I think you kind of succeeded in hammering home The JV's point.
Well hammer it some more why don't you?
Please continue.
I think you kind of succeeded in hammering home The JV's point.
Game quality does not matter if it is longer race. like race to 15 or 20. Then it shows probably average play. Maybe you can put rough estimate how well you played. Like little better or worse than normal etc..Yeah....my game went to crap for a while as I really didn't play/practice much from summer through fall. Then with covid shutting things down, I decided to make a pretty major change to my game. But now .... things are clicking back into place. So I'll commit to posting a 10 ball ghost video within the next week or so. And not one of those precious selected, lightening strikes videos where I look perfect. I'll show my flaws.
Gotcha.Game quality does not matter if it is longer race. like race to 15 or 20. Then it shows probably average play. Maybe you can put rough estimate how well you played. Like little better or worse than normal etc..
And 10 ball is better than 9-ball because you need to make more balls after break. Patterns get little more complicated then.
I sense we love pool for all the same reasons.To somewhat borrow your phrase:
This post has to be among the more beautifully written ones I've ever read on this forum.
It really is all about the joy that comes from stepping out and taking the journey.
Thanks for chiming in.
Maybe more importantly, does he have any heart?Tin Man, when you play 1-P do you carry an oil can just in case?
help me....please...
Jeff Livingston
Okay - you're winning me over a bit. But I don't want to be accused of taking part in a deceptive marketing ploy here, so I refuse to be completely won over. I had a chance to get out last night and play on a tight 9 foot Diamond which doesn't happen much for me. It was pretty friendly play but there was enough at stake that we were playing seriously. My opponent was a 625 or so player, playing on his home turf. I spot him a few games in a race to 9 (and I like it). Anyway, I was a bit distracted mentally, actually by this thread but not really in a bad way. Due to this thread while playing, I was probably paying closer attention to what he was doing than what I was. I'm 100% convinced that this player would benefit tremendously from your camp and the example cited in your post reminds me of a shot I saw him do wrong 3 times during our play. He was playing a fairly easy shot near one of the corner pockets with a bit of an angle, having to hold the cue ball near the end rail for the next ball. So how'd he play it? He slow rolled this shot with high inside english and spun it over to the side rail. It didn't work very well. I think he only managed to get a reasonable shot on the next ball once. So he has a blind spot here where he doesn't understand that he can really spin this ball way more by playing low inside english. He could have easily held his cue ball on these shots. But by playing high english he's made these shots nearly impossible.OK, having just completed a 12 hour session yesterday and gearing up for a 3 day kicking off shortly I have new words. What I've already said is that I am not expert level at patterns/cue ball, I am in a class almost of my own. It sounds absurd to write but it is what it is. But what's amazing about pool training is there is so much more that goes into it than patterns and cue ball. The cooking example was the nuts. There is so much that goes into pool and it has to be blended together just so.
Yesterday when I was working with my student we were focused on some patterns and cue ball, for sure. We wanted to assemble certain shots certain ways to complete some of the runs that came up. But in order to be successful we had to iron out so many little gaps in his technique and his knowledge. I'm only going to pick one example (see diagram). He had a cut across the end rail from a half ball hit angle. The situation demanded a rolling cue ball with outside english to come straight towards the spot.
He was shooting this with slightly too much elevation, and he was using a center left. Now this can work, yet it's not optimal. The problem is the cue ball curves coming towards the one ball. Not only does it make the shot way more difficult to judge, but it means that you are approaching the one ball from a thinner angle making it harder to control the cue ball speed while still confidently making the shot.
To help him level out I had him go from straight left (9 o'clock on the cue ball) to high left (10:30). Why? Well, we don't need above center to get the cue ball rolling naturally. That happens automatically at this soft swing speed due to the table friction. That's the entire reason we're using a spin shot and not a stun shot (the stun requires more swing speed to ensure a sliding cue ball and this would send the cue ball too far up table). The only purpose of hitting the cue ball higher was this allowed a more level cue stick. This in turn minimized the swerve, which allowed him to shoot straighter with a hair more swing speed. He went from over-twisting and overcutting this ball and struggling with consistency to smoothing it in and making it routinely. (FYI, I have seen many people make another mistake with this, they try to use a 'drag shot' with outside to help make up for the fact they are hitting it uncomfortably soft, this just enhances the curve and makes it worse in my opinion. Maybe that makes sense from long distance but not here.)
This didn't happen once. This didn't happen twice. This happens all day long. And this happens continuously, hour after hour, day after day, with all of my students. There are perpetually multiple small nuances and adjustments that come up on all types of shots. Little ways to make the shot more consistently, control speed more consistently, control direction more consistently, and make the target zones bigger or with more gradual negative consequences for slight misses. I will stop at one example because the alternative would be to write a book.
My approach is simple. It's like learning to read. I have the alphabet of which shots I believe are the 95% shots we should be using to run tables (700 and under players are using 1-3 shots in the 75% range per rack, making consistency with run outs nearly impossible). Then I have a way of reading tables to understand how to compose these shots into run outs. This is simple but amazingly rich. We start with simple patterns (like learning 3 letter words). Then we go to more challenging layouts. Then we are running out ghost 9 ball racks with random layouts. Along the way I am filling in countless gaps in knowledge and technique that must be corrected to learn how to optimize each of these shots. And finally we are doing the same thing on safeties, kicks, breaks, jumps, mental game, goal setting, and everything else required to be pro level. We do this for 3 days straight, 24 hours on the table (which is often 30+), with this person staying at my house, taking meals together, and obsessing with pool the entire time. This isn't a lesson, it's a transformation. There's a reason my first student called it a 'poolgrimage', and my second said 'total pool immersion'.
Bottom line, if someone's production isn't at my level it's because I have pieces developed that person doesn't. The idea that they have developed all of the pieces but just need to practice them more is impossibly far fetched. For one I don't do anything all that special on the execution side. I'm not like Filler or Shaw where people shake their heads and say "I can't do that". I'm more in the style of Ralf Soquet where you can watch him for an hour and never see him do anything you can't do, but somehow he puts it together at an elite level. So it's not that I'm incredibly gifted with execution. And the second reason is that the amount of table time required to have learned and developed the understanding of the game I have will simply force anyone to become a competent player. Someone would need 25,000 hours of table time (and yes, watching thousands of matches, competing with pros, etc) to acquire my vision of the game, and if they had then they'd be able to execute as well as me. And yes, I hear the people snickering about how I admit I've put a ton of time in my game, and they are saying "See, you just need to put in hours, instruction alone won't get you there". What is it with you people who say that? Of course you have to put in the time, but you have to put in the time doing it right. It's not one or the other, it's both, and instruction allows you to get 3x more out of what you put in so you can get further with the limited resources of time and energy we all have.
No oil can. No heart. Just pool. This is Ames, mister.
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It takes time to make that video. I would appreciate watching it and listening to the critiques. Thanks in advance for sharing your video.Yeah....my game went to crap for a while as I really didn't play/practice much from summer through fall. Then with covid shutting things down, I decided to make a pretty major change to my game. But now .... things are clicking back into place. So I'll commit to posting a 10 ball ghost video within the next week or so. And not one of those precious selected, lightening strikes videos where I look perfect. I'll show my flaws.