StraitishShoote
Dad's Rack Boy
In March the week before everything got shutdown due to Coronavirus I spent 2 days with Demetrius Jelatis.* After finding all the posts on here about his MN Pool Boot Camp and discovering I was only a little over an hour away I decided to take the plunge.* I’ve always enjoyed playing pool since I was little and it was something my family did together, but I was never able to play very often.* Now the last 3 years I’ve been able to shoot league and finished with winning records in the lower A and upper A divisions by single digits, and I had a losing record in the AA/Masters league by single digits.* My Fargo rating last I checked was a 490 with 63 games, but they’re all a few years old now.* So right around the average league player.
The two days spent playing pool from around 10 am to 11pm on a Wednesday and 10 am to 10 pm on a Thursday were awesome in how much I learned, how much pool I shot, and a little frustrating in realizing much I have to work on.* I had never shot on a 9 foot diamond table before or used sidespin more than ‘I want to send the cue ball more that way’ so my ability to do everything Demetrius was teaching was limited to non-existent at first.* Even though I’m sure we covered less ground than what was intended Demetrius stayed positive the whole time and would go over stuff in multiple different ways until I understood what we were trying to do.* When I was finally hitting certain shots I think he was more excited than I was.* Mixed in with all of the pool shooting were conversations about mental game, pattern play, and other pool and non-pool related topics.* We also watched some pool during meal breaks with Demetrius adding some commentary or asking questions about certain scenarios.* I left Thursday with a notebook outlining everything we covered, and most importantly to me a plan of what to practice going forward.
The last 3 months I have been able to practice on my table at home more than I have in the past.* And with all of the year end pool tournaments I would normally go to being cancelled I just focused on practicing what was in my notebook.* I went and spent another day and a half or so with Demetrius at the end of June where we focused a lot more on pattern play now that I can actually make the required shots.* Balls would be set up in rotation and I would try to run them out first.* I think in all the runs that were set up I only completed one the exact way I said I would do it the first time.* Then Demetrius would go through exactly how and why he would play the sequence his way.* Then he would mark the target zone for the cue ball after each shot with a tailor’s pen and proceed to shoot the sequence while landing the cue ball in the zone over and over.* After some repetition I was able to complete all of the lay outs that there was no way I would get through minutes before.* While I can now make all of the shots I have been working on my speed control needs A LOT of work.* **But the amount that I feel I’ve improved just over the last 3 months has me very excited for my pool future.*
I am not much of a wordsmith so I doubt I’m conveying how awesome I thought this was and how happy I am with my results so far.* I am extremely cheap and feel like I have gotten way more than what I have paid for.* I’m sure that in the future after I worked on my new refined practice plan from Demetrius I will schedule another day to work with him.
*
Nathan
The two days spent playing pool from around 10 am to 11pm on a Wednesday and 10 am to 10 pm on a Thursday were awesome in how much I learned, how much pool I shot, and a little frustrating in realizing much I have to work on.* I had never shot on a 9 foot diamond table before or used sidespin more than ‘I want to send the cue ball more that way’ so my ability to do everything Demetrius was teaching was limited to non-existent at first.* Even though I’m sure we covered less ground than what was intended Demetrius stayed positive the whole time and would go over stuff in multiple different ways until I understood what we were trying to do.* When I was finally hitting certain shots I think he was more excited than I was.* Mixed in with all of the pool shooting were conversations about mental game, pattern play, and other pool and non-pool related topics.* We also watched some pool during meal breaks with Demetrius adding some commentary or asking questions about certain scenarios.* I left Thursday with a notebook outlining everything we covered, and most importantly to me a plan of what to practice going forward.
The last 3 months I have been able to practice on my table at home more than I have in the past.* And with all of the year end pool tournaments I would normally go to being cancelled I just focused on practicing what was in my notebook.* I went and spent another day and a half or so with Demetrius at the end of June where we focused a lot more on pattern play now that I can actually make the required shots.* Balls would be set up in rotation and I would try to run them out first.* I think in all the runs that were set up I only completed one the exact way I said I would do it the first time.* Then Demetrius would go through exactly how and why he would play the sequence his way.* Then he would mark the target zone for the cue ball after each shot with a tailor’s pen and proceed to shoot the sequence while landing the cue ball in the zone over and over.* After some repetition I was able to complete all of the lay outs that there was no way I would get through minutes before.* While I can now make all of the shots I have been working on my speed control needs A LOT of work.* **But the amount that I feel I’ve improved just over the last 3 months has me very excited for my pool future.*
I am not much of a wordsmith so I doubt I’m conveying how awesome I thought this was and how happy I am with my results so far.* I am extremely cheap and feel like I have gotten way more than what I have paid for.* I’m sure that in the future after I worked on my new refined practice plan from Demetrius I will schedule another day to work with him.
*
Nathan
