Suppose you are about to play competitively - a tournament or money match - and are working out your game plan. What percentage of misses that you should be targetting?
Zero would be an option. But unless you are super human (or playing out out of your skin), the only way to achieve a zero-miss percentage is to play very conservatively. This means only going for high-percentage shots and on every shot concentrating fully on the pot even if it means not getting good shape on the next ball. That sort of conservative play may give you good pot/miss stats; but it won't win you games against decent opposition.
At the other extreme, you could just go for anything that is pottable - throw in banks, kicks, combos and masses - and see what happens. But that kind of reckless / desparate play is not going to win you much either.
So is there an optimum range, and if so what is it? If you were given the stats after a match, what percentage might make you think "I played safe too much - I should have taken more risks" or "The way I was missing balls, I should have switched to a more tactical game"?
I suspect that few, if any, players think about their strategy / shot selection in these terms. I certainly don't. I suspect that I am like others in treating each shot on its merits; making my decision based on how I feel about the shot in front of me, on what the match situation is and on what the alternatives are. But how can you test objectively whether you are making those judgement calls correctly or whether you have a persistent and sub-optimal bias towards either offense or defense?
Any thoughts?
Zero would be an option. But unless you are super human (or playing out out of your skin), the only way to achieve a zero-miss percentage is to play very conservatively. This means only going for high-percentage shots and on every shot concentrating fully on the pot even if it means not getting good shape on the next ball. That sort of conservative play may give you good pot/miss stats; but it won't win you games against decent opposition.
At the other extreme, you could just go for anything that is pottable - throw in banks, kicks, combos and masses - and see what happens. But that kind of reckless / desparate play is not going to win you much either.
So is there an optimum range, and if so what is it? If you were given the stats after a match, what percentage might make you think "I played safe too much - I should have taken more risks" or "The way I was missing balls, I should have switched to a more tactical game"?
I suspect that few, if any, players think about their strategy / shot selection in these terms. I certainly don't. I suspect that I am like others in treating each shot on its merits; making my decision based on how I feel about the shot in front of me, on what the match situation is and on what the alternatives are. But how can you test objectively whether you are making those judgement calls correctly or whether you have a persistent and sub-optimal bias towards either offense or defense?
Any thoughts?