BD,
I'm glad you enjoyed some of my 'stuff'.
It's all relative: beginner, novice, intermediate, AA, Pro, or World Champion.
If the World Champion is doing the things you outlined & he or she has been doing them their entire career & those are their perceptions, then he or she should probably not be introduced to anything that someone else judges to be easier or more effective. At least not until they are having problems with something.
If a beginner, etc. is attempting methods that are not conducive to success then by all means a more fuctional option should be offered & introduced.
CJ, I believe, prefers to play with a bit of an elevated cue. Would you tell him that it is not necessary & he would probably be better served to play with a more level cue. Mike Seigel has a fairly severe elbow dorp would you tell him he should refrain from doing so, if he intends to continue to compete.
Would you tell Babe Ruth that he hit all of his home runs swinging inappropriately because it was different than the norm of his time.
Do you allow one to obtain individual greatness or do you teach them to be mediocre.
Sorry,
I've seen very good ball players ruined by prescribed 'teachings'. Human beings are not robots. Each one is an individual all to one's self.
Attempting to assist them is an endeavor of risk & reward. It is a huge responsibily. Like a Doctor, the creed should be, 'do no harm'.
There are probably 20 or more different levels of players on AZB. I doubt there is any universal advice applicable to all.
In golf, there is almost never a change of one thing that has a desired affect. Usually it is a combination of at leat two(2). So, to say do this without that can at times cause a worse problem than the one to which the 'fix' was intended to cure.
Just my $0.50 rant,
Rick
Total red herring post. You are assuming that someone is telling CJ not to do what he is doing. You couldn't be farther from the truth. What CJ does obviously works for him, and he shouldn't change it. That does NOT mean that it will work for a single person other than himself.
What a number of you are totally missing, is that some of these "secrets" are not actually secrets, but are idiosyncrasies to ONES individual game. Look at it this way- you are starting a new job. You haven't done this kind of work before. Now, they offer training to do it, or, you can go it on your own. Of course, you would be an idiot not to take the training. The training, as usual, consist of the requirements of the basics. How to achieve the desired results in the least amount of effort.
Now, does anyone expect you to be a master because you took some training? NO. But, with that training, you now know what basically to do, and why. With that training, you can now add little idiosyncrasies unique to you to make that training more efficient for YOU.
If someone with many years of experience on the job tells you on your first day to do some idiosyncrasy of his, it may or may not work for you. Odds are it won't work for you, because you aren't doing the underlying things that he is that make it work for him.
The only reason the wrist twist works for CJ is because he is doing something else different that the wrist twist makes up for, or counters. If YOU aren't doing that something else different the same way he is, twisting your wrist will only make you go off line, and you will have to figure out something else to correct for it. When and if you ever figure that out, then someday you can pass on your little secret also.
It's MUCH easier to learn why and how things react, what actually is going on, THEN come up with your own little idiosyncrasies to counter YOUR failure in being able to accomplish exactly what you want to do. We are human, not a single one of us can precisely duplicate a perfect stroke everytime. Just can't be done. However, with much practice, and a solid correct foundation, we can come up with what to us is a repeatable idiosyncrasy that does get the job done.
CJ thinks that these little secrets of his are what made him a phenomenal player. They are, but at the same time, they aren't. They are little idiosyncrasies that evolved for HIM. And, by his own testimony, took him a while while getting back into the game to figure out just what he had been doing before that he wasn't now.
He thinks the idiosyncrasies were the key, but he is missing what actually did make him and others great. It's not the "form", as much as it is the "mind". I have stated on here many times, that practice is to learn how to do something. Game time is when you apply what you have learned to do with the conscious mind, and use only the subconscious mind to perform.
What separates the elites from the rest of us? One thing- how the subconscious mind is used. For the vast majority of us, we cannot get the proper access to the subconscious mind that a few do naturally. The extreme of this would be your savants. They can see or hear something, and duplicate it almost flawlessly. Their minds are wired a little bit differently than the rest of us, and their subconscious plays a huge role in their savant ability. We all have that ability, but few ever learn how to tap into it, and fewer still to tap into it almost without effort on their part.
Recent studies have shown that savants, and those highly skilled in an endeavor utilize the subconscious mind much more than others do. Science has found a way to "jump start" the subconscious with proper electrical stimuli. Studies have shown that when one has proper training, they can perform a task better than without the training. No big surprise there. However, they still make a number of mistakes. However, when the subconscious is electrically stimulated for just 20 minutes, and then they are given the training, they then perform the required task almost without fail. AND, it sticks with them after the stimuli is removed!
In other words, science has now come up with a way to make us a savant in whatever endeavor we choose. You will see big changes happening in the not to distant future!
What this shows, is that our brains have the capacity to "figure things out". For a few of us, that will be a short journey. In pool, some only a few years.(those that naturally have better access to their subconsious) For most of us, it can be a lifetime of never achieving the same results, simply because we normally use a different part of our brain. However, with proper training in HOW things actually work, and copious amounts of time at the practice table, most of us can achieve a very high level of play compared to the "norm" of play level. Taking someones else's idiosyncrasies as our own may work, but odds are will not, and will only set one back. Much better to go with the basics of what is known to work, and come up with your own idiosyncrasies to make it easier for YOU to perform.
If you are one of the many that don't naturally use the full spectrum of your subconscious to play pool, then you are much better off learning how and why things work on a table, and going from there. It actually is the only other way to learn to play the game at a higher level. Without your subconscious playing a huge part, and without the knowledge, then you are just floundering around out in a sea of green felt with no wind at your back, and nothing to guide you. Which is exactly why there are so many mediocre players that have been playing for decades.
For those wondering, yes, there are ways to "stimulate" your subconscious without having to go through a form of electro-shock treatment. But, this is long enough for now. It's already long enough that probably half on here won't even bother to read it, but that is their loss.:wink:
they provide comfort
