Zero-X users? Anyone else feel it’s for beginners?

I liked it and thought there were several systems and layout strategies that improved my game.

The problem is for advanced players, you're not going to find a book that will drastically improve your game. It's going to be little improvements here and there

longhorns2 said:

I liked it and thought there were several systems and layout strategies that improved my game.

The problem is for advanced players, you're not going to find a book that will drastically improve your game. It's going to be little improvements here and there

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Good point. Subtle improvements that begin to accumulate, eventually becoming a noticeable improvement in overall play.

The pocketing drill works for me. Teaches you to shoot shots with all English and teaches a lot of where the ball will go with certain shots. I liked that part of it. It is lengthy though and sometimes frustrating.


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I have been playing for a little over 56 years and have won quite a few local tournaments and I still picked up some info that helped me improve my game.

True Cue said:

As a semi- advanced player (not a pro by any stretch- APA 7 and 9 handicaps )

I got into ZeroX and work the patterns and drills but anyone else feel it’s not really beneficial in true game time situations??

I feel like there’s only been one or two times where I’ve been able to call back I’m on stuff I’ve learned. Maybe it’s just great practice stuff???

Thoughts?

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It can help the better players to work on some issues as it would basically break down their game into components to work on, and the more you do in practice, the easier it is in a game. A shot may come up once a week in a game, and you shoot it once and done. If you do drills, you can be shooting that same shot 40 times to learn it.

I watch/listen to just about any instructional video and instructor I run across because there is often one or several things you may understand just a bit better even if it's not a full on "Ah-ha!" moment. For example I think from the ZeroX videos there was one where he showed how left/right spin causes the cueball to move off line of aim. I knew that, but having that there and demonstrating it the same way helped my son to figure out why he was missing some shots with spin. It may not help you, but it may help you help someone else better.

I was talking to the president of the BEF last week at a junior state event, and was chatting about things, when I was talking to him about teachings kids and others and how I do it, he asked me if I was a BCA instructor, when all I was doing was repeating things I liked that I heard others say and demonstrate. He said I could be an instructor, which was pretty cool. Moral of the story, soak up knowledge since when you need it, you need it, and if you don't have it ready, you won't have it.

True Cue said:

As a semi- advanced player (not a pro by any stretch- APA 7 and 9 handicaps )

I got into ZeroX and work the patterns and drills but anyone else feel it’s not really beneficial in true game time situations??

I feel like there’s only been one or two times where I’ve been able to call back I’m on stuff I’ve learned. Maybe it’s just great practice stuff???

Thoughts?

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I've never done the system but that's exactly what I've always heard and I got that impression of it. In regards to your " next level " or rather it sounds as if you've hit a plateau, there are really only a couple of real choices. As always I'm a big advocate of " earning " your way better. That means getting up and routinely playing players well above your speed by matching up. ( ie - gambling with them. Imo you can learn the most by doing that. Will it cost you money ? Sure, but so does books, dvds, and taking actual lessons. ). Another Avenue is to take high level lessons from top level players . Keep in mind , those that give lessons like these that are actually meaningful are few and far between. Just because someone is a champion does in no way mean that they can offer you anything at all in terms of teaching you. Be very selective if you go this route! At this level you wish to go to, it's no longer stroke techniques and the like so much as strategy being taught.

One person that comes to mind as a great teacher in this respect is Tom Tom ( Tom Wirth - TRWPOOL here on AZB. He is a one pocket specialist and for sure where I would go if I wanted one hole coaching but I'm certain he has much to offer in other games as well. That's just one person but there are more. Just as a general rule of thumb expect to pay at least $100/ hr if not more for this type of top tier instruction . Be forewarned we do have some very very good traveling instructors here on AZ that I'm certain will be chiming in with their advice as well as soliciting you to give them a try. As I said these are good instructors... but..... I don't want to step in anything here but my opinion on their type of instruction has always been they are great for beginners and or lower level players getting their strokes in line and what not. And yes, some will even tell you that a few pros take instruction from them and....... well make up your own mind.

Another thing to consider; not sure about today but not long ago Earl Strickland was giving lessons for $75/ hr and Imo that's a great deal. I actually plan on doing a half day with him soon just because I think it would be cool even if nothing else. Karen Corr is giving lessons in her free time too, although I believe she charges a litter more but I've heard from MANY respected folks that she not only is a true champion but one of the best instructors out there a way well. If rotation is your thing one of these two might be a good place to start.

As to your level, just to be honest the 7/9 ranking is actually usually pretty low in the grand scheme of the pool world. There are huge variances at the top skill levels but in general the 7's/9's from league get destroyed by most in most pool rooms they walk in. That's not a dig, just an FYI so you will be able to honestly gauge your game which you truly can't do with league. Good luck whichever way you go but Imo you are well past the need for dvd and book training. Let us know how you make out brother!

PS - Don't know how I left this out, one other Great player that gives high level instructions definitely worth checking out is CJ Wiley!

ZeroX has been the most influential set of educational materials for my game.

Here are the things that helped me the most:

1) The 1-rail kicking system took me from pure guesswork to kicking with a high degree of accuracy. What I learned from reading the diamonds was immediately transferable to my banking game. This alone covered the cost of admission.

2) The stroke drill drastically improved my follow through and in turn made my draw stroke more consistent.

3) The half table (no left-right spin) patterns woke my eyes up to playing shapes naturally instead of forcing the cue around.

4) After that the various other drills just reinforced the idea of practicing problem areas of my game until they became stronger.

If you’re already a strong player, you probably don’t need it. If you have time to grind out hours in the pool hall, you probably don’t need it. But if your table time is limited, it will make less practice time more potent. I improved more in the year after giving the system a true shot than I did from the 15 years prior of just throwing balls out and banging them in.

It helps to watch his 14 Days series. You get to see how the practice is meant to be applied. It’s not materials you watch and retain. It’s things you do over and over. That’s not as clear from the videos alone.


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Practice Smart not Hard

I have a tendency to buy stuff like this and take a look at it a year later and I did this with the Zero-X material.

I found Tor Lowery's take on things original and from his heart. He not only teaches you but he executes everything he says including his kicking systems. I play a lot of one pocket and what the kicking systems do for me is give me an edge to learn to refine my feel. I'm not one to start counting diamonds to a 2 rail kick but if you do at least a few times you know what the answer looks like and learn to repeat it on others.

I have my own material and areas of study in Pool that I wanted to specialize in. I was told to always practice Smart vs. Hard. This instruction is very much that way. You can pick and choose the things you need to specialize in find some help for about anything you could imagine.

I found his use of the Rolling Cue Ball, the Sliding Cue Ball and the different strokes to be real eye opening when you limit yourself to the one skill for run outs. He obviously believes in what he does and has much to offer the aspiring player.

Anyone that could attain the level that he obviously has will have some unique perspectives that warrant paying attention to. I give him A++. Great and Original Stuff.

I think it is very good. Understanding the "sliding cue ball" is one example of its value for advanced play.

I've been playing pool in one form or another for 30+ years. I cannot emphasize how great Tor's videos are. Not so much because he presents a lot of "new" information...more so because of "ALL" of the information he packs into his videos. There were maybe 56 things that I didn't even know why I was doing them. After watching and practicing pretty much all of the activities on his videos, I feel like I know the "why" a whole heck of a lot better.

Also, even though when starting out I had many people showing me how and what to do, the tangent lines somehow never got brought up. Tor's explanation of tangent line aiming and his thorough descriptions and demonstrations of them is second to none.

Tor's kicking and banking videos are definitely top notch as well and I loved watching all of his 14 days videos.

Advanced or not, there is something to be taken from his videos, if only to reinforce what you are already doing and get you practicing and THINKING while you do so.

The interesting thing about Zero-X is that it is packed with useful information and there’s no aiming system. It’s just raw pool knowledge condensed in a tight packing.


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For an average player there is a lot of what I found to be useful information. I think it's one of the better instructional videos Iv'e seen.