Improving as an Amateur

Well,

the first answer and advice is the easiest:
Practice makes perfect and permanent-

14.1 continues is a game of expirience. Additional-no matter which discipline you play, sharpen always your fundamentals and earn as much knowledge as you can.
If you re addicted enough, play also solo as much as possible. Note all your scores (playing the ghost in 14.1 is also hard and challenging).
Watching the professionals on video helps also- think about their patterns etc. - also here on the forum are some gems (drawings, texts, how to s).

Competition is hard to find in USA from what i heard if oyu re not in the right region. So yo uhave to start first on your own-like many others did also. Once you have some bucks- it always helps to practice with the real guys-or taking lessons from them. Hohmann, Schmidt, Eberle- just a few examples of expirienced guys who can also teach very good. In my opinion 14.1 is a game where you can learn from almost every top-player.

lg from overseas,

ingo

kollegedave,

Sounds like you're already a solid player. We're all trying to get better. Given the limitations you've described, here are some ideas:

-- Watch the better players in your local room (even if you can't match up with them as often as you'd like);

-- Travel in order to find better players you're able to play;

-- Watch as many videos as you can, especially those with player review or good commentary;

-- When you watch the videos, don't simply follow the path of the balls, but study the stroke mechanics -- stance, practice stroke routine, follow-through, eye movement, head alignment, ....;

-- Enter tournaments and leagues;

-- When practicing alone, play against yourself and keep score;

-- Play Fargo (http://pool.bz/misc-billiard-rules/4501-fargo-game-rules.html);

-- Keep your practice interesting (practice more than one game, try drills, set goals, try progressive practice, etc.);

--Read about the game, including free online materials, e.g., Bob Jewett's excellent articles (http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/BD_articles.html);

--Only play or practice when you feel like playing;

--Teach a weaker player;

--Talk about pool with other people interested in the game, whether they are stronger or weaker players than you are;

--Subscribe to one or more of the pool magazines;

-- Spot a weaker player enough weight so that you will need to play well to win;

-- Figure out your greatest weakness, and work on that first;

--Practice shots that make you feel uncomfortable (e.g., shooting off the rail, bridging over balls, when the object ball is very close to the cue ball, banks, kicks, delicate safeties, break shots);

--Experiment with playing to a different rhythm or tempo than your usual;

--Devote time to practicing safety play;

--Don't cut yourself a break just because you happened to win a game, and don't tear yourself apart just because you happened to lose, try instead to be as objective as possible in terms of what you did wrong and what you did right.


There's a lot more, but that's at least a few ideas. It's great that you have the initiative to seek out ways to improve.

Good luck!
Larry

Where are you located?

Thumbs Up

G&M and Ingo have really given you some great advice. I would study what they wrote.

Here is one Link to one of my videos. Give it a try. Hope it helps.
https://vimeo.com/26598377

Good Luck. Let us know how you are coming along.

Thanks as well from another up-and-comer, so much great advice. Can't wait to get on the table in an hour and try Fargo!

kollegedave said:

Thank you to everyone that posted. Between this an the other thread, you have posted some great ideas.

Someone asked where I am located. I am St. Louis, MO.

kollegedave

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I asked. I just was wondering if you were in Colorado as I could help you at no charge. If you move to Denver,look me up.

measureman said:

I asked. I just was wondering if you were in Colorado as I could help you at no charge. If you move to Denver,look me up.

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You are a good man.

In all activities, whether it be athletic or theatric or work related, to get ahead one must practice, practice, practice.
You can do all the drills in the World, but I believe you must find that someone that plays as good or better than your speed, that is willing to grind out a few sets with you on a near daily basis. I don’t know how many poolrooms there are in St. Louis, but there has to be a ton of real good players in that area. Not all of them are looking to trap anyone.
Understandably, the economy has made it tough to gamble cheap. I grew up being able to get straight pool games of 50 pointers for 2 and the time. Or 100 pointers for 5 and time. We used to play 9-ball quarter on the 5 and a half on the 9. Today, it’s practically an arm and leg just for table time, so if you play for the time and lose, it’ll hurt. But, for sure, matching up is the best way to improve and practice how to play the game. So, a $20, $30, $40, $100 investment to play the better players is really cheap, by today’s standards.
As for your getting better, the desire to improve walks hand in hand with the want to win. In this Sport, more than any other, success is measured in the wins column. It’s a who beat who conundrum.
I believe it was Jim Rempe who said something to the effect of, “You must learn what makes you lose, before you can learn what makes you a winner.”
I can attest to the fact that once I had that “sour” taste of losing, when losing would actually make me sick, I would work harder on acquiring the taste of how to win. When I finally started to beat my peers, it opened a door to a new level of play, which I desired to repeat and repeat and repeat, of which I can only hope you can experience. To have the eye of the gunfighter, ready to outdraw all comers is the ultimate goal.
Books, videos, etc. are fine sources of reference, but are no substitute for chalking the cue and logging hours banging the balls into the pockets against an opponent.
Good luck.

Good posting,


to play against really better players helps the most. Practice and drills are important, too-- but 14.1 must be played until the doctor comes....or you will not improve. Expirience counts double in this great game.

Hi Dave, hope you're well.

To me, to develop as a player you must address both your shot conceptualization and your shot execution.

Practicing, taking lessons and playing tougher players will defintiely develop your execution skills over time.

On the other hand, I believe that playing tougher players is a slow route to improving your conceptualization skills unless your opponent is giving you advice and feedback along the way, and if you are getting that, you should be willing to pay for it. Watching top players is a little better in this regard as it frees up the brain to focus on things that are not as easily considered when you must focus on your game, too. Still, watching top players often won't give you the "why did they do that?" part of the equation.

To properly develop conceptualization skills require a certain amount of knowledge. A weak player may get little more than entertainment when watching a top player due to lack of a sufficient knowledge base from which to study and interpret the play.

I'll add to the fine advie you've received in this thread by recommending that you take the following two steps:

1) There is a small section in the Byrne's Standard book called "advice on running the table" for straight pool. I recall showing it to Mika Immonen in about 1998 and he was blown away by both its simpicity and its brilliance. It gives you about twenty principles of play including things like clearing balls that are near or against rails sooner rather than later. Buy the book if you don't have it and I'd commit this section (two pages at most) to memory.

2) Read Phil Capelle's "Play Your Best Straight Pool."

Then, if you study the play of the top players in your area, you will have enough knowledge to interpret what they are doing and why, and maybe even enough guts to ask them when there game is complete about a shot that surprised you.

Good luck with your game, Dave.

You've already been given some great advice. Let me just add this: try and give playing a perfect game of Equal Offense a serious try at least once in your life (basically, run 20 in Straight Pool starting with cue ball in hand behind the head string after an open break, all fifteen object balls on the table, ten innings in a row, i.e. consecutively). Warning: you may find it annoying. It does so much seem within reach. And yet, I don't know anyone who's ever shot a perfect 200. I've come close myself but fallen short of the mark (but will admit I have seldom had the time to even try, usually not more than a couple times a year). What I can guarantee you, however, is that it'll make anyone a better Straight Pool player, if not within hours, then within days or a few weeks.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

Bob Jewett said:

I believe that back when there was a national EO competition sponsored by Pool and Billiard Magazine that a perfect score was reported, but I'd have to check to be sure. Those competitions had some kind of handicaps and maybe I'm remembering the handicapped score.

If you are 50% to get through 20 balls, which is actually a very high standard, you will need to play about 1000 sets of Equal Offense to have a good expectation of a perfect score. There are very few players at DCC who get to 20 in more than half their attempts at the 14.1 Challenge.

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It's great for practice, but may ultimately become a frustrating game for a good Straight Pool player. To not run 20 with ball in hand in a open table feels like not running out in 8-Ball - it seems feasible to do 100% of the time but isn't. Seriously, I've started to hate trying, then again, now that I'm typing this, I'm saying to myself I need to give it another try as soon as possible (next week?), LOL! My all-time record in Equal Offense is 190, my last attempt (late last year, if memory serves right), 177. Apart from the above, the game has a coitus interruptus kind of feel to it that could easily drive a grown man mad, but, I'm repeating myself, it's great practice…

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti

kollegedave said:

It is easy to forget Equal Offense. I have played it a bit several years ago. I think my high score was 147. It has been awhile since I played though.

I still left weights some, but when I was seriously into it, I learned that you need to train in a way that matches how you are going to compete. That is to say, if you are lifting heavy weights for low reps, then that should be the main component of your training.

I think the same is true for pool. Training should simulate competition as much as possible. In one way this makes EO good because you are keeping score. However, in another way it is not so good because I won't ever play in a an EO tournament or gambling match.

Still I may revisit the game for some spice in practice. Thank You

kollegedave

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It accomplishes a few things that are reason enough I'll bring it up in e.g. club trainings (teams or groups of people such as clubs that I teach on a regular basis):

• It teaches especially intermediate level players to avoid a common mistake, which is to choose a first object ball from behind the head string that's tough, but that they claim they must shoot because it makes more sense (= and they may be right as far as Straight Pool pattern play is concerned - nonetheless, can't ever miss that first shot…).

• It teaches players of all levels to group balls into ones e.g. a) potential break and key and key-to-the-key (K2) balls, b) clusters and cluster break balls as well as patterns to get to them quick, c) balls that need to be shot earlier in the sequence to make room for balls that otherwise won't have a pocket, d) "useless" balls such as ones on or near the rails near a side pocket, that are difficult to play position on or could otherwise cause trouble late in the rack, and that have no function in one's end pattern and thus need to be gone preferably long before there are only 3-5 balls left.

By the way, I encourage beginners to intermediate players to assess their own level and take ball in hand anywhere on the table one, two or three times per inning - or else some will never get to figure out end patterns (although of course there are other practice games specifically for that purpose), let alone shoot a break shot to get into the next rack.

In fact, Bob's numbers above make me think that if used strictly as a practice game, self-assessment and resulting number of BIH per inning should result in students being able to reach a break shot roughly half of the time, or else it's too easy/too difficult as an exercise.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti