I've been having a running discussion with my father, who usually sits and watches me run balls whenever I go over to shoot some pool in the basement. Whenever he sees me miss an easy shot he says, "Forget that one. Just knock it in and keep going. It isn't important for improvement in your game in the big picture." Of course this bugs me because I believe all misses are important. I think we kind of agree mostly, but I wanted to make a point to him about pre shot routines. So I emailed him the note below and thought some here might like to comment. I'm sure I could learn a few things. Thanks for any thoughts. Here's what I emailed him:
Hi! I was sitting here goofing around on the computer and I thought would discuss this idea of missing shots in straight pool, and whether some misses are more important than others.
Just to recap your point, I think what you are saying is that the biggest hill for me to get over is mastering shot selection (strategy), including how best to break up clusters, and how to choose the best pattern for the last few balls before the break ball. If I can master that, then I can run a lot of balls. So, when I miss a shot that you know that I've already mastered, like a straight in short shot, it is unimportant because it has nothing to do with the more complex aspects of running lots of balls.
I agree with you that if I could master strategy, and my other skills remained unchanged, I'd run a lot more balls than I do now. On the subject of strategy, I think where I stand is that I'm not that far away from getting it right. I'm sure sometimes there are runout patterns that might be easier than the ones I pick out, so I have to be sure to stop and look the table over carefully when the balls are all open, and do a better job of picking the right ones for last. The one thing I know I have to work on more is learning just how precise I can be with cue ball control. I'd like to think I can go into a cluster softly and just move one or two balls that I've selected, instead of busting into the cluster. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't. To me, the answer is to occasionally go back to those position drills for practice, and to learn which are higher percentage shots for me.
So anyway, back to my original point about whether some misses are more important than others. If I miss a shot because I'm not warmed up, or because I'm mentally tired and not seeing the balls that well, then I agree that these misses are not that important, because I'm not playing at my real, or normal, ability.
But, I think to discount an easy miss is a mistake. Let me explain why I think missing easy shots is a bigger problem than you might think. In order to play high level pool, you need to have a consistent pre-shot routine (PSR). Loree Jon Jones stroked the cue 7 times before each shot. Tony Robles told me he does it 3 times before every shot (or at least that I should). Allison Fischer is like a machine. Fran Crimi said some of the women pros chalk their cue, and then put the chalk on the rail as the signal, or trigger, for them to forget everything but making the ball. Even the old time greats, I'm sure, had a PSR that was consistent shot to shot to shot, over and over hundreds of times in a row. A guy like Efren or Willie might be so good that they don't appear to have any consistent PSR, but I bet they did (even if they didn't label it a "Pre Shot Routine.")
Given this concept of a PSR, it becomes obvious that the miss of a simple shot means that the PSR has broken down in a really big way. It is a mental error and is just as serious as picking the wrong ball for your break shot. Recognizing the mental error and trying to correct it is very important because you can't run 100 balls if you let your PSR break down every 30 or 40 balls you attempt to pocket.
To this day, I do not follow an exact PSR when it comes to placing my feet in precise locations for every shot, and analyzing every little body movement (which some people actually do). My PSR deals mostly with getting in a comfortable position with the elbow still and above the cue. The rest of the PSR has to do with the stroke motion itself.
Now here is something I learned a while back that is VERY, VERY IMPORTANT: Playing pool correctly is all about controlling yourself, and not about controlling the balls on the table. You can't directly control what happens on the table. All you can do is control yourself mentally and physically. What happens on the table simply reflects how well you are able to control yourself. This concept is easy to dismiss as silly or obvious, but it hit me one day, and my game improved a lot. This concept allowed me to relax mentally and in my stroke motion. It also agrees with something Crimi had said, which I've mentioned to you before. She said that when you have a tricky shot that you are not confident in, that is the time when you really have to bear down and make sure that your fundamentals are good. Lack of confidence leads to tension, which screws up the PSR, and leads to a miss.
When I watch you shoot pool, you often say what virtually everybody says, "How the hell did I miss that shot...Why can't I keep myself still...Why do I keep jumping up on the shot"? The answer is that you haven't taken to heart the idea that controlling yourself is more important than controlling what is happening on the table. Let me put it another way. Usually when I play I have a specific goal in mind for that day. I might want to concentrate on breaking clusters softly, or controlling draw distance more accurately, and so on. If you make it a practice drill to focus on YOURSELF, and a Pre-Shot Routine, and FORGET what the balls are doing after you hit the cue ball, I think you'd be able to overcome a lot of the repetitive problems you have. Shoot a ball and judge the success of the shot on whether you maintained a PSR, and NOT whether the ball went in the pocket. If you missed, just use that as evidence that your PSR broke down somewhere, either in faulty aim, bad arm movement, and so on, and that you are failing to pay attention to what is important - your PSR.
So, if I look back at playing yesterday and see how my runs ended, I would categorize them roughly as follows:
* miss due to PSR breakdown - did not shoot confidently
* miss due to PSR breakdown - firm draw shot missed due to "wiggly" arm movement probably (not warmed up??)
* miss due to misjudging cue ball control - cue ball didn't go where I thought it was going to go, and left
me tough
* miss due to a tough rack after the break
* miss due to bad position on the last 3 balls
and so on...
So, from my perspective, there were several runs interrupted by PSR and cue ball movement errors. Not a lot of my errors were due to inferior strategy. I see all the misses as important, and an opportunity to improve my game.
If I really wanted to concentrate on shot selection/strategy, then I could just throw a bunch of balls on the table and figure out the simplest way to run them off. It's probably a good drill, actually. But for now, I'm happy to keep trying to run balls and see where my game is. I've been doing drills for so long that it is time to see where those drills have taken me.
I know this was a bit rambling, but hopefully my point about why ALL misses are important to learn from came through.
I'll talk to you later,
Dan
Hi! I was sitting here goofing around on the computer and I thought would discuss this idea of missing shots in straight pool, and whether some misses are more important than others.
Just to recap your point, I think what you are saying is that the biggest hill for me to get over is mastering shot selection (strategy), including how best to break up clusters, and how to choose the best pattern for the last few balls before the break ball. If I can master that, then I can run a lot of balls. So, when I miss a shot that you know that I've already mastered, like a straight in short shot, it is unimportant because it has nothing to do with the more complex aspects of running lots of balls.
I agree with you that if I could master strategy, and my other skills remained unchanged, I'd run a lot more balls than I do now. On the subject of strategy, I think where I stand is that I'm not that far away from getting it right. I'm sure sometimes there are runout patterns that might be easier than the ones I pick out, so I have to be sure to stop and look the table over carefully when the balls are all open, and do a better job of picking the right ones for last. The one thing I know I have to work on more is learning just how precise I can be with cue ball control. I'd like to think I can go into a cluster softly and just move one or two balls that I've selected, instead of busting into the cluster. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't. To me, the answer is to occasionally go back to those position drills for practice, and to learn which are higher percentage shots for me.
So anyway, back to my original point about whether some misses are more important than others. If I miss a shot because I'm not warmed up, or because I'm mentally tired and not seeing the balls that well, then I agree that these misses are not that important, because I'm not playing at my real, or normal, ability.
But, I think to discount an easy miss is a mistake. Let me explain why I think missing easy shots is a bigger problem than you might think. In order to play high level pool, you need to have a consistent pre-shot routine (PSR). Loree Jon Jones stroked the cue 7 times before each shot. Tony Robles told me he does it 3 times before every shot (or at least that I should). Allison Fischer is like a machine. Fran Crimi said some of the women pros chalk their cue, and then put the chalk on the rail as the signal, or trigger, for them to forget everything but making the ball. Even the old time greats, I'm sure, had a PSR that was consistent shot to shot to shot, over and over hundreds of times in a row. A guy like Efren or Willie might be so good that they don't appear to have any consistent PSR, but I bet they did (even if they didn't label it a "Pre Shot Routine.")
Given this concept of a PSR, it becomes obvious that the miss of a simple shot means that the PSR has broken down in a really big way. It is a mental error and is just as serious as picking the wrong ball for your break shot. Recognizing the mental error and trying to correct it is very important because you can't run 100 balls if you let your PSR break down every 30 or 40 balls you attempt to pocket.
To this day, I do not follow an exact PSR when it comes to placing my feet in precise locations for every shot, and analyzing every little body movement (which some people actually do). My PSR deals mostly with getting in a comfortable position with the elbow still and above the cue. The rest of the PSR has to do with the stroke motion itself.
Now here is something I learned a while back that is VERY, VERY IMPORTANT: Playing pool correctly is all about controlling yourself, and not about controlling the balls on the table. You can't directly control what happens on the table. All you can do is control yourself mentally and physically. What happens on the table simply reflects how well you are able to control yourself. This concept is easy to dismiss as silly or obvious, but it hit me one day, and my game improved a lot. This concept allowed me to relax mentally and in my stroke motion. It also agrees with something Crimi had said, which I've mentioned to you before. She said that when you have a tricky shot that you are not confident in, that is the time when you really have to bear down and make sure that your fundamentals are good. Lack of confidence leads to tension, which screws up the PSR, and leads to a miss.
When I watch you shoot pool, you often say what virtually everybody says, "How the hell did I miss that shot...Why can't I keep myself still...Why do I keep jumping up on the shot"? The answer is that you haven't taken to heart the idea that controlling yourself is more important than controlling what is happening on the table. Let me put it another way. Usually when I play I have a specific goal in mind for that day. I might want to concentrate on breaking clusters softly, or controlling draw distance more accurately, and so on. If you make it a practice drill to focus on YOURSELF, and a Pre-Shot Routine, and FORGET what the balls are doing after you hit the cue ball, I think you'd be able to overcome a lot of the repetitive problems you have. Shoot a ball and judge the success of the shot on whether you maintained a PSR, and NOT whether the ball went in the pocket. If you missed, just use that as evidence that your PSR broke down somewhere, either in faulty aim, bad arm movement, and so on, and that you are failing to pay attention to what is important - your PSR.
So, if I look back at playing yesterday and see how my runs ended, I would categorize them roughly as follows:
* miss due to PSR breakdown - did not shoot confidently
* miss due to PSR breakdown - firm draw shot missed due to "wiggly" arm movement probably (not warmed up??)
* miss due to misjudging cue ball control - cue ball didn't go where I thought it was going to go, and left
me tough
* miss due to a tough rack after the break
* miss due to bad position on the last 3 balls
and so on...
So, from my perspective, there were several runs interrupted by PSR and cue ball movement errors. Not a lot of my errors were due to inferior strategy. I see all the misses as important, and an opportunity to improve my game.
If I really wanted to concentrate on shot selection/strategy, then I could just throw a bunch of balls on the table and figure out the simplest way to run them off. It's probably a good drill, actually. But for now, I'm happy to keep trying to run balls and see where my game is. I've been doing drills for so long that it is time to see where those drills have taken me.
I know this was a bit rambling, but hopefully my point about why ALL misses are important to learn from came through.
I'll talk to you later,
Dan