2020 AZ Billiards Straight Pool Challenge!

Shuddy

Diamond Dave’s babysitter
Silver Member
Very nice. Could you tell us a little about your table?

Thanks, and sure. It’s a Korean table by the brand Min. The corners are 4.25”. The cloth is also by Min, called Takini. They pretty much own the serious club market in Korea. As I switched to pool from snooker when I moved here, I can’t compare them to any other table. I bought the table second hand, and compared to other Min tables in Korea, the pockets are noticeable tighter. I think Min tables are usually 4.5”, so I’ve no idea how mine ended up at 4.25”, but I’m glad they are. Oh, it’s 9 foot, and 3 piece slate. 3 cushion and 4 ball are the main cuesports here, and the table was installed by carom table mechanics.
 

sparkle84

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
74 on Feb 11.

https://youtu.be/ZTWu0hlzvUI

Excuse the sniffling and coughing. I’m recovering from influenza. This was my first real go at the table in a month.

By the way, I live on a small island in South Korea. No one plays 14.1 here, and I only started playing last year around October, so I have no one to learn from or get feedback. If anyone has the patience to watch my video, please leave advice, suggestions, things I could have done differently. I really wanted to make a hundred in January but got super sick and ended up in hospital. Super keen to learn anything that will improve my 14.1 game and help me knock in a century.

I'll give you a little feedback on your run and 14.1 game in general.
First off, the good things. You stay down really well on shots, little,if any body or head movement. Seem to hit breakshots well, at least the few in the video. Good speed and control (on breakshots) for the most part. Stroke is good, with a caveat. Is it good enough to run a hundred? Possibly. Is it good enough to consistently run big numbers? Probably not. I'll elaborate on that a little later.
Before going into ways to improve I'd ask you a question. Or actually I'll take a guess about something and you can confirm or deny it's validity. My observation is based on what I saw you doing in that run. I realize you may be a little rusty due to lack of play.

If you've been conducting regular practice sessions of 14.1 my guess is that during a normal session your high run falls somewhere in the 30-50 range. Might do it a couple times but in general that's an average session. If that's accurate then I can probably help you improve those numbers.
What do "you" think are the reasons you're stuck in that range? ( if you are) The reasons are different from player to player. Give me your ideas on that and if you're interested I'll try to help you.
 

Shuddy

Diamond Dave’s babysitter
Silver Member
I'll give you a little feedback on your run and 14.1 game in general.
First off, the good things. You stay down really well on shots, little,if any body or head movement. Seem to hit breakshots well, at least the few in the video. Good speed and control (on breakshots) for the most part. Stroke is good, with a caveat. Is it good enough to run a hundred? Possibly. Is it good enough to consistently run big numbers? Probably not. I'll elaborate on that a little later.
Before going into ways to improve I'd ask you a question. Or actually I'll take a guess about something and you can confirm or deny it's validity. My observation is based on what I saw you doing in that run. I realize you may be a little rusty due to lack of play.

If you've been conducting regular practice sessions of 14.1 my guess is that during a normal session your high run falls somewhere in the 30-50 range. Might do it a couple times but in general that's an average session. If that's accurate then I can probably help you improve those numbers.
What do "you" think are the reasons you're stuck in that range? ( if you are) The reasons are different from player to player. Give me your ideas on that and if you're interested I'll try to help you.

Yup! That’s accurate.

Reasons for being stuck in that range: I rarely break down due to missing a pot. I break down on low runs due to concentration; I don’t seem to get serious about the run until I’ve cleared a few racks. Most of my higher runs break down soon after the break shot. You know, bad position on the break ball, only a few balls come out and I fail at getting a secondary break shot with the few balls available, or land on nothing at all. I know I can improve a lot on getting on the the break ball. Maybe I need to focus more on a good key ball. I think in general sometimes I don’t play specific enough position. Until October last year, my whole pool background was exclusively 9 ball, so I think I often just assume I”m going to land on a ball due to there being so many options as compared to rotation games.

Interested to hear feedback on my stroke. I come from a snooker background, and my fundamentals have deteriorated slightly since I started playing pool, but I feel like I have a pretty good cue action.

EDIT: It would be probably be really interesting to make a compilation video of a bunch of sequences leading to failed break shots, and get feedback on that.
 
Last edited:

sparkle84

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Yup! That’s accurate.

Reasons for being stuck in that range: I rarely break down due to missing a pot. I break down on low runs due to concentration; I don’t seem to get serious about the run until I’ve cleared a few racks. Most of my higher runs break down soon after the break shot. You know, bad position on the break ball, only a few balls come out and I fail at getting a secondary break shot with the few balls available, or land on nothing at all. I know I can improve a lot on getting on the the break ball. Maybe I need to focus more on a good key ball. I think in general sometimes I don’t play specific enough position. Until October last year, my whole pool background was exclusively 9 ball, so I think I often just assume I”m going to land on a ball due to there being so many options as compared to rotation games.

Interested to hear feedback on my stroke. I come from a snooker background, and my fundamentals have deteriorated slightly since I started playing pool, but I feel like I have a pretty good cue action.

EDIT: It would be probably be really interesting to make a compilation video of a bunch of sequences leading to failed break shots, and get feedback on that.

Okay, you're thinking about what's going wrong and what you need to do. That puts you way out in front of a lot of people playing this game.
You put forth reasons, all of which are relevant except that they need to be extended out and expanded upon. In a nutshell, I don't think there's any question that you have the skills but the roadblock here is largely in your thought process.
Let's talk about 9ball as it relates to 14.1 because this is a big, big part of the problem for a lot of people. There are 2 major differences
in the 2 games. As you mentioned, position play, it has to be much more precise. People laugh at that. They think because you can shoot any ball
then your position's not that important. Well, that might be true if you want to run 10 balls or so but if you want to run a lot of balls it's a completely different story. That's one difference.
The other, IMO, is way more important. Which ball do you shoot? In 9B it's preordained, you have to shoot the 2 after the 1, etc, etc. What does that do to a players development? You shoot ball after ball without having to make a decision. This doesn't bode well for developing and refining either decision making or creativity. You've heard the saying "It's more of an art than a science" well, very refined decision making and superior creativity are what 14.1 is all about. That's what the "art" consists of.
Back to your situation. I'm going to list what you need to do to get that hundred. Some could flip flop but they're mostly in order of importance.
I'm running short on time so I'm just going to list them but not elaborate or give any info on how best to integrate changes in your game or give examples from the video. You'll have some time to think about them and come to your own conclusions. I'll get back with more detail in a few days.

1) Shot selection--Right now it's it's in the fair-good range. Needs to be very good-excellent. Question for you: What is the primary factor dictating shot selection? This will help you immensely.
2) Pay more attention to angles--This is extremely important.
3) Control of CB direction off object balls need work-- this is likely stroke related.
4) Get same or slightly better CB movement with less speed-- also stroke related

Don't get me wrong here, I think your stroke is good. Without actually playing on that table and feeling the speed for myself, I'm guessing.
It's difficult to judge just watching the video.
I just have the feeling you can improve somewhat with:

A little shorter backswing (on most shots)
Smoother acceleration into and through the CB
More precise tip placement
 

Shuddy

Diamond Dave’s babysitter
Silver Member
Okay, you're thinking about what's going wrong and what you need to do. That puts you way out in front of a lot of people playing this game.
You put forth reasons, all of which are relevant except that they need to be extended out and expanded upon. In a nutshell, I don't think there's any question that you have the skills but the roadblock here is largely in your thought process.

.....
.....
.....

A little shorter backswing (on most shots)
Smoother acceleration into and through the CB
More precise tip placement

Edited quote for brevity.

As much as I’d love to, I’m not going to discuss the details of your advice as I’m starting to feel like I’ve hijacked the thread. However:

Awesome! Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback. There’s lots to think about here. Perhaps I need to make a little list and focus on one thing each session for a while.

I now realise I should probably make a specific feedback thread as this could easily cloud the readability of the high run thread. Apologies for the hijack.
 

JusticeNJ

Four Points/Steel Joints
Silver Member
On the board with 48! Dogged a totally makeable break ball to end the run. Working on a film set up - wanna get a GoPro for cycling and hiking, figure I can use it for this too.
 

Shuddy

Diamond Dave’s babysitter
Silver Member
On the board with 48! Dogged a totally makeable break ball to end the run. Working on a film set up - wanna get a GoPro for cycling and hiking, figure I can use it for this too.

I use a GoPro. I have it permanently mounted on a window using one of those suction cup mounts. I just removed the battery and leave it plugged in for power. Very convenient. If you get the 7 or 8 you can stream with it, too. Though the default streaming options aren’t very robust. While filming billiards, remember to set it to linear to auto correct the wide angle distortion, otherwise you’ll end up with a novelty table that has curved rails.

Whenever I start playing I just reach up and hit the record button. The GoPro app on your phone or tablet is easy to start up and adjust settings, including clearing your memory card and downloading clips to edit, etc. \

All that plus the advantage of having an awesome action/general purpose camera. I’ve rarely used it for anything other than billiards and still feel it was money well spent.
 

JusticeNJ

Four Points/Steel Joints
Silver Member
I use a GoPro. I have it permanently mounted on a window using one of those suction cup mounts. I just removed the battery and leave it plugged in for power. Very convenient. If you get the 7 or 8 you can stream with it, too. Though the default streaming options aren’t very robust. While filming billiards, remember to set it to linear to auto correct the wide angle distortion, otherwise you’ll end up with a novelty table that has curved rails.

Whenever I start playing I just reach up and hit the record button. The GoPro app on your phone or tablet is easy to start up and adjust settings, including clearing your memory card and downloading clips to edit, etc. \

All that plus the advantage of having an awesome action/general purpose camera. I’ve rarely used it for anything other than billiards and still feel it was money well spent.

Thanks man - appreciate the advice. Especially about the linear mode to avoid the fish eye effect. Your video looks great - great shooting too.
 
Last edited:

stevekur1

The "COMMISH"
Silver Member
ran an 85 yesterday 2/16/20 in a game, last rack was a nightmare where everything went wrong. couldn't get a leash on the cueball and nothing made sense. think it was weighing on my mind that i may eclipse 100 in a game !
 

BayGene

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Edging up

Scratched out a 31. Went to clean up the foot rail when I had a hanger in the center pocket which I thought was an insurance ball. Snookered in the traffic, blew a combo.
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Had a 42 ball run last night on our 4-1/8" corner pocket 9-foot table. It's the longest run I can remember having on this tight pocket table in over a year, which is encouraging. Unfortunately I missed a perfectly set up break shot to continue the run.
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I start to get frustrated.. ran around 10 times 50+ but can´t get over 60 somehow. Last 4 tries all were 55 or 54.. sick sick..
3 more tries and I am done for awhile.
Way too much of a coincidence there. That has got to be a mental wall you need to break through!
 

Positively Ralf

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
6 yesterday on a practice night. I'll eventually hit 10 once in my life, hopefully soon.

The good thing about yesterday, even though it was on a dirty table with awful balls, I am recognizing to go for the higher percentage shots more often. And I'm starting to see patterns better. I'm not seeing four or five balls ahead, but I am playing it completely safe which is fine by me.
 

stevekur1

The "COMMISH"
Silver Member
86 last night 3/5/20, had to make a ridiculous shot after a breakshot. let the cueball loose. cue ball ended up in a weird spot after cueball had ran into several balls. ended up missing a very makeable combo. i did have other tougher shots, but i felt this combo solved a problem on the table that i wouldnt have to play position for again.

Oh Well, back to the drawing board.
 
Top