Why the playing plateau is higher for some than others

I believe it is all based in the brain.. Muscle memory and hand-eye coordination are the main tools required by a pool player. The angles are all simple, and learned by repetition. To build a repeatable stroke, one has to have a high degree of muscle memory.

Without this, you will always exhibit some degree of "inconsistency", simply because your brain/hand/arm cannot replicate a straight stroke.

Muscle memory is a misnomer, I believe, as I think it is actually the ability of the brain to quickly "burn-in" the same repeated motion into the brain's nueron pathways, and also the ability to send it to the proper muscles on command. On another note, muscle memory is what allows some people to pick up a guitar, be shown a few chords, and be playing songs within a month. Others can practice for a year 2 hours a day just to get to the same point. The second player doesn't have the "burn-in" capability of the first. The have to practice longer, and if they stop practicing, their hands "forget" quicker.

Sound familiar to some lesser players in pool?

Short Bus Russ

Excellent post.

I had a hard time seeing the tangent line when I started playing as a kid. I would play for hours on end just setting up cuts hitting plain ball and placing a ball along what I thought was the tangent line and I would try hit the ball full. I couldn't do it. I was placing the ball off of the tangent line. It was fine if the rails were parallel to the tangent line, but if they weren't then I had no chance of judging it. That alone really held me back a year or two. 18 years later and I still see the tangent line to be greater than 90 degrees, but having hit so many balls I know where the CB will travel.

Its weird in a way - I had no problem seeing imaginary lines between the edges of balls, and was brought up using fractional aiming and picked it up quick for an 8 year old. I could automatically tell if a shot was a 3/4 hit or what ever from anywhere around the table.

Since transferring from snooker to pool, I've discovered all kids of weird and wonderful methods of aim. Some just aren't for me. Systems that involve fixed references to another fixed point I pick up quick. For example, CB edge to OB edge I can see easily or CTE I can see. But ghost ball gets messy if I don't stand behind the OB to pocket.

I have a friend who has never played the game and has zero interest in it but he came to watch me play a match. Whilst practicing he told me I was going to miss the shot and I did. So I got down on another and asked him where the OB would go, and he said I had too much angle and pointed to where I would hit the rail. I shot the shot and hit within about half an inch of where he pointed. I set up a few more and aimed to miss and he was dead on with his predictions. This from a guy who has never played the game and was stood 'behind' the shot facing me when I was down. Some people just have that natural ability to "see" the game in a completely different way. Unfortunately I'm not one of the lucky ones.

Oh yes.. You are right.. A third critical skill is "spatial recognition", in which you have the ability to visualize three dimensional objects in space and predict their movements in real time.

This is what allows pool players to see tangent lines, and also predict the effect of spin and force on the balls. This is what allows good players to accurately judge where a CB will hit the third rail and with what speed after pocketing a ball.

Short Bus Russ

Everyone's brain works in a different way. Some people can recognize patterns, other recognize shapes and others have uncanny color ability.

ShortBusRuss said:

The angles are all simple, and learned by repetition.
Short Bus Russ

Click to expand...

I'm not sure exactly what you meant by this, but some people can't recognize angles (to the precision required in pool) no matter how much they repeat/practice it. It's hard for a person who can do it to understand why everyone else can't do it to.

I've taught music and trading to lots of people. After 40 years I'm still amazed at what some people can see or hear and others can't.

Maybe. I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out. Don't hold your breath, it may take a while.