Shooting Left-Handed

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DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm normally right-handed, and its become more and more obvious how beneficial it is to be able to hit some shots left-handed. Was wondering if any instructor can offer some helpful advice/tips on whats the best way to learn and/or practice shooting left-handed?

Mike
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I'm normally right-handed, and its become more and more obvious how beneficial it is to be able to hit some shots left-handed. Was wondering if any instructor can offer some helpful advice/tips on whats the best way to learn and/or practice shooting left-handed?

Mike
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by applying the same exact basic fundamentals and mechanics you have learned in the past from qualified instructors.

two of the most important.......

get in alignment
finish your stroke

you shoot left handed no diff than you do right handed.......you just get on opposite sides of the ball sometimes due to body position
 
Start off practicing these 3 position shots on this shot;

CueTable Help


Stay soft and loose as possible and have a little fun with it. I find shooting left handed can be more of a mental choice than a physical one.
I say shoot it lefty and their first expression usually tells the story,
"okay" or "no way, I can't shoot lefty" be the okay person.
 
thanks for the tips. my main problem is that i cant hold the cue still, it wobbles, and i cant get settled. feels extremely uncomfortable.

any ideas to help with this?

Mike
 
pooltchr said:
Practice.

Steve
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exactly........DCP's you got to remember that its not your usual hand.....so its going to feel uniquely odd. Its going to take a good bit of time too, this isn't something thats going to feel natural after a week of pratice.

For example:

Your keyboard and MOUSE.......

I'll take a guess that almost everyone on here uses the mouse RIGHT HANDED.......

Now I'm a lefty.....albeit very ambidextrous

I grew up using a mouse Right handed but for whatever reason I did the same thing as in Pool (I originally shot Righty) when I was around 17-18 I started using the mouse left handed (started shooting L at 9/10)

Now people use the mouse right handed b/c thats how the keyboard is designed, as the numerical pad is on the right so you lift your right hand to use diff things.

When I played games I used the letters to move (w,a,s,z) for forward,back,strafe L-R

I used my mouse to FIRE so I switched hands and used my right hand on the left hand side of the keyboard and my left hand for the mouse.

I'd say it took 6months min to get decent with it. It took a year + for me to become equally skilled left handed as I was right handed.

To this day i switch from side to side depending on how I'm positioned or whatever. Which ever side is easier is the side I use.

It was the same thing with pool. Now my right hand suffers b/c I don't use it as often as I should.....I do not have a big stroke, but it can do what I need it to do when my left hand is not a good option.

It takes time and practice bro........that is all.

-Grey Ghost-
 
And RELAX, don't try to do it perfect right out the gate, you'll make it tougher.

Fake it till you make it!
Set that shot up I showed you then rather than get right down on it, stand up for a moment and take like 10-20 air strokes lefty, real loosey goosey and kind of quick just like you know what you're doing and then get down to hit one without thinking I can't. Really fake it like you're showing off.

Repeat this process 10 times and in 10 minutes you will 100% better, IF you free up from worry, just let it go and then build on it from there to get 1000% better.

I forget who said it but "whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right"
 
well, men, i practiced shooting left-handed for about 15 minutes tonight and tried to do some of the stuff that you guys said. i was making some simple shots, drawing the ball back, etc.

i'm still uncomfortable with it, and it seems awkward and clumsy. but practice makes perfect, i guess.

Mike
 
Why not do what you have been taught to do?

Mother drill number one and two.

That is how you train yourself.

Steve
 
randyg said:
Mike

I do Mother Drill #1 left handed once a week....SPF=randyg
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Hmmmm......never thought about them Mother Drills and shooting left-handed? maybe i'll do some of them tonight.

maybe i should just play left-handed be cause its for daggone certain i wont ever be able to play worth a sh~t right-handed. man does this game frustrate and anger me..:mad:

Mike
 
Does all this advice work for a lefty learning to shoot righty?:scratchhead:
 
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DrCue'sProtege said:
Hmmmm......never thought about them Mother Drills and shooting left-handed? maybe i'll do some of them tonight.

maybe i should just play left-handed be cause its for daggone certain i wont ever be able to play worth a sh~t right-handed. man does this game frustrate and anger me..:mad:

Mike
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no mike your not going to do any better left handed than you are right handed.....its not your hands and arms its your attitude my friend

the mothers drills thing should be one of the first things that pops into your head......you know these and no matter where your game stands they are always hit upon routinely.

like how you said "tried it for 15 min and I'm still uncomfortable"

NO SH*T REALLY?

Mike if you start spanking the chicken or wiping your butt with the other hand how long do you think your going to have to keep doing that b/f it feels natural?

Your at least my age as far as I know so you've been trying out the stranger for at least 10 to 15 years off and on and its still the dam stranger now isn't it?

Mike if you want to get better quit giving yourself such low excuses and do your dam job you have paid, studies, practiced, and learned to do......stop going off on MIKES tangent

obviously your very intelligent and love to do things mikes way.......but mikes way hasn't gotten mike to where mike would like to be.

Don't you think Mike should get the hell out of mikes way and maybe give himself the opportunity to develop some other way?

I'm just as tired of Mike not making a break through as Mike is.....b/c its mikes fault.

This is just Keebie talking now man to man.........Mike stop all the thinking and just follow the system laid before you. Your intelligence is hindering you b/c it leads you to only question and not have full trust. Lay it down and work the system and the system will work my friend.

best wishes,
Keebie
 
Keebie,
He has had lessons with Scott, so we both know exactly what he has been taught.

The program we teach has worked for hundreds or thousands of players. If it isn't working for him, I have to conclude that he hasn't taken what he learned and put it to good use.

We can't do the work for him. We can only point him in the right direction and show him what he needs to do. It's his decision whether or not to do so.

Steve
 
pooltchr said:
Keebie,
He has had lessons with Scott, so we both know exactly what he has been taught.

The program we teach has worked for hundreds or thousands of players. If it isn't working for him, I have to conclude that he hasn't taken what he learned and put it to good use.

We can't do the work for him. We can only point him in the right direction and show him what he needs to do. It's his decision whether or not to do so.

Steve
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I knew this already Steve along with him working/learning with others..... thats what led me to state the things I said.....he just hasn't figured out how to get out of his own way yet is all imop.

imop thats usually the biggest obstacle in any endevour especially something such as this which takes such knowledge and repeatable mechanical motion/consistency.

he's trying to come up with the quantum equation.....and there isn't one.

Just like he said.....the man is driving himself NUTS, so he becomes frustrated......so it makes him angry.......he's going down the path of the darkside.

-Grey Ghost-
 
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i've tried everybody's way. i've gone from a beginner to, on a good day, someone capable of running multiple racks. the problem is those good days dont happen too often.

Since i've gotten this new Simonis 860 cloth i've decided to just break racks of 9-Ball and try and run out while the cloth is still new. it just completely pi$$es me off when i make a ball or two, see a rack i should run, and cant get the job done after all this work i have put in. The way i see it is that if i cant consistently run racks of 9-Ball then i am just wasting my time in playing in any tournaments.

I still work on Kinister's shots, still do the mother drills, still work on 1-rail, 2-rail, and 3-rail speed shots, still work on the PSR, still work on trying to keep the elbow still, still am willing to take lessons, still log shot after shot that i miss along with the ones i see on TV and practice them over and over, watch my tapes and YouTube videos of matches, still do everything i know to do to get better and more consistent. it just doesnt seem to be happening. i cannot even begin to tell you how it makes me madder than he|| when i hose up a runout that i should get.

Thats why, when i watch the matches of Efren and Earl and Johnny and Nick and Buddy and Francisco, and i watch them do it effortlessly, it really, really honks me off that its that easy for them yet still very difficult for me.

Mike
 
Neil said:
Quit shooting with your conscious mind, and just play with your subconscious mind. You don't think about how to walk when you walk, do you??? They look effortless, because it is. You're putting too much effort into it.
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def.......this goes back to a thread he put up awhile back on the mental state....

when we said that if he has actually done all the drill work and still no results.....then its his mental state.

still mike getting in the way of mike.....but for a whole nother reason.

mike have you tried those hypno cd's that Joey A's been raving about?

Try being less smart more stupid at the table.....it works for me, I can sometimes over analyze and it locks your brain out of the best answers, when I just go dumb and play natural it all comes together much more naturally.....basically exactly what neil was saying.
 
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