Bert - Secrets of shotmaking

[av84fun]

I haven't seen the video, but that doesn't keep me from having an opinion on it.

For me there are two aspects to this. The first is that the drill must release the mind from conscious thought. Clearly if you shoot a non-straight shot straight, the ball misses. This much is obvious even to simpletons. So you must be letting your subconscious take over and make the shot for you. In the long run, that's the way you will need to play most of your shots.

The second aspect is that this drill causes you to form false visualizations. I think that's really, really bad in the long run. Form a true image of the shot in your mind and then make it real. I would never recommend this drill to a student unless they needed some kind of quick fix that couldn't be achieved in any other way, but then we would have to repair the damage. This drill has all the marks of the wrong band-aid.

I agree with you big time...but there is some apparent contradictions in the thread about what constitutes a "straight in" shot in Bert's tape.

As I noted in my post #19, if by "straight in" he meant shooting straight toward the facing pad ... instead of a cut toward the back center of the pocket then he was merely pointing out the "moving pocket" that is widely written about but too often ignored by mid level players who miss too thick much more often than they over-cut shots where the point is infringing into the actual pocket.

If that is what he was getting at...however clumsily...then he was right.

If that was NOT his point, then that tape should be recalled from the market as dangerous to the health of pool players and a full refund given!!!

Regards,
Jim

 

[Blue_chalk]

There's a lot of useful knowledge in Bert's tapes, but you have to wade through hours of repetition and unnecessary babble to pick out the diamonds in the rough. His 70+ tapes could be compressed into 5-10.

I definitely agree with this. However, in Bert's defense...he is by far not the only one guilty of this. Most of the instructional videos/books that I have seen have a lot of "filler" material. How to stand, how to hold the cue, etc, etc, etc. Worse yet are the ones that include "myths" of pool as matter of fact.

I have learned some things from almost every instructional tool I have ever seen. However, getting that gem is like finding a cottonball in a snowstorm from some of them.

IMHO, if you want the real deal, go to see Randy G in dallas and learn more in a few days than 10 years of reading books/watching videos.

 

[whitey2]

In Bert's "defense", I must also say that some of those tapes have a lot to take in. You'd be surprised at some of the things you pick up from them after about 10 viewings (over time).

When (if) you master some of the "stuff", and the view them again, you will most likely pick up a few words that explain some of the things that were not clear in the earlier viewings.

I wonder which one I have viewed the most. Since I started with #1, #2, and #3 a long time ago, and then put the tapes (and the game) on the shelf for many years, I would say I've watched #1 about 30 times. No kidding.

 

[hang-the-9]

After the tournament on Wed., I was playing around to get used to a new shaft some more, playing long shots off the rail. One of the regulars (a pretty good B, a 7 on APA 9-ball) took a few shots and was missing in the exact way Bert pointed out in his tape (#56 or 57). I showed him what he explained and the reasoning behind it, he imediately was able to make that shot better. He has a match this weekend and I told him to take note of how the players miss small angle cut-shots, and to try what I (via Bert's tape) showed him. I'll post again on Monday what he saw and if the tip helped him make more balls.