Trouble with consistency

My biggest problem with consistency is it doesn't happen all the time.

Seriously, if someone has pointers, I'm all ears. I have the same problem. I can actually feel my stroke get discombobulated, and then all of a sudden it's...uhm....combobulated again.

Yes, ive experienced that a great deal.

Answer=stay the course, persevere, and most importantly fundamentals.

Its very tough to be consistent at anything.

Thats why a master is a master, its consistent, fluid, effortless.

Happens to me too... I'm training myself on learning to "reset," trust my fundamentals, and let the subconscious take over...

All the time for me as well. Like the other poster said, I too practice on the long straight in shots. When I miss, it's usually to the left. That drill allows me to correct it. I also know at home, when I shoot for awhile, I shoot fast and my game suffers, I need to slow down on every shot like my life depends on it and my game improves. I will say that over the long haul I am getting more and more consistent, I find that doing what works for me works, online teaching/learning and stuff is good but find what works for you, it may be contrary to what most say.

AlienObserver said:

Hello all..
As the title suggest, I have a big trouble with my consistency. For reasons I don't understand, I can play fairly good for only about a week and a half, and then for the next two weeks my level colapses, to the point I can miss unmissable shots.... And after that, I can play great again!... This circle is happening in the last year (before that I was only playing terible )

Last 2 weeks I was shooting better than ever. I did practice a lot, I found some problems with my technique and tried to fix them and it seemed that my efforts payed off, and as I said I was playing the best pool of my life... for about a week and a half again. Since Sunday, I started missing easy shots again...

Has anyone experienced something like that? What would you suggest?

Click to expand...

No, I have never experienced anything like that. Why? No. 2 below.

As far as I remember, I have never experienced anything of what you are speaking.

Alien. I would say to take a look at the below three things to avoid protracted inconsistency periods:

1) Work on the fundamentals--
that means play with no English and learn how to make balls and what the cue ball does naturally.

2) (If you don't already have one, create) or improve on your pre-shot routine.
You can always make THAT consistent-- great start.
The goal is for that pre-shot routine consistency to "feed into" your actual game.
THIS ONE IS HUGE. REMEMBER IT. USE IT.

3) Plan and execute shorter and more serious practice sessions.
You play too long and you stand to get into bad habits.

Try making a baseline video of yourself from every angle when your playing well. Then when you hit a slump, make another video for comparison. Try to find what's different.

Pre Shot Routine

I have been practicing what boogeyman and klone said with positive results, great advice!

Just takes time for it to become automatic(subconscious and muscle memory). Same with recognizing patterns.

https://hbr.org/2007/07/the-making-of-an-expert

We as humans are inherently lazy, looking for the fastest easiest and quickest ways to accomplish what we want. In this case playing our best game of pool.

We are also very visual creatures, with our vision centres being closely tied to our motor skills or hand eye coordination.

Now our vision and hand eye both have good and bad days individually and some times the communication between them is better or worse.

This may seem to be rambling and going nowhere but here is where is ties together. When you are playing your absolute best, in the zone as they say your hand eye and vision are operating in an elevated state and it probably wouldn’t matter what cue, tip, special shaft or fundamentals you are playing with you will play great on this day.

But this is where the laziness also comes in because of this heightened state you start to skip steps in your routine maybe start to twist into shots instead of falling straight down the line or many other flaws that could start to creep in but due to your state you continue to play elevated and get away with it. On a side note on these days where we reach this state we tend to stay and play longer because it is so enjoyable.

This leads to my point, you have played longer with flaws and ingrained a new lazy shot routine, made worse by the success you encountered playing this way. But upon returning be it the following day or days later you break out this NLR and due to the fact you have normalized your state you struggle and can’t figure out why, so you go back to basics and start to reintegrate your original routine but depending on the time and detail you have put into developing it that could take anywhere from a day to a couple weeks to re-groove it as you have created competing routines for your mind to filter through.

In my estimation this is part of the reason pro’s play so consistently, they have grooved routines to the point where they are burned in and they can’t deviate from them. The pain of losing and the joy they get from winning trumps any discomfort they feel for the repetition of their shot routines.

I also feel that many people, pro’s included play their best pool in the state just short of the zone. When the are conscious of everything and executing at a very high level and unlike the zone this can be maintained for extended periods of time. I believe Buddy Hall in his book talks about being in a period like this for four years after making a discovery with his bridge.

I believe also that being in the zone can lead to carelessness and recklessness from the go for it attitude that develops from making everything and getting position, right up until you make a mistake which takes you from the zone as opposed to playing smart solid repeatable pool.

Just some of my ideas I’ve gathered over my time playing this great game of pool as well as many other enjoyable sports and trying to learn as much as I can.

AlienObserver said:

Hello all..
As the title suggest, I have a big trouble with my consistency. For reasons I don't understand, I can play fairly good for only about a week and a half, and then for the next two weeks my level colapses, to the point I can miss unmissable shots.... And after that, I can play great again!... This circle is happening in the last year (before that I was only playing terible )

Last 2 weeks I was shooting better than ever. I did practice a lot, I found some problems with my technique and tried to fix them and it seemed that my efforts payed off, and as I said I was playing the best pool of my life... for about a week and a half again. Since Sunday, I started missing easy shots again...

Has anyone experienced something like that? What would you suggest?

Click to expand...

Consistency is the biggest problem for all pool players, amateur and professional alike. How do you play your top game all of the time? We all have our ups and downs. Just have to persevere. When you figure it our, let us know. Maybe we can bottle it. :grin:

When it happens to me, the way I get back in line is concentrating on making a very straight back stroke...pin straight, like a machine. Helps me get that locked in feeling.

PSR. The simple truth of pool is its all about consistency.

Being able to deliver a consistent repeatable stroke time after time. Keeping a consistent rhythm which is where a PSR comes in.

Most people that have consistency problems are beginners that have not developed the muscle memory or experienced players that have no true structure such as a PSR.

Colonel said:

PSR. The simple truth of pool is its all about consistency.

Being able to deliver a consistent repeatable stroke time after time. Keeping a consistent rhythm which is where a PSR comes in.

Most people that have consistency problems are beginners that have not developed the muscle memory or experienced players that have no true structure such as a PSR.

Click to expand...

PSR is so important and the discipline to repeat it easy to forget. PSR and trust your stroke.

AlienObserver said:

Hello all..
As the title suggest, I have a big trouble with my consistency. For reasons I don't understand, I can play fairly good for only about a week and a half, and then for the next two weeks my level colapses, to the point I can miss unmissable shots.... And after that, I can play great again!... This circle is happening in the last year (before that I was only playing terible )

Last 2 weeks I was shooting better than ever. I did practice a lot, I found some problems with my technique and tried to fix them and it seemed that my efforts payed off, and as I said I was playing the best pool of my life... for about a week and a half again. Since Sunday, I started missing easy shots again...

Has anyone experienced something like that? What would you suggest?

Click to expand...

A pool lesson with me or another good instructor!

My issue right now is on Monday 8-ball I'm shooting almost lights out...on Thursday 9-ball I can't hit the broad side of a barn. I thought it may be an issue with position play in 9-ball but last week I was putting the cue ball where I wanted but was missing the pockets. Talk about frustrating.

AlienObserver said:

Hello all..
As the title suggest, I have a big trouble with my consistency. For reasons I don't understand, I can play fairly good for only about a week and a half, and then for the next two weeks my level colapses, to the point I can miss unmissable shots.... And after that, I can play great again!... This circle is happening in the last year (before that I was only playing terible )

Last 2 weeks I was shooting better than ever. I did practice a lot, I found some problems with my technique and tried to fix them and it seemed that my efforts payed off, and as I said I was playing the best pool of my life... for about a week and a half again. Since Sunday, I started missing easy shots again...

Has anyone experienced something like that? What would you suggest?

Click to expand...

Maybe you're tiring yourself out and it starts to kick in after a week and a half and you start to lose focus. Try taking a day off from pool every so often when you're playing well.

boogeyman said:

No, I have never experienced anything like that. Why? No. 2 below.

As far as I remember, I have never experienced anything of what you are speaking.

Alien. I would say to take a look at the below three things to avoid protracted inconsistency periods:

1) Work on the fundamentals--
that means play with no English and learn how to make balls and what the cue ball does naturally.

2) (If you don't already have one, create) or improve on your pre-shot routine.
You can always make THAT consistent-- great start.
The goal is for that pre-shot routine consistency to "feed into" your actual game.
THIS ONE IS HUGE. REMEMBER IT. USE IT.

3) Plan and execute shorter and more serious practice sessions.
You play too long and you stand to get into bad habits.

Click to expand...

Good advice!
What has helped my game tremendously is 1.
The other things are, to concentrate on centering up on the cue ball before shooting (2), and when my shots start wandering I then completely relax my stroke and not worry about speed just following thru relaxed. This all needs to be incorporate into 2.

Stop thinking......

Yes, I agree with Matt. Find a good instructor. With the new BCAPL Fargo Ratings it is easy to see how consistant a prospective coach is in their own playing ability. Could be a good indicator of their ability to get you from where you are now to where you want to be. There are several great coaches to choose from. I got this photo from the International Billiard Society. It lists all of the PBIA/ACS Master instructors along with their FARGO Ratings. Just some food for thought. Hope this helps. Some of the instructors havent played in enough events to get ranked. According to FARGO the higher the rating the better the player's ability.