Practicing via Feel Only

mr3cushion said:
Obviously, You don't know too much about the History of the progression of the 'Small games to 3C' in the US from the 1900's-40's!

In 63 I started with 'Straight rail' then on to 18.2 Balkline for about 2-21/2 years with some 3C mixed in! Practicing 4-5 hrs. a day.

I was taught by Men who played during the 'Golden Era of 'Billiards' in the US!

High run in 'Free' game is 447, 18.2 is 79.
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You are the history of the progression of small games in the US?
 

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Americans don’t like being bad at something for a long time before they get good at it, lack of patience. So they just jump right to the hardest version and then egoize themselves before they even know the basics.
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Not true in the past. The problem now is, generally you're lucky if there's a billiard table, period, within driving distance of you. Never mind having different types of tables and the whole infrastructure to support this graduation through various steps. Maybe it's changing a little bit now, especially in bigger cities, I doubt it's that dramatic, though.

I knew somebody that played in a hall that had one billiard table, in NY state. They had a bunch of players. Place closed up and that was it, literally game over for all of them.
 
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For three rail shots I feel how much object ball I need to take. When OB and cb are parallel to rail about 1 1/2 diamond from long rail, To get to the corner I hit about 1/3 object ball with 4:30 English 30 percent from center.
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Maybe I don't get it. You're saying if the OB and CB are parallel to the rail, about 1 1/2 diamonds from the long rail, anywhere up and down the long rail you hit exactly the same ball hit and english and you always get to the corner? Or you're saying it's all pure feel?
 
Americans don’t like being bad at something for a long time before they get good at it, lack of patience. So they just jump right to the hardest version and then egoize themselves before they even know the basics.
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I'm also curious, since Bert posts here, how things are in Europe these days. I've heard things like it's considered an old fart's game there. Which is weird because the game almost died out entirely in the US and now it's undergoing a little bit of a renaissance and when it shows up on Reddit or something even the young pool players think it's cool as hell. But I don't think it's thriving among the youth in Europe generally. Does that same track still exist?

2017/12 - The mystery that is Belgium - Carompedia

Let’s say you are a 3-cushion enthusiast from Qatar, Uzbekistan, New Zealand or Ghana. You are...
carompedia.com carompedia.com
 
Moe Szyslak said:
I'm also curious, since Bert posts here, how things are in Europe these days. I've heard things like it's considered an old fart's game there. Which is weird because the game almost died out entirely in the US and now it's undergoing a little bit of a renaissance and when it shows up on Reddit or something even the young pool players think it's cool as hell. But I don't think it's thriving among the youth in Europe generally. Does that same track still exist?

2017/12 - The mystery that is Belgium - Carompedia

Let’s say you are a 3-cushion enthusiast from Qatar, Uzbekistan, New Zealand or Ghana. You are...
carompedia.com carompedia.com
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Not a lot has changed in the Low Countries since I wrote that column about Belgium eight years ago. The classic disciplines still exist, but they are on life support. It's sad really, because there is such delicate beauty in balkline and one-cushion. I grew up in 18/2 and have never regretted those years.
 
Moe Szyslak said:
Maybe I don't get it. You're saying if the OB and CB are parallel to the rail, about 1 1/2 diamonds from the long rail, anywhere up and down the long rail you hit exactly the same ball hit and english and you always get to the corner? Or you're saying it's all pure feel?
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about mid table I hit like how I said. If it is lower to the end rail near the third ball, I have to adjust to avoid the kiss after the second ball banks once on the opposite long rail. If it is further nearer the far short rail, I also adjust for the immediate kiss. A lot of the time the second ball ends up in a good position for another three railer.

But yes, to do this I have no real system, it is all by feel, using speed, English, ball amount, and sometimes cue elevation. When I try to use diamonds I usually end up screwing things up, but that could just be from lack of practice utilizing them. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to play both ways.

Here is an old example. I lost a lot of points due to kisses but still managed a 1 average. This was all by feel.

 
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nataddrho said:
There is a huge amount of information available regarding systems based off of diamonds, which are absolute positional markers on the table. Sang Lee, and a few other high level players have mentioned that systems are kind of a crutch. Have any of you tried to approach practicing the game more organically? For example the things that I am focusing on are.
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I have had dinner with Sang, Lee at a 3-Cushion National Championship at the Tacoma Elks Lodge. He is a great guy, how do you know him?
nataddrho said:
  1. Practicing the quality of follow shots, making sure the cue is level at the maximum height or even tilted slightly upwards. This seems to help a lot with consistency, and it is a very subtle skill to develop.
  2. Practicing hitting ball fractions exactly from anywhere on the table, and recognizing that you actually did in fact hit the correct fraction. I am currently down to 1/3, 1/4, 1/5. 1/6th are quite hard but achievable.
  3. Ensuring that your tip hits the cue ball exactly where your brain intends it to, and the cue continues in a straight line, (slightly upwards if follow, level if center, down into the table if draw)
  4. Watching a tremendous number of matches to make your shot selection match that of pros
  5. Feeling kiss situations and making adjustments necessary
  6. Really working hard on your pre-shot routine so that it becomes carved in stone. For example
    1. Look at table
    2. Choose correct shot based off of knowledge
    3. Run your mental simulator over and over again until your brain gives you the ball-fraction-tip-location combination for that shot
    4. Taking care to set up and align each shot, and then execute precisely
When I do all of these things, I play very well, and it gives me a lot of confidence that my mental simulator CAN solve these problems, which even surprises me sometimes of some of the shots I attempt and actually make with deliberation. The challenge is to keep the mental simulator from getting worn out and losing focus, which I suppose is the ultimate challenge of this game.

I definitely do need to practice a small number diamond systems to help with mental shortcuts and saving brain power, but I am not convinced that I should be spending a huge amount of energy on numerical systems compared to functional skill development.

What are your thoughts?
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