is going on below the radar. For instance, your eyes have muscles.
And just like any other muscle they can get tired. It starts slow and is hardly noticeable.
You must decide: can I overcome this or should I quit or should I ask for a spot and jack the bet?
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In the zone when playing against better players

Patrick Johnson
Bob Jewett said:
Two books might help, The Inner Game of Tennis and The Pleasures of Small Motions. Mostly they have you focus on the action more than the outcome, and that can lead to fewer distracting thoughts. Some people hate the "get your head in the right place" books, but I really found them useful.
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I think Zen and the Art of Archery has been mentioned here to have a similar message.

pj
chgo
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Dominant eye?

Patrick Johnson
jjohnson said:
…I saw a really good pool player that is right-handed and is left eye dominant. His body, especially his head and eye and shoulder, is automatically over the shot and cue stick on every shot.
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But the stick is angled across the body a little more, making it more uncomfortable for some to turn to face the shot squarely, so they might keep facing a little across the stick. This obviously works for them, but at the (minor?) cost of not facing shots with both eyes equidistant from the CB.

pj
chgo
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THREE CUSHION POPULARITY IN THE U.S.A.

B
Bob Jewett said:
What the US carom players win in tournaments is available publicly. It's not much. I think the only way to live off carom in the US is to run a room.

Carom in the US transitioned in about the 1950s from a mixture of the "small" games and 3-cushion to almost exclusively 3-cushion. That's much too hard to start with, so the only cross-overs were pretty good pool players who happened to be in a place where carom tables were available. When I learned to play (1960s), the game played almost exclusively on the two carom tables was 3-cushion. Of maybe 30 regulars, I think there was only one guy who played straight rail often. The rest of us were pool players who were curious about the pocketless table and 3-C was what we tried to play.

In the 1960s and 70s, a large part of carom in my area was in Elks Clubs. I played a few times on an Elks team. They were/are mostly old men's clubs. Many of them did nothing to encourage new members. I felt there was a "get off my table!" attitude at times. Also, I think American habits/culture turned away from that kind of club/organization, which meant there were fewer people interested in joining the clubs for any reason.

These days, the places to play 3-C seem to be nearly all owned by relatively recent immigrants. Many of those rooms are not connected to the wider 3-C community. The larger pool rooms that used to have some 3-C tables and tournaments have either disappeared or changed to a mixture of 9-foot pool tables and 7-foot bar tables.

One result of that decline in players and tables is that there is almost no audience for the game in the US. Without an audience, there are no real sponsors and consequently very little available for prizes.
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All valid points, Bob. Also: 3-C is as far away from instant gratification as you can get. And the attention span of the younger generation appears to keep shrinking.
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*** 4 pt Bubinga Hoppe bumperlessTascarella ***

AnthonyLewis208
Bubinga points and butt section. Straight grain maple nose. Genuine lizard wrap done perfectly. The Tascarella 5/16×14 compression joint plays amazing and the cue is simply stunning in person. 😍

No synthetic materials were used in the making of this cue per the Tascarella shop. Cue is mint.

Specs:

Both shafts are 4.0 oz each and the butt is 15.0 oz. Cue is 58" long evenly split. Shafts are full @ 13mm 2 new Kamui black SS with clear pads were recently done.

Please DM any questions and/or offers. Low ball offers will be ignored and I am not looking to trade this cue.

Asking Price is firm @ $4,250 shipped CONUS (excluding NY & CA)

Getting your hands on a Tascarella in this condition with a natural joint, ferrules, etc. is only going to get harder and harder!!
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Ultimate Pool $

J
I enjoy all the different formats with the singles and scotch doubles, don't really care to watch women's singles but I do like the mixed pairs. The league format makes no sense and I could careless about it, they need to have their own UP USA ball sets and the timer needs to be visible on the screens at ALL times on the tv table for the player as well as the viewer it adds to the drama. The formats for US vs UK are endless and need to be utilized, they could also have blind draw partners. Also would love to see actual SPEED POOL and get Tony Drago and all the fastest players in it and it needs to be well thought out on the format! Stick with 8 ball and maybe have a yearly 9b or 10b championship! They really need to add an event somewhere in Ohio!!!

Surely Brunswick is paying out the ying yang for sponsorship to launch their own bar tables or have UP be the beta testers which is odd in a live $ tourney format. They were regularly having 3k viewers on the live stream which is a LOT for pro pool. I don't really care about the league but surely they are building up the league to be in house and get Brunswick tables on site for their ODD partnership. I look forward to more events and hope the league/Brunswick flourishes to bring more events/exposure.
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The Ultimate Pool USA Grand Finals are in the Books

azhousepro
Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, NC was ground zero for an entire week of world class pool action! Played on Brunswick seven foot tables and with hundreds of players, the tournament featured the League Eight and Ten Ball Finals, the National Shootout, the Women’s and Junior Opens, National Pairs and Mixed Pairs,the Brunswick Legends,Seniors and League Showdowns, the Tri Series and NSL events. Welcoming players and fans to the event was a short film produced by Ultimate Pool USA featuring and narrated by the legendary David Matlock who is the first player to be inducted into the Ultimate Pool […]

See full article...
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The Shot: One decision determines everything else...

HawaiianEye
I used to say "if I can SEE the shot, I can make it".

When I said "see", that meant conceptualizing all of the individual parts of the process in my mind and getting feedback from my mind and body that all systems were "go" to do what I was attempting to do.

When people get up and down multiple times on a shot, it means they aren't "seeing" the shot. They are having doubts or second thoughts about some part of the process, whether it has to do with their mind or body.

Once you have played at an advanced level for a period of time, you have obtained most of the physical skills required to remain at that level or even move up to a higher level. At this point, it becomes more of a mind game where you have to ensure you are "seeing" every shot before you pull the trigger in order to improve your consistency and mental state while playing the game.
Click to expand...
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