Can anyone run 100 with enough practice?

Brian,


You have a great positive attitude an that's gonna take you a long ways towards reaching your goal.

You have made a real good choice with reading " play your best straight pool" Phil capelle just recently released a book/DVD combo called "Breakshot Patterns" it will be a great help as well. There is a thread about it here in the 14.1 forum if you look back a few pages I am sure you'll find it.

You're putting in a good amount of practice now from what it seems, I think all that is missing is the knowledge and that will come if you let it.

Keep it up, I look forward to reading about you progress !

Steve

Can anyone run a 100 with enough practice? NO.
Can you run a 100 with enough practice? Maybe.

You have had runs that get into the third rack which says you are doing some things right. However going from running 50 to a 100 is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I practice a couple of hours a day about 5 days a week. I video everything. In the last 3 years I have run over 50 286 times. Of those 286 only 5 have been over 100. Set you goal at 50 first.

You are quite a bit younger than me, I didn't run my first 100 until I was 54. I did have a little advantage as I am best friends with John Schmidt.

Practice, watch videos of good straight pool players, take a couple of lessons from a well known straight pool player and you might just get there. Keep us posted on you progress.

-Bill

skierlawyer said:

More specifically can I run 100 with enough practice and coaching? My current high run is 35, and I am able to run 20-25 occasionally. I currently play about 3 nights a week for about 2-4 hours at a time. I'm usually playing friends or in a straight pool league. I play straight pool or 9-ball mostly. I am reading "Play your best straight pool" and find it very informative. What would it take to get to the 100 ball run level? How many hours per week of practice would you think I need to put in?

I started playing pool when I was 12 years old, and I'm 36 now. When I was 17 years old I was playing everyday for many hours and getting better and better, that was when I ran my 35. Actually I ran 35 missed and ran another 35, so I like to say my high run is 70 with one miss. It was during a 100 point game for $. Then I went away to collage and pool became secondary. I stopped playing altogether for many years. I started back up playing a little a few years ago, but recently I've been playing more. I find myself with free time to play now and want to know the best way to improve.

Now I play but don't practice. My goal is to get back to my former level of play and then progress to the next level.

I am going to begin practicing in addition to playing, and am considering taking some lessons. Is running 100 an achievable goal? Any advice? How many days or hours per week should I dedicate? How many months or years of practice might it take to reach my goal? Might it never happen?

Thanks for reading my ramble and I look forward to reading your response.
Brian

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Learn to play straight pool RIGHT. That is, become obsessive about leaving key balls, insurance balls, planing your end patterns etc. It's fun to watch great players power through the racks ignoring straight pool conventions, but they're relying very much on their talent to get them through, and even they can't be as consistent as their colleagues who practice proper straight pool.

Work hard on perfecting your mechanics. You may be shooting primarily easy shots, but repeatable fundamentals will ensure that you miss fewer and fewer of the easy ones which is where most people end their runs.

I've mentioned this before but, one way to see what you are capable of running is to spread all the balls on the table with no trouble areas. Run as many racks as you can and see what you can do on a regular basis. The point of the exercise is that you don't need to worry about breaking out clusters and setting up break shots (the stuff that makes 14.1 tricky), so you can get an idea of what you are capable of from a shotmaking and basic cue ball control standpoint. If you're goal is to run 50 for example, and you only manage 40 while tossing the balls on the table, it means you need to work on your fundamentals. If on the other hand you are consistently running a lot more than 50, you clearly need to place extra attention on patterns, breaks shots, clusters, insurance etc.

hey Bill this is david roberts friend im trying to run 100 as well my high run is 72 next was 70 but a lot of low scores what do u recommend i do to reach that level? also i would like to try the straight pool challenge at derby. any help will be appeciated thx

skierlawyer said:

More specifically can I run 100 with enough practice and coaching? My current high run is 35, and I am able to run 20-25 occasionally. I currently play about 3 nights a week for about 2-4 hours at a time. I'm usually playing friends or in a straight pool league. I play straight pool or 9-ball mostly. I am reading "Play your best straight pool" and find it very informative. What would it take to get to the 100 ball run level? How many hours per week of practice would you think I need to put in?

I started playing pool when I was 12 years old, and I'm 36 now. When I was 17 years old I was playing everyday for many hours and getting better and better, that was when I ran my 35. Actually I ran 35 missed and ran another 35, so I like to say my high run is 70 with one miss. It was during a 100 point game for $. Then I went away to collage and pool became secondary. I stopped playing altogether for many years. I started back up playing a little a few years ago, but recently I've been playing more. I find myself with free time to play now and want to know the best way to improve.

Now I play but don't practice. My goal is to get back to my former level of play and then progress to the next level.

I am going to begin practicing in addition to playing, and am considering taking some lessons. Is running 100 an achievable goal? Any advice? How many days or hours per week should I dedicate? How many months or years of practice might it take to reach my goal? Might it never happen?

Thanks for reading my ramble and I look forward to reading your response.
Brian

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sounds like you play about how i do. i dedicated a few months to 14.1 and ran a very solid 64 one day. if you stick to it you'll get to the century mark no doubt. basically anyone that can run 2 racks together can get to 100.

get grady's key balls and break shots and youll reach 100 quicker then you would without. get some 14.1 videos to help you learn the patterns

where can i find that book poolplayer?

Grady's Key Balls and Breakshots is a video, check accu-stats maybe they have it !!!

-Steve

bhambomber said:

where can i find that book poolplayer?

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it's a video. a little hard to find but worth it

ok thanks guys

100

Skierlawyer,

Your experiences parallel mine quite closely. Started learning the game at 13. Played primarily straight pool for 5 years - and played A LOT of pool during that period of my life - and then the world changed to 9-ball. But I had a high run of 76 when I was 18. After falling in and out of the sport for 22 years - playing 9-ball exclusively, I've rededicated myself to playing straight pool and learning how to play it correctly. It's been about 3 years since I stepped it up and started playing more regularly and I've had runs of 80, 72, 70 and over a dozen in the 60's. So yeah, I'd say it's possible if you dedicate yourself to learning how to play the game correctly to run 100. But don't focus too much on that number or you'll die of a heart attack the first time you get into the 90's!

There is a ton of good advice and suggestions in this thread. Grady's video on break shots and key balls has helped me a lot as has Rempe's video How To Run A Rack In Straight Pool and How To Run 100 Balls In Straight Pool. Great resources!

Another thing to consider is who will you be playing with primarily. It's more common to reach higher run numbers if you're being pushed by a better player than it is if you're playing opponents who aren't experienced enough to run many balls. You end up lowering your game to their level because there's no challenge and typically this invites lazy play (mistakes) and bad habits.

You're still young, have your eyesight and have the energy to play 8, 10, 12 hours at a time. There's no better time than the present to stop wondering if it could happen and get out there and make it happen. Just don't fixate on a number - or, if you do, make that number 527 and you'll get to 100 in no time.

Good Luck,
Ron F

Marop said:

In the last 3 years I have run over 50 286 times. Of those 286 only 5 have been over 100. Set you goal at 50 first.

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That's a very interesting, and surprising, statistic. Could you explain, at least in general terms, what kinds of things happen to end your runs? Is there one specific kind of thing that stands out above the others?

Dan White said:

That's a very interesting, and surprising, statistic. Could you explain, at least in general terms, what kinds of things happen to end your runs? Is there one specific kind of thing that stands out above the others?

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Won't speak for Marop, he's a very good player, better than me. But one of the things from my experience that makes it difficult to get from 50 to 100 is getting trapped. Sometimes it's tough to avoid but often times I think to myself I should have seen that coming.

Dan White said:

That's a very interesting, and surprising, statistic. Could you explain, at least in general terms, what kinds of things happen to end your runs? Is there one specific kind of thing that stands out above the others?

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In my opinion It s even much more interesting how MANY runs he made between ´80- 99 over a short time. Marop is in my opinion not just *good*. He s a f....ng great straight-pooler. He has all you need to be one- the right attitude, the knowledge, a great consistent pace and he enjoys the game,

lg from overseas

Ingo

It always seemed to me that a lot of players play very good position, but when it comes to opening clusters, they just plow through them and leave it to chance that they will get a shot. Of course there are times when you don't have much choice but to do that, but I wonder if breaking clusters more softly and with much higher predictability is the better way to go. You don't get everything open at once, but you pretty much assure you will keep shooting. Of course saying it and executing it are two different things.

That reminds me -- I know of one very good player who tends to slam into clusters with center ball. After he freezes the cue ball to something in the cluster, he invariably complains about the high humidity. He's quite knowledgeable otherwise so I don't get why he doesn't see what is happening.

Dan White said:

That's a very interesting, and surprising, statistic. Could you explain, at least in general terms, what kinds of things happen to end your runs? Is there one specific kind of thing that stands out above the others?

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This statistic isn't as surprising as you may think. John Schmidt has run 100 over a 1000 times, over 200 89 times and over 400 2 times. I believe Steve Lipsky has run over 100 a few hundred times but only over 200 one time. How many people have run 2 racks but have never been close to 50? Everyone seems to have a comfort zone that they reach, mine is around 70, after that I get a little tight and make some mistakes that I wouldn't normally make.

John made me go over a couple hundred runs of mine and document how they ended. Very few ended on a stupid miss. Most ended on poor position play resulting in having to shoot a hard shot or poor decision making (shooting the wrong shot at a crucial time) which lead to having to shoot a hard shot, getting tied up or having no shot at all.

Bill

poolplayer2093 said:

... basically anyone that can run 2 racks together can get to 100. ...

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No, I don't think that's right. Someone might run 28 by coming to a table that has been blasted wide open by the opponent's missed break shot. So you run off those 14 balls successfully, get a break shot (perhaps even "slopping" into good position for it), make that one break shot, run the 14 balls off again, then miss.

Successfully running the table and making break shots at least 7 times in a row is exponentially more difficult and something that many tens of thousands of 14.1 players have never been able to do in a lifetime of playing, even though they run 20's or 30's with some regularity.

I certainly wish you well in your quest. You've gotten lots of good advice in this thread. Many people have done it; you may become one of them.

AtLarge said:

No, I don't think that's right. Someone might run 28 by coming to a table that has been blasted wide open by the opponent's missed break shot. So you run off those 14 balls successfully, get a break shot (perhaps even "slopping" into good position for it), make that one break shot, run the 14 balls off again, then miss.

Successfully running the table and making break shots at least 7 times in a row is exponentially more difficult and something that many tens of thousands of 14.1 players have never been able to do in a lifetime of playing, even though they run 20's or 30's with some regularity.

I certainly wish you well in your quest. You've gotten lots of good advice in this thread. Many people have done it; you may become one of them.

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if you can make it into the next rack there's no reason why you can't keep going. the next rack is no different than the one you just finished. pick your patterns and execute the plan