dmgwalsh said:
From Straight Pool Challenge Derby City 2008
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1052585246876644586
Compliments of Bob Jewett
http://www.sfbilliards.com/
and Elvicash.
Just a few notes from watching this video...
Her major problem was that her opening break shots were ineffective - she never was able to disperse the heart of the stack on any of her break shots - that opening scratch kinda sharked her and every break shot afterwards did very little to open the balls for her. This is why she was always in trouble.
She had one rack, where she forced herself into situations where she had to shoot in her break ball(s)... ??? This is a positional issue - too much cue ball movement and getting on the wrong side of the table.
At the end of that rack, somehow she ended up with a side pocket break ball - that entire rack was painful to watch - but she did get into the second rack.
She ends up with what looks like a few dead balls coming out of the pack - I don't think she ever saw them - they looked good from the camera angle - I could be wrong, but I've never missed one of those from the chair.
Allison ended up going into the balls wrong and making a bigger mess than what she started with - she dealt with it pretty well with a great shot on the 1 ball - however I would not have shot off the 15 first - it looked like a pretty good break ball, but hey, who am I, right?
She is able to get into the 3rd rack, but once again, her break shot was not very effective - I believe that she used the wrong choice in selecting a break ball - go back and look, she shot off the 6, which IMO was a better break shot to get into the balls.
Allie, if you read this, it was just too much cue ball movement that got you in trouble, combined with ill advised shots to try and break up the clusters. It's a good idea to map out your patterns (shot sequence) early and identify your last 3 balls - and work towards getting where you need to on your setup ball and key ball.
Shotmaking will only get you so far in 14.1, and if you lack knowledge of patterns and how to effectively break up clusters - you will continue to find yourself in trouble and the big runs will elude you.
No matter who you are, or how many championships you have won, the game of 14.1 will take any weakness that you have and exploit the hell out of it just to motivate you to keep on trying. That is what makes it such a great game - and the game's best teacher!
