Ask Fast Larry Any Question

F

fast larry

Banned
ASK FAST LARRY ANY QUESTION. I AM GLAD TO BE BACK ON AZ AND I AM HOPEFUL THIS TIME AROUND I CAN REMAIN PEACEFUL WITH EVERYONE. I hope I can help players with their questions about their games. If you have questions about trick shots, I can answer you on the wei table with a diagram. If I can be of service to you then put me to work and ask away. I will try to give you a honest and straight answer that works.
:p
 
Buddha Jones said:
How do you use the wei table? I can't search for "wei" because it is under 4 characters.
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That is a very complex issue, may I suggest you first acquire the table, it is free, if you can't find it, pm me, I will give you the email for it. Then go to Mike the admin guy and ask how to put it on, you have to have the codes for it to work, it won't go on a board without them and not all boards will accept it.:p
 
Buddha Jones said:
nm, i found the help file.
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Ah so, the noble art of doing absolutely nothing. For 2 l/2 yrs, 2000 to this spring, I was crippled and unable to work. I did not hit a ball, make a dime or do anything. I might hobble out and putter in my flower garden and that was my life. Nobody could mess with my wa. Soon I did not know what time it was and stopped wearing a watch. The Sun came up, I went out side, the sun set, I came inside, why did I need a watch. Soon i did not know what week it was. I finally got where I did not know what month it was and did not care.

There was a peace and serenity to that I cannot explain unless you have been in that situation. I guess I got like a Monk in Tibet, totally within my self. My yard is surrounded by an 8' tall fence covered with Ivy and I could walk around my little acre and see nobody or have no contract with anyone for weeks at a time.
No more smell of jet fuel, no more hanging out in bars, no more pressure to make shots with a hundred people expecting you to play perfect.

I can't tell you now difficult it is now for me to come out of that protective cacoon I was in and re enter the human rat race. That is what it appears to me now. I plan to do that for three years and then I will retire this time for good and head off for my ranch in Costa Rica. Once more, I will throw away my watch, not know what month it is, just play 3 cushion on my Verhoven and putter in my flower garden all day long.

:o
 
Larry, I didn't know you play 3 cushion. So, I have to ask...what's your high run in that game?

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alex
 
Ah, that sounds like the life... :)

I have a question, if you don't mind:

8-ball - if there's a cluster containing both your balls and your opponents, so that it's stopping both of you from running out, and you can't cannon it from a pot,
do you tend to leave your opponent to open it, while improving your position with the other balls, or wade in yourself, risking handing your opponent the first open chance to clear the table?

Thanks
 
Pin, while I'm not FL, I always opt to leave my opponent in the toughest spot possible. If I could use my 14.1 skills to break the cluster off a shot, I would. If not, I'd leave the cue ball in a position that leaves the opponent with an easy enough contact on one of their balls not to foul (who wants ball in hand on a bad cluster?) but not a clear enough shot to reverse the safety.

Make them bust the balls up for you. No need to do any work when you can force your opponent to do it for ya!
 
amateur said:
Larry, I didn't know you play 3 cushion. So, I have to ask...what's your high run in that game?

------------

alex
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I love that game. Playing on a new Verhoven which we have where I live on 300 cloth and a heated slate is nothing to me but pure heaven on earth. I don't play the game very often because rarely any more do I even run into a table. I run some 3's, that's about as good as I am now which is nothing but a good solid club player. My high run is only 10 and I only did that once. Sang Lee is good for a 10 almost every time he comes to the table. :p
 
Pin said:
Ah, that sounds like the life... :)

I have a question, if you don't mind:

8-ball - if there's a cluster containing both your balls and your opponents, so that it's stopping both of you from running out, and you can't cannon it from a pot,
do you tend to leave your opponent to open it, while improving your position with the other balls, or wade in yourself, risking handing your opponent the first open chance to clear the table?

Thanks
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There is two answers to this. For me, being a strong player and with great cue ball control, I would keep playing around with the guy until I would get my cue ball in a position to pot and wade in and attack. If I have to play a couple of safeties first to do that, no problem. I always want control of the game and I can't win sitting in the chair. I am very aggressive. Being a 14.1 player going into clusters is no problem for me. Yes, maybe 20% of the time I will go in and get a lousy roll and lose because of that. The majority of the time I win by being bold. I wan't to do it to him before he does it to me. The league 6 or 7 should think that way.

If you are 3-4-5's, usually the first guy who breaks up the cluster loses. You are probably better missing on purpose and letting the other guy bust them up, then screw it up and give you the easy out. :p
 
tobyjoe said:
Pin, while I'm not FL, I always opt to leave my opponent in the toughest spot possible. If I could use my 14.1 skills to break the cluster off a shot, I would. If not, I'd leave the cue ball in a position that leaves the opponent with an easy enough contact on one of their balls not to foul (who wants ball in hand on a bad cluster?) but not a clear enough shot to reverse the safety.

Make them bust the balls up for you. No need to do any work when you can force your opponent to do it for ya!
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Yes, that is the stradegy the older wiser bar box players use. If it works with the skill level players in your place then go with that. If you get a good stick that begins to take the shot and burns you with it, then you have to do same and begin to attack as well. You want a game plan, but you must be ready to innovate and change plans on a dime. Never keep playing the same losing game. If what you are doing is losing, change everything around 100%, do everything different. You might get lucky and win, it could mix up or confuse the opponent. Be flexible. :p
 
Thanks guys.

I'm not sure how the ratings work in the US (I'm in the UK), but I think I can relate Fast's two approaches to different levels of ability here.

I guess I'd put it all together into the following general rule:

Usually try to go into the cluster off a cannon wherever possible.
I figure trying to do this early on and while I have balls over pockets will give me the best chance of having another shot available.

Then when that's not possible try to manipulate the other guy into opening them for me.


I think that if he's got several balls in difficult positions that need developing, if I wait before going in I'm just handing him free opportunities to develop the problem balls. Plus, even if I do open the cluster then let him back to the table, at least he won't have an immediate run out. Provided I've opened all my balls before dealing with the cluster, I should have for my next visit.


So then it should just be a matter of balancing the two scenarios...
 
Fast, how can I keep my stroke straight all of the time? There are some days where my arm feels like it is a well-oiled machine, and on my practice strokes, I get this extremely confident feeling, because I know I am stroking straight, those are the days when I am in stroke. On other days, my arm feels somewhat 'shaky' and on my practice strokes, I have a hard time pointing my cuetip at the exact spot on the CB I want to hit. Instead of feeling like a well oiled machine, my arm feels like a block of ice. Do you have any advice to train my arm to feel good and in stroke every day?
 
Fast sings like a canary

LastTwo said:
Fast, how can I keep my stroke straight all of the time? There are some days where my arm feels like it is a well-oiled.


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%Ko5O7%LB8[6%MB6[8%NB7\0%OB5\0%WD4P0%Xn5O8%]m5P4%^C4P3
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. wei table

Hoppes 101 center ball lag warm up stroke drill

The question asked is: Fast, how can I keep my stroke straight all of the time? There are some days where my arm feels like it is a well-oiled machine on practice strokes, I get this extremely confident feeling, because I know I am stroking straight, those are the days when I am in stroke. On other days, my arm feels somewhat 'shaky' and on my practice strokes, I have a hard time pointing my cue tip at the exact spot on the CB I want to hit. Instead of feeling like a well oiled machine, my arm feels like a block of ice. Do you have any advice to train my arm to feel good and in stroke every day

Answer: OK, lay off the booze and drugs, coffee and tea, just kidding. Drink a lot of water. 8 glasses a day. Water is oil to the joints. You may have eaten a lot of salty pop corn, same on salty foods and your fingers could be bloated. Watch soup for lunch, it is loaded with salt. Don’t pig out and over eat. Did you go through the dinner buffet and try to eat the joint out of business? When you go in to play, be hungry. Lee Trevino always said, a hungry dog hunts best.

Go pig out and drink after the match is over, never before. When you wake up in the morning begin drinking 3 or 4 glasses of water within the first hour to get those kidneys working. Hogan in golf was always complaining about his fingers feeling fat on some days and loosing the feel of the club. Hogan wanted what he called thin fingers and took diuretics. You can hold and retain as much as ten pounds of water.

To get a feel of what that is like pick up 3 gallons of milk and walk around the house holding them for a few minutes, that is the volumn and weight of water you can be holding. You can get water pills from your doctor. They are called Hydrochlorothiazide and they are not expensive. The truth is some days you have the feel, others you don't. When you don't the champion digs down inside and pulls up and out the greater you inside. He works harder. He becomes less aggressive and plays safe more. He just survives and stays in the tournament. He takes what should be a lousy performance and turns in an acceptable one.

The next day his feel and touch returns and he can then go on to victory. Nobody feels 100% every day. Much of that is what you ate and drank the day before. Ribs the night before and then wake up in the morning and jump on left over pizza and a 6 pack is not the breakfast of champions. You are what you eat and drink literally.

The best way to warm up your stroke is what I call the Willie Hoppe 101 drill. Get a stripe ball, put it in the middle of the table and pretend to lag down and back up table. On your follow through let your shaft go out and stay out there, do not let it retract. The stripe goes down table and if hit pure it comes back up table to hit your tip. If you miss the tip, your stroke is untrue. Be sure you are on a level and true table.

Set up the stripe so the each out side edge of the stripe is parallel with each long rail. You now observe the stroke and hit. If hit nice, the stripe rolls and its image remains in tact. If you stroke poorly the stripe rolls over and mixes. The ball does not lie, only a perfect stroke and roll of the ball does not roll over the stripe.

You just keep doing this over and over until you groove your stroke. Rolling over the stripe means your stroke is twisting through causing an improper follow. This unwanted and unseen English you are putting on the ball by twisting off of the center of the ball and swiping out to the side puts throw on the object ball and is the cause of a lot of your misses. Try and force the cue through the ball nice and smooth and long smooth through the ball move with no twist. The thumb is your enemy, it causes most twists. Don’t increase grip pressure on the hit, keep the feel light that will take the twist away. When you begin to pop off several in a row you now have your stroke in line and ready to go. Work on putting your shaft parallel to the table bed and have your shaft hit center ball and keep going, don't let if fall down and hit the table bed. When I hit the cue ball center, my tip actually goes through and follows past the cue ball remaining parallel to the cloth and actually rises up some. So did both Willies on their strokes as well. Most players today after impact let their tip fall down on the cloth with a short follow through the ball. Move your hold on the cue almost back to the butt end and watch how that levels out your cue. When your follow through is done your tip should remain up in the air. Feel your tip push through the center of the ball smoothly but firmly. Feel the ball move off the tip with no slide or twist, just a clean crisp hit and release.

Ray Martin and I have no problem doing this 10 times in a row and freezing the cue ball on our tip. We will bet money we can do this. We have trained our selves where the exact center of the cue ball is and we can hit it and perform a perfect follow through the ball. Few pool players can because they have never been trained on how to do this. Bob Meucci claims in articles this cannot be done and that is why all 9 ball pros hit straight in shots with a tad of reverse. I think that is total nonsense.

I use this drill and several others to teach my students how to become pure ball rollers. The reason I resigned from the BCA teaching school after I graduated was they teach players in my opinion to be ball skidders. What they teach, is the exact opposite of what I teach. I confess, I don’t know anything. All I teach is Willie Hoppe and Willie Mosconi. All I teach are the timeless basics of the two greatest teachers of all time. If you don’t like my teaching methods, do not complain to me, complain to Hoppe and Mosconi, tell them they don’t know squat. All I am going to teach you is exactly what they did, how they did it. No go argue with that.

If for any reason you cannot do this 101 ball roll lag successfully you have a major problem. You need to book a lesson with a pro at once and get your stroke grooved. I can't do that for you over the inter net. Come into the Power Source Pool School and we will train you to be a pure ball roller, no problem. Questions send to email just click fastlarry@bellsouth.net to book a lesson go into my web site click www.fastlarrypool.com

This drill first appeared in Willie Hoppes first book written in 1925 called thirty years of billiards. He featured 32 drills at the end. Lesson one was concentrate, lesson two, page 184 was the stroke, center ball. This warm up drill was used by world champions Frank Ives, Jake Shaefer, Maurice Daly; it goes back to the mid 1850's. Hoppe used it from 1900 to the 1950's and his main warm up drill. It is so important and vital to master this that I make this the first drill every one of my students learns and masters. The first thing they do when they hit a new table is to warm up their stroke with this. I begin filming my first three DVD’s and each one will be on a different instructional lesson. The third one will have this 101 drill shown and explained, plus my super secret positional drills I have only given to pros and kept hidden for the last 20 years will finally be revealed. I’ll have them for sale at the Allen Hopkins Expo this march of 2004.

Allow me to now let Mr. Hoppe talk to you from 78 years ago and give you his advice on the subject. : I quote him from his book…

"Practice a center ball stroke without twist or English. Take the billiard ball and place it on the spot at the head of the table. Aiming at the middle of the lower rail, strike your cue ball easily, in the center, and see how nearly you can make it return to the exact spot where you struck it. Notice whether you have a tendency to give it a slight twist to one side or the other.

Practice going though the ball with the tip of your cue with an easy crisp stroke, until your cue tip touches the cloth four inches beyond the original point of contact. Watch how the drag you impart to the ball holds it steadily to the line.

Now strike your ball slightly above the center with the same smooth stroke and try again to make it return accurately from the Lower rail. Try both shots at varying speeds and watch the effect off the cushion.

The course of the cue ball depends not only on where you hit it, but how your cue tip follows through. If you can shoot a straight ball, without a hair line of deviation to left or right, and with a finished stroke, draw, follow and center ball, you are well equipped to start the game right.

practise this stroke, half an hour at a time, for three or four days. You have nothing else on the table to distract you. You are not trying to make your cue ball perform any miracles, or follow any complicated course. You are not disturbed by the presence of other balls. You have a single objective-stick to it until the end is attained-a clean-cut accurate center ball stroke in which you can repose confidence. End of quote from Mr. Hoppe.


May God bless and peace be with you. May the wind be always on your back and all 9 balls fall. VENI VIDI VICI, OMNIA VINCIT AMOR. Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered, love conquerors all.
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This may overlap slightly with the previous question, but I don't think so...

I've only recently started to aim by feel alone. I look at the shot, and visualise the path I want the ob to take, then just do everything else automatically.

At first I was having great success, consistantly making shouts that would have been maybe 1 in 10 under the old system.

However, for the last couple of days I've been struggling again. I don't feel that how I aim automatically is quite correct, then try to adjust, again aiming automatically. I normally get the ob closer to the pocket than my first line would have done (showing the first aim was wrong), but am still missing a lot.

Any advice to get me sinking everything on the table again?

Thanks
 
Re: Fast sings like a canary

fast larry said:
LastTwo said:
Fast, how can I keep my stroke straight all of the time? There are some days where my arm feels like it is a well-oiled.


I have received several emails from people who have paid to be taught how to be a ball skidder only to later realize all of the great players rolled the ball. My comments have brought in a flood of remarks like the one attached.

Quote from a email from a player who I do not know sent to me:



> Hi Fast Larry, I would like to say that I read your
> reply on the person's question of how to keep a
> straight and consistent stroke. I noticed that you
> said that BCA instructors teach people to be 'ball
> skidders'. What you speak is the truth, my friend. How
> you described what your tip does after a shot is the
> stroke of a champion. Most BCA instructers cannot
> train someone to play at a champion level. They teach
> the 'wrong' side of pool. They teach basics and
> fundamentals, and certain advanced aspects, but the
> problem with them is what they teach leads to a
> dead-end in the skill of the student. In order to play
> like a champion, someone honestly has to learn quite
> the opposite of what many of them teach. They teach
> people to press into the table. Just like you said,
> they teach people to be ball-skidders. I am glad to
> see that the internet pool world is not only
> table-pressing chumps who study the intricate physics
> of the game but can't run a rack! You and maybe two or
> three other people whos posts I have read seem to be
> the only people that know how the game should really
> be played! Perhaps someday when I have some free time
> I would like to fly out to Georgia and take a lesson
> from you, before I learned how much you know.
God bless, hope to see you soon!
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Re: Re: Fast sings like a canary

Fast, how can I keep my stroke straight all of the time? There are some days where my arm feels like it is a well-oiled.

A Fast Larry update

The BCA has their teaching methods, I have mine. You can have their teaching certificate by spending one day of training. What does that tell you when nobody flunks the course as long as they have $500 bucks in their hand. You go figger that one out. Many finally realize that the cost of hiring one of these beginner teachers who can only teach a beginner well is about the same as people like me charge. Instead they now have an advanced level or master level teacher who can teach a beginner or a touring pro who has a stroke problem and wants the old magic back.

I am not the only guy out there like that, there are plenty of them. They are hard to find and it is a small club. Do you want a assembly line teacher who only knows how to teach what is printed in his manual or the Bob Byrne book or do you want me, they call the loose cannon. Here is why. No two of my lessons are ever the same. Why, because no two of my students are ever the same nor do they ever have the same problems to solve.

They can't get a handle on what I do or even understand it. I don't have a manual. It's all in my head. Am I winging every lesson, yes and no. I am like a Doctor, I see a wound, I sew it up. A doctor does not have to read a manual to sew up a wound, all he has to do is find the wound, then he knows what to do. I have to wait to get in there to find out what's broke in order to then know what to fix? I see things and fix problems in swings every day these other guys miss and never see. They are too busy talking when I am busy looking and searching.

With these other guys, you get what I call an information dump which only leads to paralysis by anaysis. With me I see what you do bad and make it strong. I see what you do strong and make it stonger. Yes, I do have manuals, they are every book Williie Hoppe and Willie Mosconi wrote. I teach that. There are the two greatest cueist of all time. I'll hang my hat on that.

It's simple, you must come into me with a written list of what you want to accomplish, what you want to buy from me. I will install those programs in your brain and you leave with them and are happy. We access strengths and weaknesses. We film you using VHS and digital cameras. You take the tapes home to re visit the lesson again and again. We clean up your basics and solve your problems you walk in with.

I stay with you until you get your moneys worth, or I refund your money and the lesson is free. You can't ask a question I can't answer. You can't ask for any shot in pool I can't do or teach you how to do. So far, nobody has ever asked for a refund because every one leaves with what they came for.

The four things I do very well are teach the draw, the follow, the break and secret postion drills and concepts only I have and nobody else is on to. This spring I will release all of this on DVD. If you want to do those 4 things like a pro then I am your man, look no further.

If you can't run 3 friggin balls and you just want to learn how to play, then grab any BCA instructor that has a pulse and go to it, he's your man.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my pool pals. Be thankful you live in the land of the free and the brave. Pray for our brave sons in Iraq tonight.
May God bless and peace be with you. May the wind be always on your back and all 9 balls fall. VENI VIDI VICI, OMNIA VINCIT AMOR. Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered, love conquerors all.
“Fast Larry” Guninger :D
 
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Re: Re: Re: Fast sings like a canary

Fast, how can I keep my stroke straight all of the time? There are some days where my arm feels like it is a well-oiled.

A Fast Larry update, here is another email I have received from a fan. I do not know who this person is: I respect their privacy so I do not show their handle or email.

Dear Fast,

I have been reading your posts on three boards now for a long time. You have had your ups and downs. When you began teaching and answering questions a wealth of information came out. You have taught me and my friends many new things that has helped us to become better players. For that we are most grateful.

You are fantastic. Then a bunch of people began beating you up and your teaching stopped. All you did was defend your name and fight with these attackers. All they did was shut you up and drive you off of the boards. When they did that, it was us, the players who lost. We lost your ongoing help and advice.

I don't get much out of those short magazine teaching articles. They don't teach but what you write does teach. Yours are sometimes a little long, but I guess so is an instruction book. The real story is what you write works.

You are the only guy in pool who is not afraid to speak out on issues. Everyone else has had their mouths duct taped shut. All we get out of these people is nothing now. It's the same old politically correct main line propaganda industry dogma. We need a guy like you to keep telling it like it is. We realize a lot of people want to shut that voice off so we can't hear it. Hang in there, keep doing what you are doing. You will come out of all this in the end simply because what you are saying and doing is right.
God Bless you and your courage to speak out. End of quote from the fan.


May God bless and peace be with you. May the wind be always on your back and all 9 balls fall. VENI VIDI VICI, OMNIA VINCIT AMOR. Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered, love conquerors all.
:D
 
Hey Fast, what size diameter tip do you like on your pool cue?

Would it be generally true that with a smaller diameter (say, 12.5mm) that a player could create more spin reaction on whitey whereas a larger tip (say, 13.25mm) would lend itself more to a solid, center-ball type game?

Pros and cons of small and large diameter tips, if you will.

Myself, I seem to prefer a larger diameter tip. I even had a very small diameter shaft made just for snooker, but still get better results using the pool shaft for snooker. Go figure.
 
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