Can you ever know why you missed?

hang-the-9

hang-the-9

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Lets say you miss a shot, is there any way to know why? You could have aimed it wrong, you could have twisted your grip, you could have poked your stroke, you could have hit off-center on the cueball, and so on and so on.

So how do you fix something if you don't know what the problem is? Even if you isolate each mechanic and focus on that 100% in practice, if you miss a shot in practice you are back in the same area of why you missed which could be any one of a dozen things.

I think this is one of the reasons why I enjoy playing pool, you always have a new reason why you missed up :grin:
 
hang-the-9 said:
Lets say you miss a shot, is there any way to know why? You could have aimed it wrong, you could have twisted your grip, you could have poked your stroke, you could have hit off-center on the cueball, and so on and so on.

So how do you fix something if you don't know what the problem is? Even if you isolate each mechanic and focus on that 100% in practice, if you miss a shot in practice you are back in the same area of why you missed which could be any one of a dozen things.

I think this is one of the reasons why I enjoy playing pool, you always have a new reason why you missed up :grin:
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Well for players that don't have good mechanics and foundation it can be extremely difficult for them to understand why they missed, b/c it was probably a mix of differing problems.

If you have a good preshot routine, foundation, mechanics, alignment then its usually much easier for you to figure out WHY?
 
greyghost said:
Well for players that don't have good mechanics and foundation it can be extremely difficult for them to understand why they missed, b/c it was probably a mix of differing problems.

If you have a good preshot routine, foundation, mechanics, alignment then its usually much easier for you to figure out WHY?
Click to expand...

The problem is that even if you have good basics such as stance, straight stroke, etc.. how can you tell if you messed it up a bit on that one shot? Granted if you miss half the time, it would be easy to work on the issue. I was referring to those shots that the above average players miss, B level and higher.
 
hang-the-9 said:
Lets say you miss a shot, is there any way to know why? You could have aimed it wrong, you could have twisted your grip, you could have poked your stroke, you could have hit off-center on the cueball, and so on and so on.

So how do you fix something if you don't know what the problem is? Even if you isolate each mechanic and focus on that 100% in practice, if you miss a shot in practice you are back in the same area of why you missed which could be any one of a dozen things.

I think this is one of the reasons why I enjoy playing pool, you always have a new reason why you missed up :grin:
Click to expand...

What I think is weird is, when everything is right, it's hard to miss. When it's not, it's hard not to.

Like someone said "leave the pooch at home".

Chris
 
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hang-the-9 said:
Lets say you miss a shot, is there any way to know why? You could have aimed it wrong, you could have twisted your grip, you could have poked your stroke, you could have hit off-center on the cueball, and so on and so on.

So how do you fix something if you don't know what the problem is? Even if you isolate each mechanic and focus on that 100% in practice, if you miss a shot in practice you are back in the same area of why you missed which could be any one of a dozen things.

I think this is one of the reasons why I enjoy playing pool, you always have a new reason why you missed up :grin:
Click to expand...

The best response to missing was given to me from an older guy that used to frequent the pool hall. He simply said "you didn't hit it in the right spot".:grin-square:
 
hang-the-9 said:
The problem is that even if you have good basics such as stance, straight stroke, etc.. how can you tell if you messed it up a bit on that one shot? Granted if you miss half the time, it would be easy to work on the issue. I was referring to those shots that the above average players miss, B level and higher.
Click to expand...

It's a part of your mental agenda that at a certain level you will know the moment the cue hits the cueball if you missed - and mostly likely why. During your practice sessions, you have to train yourself to take note of every muscle movement on a correct and proper stroke. When it become 'the norm' - the instant your stance is off, or the moment you twist your wrist accidentally, you know what happened because something just didn't feel right. Likely, your brain will have it figured out before you finish standing up.

If your stroke was good but you still missed, it was probably due to aiming or not having your eyes in the right spot. I would say unintentional spin, but that implies an impure stroke/stance - and I've already mentioned getting the stroke/stance correct, so...

At least, that's my take on it.
 
for experienced players, if you get down and "hit it good", as in once ur cue went through the cue ball, u thought u made the shot. but u miss, u just lined up the shot wrong.

most of the other times u miss its cause u moved something during ur stroke. maybe its even ur eyes wandering, but odds are u moved something ever so slightly
 
stljohnny said:
It's a part of your mental agenda that at a certain level you will know the moment the cue hits the cueball if you missed - and mostly likely why. During your practice sessions, you have to train yourself to take note of every muscle movement on a correct and proper stroke. When it become 'the norm' - the instant your stance is off, or the moment you twist your wrist accidentally, you know what happened because something just didn't feel right. Likely, your brain will have it figured out before you finish standing up.

If your stroke was good but you still missed, it was probably due to aiming or not having your eyes in the right spot. I would say unintentional spin, but that implies an impure stroke/stance - and I've already mentioned getting the stroke/stance correct, so...

At least, that's my take on it.
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well said brother, this is what i was conveying...the writer speaks of this natural learning in "the inner game of tennis". Once you have that mental picture of how things work when something varies your experience and awareness will point out the fault.
 
You're making a case for freezing at the end of the stroke and staying down while you watch the shot. Then once you find out whether you made the shot, you're in position to check on a few other things: What position did your tip follow through to? Where is your elbow right now? Where are the knuckles of your shooting hand pointing? Did the ball curve/roll off (much easier to see if you're still down as you watch the ball travel)? Did the CB hit the contact point you were aiming at?

When you habitually freeze to watch the shot, you learn to identify what's going on with your body during the stroke based on what position you end up in at the end of the stroke. Furthermore, you can see, from the best possible view, exactly where the CB went as it travelled toward the OB. There are times I miss a shot and notice that I stroke true and hit the CB exactly where I was looking, and in fact I was just looking at the wrong point of aim. There are other times that I realize my elbow went left and my hand went right, based on the position I end up in, and I realize that this resulted from a poor arm alignment when I got into my stance.

-Andrew
 
Not only do I know why I missed, I'm upset if I don't know. Which does happen sometimes.

But usually there will be something about the shot I'm scared about and I know it coming into the shot. "I dunno how much to account for throw since I'm hitting this kind of medium soft. I know I gotta hit it a little fatter but how much fatter?" (then I miss and it's too fat and I know I shouldn't have overcompensated) ..."I think this line of aim looks too thin but the instant I aim to hit a little thicker it looks wrong also. I think this thin line of aim is the right one, I'm gonna try it"... (then I know I shoulda gone with the thicker hit).

I may not always be right but I usually have some inkling what I did. I think being honest with yourself is important when assessing your pool weaknesses. It does no good to make an excuse for missing the shot. Not in public and especially not to yourself. Sometimes the reason for a miss is as simple as "it's a hard shot and kinda far away and missable". No shame in admitting that.
 
greyghost said:
Well for players that don't have good mechanics and foundation it can be extremely difficult for them to understand why they missed, b/c it was probably a mix of differing problems.

If you have a good preshot routine, foundation, mechanics, alignment then its usually much easier for you to figure out WHY?
Click to expand...

I agree. I usually know why I missed. It's when I am certain I made the ball, and yet I miss that I normally can tell I may have mis-aimed.

Usually it's one of two things. I'm not focusing on where I'm aiming, but focusing on where I'm wanting the cue ball to go, or I don't hit my finish with a nice relaxed stroke. Both of these are mental mistakes, and usually happen when I'm in a high stress shot. I.E. Difficult or critical shape.

If I'm relaxed, and work everything out BEFORE I get into my stance, there usually isn't an issue. But sometimes we don't always do what we're supposed to do.
 
I like this question,,,it's a good one.

You ever see a pro miss,,,and when they do they scratch their head or seem surprised? This tells me they didn't expect to miss. If they knew something was wrong they would've gotten up and reset themselves. You see them do this all the time when they don't feel comfortable aligning a shot. Therefore, one can assume that when they missed, they didn't expect it, meaning they thought they had everything lined up properly to pocket the ball. So NO,,,I don't think they know WHY they miss a particular shot. I cannot see them saying "oh yeah, of course. I missed because,,,,,,". Now there may be times when something really obvious happens that interrupts them, but I am assuming you mean a missed shot that "just happens". Sometimes a player can deduce why he misses because he misshit the ball and he felt it. The most common excuse you'll hear is that they weren't focused and took a shot for granted.

And if they don't know why a particular shot is missed, I don't expect your normal player, with all his alignment problems, to know either.
 
There are only two reasons for a missed shot:
Your aiming wasn't correct or you didn't shoot straight.

But you can make both mistakes and still make the shot. How confusing ...
 
Are we talking about missing the hole with an easy shot or missing the hole with a shot that requires for you to position the cue ball to desired location?

Missing the hole with an easy shot is usually because we just got careless.
Most shots are like cooking a delicious stew. You need to have all of the ingredients to make a tasty one. Things go bad when there's too much of one or not enough of another.

The same goes for a shot that has a number of things involved. In making sure that we have of the ingredients for the shot we have a tendency to adjust the position of the pocket in our mind to accommodate the movement of the cue ball, which will result in a miss. For me, when I'm down on the shot I keep checking that I'm still focusing on where the pocket is as I as I insert the ingredients one at a time into the shot.
 
hang-the-9 said:
Lets say you miss a shot, is there any way to know why? You could have aimed it wrong, you could have twisted your grip, you could have poked your stroke, you could have hit off-center on the cueball, and so on and so on.

So how do you fix something if you don't know what the problem is? Even if you isolate each mechanic and focus on that 100% in practice, if you miss a shot in practice you are back in the same area of why you missed which could be any one of a dozen things.

I think this is one of the reasons why I enjoy playing pool, you always have a new reason why you missed up :grin:
Click to expand...

if you don't know why you missed you'll never be able to correct the mistake. i usually miss because i jump up
 
Andrew Manning said:
You're making a case for freezing at the end of the stroke and staying down while you watch the shot. Then once you find out whether you made the shot, you're in position to check on a few other things: What position did your tip follow through to? Where is your elbow right now? Where are the knuckles of your shooting hand pointing? Did the ball curve/roll off (much easier to see if you're still down as you watch the ball travel)? Did the CB hit the contact point you were aiming at?

When you habitually freeze to watch the shot, you learn to identify what's going on with your body during the stroke based on what position you end up in at the end of the stroke. Furthermore, you can see, from the best possible view, exactly where the CB went as it travelled toward the OB. There are times I miss a shot and notice that I stroke true and hit the CB exactly where I was looking, and in fact I was just looking at the wrong point of aim. There are other times that I realize my elbow went left and my hand went right, based on the position I end up in, and I realize that this resulted from a poor arm alignment when I got into my stance.

-Andrew
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
Seems like it's easier to figure out why you miss when you're not missing as much. :D
 
We all know why we miss shots. Misscues, poor mechanics, girls walking by the table, that sort of stuff. The problem, however, is identifying the miss because it happens so fast that we're left (as our fellow poster noted) scratching our heads and end up constantly practicing our fundamentals, hoping to correct the problem that caused the miss. Whatever that might be.
 
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