The road to recovery day 1

Mike30

New member
Hi Ray. I'm not an expert but more of a person who is running parallel to what you are doing. Just have a year under my belt, close on same age and layoff. I just wanted to put out a couple of things that have been helping my game. 1st of all, Phil Capelle's practicing pool book has turned into more of bible. Its a very good read, lot of great drills and overall just a great book. Also, I don't know if you have checked out the BU exams. I started doing these a year ago. First initial score on exam 1 was 34 and currently have a high score of 78 on exam 1 and 129 total for exams 1 & 2. I believe that these exams have really helped my game. I see these shots come up in every game. I also play the 6-ball ghost. I run sets of 10, keeping track of possible balls, made balls, and also percentage of total possible balls ran. Also, after every rack determine if this was missed position or missed shot. After every set, I have a percentage of balls I ran and also number of reasoning for loss of runout. As a warm up, here of late, I play a round of bowlliards, which I have found very enjoyable to keep a running number of my progress. 229 high score. Good luck with your game and hope this helps. Also, hoping soon to have a lesson with Mark Wilson, fingers crossed.
 

alstl

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
If you have room I'd recommend a 9' table. That's if you are really serious about wanting to get back into the game.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
Appreciate tin man and the rake/all others who will watch / offer thoughts.
Will play my real set later today.
https://youtu.be/q0GCik3EyYM

Okay Ray, here we go, the good, the bad and the ugly. :smile:

First of all, you're cheating yourself on the break shot. You should be breaking from the second diamond and not the third. On the break itself, you have a lot of power but some of it is wasted. It is the one shot that your whole body moves on, and that goes for everybody, not just you. Instead of coming up after you go through the cue ball, concentrate on going forward with your body and your cue. You will get even more impact this way (it will be more important when you start playing 9-Ball). You might also want to work on controlling your break. You don't have to hit them hard playing this game (six ball) on a bar table. A nice smooth break will work best for opening up the rack, so take a little off and try to control the cue ball better.

Your table bridge needs work. It just doesn't look that solid. See what you can do to get your entire hand anchored down better. Try using a closed bridge on some shots, especially draw shots. That will help you get down lower with better control. Remember this, your left arm is just a pedestal! It is only there to anchor your stroke and you should have no conscious thoughts on your left arm after laying it down and making your bridge. ALL your energy flows from your head down through your right arm and through the cue into the cue ball. Got it!

I would suggest you take just a moment more time in your set up for each shot. Slow your pace down a notch or two. You look like your rushing to shoot each shot.

And the last thing which I hesitated to tell you. The better your overall physical condition the better you will play pool, PERIOD! A little work off the table will make a difference. I don't know what you do for exercise, but walking and swimming are both great. I'm a little older than you and I try to take a brisk mile and a half walk several times a week. I also do various yoga type positions every other day. Only about one minute each and I may do five or six different ones to work my body. The "prone" position is excellent and you can find many of them online. Pick out the ones you like. I also do weight work every other day. Not a lot, just ten reps each using a 50 pound bar. This only takes me 10-15 minutes a day but it keeps my muscles toned and working. I'm in decent shape for an old fart.

I like to see a man taking care of himself and working on his pool game. That inspires me to play as well. So thanks for that. :thumbup:
 
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wigglybridge

14.1 straight pool!
Silver Member
Welder84 has it right: it has close to zero to do with age. or eyesight.

Niels Feijen is 85% blind in one eye. Thorsten Hohmann plays major tournaments without his contact lenses sometimes. Mark Williams wins snooker championships with hundreds of thousand of dollars on the line, you can see him shooting table-length (that's like 13' diagonally) shots into pockets the size of bb's in several youtube videos... WITH HIS EYES CLOSED. seriously, eyes have zip to do with it.

my story is similar to yours with bigger numbers: played a few years as a kid, came back to the game after Forty years away. playing the best pool of my life in my early 70's, running 50s in straight pool on a 9' with 4.5" pockets.

it's all fundamentals. it's ALL fundamentals. everything else is bullshit.
 
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white1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Thank you

Welder84 has it right: it has close to zero to do with age. or eyesight.

Niels Feijen is 85% blind in one eye. Thorsten Hohmann plays major tournaments without his contact lenses sometimes. Mark Williams wins snooker championships with hundreds of thousand of dollars on the line, you can see him shooting table-length (that's like 13' diagonally) shots into pockets the size of bb's in several youtube videos... WITH HIS EYES CLOSED. seriously, eyes have zip to do with it.

my story is similar to yours with bigger numbers: played a few years as a kid, came back to the game after Forty years away. playing the best pool of my life in my early 70's, running 50s in straight pool on a 9' with 4.5" pockets.

it's all fundamentals. it's ALL fundamentals. everything else is bullshit.
‘Thank you. Believe
 

jrctherake

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Welder84 has it right: it has close to zero to do with age. or eyesight.

Niels Feijen is 85% blind in one eye. Thorsten Hohmann plays major tournaments without his contact lenses sometimes. Mark Williams wins snooker championships with hundreds of thousand of dollars on the line, you can see him shooting table-length (that's like 13' diagonally) shots into pockets the size of bb's in several youtube videos... WITH HIS EYES CLOSED. seriously, eyes have zip to do with it.

my story is similar to yours with bigger numbers: played a few years as a kid, came back to the game after Forty years away. playing the best pool of my life in my early 70's, running 50s in straight pool on a 9' with 4.5" pockets.

it's all fundamentals. it's ALL fundamentals. everything else is bullshit.

I'll agree on the age/eyesight to a certain extent.

It's true, we don't really need to see (as if we could) CONTACT POINTS. Not possible.

All we need to see is the edges of the ball and center. Everything else IMO...is not needed....visual wise.

Age. Again I agree. 20 or 80....

What does matter is being HEALTHY.

Stay healthy and you can play pool at pretty high levels into your 80's. I've seen it done. I'm not talking about playing "good"....I'm talking about strong "A" to shortstop speed.

Health is were its at.

Well, that and FUNDAMENTALS....

Jeff
 

white1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Day 8

Lost 7 to 0. Not surprised/disappointed.
Had nearly 30 shots worth of stuff in mind.
Tried cram all in without doing them, I guess.

Gonna forget this one.
Gonna start posting my daily race to 7 ghosts in the ghost section.

Gonna work on one drill at a time like he said starting with shot 1.
I hour early shot drill.
One set or 2 early evening.

Huge thx to all.
I’m having a lot of fun.
Give me 6 months/watch what happens!
 

jrctherake

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Lost 7 to 0. Not surprised/disappointed.
Had nearly 30 shots worth of stuff in mind.
Tried cram all in without doing them, I guess.

Gonna forget this one.
Gonna start posting my daily race to 7 ghosts in the ghost section.

Gonna work on one drill at a time like he said starting with shot 1.
I hour early shot drill.
One set or 2 early evening.

Huge thx to all.
I’m having a lot of fun.
Give me 6 months/watch what happens!

A lot can happen in 6 months...a lot.

Thing is, most don't see it. Why? Well, they don't get the simple but oh so ever important things in pool right before they go on their merry way ....and play.

It more often than not turns out to be not so much of a merry time for most.

I cannot stress it enough:

Don't spend much time PLAYING pool.

Spend 90+% of your time on that foundation.

I can't promise you'll be a world beater just because you get your fundamentals in line but I can almost guarantee that you WON'T be one if you don't.

I know I sound like a broken record but it really is that important to anyone just starting out and wanting to reach their potential.

I know people that have been playing for 30 years non-stop that play no better or no more consistent than they did six months after first picking a cue up.

Jeff
 

white1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Thx a LOT jay-your opinions matter here

Okay Ray, here we go, the good, the bad and the ugly. :smile:

First of all, you're cheating yourself on the break shot. You should be breaking from the second diamond and not the third. On the break itself, you have a lot of power but some of it is wasted. It is the one shot that your whole body moves on, and that goes for everybody, not just you. Instead of coming up after you go through the cue ball, concentrate on going forward with your body and your cue. You will get even more impact this way (it will be more important when you start playing 9-Ball). You might also want to work on controlling your break. You don't have to hit them hard playing this game (six ball) on a bar table. A nice smooth break will work best for opening up the rack, so take a little off and try to control the cue ball better.

Your table bridge needs work. It just doesn't look that solid. See what you can do to get your entire hand anchored down better. Try using a closed bridge on some shots, especially draw shots. That will help you get down lower with better control. Remember this, your left arm is just a pedestal! It is only there to anchor your stroke and you should have no conscious thoughts on your left arm after laying it down and making your bridge. ALL your energy flows from your head down through your right arm and through the cue into the cue ball. Got it!

I would suggest you take just a moment more time in your set up for each shot. Slow your pace down a notch or two. You look like your rushing to shoot each shot.

And the last thing which I hesitated to tell you. The better your overall physical condition the better you will play pool, PERIOD! A little work off the table will make a difference. I don't know what you do for exercise, but walking and swimming are both great. I'm a little older than you and I try to take a brisk mile and a half walk several times a week. I also do various yoga type positions every other day. Only about one minute each and I may do five or six different ones to work my body. The "prone" position is excellent and you can find many of them online. Pick out the ones you like. I also do weight work every other day. Not a lot, just ten reps each using a 50 pound bar. This only takes me 10-15 minutes a day but it keeps my muscles toned and working. I'm in decent shape for an old fart.

I like to see a man taking care of himself and working on his pool game. That inspires me to play as well. So thanks for that. :thumbup:

Completely agree with everything u said. I break that far up cause my rooms too small, lol. Thx I mean it.
 

white1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Thinking about the closed bridge

Okay Ray, here we go, the good, the bad and the ugly. :smile:

First of all, you're cheating yourself on the break shot. You should be breaking from the second diamond and not the third. On the break itself, you have a lot of power but some of it is wasted. It is the one shot that your whole body moves on, and that goes for everybody, not just you. Instead of coming up after you go through the cue ball, concentrate on going forward with your body and your cue. You will get even more impact this way (it will be more important when you start playing 9-Ball). You might also want to work on controlling your break. You don't have to hit them hard playing this game (six ball) on a bar table. A nice smooth break will work best for opening up the rack, so take a little off and try to control the cue ball better.

Your table bridge needs work. It just doesn't look that solid. See what you can do to get your entire hand anchored down better. Try using a closed bridge on some shots, especially draw shots. That will help you get down lower with better control. Remember this, your left arm is just a pedestal! It is only there to anchor your stroke and you should have no conscious thoughts on your left arm after laying it down and making your bridge. ALL your energy flows from your head down through your right arm and through the cue into the cue ball. Got it!

I would suggest you take just a moment more time in your set up for each shot. Slow your pace down a notch or two. You look like your rushing to shoot each shot.

And the last thing which I hesitated to tell you. The better your overall physical condition the better you will play pool, PERIOD! A little work off the table will make a difference. I don't know what you do for exercise, but walking and swimming are both great. I'm a little older than you and I try to take a brisk mile and a half walk several times a week. I also do various yoga type positions every other day. Only about one minute each and I may do five or six different ones to work my body. The "prone" position is excellent and you can find many of them online. Pick out the ones you like. I also do weight work every other day. Not a lot, just ten reps each using a 50 pound bar. This only takes me 10-15 minutes a day but it keeps my muscles toned and working. I'm in decent shape for an old fart.

I like to see a man taking care of himself and working on his pool game. That inspires me to play as well. So thanks for that. :thumbup:

I have always played primarily with closed bridge. I bought this cue when I started back with a 12.4 mm shaft thinking what I needed, but since realized I can’t properly close my bridge due to short fingers. Have a new coming at 12 mm pro taper.

Speed/alignment - yes gotta take little more time..noted.
Fitness - yep tnx having guts say it. I’m about 165 at 5 ft 1. Mostly healthy but could certainly lose 25 pounds/tone up.
Break - roo limitations and valley table metal pocket corners prevent the break I like

Thx again. Please read my next post coming. Thank you!
 

white1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Changing direction

EVERY one of u have been helpful. I take every thing u say and think on it hard.

Thoughts: moving forward.
The ghost is not what’s gonna get me where I wanna be-u guys hinted that.
Why: u have to play 1.000 - perfect—not many play that good.
I find myself winning or losing 7 5 or 7 4, but still missing same shots- not for me - not what I need

My goal:
I wanna have fun, play better, compete, have fun! Ghost ain’t fun.

I learned about in me in last 10 days. About an hour a day is what I’m gonna play by myself-that’s the FACT
I JUST played. Had fun, played good. Break good, alignment good shot prep good ball control good speed good-missed about 4 shots. Set them back up/shot again.

I see those Bert kinister numbered shots. I know those shot learning tools will help.
I’m gonna start them slowly- I see them in every game.i don’t know some of them - I will.

I’m gonna work on those/play 6 ball/reshoot til I make shots I miss. LEARN.
Get my fundamentals SOLID til I don’t really have think about it much.

Learn shots/play 6 ball/play ghost but learn from missed shots/ not worry about winning or losing right now

I’ll be reporting in about once a week. THANK YOU - gonna have dinner watch me some Netflix
 

David in FL

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
A lot can happen in 6 months...a lot.

I cannot stress it enough:

Don't spend much time PLAYING pool.

Spend 90+% of your time on that foundation.

I can't promise you'll be a world beater just because you get your fundamentals in line but I can almost guarantee that you WON'T be one if you don't.

I know I sound like a broken record but it really is that important to anyone just starting out and wanting to reach their potential.

I know people that have been playing for 30 years non-stop that play no better or no more consistent than they did six months after first picking a cue up.

Jeff

Well, damn. No wonder I suck!
 
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