Cant Get Better

Find the local shortstop and wager 50.00 a game. Money will provide excellent motivation for focusing. But really, it could be the tip of your cue is not true, to trying english for position that "throws" the ball of course, to just not taking the shot serious cause it looks easy. Are you swerving the cue? Have one of the better players watch and see if there is an obvious flaw. I tend to clench on long draws hots and that really causes the cue to hit a different spot than I am trying for. Good Luck, welcome to AZ, John

Bob is absolutely correct. I never understand why anyone could think they could tackle this game on their own and be successful.
Forget the BS about gambling. All that does is transfer a lot of money from your pocket to other players. Most gamblers aren't going to help you improve, so again, you are on your own.
It's not your equipment. Most great players can grab a house cue off the wall and still play great.
It's about you and what YOU are doing. You can spend years trying to develop your game, and may end up developing bad habits that will become difficult to correct as time passes. A good instructor can shorten your learning curve, help you uncover the little things that are holding you back, and show you how to address those problems.

Steve

Hi Randy,

for the short time that you re playing now, it looks not that bad. But you should follow Bob s advice and spend some lessons with a qualified instructor- you need to work on your fundamentals- he ll analyze you with help of video capturing (usualy) and then will show you how to execute a straight stroke with a perfect *setup*. Furthermore he will probably teach you ways how to work on the important things to get a bulletproofed pre-shot-routine, a stable stance and to *get a repeatable* straight stroke.

You will take profit a lifetime from lessons with a great instructor- and right on beginning of your *pool carriere* it s the perfect time!

keep shooting,

lg from germany,
Ingo

I am a recrational player so I am in no position to give you any tips. Only thing I can say is always chalk afer every shot.

Keep on hittin'em!

If you dont have an instructor close by...you might want to take a look at StrokeAnalyzer for self analysis.

Check it out..

paulempor said:

I am a recrational player so I am in no position to give you any tips. Only thing I can say is always chalk afer every shot.

Keep on hittin'em!

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We teach to, "chalk before every shot".....randyg

I would advise two things.

1/ Practice hitting a long straight-in shot and hit with topspin and pot both the OB and CB into the pocket.

This teaches you everything about alignment and hitting the cue ball pure with no sidespin.

2/ Get some hole reinforcers and set up 3 balls randomly on the table and run them out in order. Once you have done that you put them back again, leaving the CB where it was.

Experiment and find a way to keep running them out and when it becomes easy (perhaps you can run 30 balls in a row) move to a new pattern. This teaches you much faster than playing the ghost.

For most players, having a straight cue action and gaining the knowledge and skill to run-out well is your top priority.

randyg said:

We teach to, "chalk before every shot".....randyg

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Yes sir!In my defense I was curing a serious hangover while posting....

It makes no difference whether you do it after every shot, or before every shot...so long as you do it between every shot.

Steve

In that brief video, I saw at least seven fundamental errors in your stance, stroke and delivery. Have you ever tried using chalk? Please seek a qualified instructor before your bad habits are so ingrained that correcting them will become much harder.

RyanC_9-ball said:

Ok, my name is Ryan and i play 9-ball pool. Ive only been playing for about 9 months now and in those 9 months ive gotten suprisingly good. Ive won several tournaments but the problem is i cant get any better. I practice about 6 hours everyday as always but i still find myself making crazy mistakes and missing reletavely easy shots. Is there any advice you higher skilled players can give me to help me inprove my game? Thanks

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dont ever say CAN'T.....as that just means WONT........if you want to play like a professional, you have to practice like one. Build a preshot routine, and learn some proper mechanical techniques along with drills to reinforce such. Input position drills, speed drills, stroke drills........and PRACTICE LIKE A PROFESSIONAL.

If you practice half assed like 99.999999999999% of players (IN ANY SPORT) then your not getting your proper dosage of geritol. Your results will be just like your practice. Practice makes permanent, so whatever kind of permanent you want then practice like it.

There is no pill, no instructor, no player, no article, no cue NOTHING that can get YOU there......you can take a pill, take instruction, watch a player, read an article but YOU must still put in that greuling hard work that it really takes to make the gains we want to see in our game.

best wishes,
-Grey Ghost-

Ryan...You cannot do disciplined practice (the only way to really get get better) for 6 hrs a day. What you're doing is practicing playing. You can do that for 10 hrs a day, and you may or may not get better. You need to see a professional instructor, who can help you analyze your stroke process, and set some specific measurable goals for improving (you can't fix what you don't know about, and you can't fix what you can't measure). Pooltcher is very close to you, in Charlotte. Recently another SC player got exactly what he needed, by spending some time with Steve in Charlotte. I'd recommend you contact him.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

RyanC_9-ball said:

Ok, my name is Ryan and i play 9-ball pool. Ive only been playing for about 9 months now and in those 9 months ive gotten suprisingly good. Ive won several tournaments but the problem is i cant get any better. I practice about 6 hours everyday as always but i still find myself making crazy mistakes and missing reletavely easy shots. Is there any advice you higher skilled players can give me to help me inprove my game? Thanks

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Certainly seeing an instructor will help your fundamentals greatly. If you really want to get better, you seem like a very good candidate for instruction.

But to answer your question, in my opinion, you have developed some bad habits and need to correct them.

Stop that water pump stroke. Keep your cue level and your shoulder and body from pumping up and down. Slow down, relax. Stroke from you elbow down. Deliver smoothly through the CB.

Stop your cue stick at the CB and envision your shot. Your cue stick never stops and that's not good. Level stroke.

Its not a race, take your time and envision your shots. Trying to develop the accurate stroke you need to improve will be practically impossible with your stick and body moving like that.

My personal opinion is to play straight pool to develop some touch. It will force you to stop and think about patterns instead of racing around the table playing by number. It will force more precise cue ball movements.

Watch videos of pros playing. See how they pause their stroke and deliver it in a line parallel to the table surface without all that pumping. All that wood sawing with your stroke IMO is what will hurt your game most.

Take your time, pause at the CB. Level stroke. Limit your practice strokes. That's what I saw.

To go along with the above post... That woodsaw stroke is a stroke that a lot of people do ( I catch myself doing it on occasion) and it kills your game. It can cause miss hits, throw your angles off, and make you apply unintentional english to the cue ball. Try some dry strokes along one of the rails and focus keeping your cue directly in line with the crease between the felt and the wood. This will help you develop a straight stroke. From there try concentrating on leveling your strokes from start to finish. Also, you might try breaking (and shooting) with a more level bridge hand. When you shoot off the rail with a tall close bridge like that you might be shooting with a masse type effect because you are actually hitting down on the ball.

I'm definitely not a professional instructor, but I have been coached by several professional instructors and these are some of the things that they corrected in my game.

BlackMamba...Any instructor who tells you that the cue should be level from start to finish is not thinking of pendulum swing. The cue is level only at the strike position. In a pendulum swing the cue is not level on the backswing and not level at the finish. It only needs to be level at contact, because the CB is gone in 1/1000th of a second after contact with the tip. The only way the cue can be 'level from start to finish' is by dropping your elbow...an uncessary and unpredicatable addition to the process.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

BlackMamba said:

From there try concentrating on leveling your strokes from start to finish.

I'm definitely not a professional instructor, but I have been coached by several professional instructors and these are some of the things that they corrected in my game.

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Getting better

I find this to be a very vague phrase. Improvement comes from strengthening our ability in one or more areas of our game. Instead of focusing on moving from C to B level, or B to A or whatever, focus instead on your various skill sets.

Work on improving in specific areas (potting, safeties, break, cue ball control etc.) This is where an instructor comes in, as they can identify what you need to change or adapt in order to move forward.

It's tough to do this over the forum, however i think the best kind of videos to upload are the ones where we can see you faults. I don't find run out videos nearly as useful. We can still see flaws in your mechanics, but we don't see as many of the poor decisions you may or may not be making.