Am I a slow player?

[JohnPT]

I slowed down my game and added a pause. I have few hesitations here and there too where I have to stand up. My game has improved but I wonder if I play too slow now. So, what do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca7o-Hz9c6c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

In case anybody is wondering, I was playing the ghost race to 7 in the video. I was 2 behind before the start of the video, lost 2 games in the video and then 3 more that I edited out. So I lost 7-6. I just couldnt stand to watch the bad games so I cut them off.

 

[slide13]

Doesn't seem slow to me at all, seems a nice deliberate pace. I'd like to get my playing to that pace, I tend to get quick after the first 2-3 shots

 

[FranCrimi]

You're a little on the slow side, but not terrible. I think you've got a bigger problem, which involves planning ahead.

I think you get out of line because often you aren't resolved in your mind what you want to do with the cb. You may have an idea, but it's too vague. You're trying to plan your shots by standing still. That's not going to work. You have to move your body around the table and look. Angles look different from different vantage points.

Don't wait until you are on the shot to realize that a little more angle would have done you better for getting on the next shot.

 

[JohnPT]

Doesn't seem slow to me at all, seems a nice deliberate pace. I'd like to get my playing to that pace, I tend to get quick after the first 2-3 shots

Thanks, Slide.

You're a little on the slow side, but not terrible. I think you've got a bigger problem, which involves planning ahead.

I think you get out of line because often you aren't resolved in your mind what you want to do with the cb. You may have an idea, but it's too vague. You're trying to plan your shots by standing still. That's not going to work. You have to move your body around the table and look. Angles look different from different vantage points.

Don't wait until you are on the shot to realize that a little more angle would have done you better for getting on the next shot.

I agree I should walk around and survey the table more. A lot of times I'm just lazy and feel I already know what I want to do anyway so why waste energy walking over to the shot. And then of course the results are not always ideal. I mean I've always known this but it is pretty hard to rectify if a person does not realize that it is a problem after all. So I thank you for bringing this to my attention, Fran.

As for my tempo, after watching it again I think I need to speed it up a bit. I've never been a slow player but working on my pause seems to have slowed everything down.

What I've been working on:
(1) stay down for at least 1 sec. at the cueball as soon as I get my chin on the stick and before I start my practice stroke
(2) do my practice strokes to make sure I'm aimed correctly
(3) pause at the cueball when I'm satisfied and feel I'm lined up and then
(4) pause again on the final backswing.

 

[FranCrimi]

Thanks, Slide.




I agree I should walk around and survey the table more. A lot of times I'm just lazy and feel I already know what I want to do anyway so why waste energy walking over to the shot. And then of course the results are not always ideal. I mean I've always known this but it is pretty hard to rectify if a person does not realize that it is a problem after all. So I thank you for bringing this to my attention, Fran.

As for my tempo, after watching it again I think I need to speed it up a bit. I've never been a slow player but working on my pause seems to have slowed everything down.

What I've been working on:
(1) stay down for at least 1 sec. at the cueball as soon as I get my chin on the stick and before I start my practice stroke
(2) do my practice strokes to make sure I'm aimed correctly
(3) pause at the cueball when I'm satisfied and feel I'm lined up and then
(4) pause again on the final backswing.

When you do things consciously it will tend to slow things down. If you're trying to train your brain to do it automatically, it's important that you get the process the way you want it. Right now, maybe it's necessary to do it more slowly and deliberately until it becomes second nature. If you feel you've been doing it long enough, then you can try to speed up a bit.

As for position play, try this experiment: Plan your position for the next shot by standing still the way you've been doing. Place a small piece of paper or business card where you think the cb should land. Then take a walk around the table to view that shot and see if your judgement was right or wrong. Do it more than once. Do it a lot, and then you'll see how much you can improve your position play by moving and looking.

 

[bral]

As for position play, try this experiment: Plan your position for the next shot by standing still the way you've been doing. Place a small piece of paper or business card where you think the cb should land. Then take a walk around the table to view that shot and see if your judgement was right or wrong. Do it more than once. Do it a lot, and then you'll see how much you can improve your position play by moving and looking.

I'm not the OP, but I really like this idea and will try it myself, as I also find myself getting lazy about surveying the table properly. Thanks for sharing.