9 Ball Ghost Skeptics, Meet You Tube

[PlynSets]

lmao....

ownage

I can only assume that comment is directed towards me. That's fine, it's not a secret that I was (and still am) the biggest skeptic, and honestly Uwate I'll still stand behind everything I said.

I've talked to Tate quite a bit on the phone recently, point in fact I was suppose to pick up the tape that he made and edit it up for him this last weekend, but it looks like he figured it out (and not only that did a better job then I could've done with it anyways!). There is no animosity between us, and I look forward to playing him in the future.

To claim that I'm somehow "owned" though becuase of this video being posted. Well it does two things, it tries to create animosity (which isn't going to happen) and it shows a pretty short sighted and narrow view of what actually was said in the 9 ball ghost thread and what has actually transpired here. I will stand behind everything I said in that 9 ball thread 100%. One guy put up one video, and all of a sudden that poll is somehow valid?

DJ aka Mr. Skeptic



Tate, 1st off GREAT VIDEO! I love the narration that goes along with it, really makes it fun to watch, and gives a great insight to what's actually going on during the set. You definately have a strong game and you should be proud of what you've accomplished here. I look forward to seeing more videos in the future, as well as hooking up and playing some sets.

DJ

 

[TATE]

I had never been 3-fouled until some time last year. That record went out with a whimper.

I now think if you have not been 3-fouled, you are not playing against strong enough competition or not playing enough.

Efren has been 3-fouled

Hi Corey,

You're right. Most of the time playing sets we don't play 3 foul and I've only played in a handful of tournaments. I imagine it feels awful to lose on a 3 foul.

Hey, if you guys want to see a video of a strong player, I will tape Mr. Harper here from the chair he makes me sit in! His break shot gives me a headache.

Corey, let's get together soon. I'm playing again.

Chris

 

[TATE]

Tate, 1st off GREAT VIDEO! I love the narration that goes along with it, really makes it fun to watch, and gives a great insight to what's actually going on during the set. You definately have a strong game and you should be proud of what you've accomplished here. I look forward to seeing more videos in the future, as well as hooking up and playing some sets.

DJ

DJ,

Thanks for responding and the comments. You're OK in my book and it was a pleasure talking with you on the phone. This video stuff was a very good learning experience for me. Maybe next one I'll post where I miss the one ball with BIH 7 games in a row.

Chris

 

[PlynSets]

DJ,

Thanks for responding and the comments. You're OK in my book and it was a pleasure talking with you on the phone. This video stuff was a very good learning experience for me. Maybe next one I'll post where I miss the one ball with BIH 7 games in a row.

Chris

You mean your human too? I've missed the one ball with BIH on more occasions then I care to admit.. LOL

DJ

 

[jjinfla]

Colin,

I was experimenting with holding the cue further back, closer to the end, so today I thought I would try your method and moved my hand forward.

I spent two hours playing the ghost and my break was fantastic. I really was surprised how that little change made a terrific improvement in control and speed.

Thanks for the tip,

Jake

 

[TATE]

Accuracy

The changes that I made to improve my accuracy for my tight table besides lots of practice were mainly stance, grip, and set-up.

Stance

I adopted a more open hipped, bent knee stance, with my weight centered more back over my feet. There is very little weight on my bridge hand and my head is back on the cue. My hips and feet were more in line with my shots before, and this was not a stable position. I was set up maybe 30 degrees open to the shot with straighter legs and now I'm probably more like 45 degrees with bent knees.

When I'm set up to the cue ball, I can easily do squats from this position, so it is very stable. This does three things I like. One, it gives me a great long view of the cue to help sight the aim. Two, it helps keep my head steady over the shot. Mainly I don't want lateral sway of my head - more on that in a moment. Three, it keeps my hips and torso out of the way of my stroke and gives me free, uninhibited arm motion.

If your head sways it takes your whole body with it and throws the shot off. The stance should feel very, very natural, stable and comfortable. If someone came up and shoved you, you would not fall over.

Grip

The grip change I made was to change from a finger cradle grip to more in the palm and firmer. I have taken the play out of my grip. This gives you a lot more control of the cue, mainly the tip. There is no looseness in my grip or bridge.


Set-up

On shots without english, it's really important to set up to the cue ball center line by sighting down the line of aim, then setting up to that line. Mainly, I want to find and stay with the center on the line of aim as I'm setting up. It's easier to do this by sight, standing up with a lot of room between me and the cue ball. I hope people understand exactly what I'm saying. If you don't get down on the right line and fidget around with everything, your stance, bridge, hips, feet, shoulders will get all twisted and you'll put a crappy stroke on the ball. Get down on the line of aim, then fine tune it. Mainly, I don't shoot until I'm on the line of aim.

If I'm using side spin, what I do is to have a very good idea of what spin I am going to put on the ball as i'm standing up looking at the shot. That's the only way I can "see" the line for set-up. I set up to whatever adjusted aim I have with the spin. Funny thing about a good set-up with side spin shots is you seem to catch a lot of the cueball on a spin shot so you don't have to hit way off to the side to get action.

The last thing is really important. I aim center pocket and try to not wobble balls. I try hard to hit every single shot clean. This just takes the sloppiness out of my game and makes me a better player because I am basically practicing on every shot. They don't all come off that way, of course, but trying to hit center pocket helps make me a better player. You can get to the point where you can control the object ball amazingly well. The improved accuracy gives you a lot better cue ball too.

Anyway, that's it.

Chris

 

[ScottR]

Chris,
I didn't see anything in your list of areas to improve about playing in socks.

 

[TATE]

Chris,
I didn't see anything in your list of areas to improve about playing in socks.

Scott,



Sorry for the bad video. I was actually barefoot. The wooden floor is slippery and my tennis shoes squeak too much for the camera. Those big fat socks are actually my big fat feet.

I am learning on the video's. The file sizes are very large. One rack is 800 megabytes of uncompressed AVI, and all they will let you post is 100 megs maximum. I converted the files to MPEG 1 with software which reduced the files to 30 megs and lost a lot of quality. Since then, I downloaded the codec for MPEG4 which is actually an AVI extension. These same files are reduced to about 10 megs with very little loss in quality. So next go round I can post quality videos with little grain and smooth action.

Chris

 

[ScottR]

With little loss of quality, I hope you find some non-squeaky shoes to wear. Or, at least get a pedicure!

Seriously though.... thanks for sharing these videos. It inspires me to practice by playing the ghost.

 

[xidica]

MPEG-4 is indeed a very good format. I'm sure none of us would mind if you found a server to host the actual movie files and/or compressed archives of the entire set so we could just download the higher quality ones if we prefer that to streaming them.

 

[jjinfla]

Hi Tate,

I took up this game late in life, after I retired, and I am happy with my game. Only been playing since 1999. It helps pass the time.

Yesterday the ghost beat me 6-4 which is very good for me. I should have had a couple more wins but I just out and out miss when I shouldn't. I can do a lot better if I can have an "over" shot. You know, take the shot over.

Everybody compares pool to golf so how come they don't have mulligans in pool?

Jake

 

[cuetechasaurus]

For all of you people that are hooked on playing the ghost now, just a friendly reminder- you know you play the ghost too much when you start seeing it shark you.

 

[TATE]

Hi Tate,

I took up this game late in life, after I retired, and I am happy with my game. Only been playing since 1999. It helps pass the time.

Yesterday the ghost beat me 6-4 which is very good for me. I should have had a couple more wins but I just out and out miss when I shouldn't. I can do a lot better if I can have an "over" shot. You know, take the shot over.

Everybody compares pool to golf so how come they don't have mulligans in pool?

Jake

Jake,

Sounds good. Pool is a tremendously challenging game that only seasoned pool players, like yourself now, can fully appreciate. It can be rewarding and enjoyable, and when it is, it's great, but it can also be very frustrating.

I appreciate the honesty of your statments. When you start kicking the ghost's ass, as I predict you will, you can mail me the videotape and we'll make "JJ the shark-eatin' Gator" famous on You Tube.

Chris

 

[Hal2]

Great Videos

Chris,
Thank you for taking the time to make and post these videos. Before I saw your videos I did not understand "playing the ghost". Now I do.

I also want to thank the Colin and the others for sharing their knowledge and experiences on this thread.

By the way, Chris I 'was' playing at even a faster speed than you. Many times I skipped the pre-shot routine, and my stoke lost the slight pause in my backswing. I am working very hard at slowing my pace/stroke down and using prestoke for even the simple shots. These were bad habits I delevoped in recent years by playing straight pool with myself only.

Best Regards,
Hal

 

[beetle]

Great threads sometimes have a short life--somehow I missed this one and just found it referenced in another thread. Great shooting. You make it look easy.

 

[Salamander]

Nice shooting Chris. You have a nice confident demeaner at the table, which is crutial to play the ghost, since you can't "duck". : )

Interesting comments about pocket difficulty. I read a book by Jack Koeler (sp?), where he talks about the 3 ways to rate pocket difficulty
1) Width at the opening
2) throat angle
3) shelf depth.

I've been playing on 4&1/2 inch pockets, and always wondered why the table was so tough until I realized that I also was contending with 1.5 inch shelf and 11 to 12 degree throat angle. I'm convinced that the throat angle makes all the difference in how tough this table plays compared to others. While you can still shoot a ball with speed down the rail, you certainly can't be too careless about it.

My table has essentially refined by touch, however when playing matches on it, I find that I am a little tenious. It's great, however, when I venture out to those pool halls where you can actually "cheat" the pocket. : )

Khoeler actually has a grid where you can rate your tables difficulty. Sorta interesting.

Regards,

Doug

 

[TATE]

Nice shooting Chris. You have a nice confident demeaner at the table, which is crutial to play the ghost, since you can't "duck". : )

Interesting comments about pocket difficulty. I read a book by Jack Koeler (sp?), where he talks about the 3 ways to rate pocket difficulty
1) Width at the opening
2) throat angle
3) shelf depth.

I've been playing on 4&1/2 inch pockets, and always wondered why the table was so tough until I realized that I also was contending with 1.5 inch shelf and 11 to 12 degree throat angle. I'm convinced that the throat angle makes all the difference in how tough this table plays compared to others. While you can still shoot a ball with speed down the rail, you certainly can't be too careless about it.

My table has essentially refined by touch, however when playing matches on it, I find that I am a little tenious. It's great, however, when I venture out to those pool halls where you can actually "cheat" the pocket. : )

Khoeler actually has a grid where you can rate your tables difficulty. Sorta interesting.

Regards,

Doug

Thanks Beetle and Salamander.

I agree, Doug. The pockets have to be cut right on a table or they are unfair, regardless of size. On my table, if the ball clears the point it drops from virtually any angle, even if it's hit with speed. So I am spoiled that I can fire shots without fear as long as they're accurately aimed.

On a recent trip to China I played on a table with what I considered to be buckets, but the pocket were cut poorly. Some balls that cleared the point rebounded on the cut sides of the rubber and back out. I tested the pockets from various angles, and sure enough they spit back out every time even though the ball easily cleared the point. A lot of shimmed pockets do that but i beleive that these Chinese tables aren't set up quite right from the factory, although they played good otherwise.

My cushions were cut from lengths of Artemis (German) rubber, so they are not "shimmed". Ernesto Dominguez has his own cut angle and knows what works.

I don't think that competition on tables with large pockets is a true test of skill between better players. I like 4.5" or tighter. I like a table where you can't wobble in ball after ball. A 4" pocket cannot be cheated with regularity or certainty by anyone or you will miss a lot of shots. I also think tight tables favor the better player. Because of playing on tight equipment, I've totally broken myself of the habit of cheating pockets and instead use my stroke and knowledge to manipulate position when needed, or I'll take a longer shot or something like that. I can't even force myself to cheat a pocket anymore unless the OB is right next to the hole.

Thanks for the nice comments.

Chris

 

[Luv2RunOut1]

Hey tate any plans on being at the Jay Swanson Memorial?