Have at me! :)

My advice is to get an instructor asap.

Fran lives in NY, she may be persuaded to drive up to Maine for private lessons.......if the lobster tails are on you.

If there is anyway you can play without the glasses I would do that also. Maybe conatcts set for seeing clearly 3' to 9' in front of you. (for shooting pool only)

Nice place.

John

Christ...

What's more noticeable than the technical flaws and obvious eyesight problem is a lack of aggression and control.

You gotta fancy it, dude.

i agree that an instructor should be next before you learn any more bad habits. if money is an issue i would suggest you go here on "az" as there are literally 100s if not 1,000s of instructiional videos available for free. your stroke needs help now.....change glasses, there is a thread here on the forum as to where you can purchase glasses specifically for playing pool. do those things first then go from there. practice practice practice...and "play" is NOT practice.

I second getting a good instructor. It could absolutely shave years off the learning process and make you more competitive sooner. My observations are: your stance is good and balanced but seems a bit higher then you appear to be comfortable with. possibly due to that and the dreaded glasses issue you appear to be tentatively stroking or short stroking on most shots. Try getting down a bit more into your stance and let your stroke out a couple more inches. It's clear you use very little English but to effectively use what you put on the cue ball you have to accelerate through the CB more otherwise your poking more than stroking. Poking gives less predictable action on the CB and a less predictable object ball path to the pocket. Hope that helps a bit.

Good shooting to you

Kevin

At least you've got the courage to post a video that wasn't edited or selected from several attempts...an honest attempt to get good advice, kudos to you!

Bruce, thanks for having the courage to post your video. It's really the best way to get an accurate analysis.

You don't see all those non-instructors always rushing to give advice in this forum posting videos of themselves. I wonder how embarassed they'd be about exposing their own games.

Now about you: I suggest that you learn how to let your stroke out. Your soft stroke is more like an abbreviated stroke as opposed to an actual slow moving arm swing. When you adapt that type of stroke to a more aggressive stroke, the result will be a faster abbreviated stroke, or a poke stroke which is why you're having problems hitting harder. I see on some shots that you do let it out a bit, so you just have to keep at it in your practice sessions.

You're not alone. Many players find that shooting with an abbreviated stroke gives them more accuracy, and it does, but only to a limited extent. It's difficult to explain to you what good stroke timing is but that's what you want to strive for. Try to imagine throwing a ball. You take your arm back slowly and then move it forward, gradually increasing speed so that maximum speed is just at release, or in the case of pool, impact.

Try standing lower. That will help accommodate a better arm swing.

Experiment! Take yourself out of your comfort zone! Try imitating players whose strokes you admire.

When my stroke timing goes off, I head to the driving range and hit golf balls. I focus on the slow takeaway and it seems to help remind me of the feel of a good back stroke in pool. Maybe you can find something that you can do that will help you remember the slow back stroke.

1) Bridge: You have a weak bridge. Too shaky/flimsy. Your bridge should feel like it's part of the table.
2) Stance: You need to step into the shot better. You walk up to the shot and just squat down--- I can't imagine how you'd lock on a line that way.
3) Rail shots: You cue is way too elevated--- you need to keep it more level
4) Stroke: Seems too stiff--- the stiffness seems to force you into rolling the ball on every shot. Fire through the center of the CB on some shots and get used to sending out a flatter ball. Your tip also tends to rise -- it should either dip to the cloth or at the very least remain on the same vector as your stroke.


Overall -- you need assistance in-person from a good instructor. Joe Tucker is in your region, you might want to check him out.

I'm not an instructor.

However, this video was shared sometime back here. I have a similar (or not identical) stance. I found it to be very effective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAXIS9NYdIA&feature=g-vrec

However, it is in some sort of alien language... Hope it helps...

Justadub,

I think watching the Grey Ghost instructional videos on Forcefollows Youtube channel can aid you greatly. Plus they are in English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u52gKAehqo&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uZCcKEJZjc&feature=plcp

I understand your problems in getting to an instructor in terms of both time and money, so in the meantime, you will have to make do with the resources you have.

I will make a standard offer to you though, if you can ever make it down to Southern Maryland I will work with you for free, and I will even put you up in my house to help with the costs.

In the meantime, call me this weekend, so we can talk a little about what I see. Maybe I can help some over the phone.

I tried to green you but says I have to spread more around yet. :thumbup:

This is an example of the types of actions we need for our game to get it back on it's feet!

:clapping::clapping::clapping::clapping:

Tony_in_MD said:

Justadub,

I think watching the Grey Ghost instructional videos on Forcefollows Youtube channel can aid you greatly. Plus they are in English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u52gKAehqo&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uZCcKEJZjc&feature=plcp

I understand your problems in getting to an instructor in terms of both time and money, so in the meantime, you will have to make do with the resources you have.

I will make a standard offer to you though, if you can ever make it down to Southern Maryland I will work with you for free, and I will even put you up in my house to help with the costs.

In the meantime, call me this weekend, so we can talk a little about what I see. Maybe I can help some over the phone.

Click to expand...

First let me be another one of those people that congratulates you; this is one great way to get some help and I want you ignore people like this.

TheThaiger said:

Christ...

What's more noticeable than the technical flaws and obvious eyesight problem is a lack of aggression and control.

You gotta fancy it, dude.

Click to expand...

These people tend to think that they came out of the womb shooting great pool; that being said I think you should go through this website video by video watch ALL of the videos with an open mind. Some of the better players around Dee’s (that’s where I play) have a nickname for me it’s “Fundamental Phil” I actually LIKE this nickname and I think they think it is supposed to be a “poke”.

ALL great players have great fundamentals, some have quirks, idiosyncrasies and “specialized stuff” they do but they ALL have good foundations even though some of it has mutated over the years you can still see that it is a great base.

http://billiards.colostate.edu/


As others have stated you need to understand the fundamental aspects of stance, grip, stroke etc.. other than that your biggest problem (and it is the biggest problem with almost everyone within their first few years of competitive pool BTW); is something so simple and so basic that many many people THINK that they DO this but they do not. In fact there are some people that are “pretty good” in terms of amateur players that don’t do this. The reason I know you don’t do this (every shot) is because of a symptom that I see.

I am sure you have heard “don’t run into secondary OB’s when you don’t have/need to right? Well you do, lots of newer players do not even realize that they do run into secondary OB’s because they look at the primary OB and not the CB after tip contact; so they don’t know what happened to the CB.

I just thought of something and I know this is redundant but I don’t want to have typed all that for nothing I sent you a PM.

PGHteacher said:

First let me be another one of those people that congratulates you; this is one great way to get some help and I want you ignore people like this.




These people tend to think that they came out of the womb shooting great pool;

Click to expand...

:grin:

Dude, he's played for three years, without obvious signs of improvement. He can't or won't see an instructor. Nothing he can read or watch on tv will help him more than my advice. He plays like he's scared of the table.

And who the hell are you anyway?

PGHteacher said:

I want you ignore people like this.

Click to expand...

^^^^This.

Dub, I'm sure you know that 98% of us are supporting each other here, Ignore the remaining 2%. Its not hard to figure out who they are.

By the way you dont look like your avatar at all :grin::grin:

justadub said:

If I was worrying about Tim, or others who post like him, I would never have posted the vid in the first place....it was expected.:grin:

You notice he doesn't put his stuff up here. And he's been asked to before....

I realize my limitations, and inexperience. I'm not sweating this stuff, he cant put me down more than I've done to myself .

Thanks for the kind words. Most folks tend to do better with encouragement, that's not lost on me (or many here).

Click to expand...

Inexperience? You've been shooting for THREE YEARS!!

You're looking for tea & sympathy, a palliative from the masses to ease the pain. If you genuinely want to improve, you're going to have to take radical action, because, as I see it, you'll never improve a ball until you tackle the root cause of your limitations.

I don't think you need encouragement: You need a kicking, boy. :wink: