New progress video (month 7) - Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated

Most APA is played on barbox. Im sure Sam's game would be better on the box with what he already knows. Big table you would be a low 4, small table I would dare to say a 5 even.

Now keep in mind we are basing all this on attempted runouts, no safes,

Heath <---- was a 9 when he quit APA 3 years ago. (best pool decision ever LOL)
 
KissedOut said:
If you don't mind my asking, what camera did you use to make this video? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I used a SJCAM 5000 WiFi, it's pretty much a knock-off GoPro which cost 1/3rd of the price. Works pretty well.

On a related note, I just noticed that the video is a little bit overexposed, I'll try to fix that for future videos.
 
Last edited:
Just curious, how do you play against the guy that is playing on the table next to you? Also, is this at a school?
 
SamLambert said:
I used a SJCAM 5000 WiFi, it's pretty much a knock-off GoPro which cost 1/3rd of the price. Works pretty well.

On a related note, I just noticed that the video is a little bit overexposed, I'll try to fix that for future videos.
Click to expand...


Nice I been looking for something along that price range
 
Sam you said that you are working with a PRO correct? If they are not working on your fundamentals (stroke, stance, bridge, ETC) before they teach you about the skills part of the game then they are doing you a huge dis-service.

In order to hit the cue ball with precision it is best to have a straight stroke, not saying a crooked stroke won't work but it will take longer to master and you results will be inconsistent. A straight stroke with proper alignment and proper speed will allow you to hit where you want on the cue ball witch will give you the desired results you are looking for such as pocketing the ball, good position ETC.

Just because some one is a pro does not mean they can teach.

If you want to cut down the learning curve get some instruction from a PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTOR and when your stroke is good and then go see professional player, they can teach you a lot of other skills.

Just my opinion.
 
Prince H said:
Just curious, how do you play against the guy that is playing on the table next to you? Also, is this at a school?
Click to expand...

This guy is a AAA by the system we use here, which means he beats the 9-ball ghost with relative ease. He crushes me no sweat.

This is a "pool academy", at least that's how the owner calls it. It's a pool-only place, no alcohol or anything, pool only.
 
Last edited:
SFC9ball said:
Sam you said that you are working with a PRO correct? If they are not working on your fundamentals (stroke, stance, bridge, ETC) before they teach you about the skills part of the game then they are doing you a huge dis-service.

In order to hit the cue ball with precision it is best to have a straight stroke, not saying a crooked stroke won't work but it will take longer to master and you results will be inconsistent. A straight stroke with proper alignment and proper speed will allow you to hit where you want on the cue ball witch will give you the desired results you are looking for such as pocketing the ball, good position ETC.

Just because some one is a pro does not mean they can teach.

If you want to cut down the learning curve get some instruction from a PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTOR and when your stroke is good and then go see professional player, they can teach you a lot of other skills.

Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Sylvain (the pro) does help me with my fundamentals, but I often forget about it and he doesn't always notice when I go back to being slightly crooked/misaligned. It's a work in progress. He does often tell me about follow through and staying down and moving less, but it's easy to forget when nothing is natural yet. When I go down to shoot, I have to think about everything still, nothing is really "automatic".
 
SamLambert said:
This guy is a AAA by the system we use here, which means he beats the 9-ball ghost with relative ease. He crushes me no sweat.

This is a "pool academy", at least that's how the owner calls it. It's a pool-only place, no alcohol or anything, pool only.
Click to expand...

Sweet! wish I had access to one of these "academies."

On a broader note, I will say that right now you already have one of the most important ingredients to improving, which is passion. For someone who has been playing for only 7 months this is commonly referred to as the pool bug. In my experience, the players that never really seem to get rid of the bug are the ones who show the steady improvement. Hopefully you will keep the bug and as long as you are open to accepting new knowledge and being criticized you are off to a good start. Sure, you will get stuff wrong. But it seems to me like doing what you are doing (not this drill specifically, but your broad improvement strategy) will expose those errors faster than other methods that might only utilize one path to improvement.
 
SamLambert said:
Sylvain (the pro) does help me with my fundamentals, but I often forget about it and he doesn't always notice when I go back to being slightly crooked/misaligned. It's a work in progress. He does often tell me about follow through and staying down and moving less, but it's easy to forget when nothing is natural yet. When I go down to shoot, I have to think about everything still, nothing is really "automatic".
Click to expand...

I understand what you are saying and that is good he is mentioning it.

If I was you I would have him help you work out a pre-shot routine, write down the steps and then practice following them.

Your stroke needs a lot of work, I.E the flow, make it smooth. here is a sample of what I am talking about.

when you're looking at the cue ball, put the tip at the desired point of impact, Tip 1/4 inch away from cue ball. Now draw the cue back slowly PAUSE for 1 second (say 1 thousand 1) then move the cue back to the start position. PAUSE then repeat. 2-3 times. On your final stroke Pause at the back of your swing, transition your eyes to the object ball then accelerate forward the finish position (Follow Through)

that is just 1 part of a PSR.

Keep up the good work.
 
SamLambert said:
I used a SJCAM 5000 WiFi, it's pretty much a knock-off GoPro which cost 1/3rd of the price. Works pretty well.

On a related note, I just noticed that the video is a little bit overexposed, I'll try to fix that for future videos.
Click to expand...

How much film time can you do with this camera? How big are the file sizes usually? The one flip camera I had a while back had file sizes that were monstrous (over a gig I think for 15 minutes)...I'm assuming the files would be too big to put anywhere other than like a hosting site like youtube correct?

I read one review that the battery only lasts 30 minutes??
 
Spimp13 said:
How much film time can you do with this camera? How big are the file sizes usually? The one flip camera I had a while back had file sizes that were monstrous (over a gig I think for 15 minutes)...I'm assuming the files would be too big to put anywhere other than like a hosting site like youtube correct?

I read one review that the battery only lasts 30 minutes??
Click to expand...

The camera is limited to SDHC cards, so no extreme stuff such as 128gb SDXC cards.

With this in mind, I had 16gb SDHC cards on hand so I'm using that. I film in 1080p and that takes a lot of space. (What you see in the video isn't real 1080p though, the video is zoomed, it's a wide angle camera. I just bought a new 4.35mm lens, just gotta wait for it to arrive.)

It's about 1gb per 10 minutes which gives me about 2.5 hours, output is a .mov format file, all settings set to top quality. It's easy to bring this down if needed though. I could go as high as 6-7 hours if needed. Use a 32gb card instead and that goes to 12-14 hours.

After editing audio and stuff, the end size was about 5gb, for some reason Windows Movie Maker likes to tack an extra gb on my videos. I should look into this, there are definitively big improvements that can be made in the filming and editing department of my videos. There are also probably more size-friendly file formats that I could use.

YouTube didn't seem to have a problem with me uploading a 5gb file.

Also, I don't really know about the battery life of the camera, I'm always plugged in with a 15ft USB cable to a wall adapter, but it does seem relatively bad. The display must be using a lot of power. Keep in mind that even GoPros have relatively short battery life, 2ish hours I think.
 
Last edited:
Spimp13 said:
I'd maybe go a little higher in 9 ball. The shot making (while it appears uncomfortable and I'm not a big fan of the poke practice stroke), is decent enough to be closer to a 5 range I think. Every state is different though so a 5 in 9 ball in my state could very well be a 4 or even a 6 in a different state.

Matt <--- apa 8 in 9 ball way overdue to shoot some balls and shoot a regression video from lack of playing lol
Click to expand...

In Houston he'd be a 4 max
 
Based on the guys about your age here that shoot very very well, you need tattoos and lots of them or you'll never improve. The best guys in their 20's round these parts have the most tattoos.

Kidding aside, some very good pointers in this thread. If you follow the good advice and train hard, I think you'll improve greatly. Keep at it and have fun!!!!!
 
Here's what I've gathered so far:

2x Looks uncomfortable
3x Shot selection
3x Hit too hard
2x Movement on break
1x Cue position after break
2x Head comes up
2x Tip far from cueball
5x Bridge too long
3x Tempo too fast
4x Follow through
2x Smoother stroke action
3x Preshot routine
1x Straigthen stroke

Thanks to everyone, this will be greatly helpful.
 
Once again not bashing Sam but see this is where I feel uncomfortable about certain aspects of the whole thing.
See for me i'd rather see a guy miss every ball but look good doing it rather than the opposite, because shot making comes but fundaments don't if you develop a bad habit (as you'll hear other testify) you could be doomed for life.

Sam the best advice I can give to you is to never shoot another rack of 9 ball for the rest of this month and focus only of
a) building a solid consistent stance
b) developing a PSR around that
c) working on a smooth clean stroke with follow through
d) spend a s**t load of time getting a "Feel" for the shot/cue/ball
i.e. speed control drills (1,2,3, etc diamond follow, draw)(1,2,3 rail) and stun (extensive stun drills, meaning stunning to different point like with the wagon wheel), short stun (meaning how to hold up the ball) everyone can hit hard very few can hold up the CB

ball pocketing is secondary in my eyes because it's a bonus while you do drills, so that means it comes. I just can't help but feel like you are more concerned on pocketing balls solely because I don't see the buildup or dedication to the build up. I know you frequent this site so i'm sure you've heard the influx of people who are now working or wish they had the clean shooting style of the EUR and Asians

I'm also saying this because of you tangent line issue, I get the impression that you feel that the tangent line applies to all shot and thus why you check it as much as you do, not realizing that follow changes that, and again this is why i feel that you do not spend as much time on it as you should.

I'll try to catch one of your streams if i can.
 
SamLambert said:
The camera is limited to SDHC cards, so no extreme stuff such as 128gb SDXC cards.

With this in mind, I had 16gb SDHC cards on hand so I'm using that. I film in 1080p and that takes a lot of space. (What you see in the video isn't real 1080p though, the video is zoomed, it's a wide angle camera. I just bought a new 4.35mm lens, just gotta wait for it to arrive.)

It's about 1gb per 10 minutes which gives me about 2.5 hours, output is a .mov format file, all settings set to top quality. It's easy to bring this down if needed though. I could go as high as 6-7 hours if needed. Use a 32gb card instead and that goes to 12-14 hours.

After editing audio and stuff, the end size was about 5gb, for some reason Windows Movie Maker likes to tack an extra gb on my videos. I should look into this, there are definitively big improvements that can be made in the filming and editing department of my videos. There are also probably more size-friendly file formats that I could use.

YouTube didn't seem to have a problem with me uploading a 5gb file.

Also, I don't really know about the battery life of the camera, I'm always plugged in with a 15ft USB cable to a wall adapter, but it does seem relatively bad. The display must be using a lot of power. Keep in mind that even GoPros have relatively short battery life, 2ish hours I think.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I just tested out my LG G4 and emailed myself a 2 second clip....6 meg lol!!!

Drop The Rock said:
In Houston he'd be a 4 max
Click to expand...

Yeah, it really depends from state to state. I see 4s and 5s run a few balls here and there and play shape like he did. He did have one full table run too which 3s rarely do hence me thinking of bumping him a bit higher but it was only one rack.
 
SamLambert said:
The camera is limited to SDHC cards, so no extreme stuff such as 128gb SDXC cards.

With this in mind, I had 16gb SDHC cards on hand so I'm using that. I film in 1080p and that takes a lot of space. (What you see in the video isn't real 1080p though, the video is zoomed, it's a wide angle camera. I just bought a new 4.35mm lens, just gotta wait for it to arrive.)

It's about 1gb per 10 minutes which gives me about 2.5 hours, output is a .mov format file, all settings set to top quality. It's easy to bring this down if needed though. I could go as high as 6-7 hours if needed. Use a 32gb card instead and that goes to 12-14 hours.

After editing audio and stuff, the end size was about 5gb, for some reason Windows Movie Maker likes to tack an extra gb on my videos. I should look into this, there are definitively big improvements that can be made in the filming and editing department of my videos. There are also probably more size-friendly file formats that I could use.

YouTube didn't seem to have a problem with me uploading a 5gb file.

Also, I don't really know about the battery life of the camera, I'm always plugged in with a 15ft USB cable to a wall adapter, but it does seem relatively bad. The display must be using a lot of power. Keep in mind that even GoPros have relatively short battery life, 2ish hours I think.
Click to expand...

not sure about your camera but if i'm not mistake it's around 1.2 .1.5 gb for 11 or so minutes that gives about 3-4 hrs of 1080p shooting. If your camera allows choose the option for mp4 this till bring down the file size some and on some cameras only shoot for about 30 mins at a time, I use this setting for practice as to only spend about that time on any one drill this way every 30 mins has a drill and i don't have to go chopping up 3 hrs of video.
Get a program call Handbreak, put you files in there first and that will chop the size down by about 80% off the batt and convert it into avi, iso, mp4 etc
 
Spimp13 said:
Thanks for the reply. I just tested out my LG G4 and emailed myself a 2 second clip....6 meg lol!!!
Click to expand...

Spimp if you looking into recording yourself depending on what environment you're working with find you a cheap iPhone or iPod and trust me you can go far back "i started with a 3gs, use that for now as you continue to explore options for a camera.
I guess you're not posting it anywhere so you can plug up and watch on your computer, since the device will have no app and only a few photos (i'm assuming you'll take pic of certain table layouts) you'll have the entire device space to use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top