how important are the fundementals

softshot said:

I am a pretty good player.. I work on the fundamentals I know daily

I practice regularly.. I beat the vast majority of people I play..

I'm not great but I am pretty good..

and tonight I got squashed. .... I mean badly... by a girl with TERRIBLE fundamentals.

if you saw even one of her shots.. you'd say BANGER and move on..

one problem... she kept failing to miss

jacked up jab strokes in the middle of the table with no obstructions.. horrible form.. and the ball falls and she gets shape...

some bangers get lucky sometimes... but they don't string racks...

Every time I think I am figuring this game out I see something that tells me no one really knows the "best" way to shoot pool.

they just know the best way for themselves..

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I think you just got done by a "hustlerette" my man.

There is a guy around here who will remain nameless because he got caught dumping but he has about the worst...jabby...jerky...banger stroke you could imagine but he is capable of playing jam up.

Folks around the Nashville/Atlanta area probably know who I'm talking about.

And it's not a hustle stroke...it's actually how he plays.

As Furyk in golf and Keith (and others) in pool have proven, you can stroke it almost any way you want as long as you can do it exactly the same way every time.

(-:

Jim

av84fun said:

I think you just got done by a "hustlerette" my man.

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That's the first thing that came to my mind.... either that or you're not as good as you may think...

imo the fundamentals are key. hey thats why they called the fundamentals right? when youre not going good, its usually something off in your "fundamentals". that being said, there are plenty of jam up players out there including pros who have what most instructors would say are horrible fundamentals, but it works for them. i mean watch allen hopkins play and you wonder how the guy makes a ball, but he is an all time great. the key is repeatability. even if you have a funky stoke if its always the same you can be successful.

brian

you should check out mike davis' 'fundamentals'

softshot said:

I am a pretty good player.. I work on the fundamentals I know daily

I practice regularly.. I beat the vast majority of people I play..

I'm not great but I am pretty good..

and tonight I got squashed. .... I mean badly... by a girl with TERRIBLE fundamentals.

if you saw even one of her shots.. you'd say BANGER and move on..

one problem... she kept failing to miss

jacked up jab strokes in the middle of the table with no obstructions.. horrible form.. and the ball falls and she gets shape...

some bangers get lucky sometimes... but they don't string racks...

Every time I think I am figuring this game out I see something that tells me no one really knows the "best" way to shoot pool.

they just know the best way for themselves..

Click to expand...

When you have the basics down and repeatable you can always go back to a coach or video tape yourself to see why your hitting them bad lately. If you stroke different every shot you can't see what you have changed. That's just one thing. Johnnyt

thomba02 said:

you should check out mike davis' 'fundamentals'

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Don't.
Ugliest stroke by a good player ever.

Like others have said , You got Hustled. She may have had a bad looking stroke but sounds like it was perfect when it hit the cue ball. The real clue was she was getting shape with it. That should have been the warning.---Smitty

Funny you should mention that

softshot said:

. . . jacked up jab strokes in the middle of the table with no obstructions.. horrible form.. and the ball falls and she gets shape...

Click to expand...

That is a shot I have used for decades. Danged if I know why I started but it is deadly. The last small tournament I played in the other player left the cue ball and object ball close together out in the middle of the table where the slight angle and the position of the balls out past the fifty yard line said bank it cross side. Problem was I wouldn't have a shot on the next ball if I did and it was a tough bank either way.

Solution: Jack up and bank it cross side in the corner hard with a semi-masse style shot. The cue ball hops to the the object ball so it goes straight to it and with the speed the english has little or no effect on the object ball's path. The object ball is probably in the air most of the way to the cushion anyway. Then the masse bites on the cue ball and it takes off to give me shape. This ain't the "right" way of doing things but it is very effective when the shape calls for it.

Hu

she had more talent, simple

I think you are confusing fundamentals with what I would call form or style.

It sounds like her style was awkward (as are the styles of some pros, like Davis and Hopkins), but her fundamentals had to have been good, otherwise she could not have consistently got position and ran out.