Marop asked for it so here it is

I'll offer 3 comments although I'm far from Marop's equal.

1) You seem to take some shots for granted. On occasion, you're practically back vertical & walking to your next shot before the tip CB has hit the OB. Stay down & approach each shot with care.

2) Don't fear the angle. You're taking the safe position on break shots. Give yourself a little more angle to ensure you get some energy into the stack. Your break speed is very nice though.

3) Don't needlessly bump balls around. You nudged a clump of balls when you didn't need to only to create another little clump. Plus it left you under the stack with a dwindling number of options.

I would have tried the shot in the side.

Good Work

I enjoyed watching your run. Thanks for posting.
First of all, going into that 3rd rack. You are not allowed to place a ball on the table to see if you have enough lead way to make a shot or to get the correct angle.
You have a good stroke when you do stroke..... and have a good eye for shot making. The main thing that I can see is that you are playing way too fast. I am also a fast player and I am working on slowing my game down a hair but you need to slow your game down a whole head of hairs.
Now, I realize that you do not want to take yourself out of rhythm but you do need to take it back a whole bunch.
In the first rack. There were some shots that you took as you were bending down into your stance. You were shooting at the same time as going down to set up. It appeared that you were upset with yourself during your first three shots by the way you picked up the chalk off the table. Work on calming yourself down. Try not to let rolls trouble you, they happen. Shoot your way out of the trouble shots & get back on track.
In the 2nd rack. You did slow up b/c the lay out on the table was tough. You worked yourself around the problems and picked off balls as you should have. You looked a whole bunch better taking your time and working on that rack.
The 3rd rack, the hard cut shot that you missed was makable. You were in a tough spot but the shot that you took before getting stuck was good, breaking up the cluster. The cue ball just ended up in a bad place. It happens to all players, from Pros to beginners. Try to work on trying to figure out where the cue ball might end up and trying to pick out a ball in the cluster that you might have a shot on. Sometimes it is inpossible but many times you can figure it out.
I enjoyed watching and I hope my comments help. Good luck in your up coming tournament. Let us know how your practices are coming along.

awesome job! wish i could pocket balls like that!I was surprised someone as good as you are hits the balls so hard...im always being told to hit softer. Is there a reason you do that or is it just how you shoot? I also noticed you don't really stroke when you go to shoot. Another thing i only point out because i am always being told to make sure i stroke. Hope you don't mind me pointing that out i am still learning and just curious when i actually see peoples videos.
Great job on your run! I hope to see another one soon!

Nice run. Enjoyed watching it very much. Have you ever considered competitive speed pool? You look very confident in your shot making. Go with your strengths. Might wind up on ESPN4 at 2AM on Tuesday if you speed it up a notch. Good shooting.

You shoot very well. I personally don't think you need to slow down all that much, I believe that is your pace of play and trying to alter that might hurt more than help. As your runs get longer (and they will) you will automatically slow down. My pace of play is much faster in the first two racks than the last two (maybe thats why the run ends, lol). I have nothing negative to say about your play, you just need more practice time to fine tune your patterns.

You played the correct pattern in that last rack, you just got a bad roll off of that secondary breakshot.

If John coached you thru a run you would run a hundred. I've seen him do it with people that shoot as straight as you do.

Keep practicing and post that 50 ball run that will come next week.

Bill

Thanks for the video. Good shooting. If I may comment, I think you could hit the balls a tad softer with a more specific destination for the CB.

I think if you looked at the table layout on that last shot you would have seen a nice 80% make shot in the lower left corner as we view the video. It was an easy carom shot with a touch of left draw into what looked like either the 3 or 7 ball. I thought for sure you were going to shoot that one.

center pocket: you have good shot-making but are making a ton of mistakes. i just began watching your first two shots and already have suggestions.

like others have said; you are moving the cue around the table bumping balls, hoping for position. you did that in the first shot off the first rack. then, you recklessly went into that cluster with your second shot, on the ball in the corner when you had a nice opportunity to get behind the rack and use that 2ball(?) at the base of the cluster to GENTLY open them up, using the stripped ball and the rail balls as insurance. had you hit your first shot softly, you could have easily gotten on one of the rail balls or a shot in the side to get straight on that corner pocket shot for a soft break on that cluster.

You asked for comments

center pocket said:

Thanks Bill,

Your words have definitely lit a fire under my ass!!! Honestly I am disgusted at how I play straight pool. I can put packages together in nine ball but cant break 50 in straight pool. I am just glad that someone saw something positive in the video.

I will get another video up with in the week, my biggest struggle is getting into the fourth rack.

Maybe I should offer John a grand to come to my house for a weekend to give me a couple days of lessons. I would cover his plane ticket as well.

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Center Pocket, in your first post you asked for opinions of your weaknesses. Everyone here has pointed out the same facts, except one person and I can not figure out what video he watched.
You stated that it is nice to get some positive feed back from him. I do believe that everyone stated something positive to you in their comments.
Here is mine (You have a good stroke when you do stroke..... and have a good eye for shot making.) from my first comment. I hope that I did not hurt anyones feelings but we all are trying to help each other and you did ask for help.

Good

center pocket said:

I know straight man, it can be hard to take criticism. I did ask for the bad stuff, not what I was doing right. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I will get another run on youtube thats around 30 balls and practicing what you guys have talked about.

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Ok, Center Pocket, it is hard to take criticism. I took some when I posted my 70 ball run. I was looking for some excuses for my mistakes, but I did finally realize that I need to improve my game also. Nothing wrong with that. If a player could make every ball on the table and never get out of line. This great Sport of ours would not be exciting & fun to play. It is very challenging.
Hey, good luck with achieving your goals. Looking forward to your future comments & videos.

straight man speak truth.

here's what i see immediately when i look at that rack. the numbers denote the shot sequence that i would have tried. having said this, it's difficult to tell exactly from camera angle exactly how the balls are positioned..... another thing that i see is that there are two potential break balls, one is behind the rack and the other on the left side as seen by the camera. for a side break, there is a 2ball which looks like a good key ball which will go easily in the side pocket and a pink ball just under it that will server as a break ball.

in your secondary break shot on that first rack, you go into them with a shot in the corner. however if you notice, there is a "blocker" ball in front that will take the brunt of the hit still leaving a cluster. in fact that blocker ball moves the 15? ball back into the the cluster. that cluster had to be broken from the right side, not the top.

ok i've critiqued the first two shots now on to the rest of the video. lol....

ok, here we are in the pic below. you shoot the ball in the corner moving the stripe ball and getting uncertain position. from my angle, i would have tried to shoot them as numbered which would have been a tidy end-pattern and left you with that all important "triangle" of balls. (see schmidt's videos)

Centerpocket, I enjoyed watching your run and I agree with all those standard points that I have read others making. You have a good stance, a good stroke, a GREAT eye for the shot line. You make good decisions quickly and there is nothing but good things that can come from that. Reading that book you mention is a great way to enhance your overall general knowledge of this game and try to have a thick skin because everyone here will see their own faults in your game...then...point them out to you.

The one problem that I picked up on right away is that you very seldom looked over the table before shooting the next shot and you also don't seem to have a consistent pre-shot routine.

Both of those short comings will kill you in the game of 14-1 continuous straight pool.

I know because they kill me. I can get away with over looking a key shot in 8 ball sometimes and I can always compensate with GREAT shot making in 9 ball but those things will only save me for so long in straight pool.
In straight pool, to get those long runs you have to avoid missing the obvious key shots and then you have to recognize those unusual opportunities that pop up all that time in straight pool, the ones that we don't even look for in other games.

Unfortunately that means you have to look at the table from various angles when ever the cue ball does not go EXACTLY where you intended and for me that is almost every damn shot....lol.....maybe you not so much.

Great shooting and I look forward to seeing more of your videos.
Thanks for sharing, wish I could shoot as straight as you do!