This has become something of an obsession

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
I made the goal at the beginning of the year to improve my average by at least double.

Straight Pool has alway been my favorite game. I honestly believe that it is the most challenging of all cue sports that I have played, including snooker (I've never had an opportunity to play carom). But I've never put much work into it until the last couple of months, simply because no one in my area plays it. I was satisfied with the occassional big runs and justified the terrible days by reminding myself that I don't play proper patterns.

But I know I'm capable of a whole lot more, so I've put the time into learning this game properly. I'm working on my end patterns, experimenting with break balls, incorporating key balls and insurance balls and relying less on my shotmaking and more on economical cue ball movement and position play.

I haven't played 9 ball in almost 2 months. I'm using snooker to keep my stroke nice and straight. Furthermore I'm always improving my fundamentals, no such thing as perfect.

I've seen some results, I'm running 50 at least once often multiple times a session. But the goal at this moment is to run 100 once a week (in practice). That is probably a year or two off, but that's what I'm working on. It's tough though since I'm only playing once or twice a week due to school. I find my biggest failing is a loss of concentration, I have to work that one out and break a few bad habits.

Thanks for listening to my rant.
 

Ron F

Ron F
Silver Member
Yep

Cameron,

I'd say there are plenty of others here who are in the exact same situation and can surely empathize with, and appreciate, your rant. I'm only playing weekends now because of work and a knee that screams at me if I play more, and I'll typically have a few in the 40's, maybe one in the 50's each weekend. But last summer I was playing 4, 5 even 6 days a week and I was in the 60's and 70's and even popped an 80. The length of your runs, for most of us anyway, is proportionate and in direct correlation with how frequently you play. At least that's been my experience. My goal is to also hit the century mark, but I know the odds of that happening are astronomical unless I get on the table almost every day for a few months. Don't get frustrated. Your game is a slave to how much time you can afford to give it.

Ron F
 

14-1StraightMan

High Run 127
Silver Member
14.1

Good Luck with your goal. Keep up the good work and I know that it is hard to find the time to even practice. i am sure you will achieve to that goal and then there will be higher goals to come.
 

Mr441

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I made the goal at the beginning of the year to improve my average by at least double.

Straight Pool has alway been my favorite game. I honestly believe that it is the most challenging of all cue sports that I have played, including snooker (I've never had an opportunity to play carom). But I've never put much work into it until the last couple of months, simply because no one in my area plays it. I was satisfied with the occassional big runs and justified the terrible days by reminding myself that I don't play proper patterns.

But I know I'm capable of a whole lot more, so I've put the time into learning this game properly. I'm working on my end patterns, experimenting with break balls, incorporating key balls and insurance balls and relying less on my shotmaking and more on economical cue ball movement and position play.

I haven't played 9 ball in almost 2 months. I'm using snooker to keep my stroke nice and straight. Furthermore I'm always improving my fundamentals, no such thing as perfect.

I've seen some results, I'm running 50 at least once often multiple times a session. But the goal at this moment is to run 100 once a week (in practice). That is probably a year or two off, but that's what I'm working on. It's tough though since I'm only playing once or twice a week due to school. I find my biggest failing is a loss of concentration, I have to work that one out and break a few bad habits.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

If you're already running a 50 once or twice a session then I'd say you may be a lot closer to running 100 balls once a week. When I was running 40's and 50's regularly I only had a high run of 71. I knew I could play as well as a lot of 100 ball runners but my runs seemed to usually end after a breakshot where I wouldn't have a shot. I finally got frustrated enough to start really practicing breakshots intensely. I made it the bulk of my practice time for a few weeks. A little over a month later I ran 121 balls! I believe if I had not made it a point to study breakshots I might still be stuck in the same old rut.
 

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
Good Luck with your goal. Keep up the good work and I know that it is hard to find the time to even practice. i am sure you will achieve to that goal and then there will be higher goals to come.

For sure. I mean I think to myself that I would be happy to be a weekly 100 ball runner, but truth is that I'd eventually want to do it daily. Then Id be focusing on higher and higher runs. Never satisfied haha.
 

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
If you're already running a 50 once or twice a session then I'd say you may be a lot closer to running 100 balls once a week. When I was running 40's and 50's regularly I only had a high run of 71. I knew I could play as well as a lot of 100 ball runners but my runs seemed to usually end after a breakshot where I wouldn't have a shot. I finally got frustrated enough to start really practicing breakshots intensely. I made it the bulk of my practice time for a few weeks. A little over a month later I ran 121 balls! I believe if I had not made it a point to study breakshots I might still be stuck in the same old rut.

This sounds familiar. I get through the racks fine, it's generally break balls that ruin everything. I either don't shot or scratch. Some days it works fine but it's the other days that I'm concerned about.


Ron - What i've done to circumvent my lack of playing is focus on eliminating as many technical flows in mechanics as possible. I know that we need to do that anyways, but it's easy to be complacent when they don't nag at you due to consistent table time (practiced flaws). My stroke is straighter and better than ever even though I'm rarely practicing. I think when I can dedicate more time to my game I'll see a huge difference.
 

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
running 50 several times in a single practice session is very good. upload a few vids....

I don't have a video recorder unfortunately. The closest to a video I have is throwing a few balls on the table and running them out, which I recorded to look at my stroke flaws.
 

Ratta

Hearing the balls.....
Silver Member
HI Cameron,

if you re doing your *50 s* so often and constantly then it will be just a matter of time. Many players would be happy to make constantly 50er runs. Some day it will make *klick*-and you ll shoot higher runs constantly. It s good to have a goal/target if you practice-- just do what you always do and as time goes by you ll reach it :)

lg
Ingo
 

DangerousDave

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I made the goal at the beginning of the year to improve my average by at least double.

Straight Pool has alway been my favorite game. I honestly believe that it is the most challenging of all cue sports that I have played, including snooker (I've never had an opportunity to play carom). But I've never put much work into it until the last couple of months, simply because no one in my area plays it. I was satisfied with the occassional big runs and justified the terrible days by reminding myself that I don't play proper patterns.

But I know I'm capable of a whole lot more, so I've put the time into learning this game properly. I'm working on my end patterns, experimenting with break balls, incorporating key balls and insurance balls and relying less on my shotmaking and more on economical cue ball movement and position play.

I haven't played 9 ball in almost 2 months. I'm using snooker to keep my stroke nice and straight. Furthermore I'm always improving my fundamentals, no such thing as perfect.

I've seen some results, I'm running 50 at least once often multiple times a session. But the goal at this moment is to run 100 once a week (in practice). That is probably a year or two off, but that's what I'm working on. It's tough though since I'm only playing once or twice a week due to school. I find my biggest failing is a loss of concentration, I have to work that one out and break a few bad habits.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

I'd be interested in hearing in more detail how you break down your practice, particularly how snooker fits into the equation along with working on your fundamentals? Do you see many of the skills required for playing 14.1 as being transferable to snooker and vice versa? I look forward to hearing how you get on with your new approach!

By the way, in case you didn't see it, I posted another video of Steve Mizerak playing snooker in the other section recently which might interest you!
 

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
I'd be interested in hearing in more detail how you break down your practice, particularly how snooker fits into the equation along with working on your fundamentals? Do you see many of the skills required for playing 14.1 as being transferable to snooker and vice versa? I look forward to hearing how you get on with your new approach!

By the way, in case you didn't see it, I posted another video of Steve Mizerak playing snooker in the other section recently which might interest you!

Thanks for the Miz video. It's interesting to watch after viewing his game against Steve Davis. He was no longer using a pool cue to play snooker and he started using the open bridge far more. It'd be cool to see Hendry play straight pool, I think the commentators said he struggled.

I'm a huge believer in the concept of cross training. Although you can become a good shotmaker without ever looking at a snooker table for sure, I feel the skills you learn on the snooker table are indispensible. From a mechanics point of view, even if you forget about the tough shots you miss playing 14.1, a common complaint amongst many 14.1 players is that they always get stopped by stupid easy shots. Snooker teaches you to be consistent with your routine and the easy shots are harder than what you would encounter in a 14.1 run. When I came back to pool after spending a disproportionate amount of time playing snooker, I had reduced the frequency of my easy misses by a considerable margin.

But beyond the easy shots, snooker is all about pattern play if you want to run breaks. Obviously it's different because you have to go back to a colour each time. Nevertheless you're doing the same type of things, clearing laneways to pockets, nudging balls, getting position on balls rather than breaking into them if you can, finding and eliminating trouble balls, insurance balls etc. etc. There are a lot of similarities. 14.1 has helped my snooker game in that I tend leave an insurance ball when I break into pack of the black. Previously I'd clear up the stray reds first and then hit and hope. I still do that if I'm not playing confidently though. One thing that I took from snooker to the pool table, is the idea of playing position on 2 or 3 balls at once. I'll always look for an opportunity to play for a tricky ball where I need to get perfect where I have some insurance should I miss my position.

All of this imo benefited me in that I was confident executing these breakshots and running patterns on a 12 foot table that it was easier to focus on planning and I didn't have to worry about shotmaking because it was already pretty well engrained. But there is always room for improvement, hence why I still play a lot snooker (besides the fact that I love the game).

I think the primary downside to snooker as a practice tool comes down to the fact that unless you are a top player, you are rarely looking to run out. Most people (including myself) will be content to pick away at 7-10 open reds and forget about the other 5 clustered balls. Those open balls are enough to get a sizable lead or win the frame if you can run all of them. So it becomes a shift in the thought process when you play pool again. But this is more an issue if you haven't played pool after a while of just snooker. Those are just some thoughts that I had when I came back to pool.

As for my practice routine. I've never been a drill guy for the most part. But I religiously practice long straight in shots on both snooker and pool tables. But on a pool table I will put the cue ball within 4-6 inches from the rail and the object ball near centre of the table, I'll shoot until I make 30. I don't put much pressure on making a certain amount in a row, I find that tends to fall in it's place. I remember I used to practice this until I made 15 consecutive straight in shots. Some days it was over fast, other days it made for a long and angry practice session lol.

When playing snooker after I'm done with long shots, I'll place the black on the spot and cue ball in hand. I pot the black and play position for another shot off the black spot and keep going. It's an old English Billiards drill but it's great for control and getting comfortable around the black.

When on a pool table, I've started throwing 5-8 balls on the table and setting up random break shots. I keep working on getting position on specific type of break shot, then I move to another type. But at this moment it's not getting position on the break ball that is nagging me it's more doing so using economical cue ball movement. I run the balls easily enough but I look like a snooker or 9 ball player doing it a lot lol. As far as running the balls, I just try and focus on doing everything properly (looking for keyballs, insurance balls etc.) The moment I find myself freewheeling and i'm not on a good run, I'll take a quick break and then start over, otherwise it defeats the purpose of what I'm doing. I also believe that when you miss a shot or position, you should set the ball up and shoot it again and figure how to execute it. Especially when it comes to positional shots, I find many people tend to accept the poor position and not fix the problem. This leads to years of playing a paticular shot wrong when it could have been fixed in potentially 15 minutes (I know from experience).

I also have a reasonably sized 14.1 dvd collection now, I'm actively watching the matches trying to predict the patterns and when I'm wrong I make note of why they chose the route they did.

But more than anything I'm approaching it one issue at a time. My biggest flaw at the moment revolves around break balls. On my off days I run the rack fairly easily but I find myself with poor position on the break ball or I have no shot after the break. So for now that's what I'm working towards. When that becomes a stronger part of my game I'll reassess and work on another area. I don't think it's beneficial to focus on too many things at once, it's gets tough to remember all the stuff you gotta remember.

I hope this makes sense. I'm writing this and a paper for my class at the same time haha. I wish I was playing pool, siiiiiigh.
 

DangerousDave

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Thanks for the reply, Cameron! Very interesting to hear your opinion on how the games compare and how you're going about improving. I think there's a lot there I can learn from and try out, and hopefully I'll able to play both games reasonably well someday!

I plan on playing more often this year and these are my two favorite games. I hadn't been able to make up my mind if I should just play one or the other, or whether it would be beneficial to take your approach and incorporate both. Either way, I definitely need to look more closely at my mechanics, and follow your lead with the long straight-ins. Your point about setting up missed shots and figuring out how to execute seems obvious, but you're dead on that a huge number of players just repeat the same mistakes year after year and never improve at all. I'm almost certainly guilty of this. Alex Higgins described his early years of playing the game as constantly "experimenting", playing shots a variety of different ways and watching the results. Most people get in the habit of playing certain shots a certain way, and even if it's wrong they just stick with it because it's comfortable. Again, I'm probably guilty of this too.

Anyway, I hope you can find enough time away from writing papers that you can keep us updated with how you're doing. If you ever get any videos up I'll be first to watch!
 

Vahmurka

...and I get all da rolls
Silver Member
that's a very good thread, I loved reading the feedback. Cameron, thank you for expressing your thoughts and practice approach. I kinda share your goal, yet it is about twice as smaller (but unfortunately it doesn't mean twice as close!) - to run 50 just for a good start. I play more often than before, and it pays, but still not often enough probably to run more consistently. But I feel some progress and that my approach to the game is better overall, more sound and wise if you want, and now all I need is proper application of my knowledge, meaning proper execution.
 

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
The long straight in practice will revolutionize your game. It's such a simple thing, but it improves all aspects as you just become a more accurate cueist. But, you do need to be actively evolving and improving your mechanics otherwise you'll make little progress. The trick is to improve the bad days so that you can always string at least 10 consecutive pots. I also use it as a warm up routine too. I can diagnose potential mechanical errors early in the day and get myself tuned in.

I have in the past tried to get myself running some balls on video, but it was on my girlfriends blackberry, lol. She was sitting there recording my runs, but I got stage fright and the best I could put up was a 22 or something close to that. When I get my own table I will certainly set up a camera so that I can review what I am doing. It's easy to see the patterns when watching dvd's, executing them when your in the box is another thing lol.
 

jwpretd

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
By the way, in case you didn't see it, I posted another video of Steve Mizerak playing snooker in the other section recently which might interest you!

Thank you for mentioning this; I don't often look in the snooker forum and hadn't seen it. I had the good fortune to be in England during the exhibitions with Davis. Mizerak's snooker seems to be noticeably improved in this video, though I'm scarcely fit to judge. Do you happen to know if Hendry played 14.1 anywhere near as well as Davis did?
 

DangerousDave

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The long straight in practice will revolutionize your game. It's such a simple thing, but it improves all aspects as you just become a more accurate cueist. But, you do need to be actively evolving and improving your mechanics otherwise you'll make little progress. The trick is to improve the bad days so that you can always string at least 10 consecutive pots. I also use it as a warm up routine too. I can diagnose potential mechanical errors early in the day and get myself tuned in.

You've convinced me! It will be long straight-ins on the pool table for now, though. I've heard the Frank Callan book on snooker technique is very good so I might pick up a copy and work from there.

Thank you for mentioning this; I don't often look in the snooker forum and hadn't seen it. I had the good fortune to be in England during the exhibitions with Davis. Mizerak's snooker seems to be noticeably improved in this video, though I'm scarcely fit to judge. Do you happen to know if Hendry played 14.1 anywhere near as well as Davis did?

You're welcome! Hendry's high run in the straight pool was 19. I think the format was the same as in the Davis challenge, three races to 75. I don't have this part on video so I don't know if Hendry just had a really bad day or the Miz just didn't give him too many chances. I do know that Hendry could do much better than 19, though.
 
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