poormanintexas
Remember ..Sticky Side up
Hello My name is Poormanintexas. I first picked a pool cue up in 93, and fell in love with the game imdeiately. I practiced for a year and a half for 10 to 14 hours a day, i thought i was good. I played for the next 9 years in various tournaments, never placed in the money. I Played primarily for money where it seemed i played the best. I joined the army for 6 years and continued to play here and there. I got out didnt have a job and focused exclusively on getting better where it seemed i hit a platau. I could never really get any better, being young i thought i knew it all. I just recently picked my stick back up after being off for 5 years. I found myself very rusty, every now and then i would see my old self start to break threw for a few racks then i would slip into not making balls consistantly. So after playing like this for months i got frusterated and started to take a step back, and forget what i taught myself and really look at what i was doing wrong. I took a few video of myself with my phone, What i found was i was making the right shot selection most of the time but my stoke was crooked. I found this odd because i could make shape on the next ball 98 percent of the time but my object ball would hardly ever hit the back of the pocket. I felt my cue was not natural in my hands due to only playing for 2 to 3 days a week. So Taking that information i came up with grabbing my cue at home, coming up with a solid pre shot routine, lineing up my cue to the line of the shot and stroking on my dining room tabe, i take 3 to four warmup strokes and a final slow follow through. after a week i found while at the table in the local pool hall i wasnt making many shots but my stroke became much truer and clean. I did this the next week at home until my arm fell off. The next week i decided to go back to the local pool hall and a guy that used to have to give me the 7 for me to even break even gave me the 8 instead i accepted. we played for a few hours and i started out ahead 5 games to my amazement, my cue felt as comfortable as my hands or feet. i had total control of my cue and cue ball. I started to get tired and it was time to go so i slacked off a little and he got me back even (this is a bar box). I was so pleased at my performance it was amazing to see something come into reality while working so hard on it. Last night i had an apa league match, i got owned but the tables were not exactly straight. So i walked over to the 9 footers and a friend of mine asked me to play, i said why not, as we played the first rack he asked to do a race, i said sure, in the back of my mind i was thinking he may need to give me the 8 to win but i played anyway. As the game progressed, i started feeling confortable with my preshot, alignment and follow through. I gained 5 games in a blink of an eye, it went back and forth a few times then again ahead 4 more games and 3 more games, i had total control of the table and every match. I feel now i have to give this guy wieght in order to be close to be even. I just had to share my story i found this amazing. If anyone has anything i can use feel free to comment.