The start of an interesting journey or "at least I'm better than that guy"

mrcymstr

Registered
Hello all. I have been lurking around for a while and now I decided to drop in. I have only in the last couple of months decided I really want to start playing seriously. I was thinking if I assume I do ultimately grow it would be neat to have a log of hard and fast numbers to somewhat show said growth. Figured someone else might be interested either as encouragement for themselves or just something for them to laugh at.

I did the full 50 innings of the q skills test and I will attempt to do another 50 each month as time permits and update this thread with the results. I will either demonstrate skill growth, my complete ineptitude, or at least why you shouldn't feel so bad about your own playing speed (remember at least your better than this guy).

Total score: 104
Average per inning: 2.08
Raw numbers: 3,3,1,4,0,1,2,-1,4,0 ][ 3,2,5,5,2,3,8,4,2,2 ][ 3,1,5,1,0,4,3,3,5,-1 ][ 1,2,1,1,2,4,2,3,0,4 ][ 1,2,0,0,0,1,1,0,2,1
 

SloMoHolic

When will then be now?
Silver Member
Welcome to the forums, mrcymstr!

We are glad to have you here. Feel free to participate in the threads, ask questions, and have some fun. Most of us here try to be helpful, and you'll learn a lot from the discussions, even when there are disagreements.

I'm too tired to go out tonight, so I might just shoot a round of the q skills challenge myself. I've never done it before. I've played for about 15 years, and I wish I had kept track of my game over time.

See? Look at that, you've already contributed! Keep up the good work.

See you around,

-Blake
 

SloMoHolic

When will then be now?
Silver Member
Okay, so I only played 10 innings tonight. Here are my results:

Total score: 140
Average per inning: 14.0
Raw scores: 9, 20, 12, 13, 12, 16, 11, 20, 13, 14

I'm proud of my score, but trust me, I'm no "semi-pro"! If I played 50 innings, I bet my average would be closer to 10.

-Blake
 

Baxter

Out To Win
Silver Member
Joe Tucker's Guaranteed Improvement drills book is set up so you can do the drills and chart your progress over time. The drills in it are pretty tough, it'll test your resolution.
 

naji

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hello all. I have been lurking around for a while and now I decided to drop in. I have only in the last couple of months decided I really want to start playing seriously. I was thinking if I assume I do ultimately grow it would be neat to have a log of hard and fast numbers to somewhat show said growth. Figured someone else might be interested either as encouragement for themselves or just something for them to laugh at.

I did the full 50 innings of the q skills test and I will attempt to do another 50 each month as time permits and update this thread with the results. I will either demonstrate skill growth, my complete ineptitude, or at least why you shouldn't feel so bad about your own playing speed (remember at least your better than this guy).

Total score: 104
Average per inning: 2.08
Raw numbers: 3,3,1,4,0,1,2,-1,4,0 ][ 3,2,5,5,2,3,8,4,2,2 ][ 3,1,5,1,0,4,3,3,5,-1 ][ 1,2,1,1,2,4,2,3,0,4 ][ 1,2,0,0,0,1,1,0,2,1

In pool there are million possibilities of shots varieties, only 4000 specially selected shots cover all those millions, you have to master all those 4000 in practice as well under pressure. If you master in practice an suck in pressure game you are doing something wrong, back to drawing board; Many advance players play super in practice, or even practice before 1/2 hr of a match, yet they suck in a match. If that happens to you, you must keep searching why, eventually you will find it and start playing at same level at both practice and under pressure. Having said that you need specific shots during practice, say for example shots with follow with RH english with fast speed, once mastered in practice try during money game, if failed back to drawing board, if you made them repeatedly then you passed shot # x in group # y , and so on until you cover all 4000 shots. Practicing random shots, or racks of 9 or 10 ball is useless before passing the 4000 shots.
Best of luck
 

Island Drive

Otto/Dads College Roommate/Cleveland Browns
Silver Member
Hello all. I have been lurking around for a while and now I decided to drop in. I have only in the last couple of months decided I really want to start playing seriously. I was thinking if I assume I do ultimately grow it would be neat to have a log of hard and fast numbers to somewhat show said growth.


I'm curious, what's your motivation? And where did the inspiration come from?
 

Tramp Steamer

One Pocket enthusiast.
Silver Member
Welcome aboard, mrcymstr. This forum is a very good place to gain information, hear interesting and funny stories, learn about Billiard history, and have an overall good time. Very knowledgeable folks here, and the food is excellent. Why, just last Tuesday we had an all you can eat Shrimp feast that was out of this world.
The shrimp were a tad undercooked, but that's okay.
Wait a minute, damn it, they were a lot undercooked, okay. You couldn't hardly eat the friggin' things. They tasted like rubber, that's what they tasted like.
We ought to take the cook out and shoot him, that's what we ought to do.
Damn!
Have fun. :smile:
 
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67tbird

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In pool there are million possibilities of shots varieties, only 4000 specially selected shots cover all those millions, you have to master all those 4000 in practice as well under pressure. If you master in practice an suck in pressure game you are doing something wrong, back to drawing board; Many advance players play super in practice, or even practice before 1/2 hr of a match, yet they suck in a match. If that happens to you, you must keep searching why, eventually you will find it and start playing at same level at both practice and under pressure. Having said that you need specific shots during practice, say for example shots with follow with RH english with fast speed, once mastered in practice try during money game, if failed back to drawing board, if you made them repeatedly then you passed shot # x in group # y , and so on until you cover all 4000 shots. Practicing random shots, or racks of 9 or 10 ball is useless before passing the 4000 shots.
Best of luck

I hear about the 4000 shot possibilities all the time, where can I find them?

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2
 

CJ Wiley

ESPN WORLD OPEN CHAMPION
Gold Member
Silver Member
.unless someone has respiratory issues, then it may seem like 4000 breaths a day.

In pool there are million possibilities of shots varieties, only 4000 specially selected shots cover all those millions, you have to master all those 4000 in practice as well under pressure. If you master in practice an suck in pressure game you are doing something wrong, back to drawing board; Many advance players play super in practice, or even practice before 1/2 hr of a match, yet they suck in a match. If that happens to you, you must keep searching why, eventually you will find it and start playing at same level at both practice and under pressure. Having said that you need specific shots during practice, say for example shots with follow with RH english with fast speed, once mastered in practice try during money game, if failed back to drawing board, if you made them repeatedly then you passed shot # x in group # y , and so on until you cover all 4000 shots. Practicing random shots, or racks of 9 or 10 ball is useless before passing the 4000 shots.
Best of luck

You use this "4000 shots" like it's some kind of proven number. Can you show us something to back this up, or is it just a number that proves how difficult pool is to someone?

Honestly, if I really thought there was 4000 shots I had to "master" I would never play another game of pool. It's not that complicated, it's like tennis or golf, you have a few themes (of strokes) and a few variations (of speeds).

The obstacle that keeps many players, new and old, from seeing how simple pool can be is the object balls. If you saw a champion player play, and didn't see anything but him hitting the cue ball (without seeing the OB contact) you would start to see the simplicity in pocket billiards.

For the most part we are hitting the cue ball straight, cuing it in one of four different ways to throw or deflect the path slightly. The beginner sees many variables each time to the table, the champion sees only one or two.

I guess we could say we take over 4000 breaths a day too, however, the key is to make each one similar to the one before....unless someone has respiratory issues, then it may seem like 4000 breaths a day. ;)

"It's easy to make pool difficult, and difficult to make pool easy" - CJ Wiley
 

dr9ball

"Lock Doctor"
Silver Member
In pool there are million possibilities of shots varieties, only 4000 specially selected shots cover all those millions, you have to master all those 4000 in practice as well under pressure. If you master in practice an suck in pressure game you are doing something wrong, back to drawing board; Many advance players play super in practice, or even practice before 1/2 hr of a match, yet they suck in a match. If that happens to you, you must keep searching why, eventually you will find it and start playing at same level at both practice and under pressure. Having said that you need specific shots during practice, say for example shots with follow with RH english with fast speed, once mastered in practice try during money game, if failed back to drawing board, if you made them repeatedly then you passed shot # x in group # y , and so on until you cover all 4000 shots. Practicing random shots, or racks of 9 or 10 ball is useless before passing the 4000 shots.
Best of luck


4000 is such a convenient number, why not 99 like Ray Martin suggests? Why not 4024? Where do you come up with this 4000 number? I'd be very interested in your source. Thanks for sharing.
 

naji

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You use this "4000 shots" like it's some kind of proven number. Can you show us something to back this up, or is it just a number that proves how difficult pool is to someone?

Honestly, if I really thought there was 4000 shots I had to "master" I would never play another game of pool. It's not that complicated, it's like tennis or golf, you have a few themes (of strokes) and a few variations (of speeds).

The obstacle that keeps many players, new and old, from seeing how simple pool can be is the object balls. If you saw a champion player play, and didn't see anything but him hitting the cue ball (without seeing the OB contact) you would start to see the simplicity in pocket billiards.

For the most part we are hitting the cue ball straight, cuing it in one of four different ways to throw or deflect the path slightly. The beginner sees many variables each time to the table, the champion sees only one or two.

I guess we could say we take over 4000 breaths a day too, however, the key is to make each one similar to the one before....unless someone has respiratory issues, then it may seem like 4000 breaths a day. ;)

"It's easy to make pool difficult, and difficult to make pool easy" - CJ Wiley

Thanks CJ, and all valid questions. This answer for all wondering about the 4000 shots. I have been playing pool for 30 years, my passion to this sport far exceed my love to anything else in life, ok Sex is an exception!. Finally last Monday, I was practicing hard cut shots and missing them, and did something different, and walla the final straw in the pool code is cracked, no more bad play one day and good the other, no matter how tired or rested you are.

The 4000 # is actually rounded up number to 39xx number, which represents groups of shots that represents the difficulty and varieties of the 39xx shots. So it is real easy to adjust and correct for shots once you learn the basic groups of shots.

Reason i say you have to master the 4000 shots, is so that you have confidence during a money match of shooting such shots and not depend on feel as much. I was like all new, good, and advance players, only play 8 ball, 9 ball, and finally switched to one pocket because my pocketing consistency suffered in the 9 and 10 game, but my level did not improve much it stayed stagnant, additionally, when i practiced 9 and 10 ball my frustration level went up because i was not making balls as i should, and made me quit practicing; kinda like i was walking before crawling all these years, so i sat down and came up with all possible varieties of most common shots in a game of 9 or 10 balls (because IMO those games what makes you master pool, sure snooker is better for learning, but lets not go there) and divided them into groups of shots so i have good systematic way of quickly adjusting and applying for each shot, you do not need to memorize anything, it is just another way of doing pool, kinda like organizing your filing cabinet or hard drive, so information / check list for those not very normal shots gets fetched quickly, no one will notice that you are thinking or doing anything special, but you will.
 

naji

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have them all down except for shot #1,712. :grin:

I know what you thinking. There will be no shot reference number to remember, in fact the system does not use numbers. The 39xx number reference is just to show that there are that many varieties of shots that needs to be mastered, half of which easy no brainer, other half is where one need to think and get used to. There is no other way to learn pool, IMO.
 

mrcymstr

Registered
Hello all. I have been lurking around for a while and now I decided to drop in. I have only in the last couple of months decided I really want to start playing seriously. I was thinking if I assume I do ultimately grow it would be neat to have a log of hard and fast numbers to somewhat show said growth.


I'm curious, what's your motivation? And where did the inspiration come from?


Beats the fire out of me. I just got randomly bit by a bug I guess....


Is this the Q Skills thing you're referring to?

Sure is krupa.
 

ScottK

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Someone has to say it eventually. Hell, maybe someone has. But this seems to be the time and thread to do so considering it was started by a "new guy."

Just ignore anything posted by naji.

I don't know him, so I won't go so far as to say he's clueless, but at the very least he is incapable of communicating his thoughts to those of us who speak English. It's not a knock against him, per se. He may be a hell of a player. He may know more than anyone else on the forums. The bottom line is no one knows because he can't communicate his thoughts in a language we understand (his primary language is not English). What he does communicate is often either wrong or complete gibberish. He argues with other very knowledgeable posters, but never makes his point. Ignore him.
 

StraightPoolIU

Brent
Silver Member
Using this thread as inspiration I decided to try my hand at the q skill rating game. I played 2 sessions of ten racks each. I played on a 10 ft Brunswick pool table. 1,9,10,5,6,4,1,5,1,1=43. 2,12,6,3,3,8,20,18,5,2=79. Not exactly a model of consistency.
 

naji

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Someone has to say it eventually. Hell, maybe someone has. But this seems to be the time and thread to do so considering it was started by a "new guy."

Just ignore anything posted by naji.

I don't know him, so I won't go so far as to say he's clueless, but at the very least he is incapable of communicating his thoughts to those of us who speak English. It's not a knock against him, per se. He may be a hell of a player. He may know more than anyone else on the forums. The bottom line is no one knows because he can't communicate his thoughts in a language we understand (his primary language is not English). What he does communicate is often either wrong or complete gibberish. He argues with other very knowledgeable posters, but never makes his point. Ignore him.

No problem you can say what ever you like it is public forum, just like news paper, TV, and Radio, at times we like what we hear at others we do not, and simply change the dial. I appreciate your feed back, always.
 

elvicash

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have them all down except for shot #1,712. :grin:

Good luck buddy that 1,712 is really tough but if you mastered 419 then I think you got it in you to handle 1,712 just keep grinding 3,9999 down 1 to go.

Underclocked I am a fan. :D:D
 
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