Comment's on Capelle's new book....

mnorwood

mnorwood

Moon
Silver Member
Like his other works I think Capelle's latest book is outstanding. I have found his books to be some of the greatest how to guides that I have ever read concerning any topic.

I have talked to some pros who I will not name that try to discredit Capelle and Bob Byrne. Their argument is that these guys were never great players so they do not really know what they are talking about. My response to that is if any great pro writes a book that is as good as Capelle's and Byrne's then I will buy it. But that's just it, not many pros have written books or are willing to share the wealth of pool knowledge. Until the pros write a great book I will stick with Capelle. Some might say that to learn pool you should take lessons. Lesson from who? Where I lived in Louisiana there were no active BCA instructors or pros. I live in Houston and there is no pool school only 2 active instructors and no pro who currently gives lessons.

The 24 dollars and change is worth it for the new book.
 
I've never seen Capelle play but his books are very detailed and thorough. Definately worth the money. How many lessons would you have to take to get all the knowledge he puts into his books? Cost a hell of a lot more than 25 bucks, too.

Robert Byrne never was a strong pool player ( he never claimed to be either ) but he's is an excellent three cushion player and historian of pool. His Standard Book and Advanced Principles are goldmines for three cushion players especially. Shows hundreds of shots, explains the diamond system with adjustments, and he has a writing style I find real enjoyable. His trick shot book is the most thorough one out there I've seen, also.

My only problem with Byrne is he told me he only listens to classical music; he doesn't even like jazz. Didn't expect to see him at a Slayer show or anything but that seemed a little too rigid a view on music. He is, or was, married to the daughter of a famous classical music conductor so that probably explains it. He used to be part owner of my local pool hall until he moved to Iowa.
 
That's why in Golf, Tennis and other sports they have teaching professionals and touring professionals. Great players don't necessarily make great instructors and vice versa.

Why do you think Tiger Woods has a coach? Does that mean his coach plays better than he does? You can learn from ANYONE, it all depends on how open your mind is.
 
I've seen Phil play.
He plays straight pool stronger than he plays 9-ball.
He's under a shortstop speed in 9-ball.
But, his instructional books are great imo.
The Monk might not be a pro player either but his books are very helpful as well.
Efren might be the best player of all time but I can tell you this, he won't make a good teacher. He has no patience for it.
There's a local instructor here who used to be a world-class player. He can't teach a lick either.
 
I got his new book last Sat. Skimmed thru it and found it to have a lot of great info. The problem that I found is it is sometimes hard to follow what he is referrning to because it is not clear on the diagram or charts. Some of this may be due to page layout where the diagram was placed on a different page than originally.

It is a great book and I would say a must have.
 
mnorwood said:
...I have talked to some pros who I will not name that try to discredit Capelle and Bob Byrne...
Click to expand...

Well as mentioned in the book "Banking with the Beard", knowledge of pool was not to be shared with other players in the old days. To do so would be to shoot yourself in the foot!
 
the book is worth the $25, but i wouldnt say its outstanding. there is just so much filler in it. stuff that has probably been said a thousand times a thousand ways. and probably been covered in all of his other books too.

its like some of Kinisters tapes, who wants to watch him or a student shoot the same shot over and over and have him tell you this is what you need to do to get better. its like, "Duh, guys, we already know all of that"

but, like i said, there is some excellent info in this new book, so for $25 you cant go wrong.

DCP
 
Billy_Bob said:
Well as mentioned in the book "Banking with the Beard", knowledge of pool was not to be shared with other players in the old days. To do so would be to shoot yourself in the foot!
Click to expand...

I dont know if this statement tells the whole story. I agree that some players wouldnt share what they knew because they wanted to be able to beat the people they played. But I also feel many of them didnt share information or teach because they didnt know how.

This may sound like a dumb statement, because how could they do it if they didnt know how to explain it? But you may be surprised at how well some people play with out know the hows or whys. A while back I was talking with a freind (who is a STRONG player) and he said back then they didnt know anything about throw, they just knew when some shots came up they needed to aim them a little thinner or fuller. This is just one example.



As to the original post, I think Capell puts out some great material.
 
GREAT pLAYERS

A lot of pros can shoot really good, but they can't explain why this or that happens so u can understand it. They assume u already know certain things because its like second nature to them. Thats why a good instructor in anything is hard to find. Its like that in sports ,music, and other things as well
 
The bad:

I just read through the first 80 pages of the book yesterday. I'm a bit disappointed in the organization and the wording. Like TheBook said below, it is sometimes difficult to follow. I often don't know what I'm supposed to shoot, how many times, etc., by looking at the diagrams and text next to the diagrams. There are also many grammar and spelling errors. This, believe it or not, does make the reading more difficult and not fluid. It was especially disappointing to me for an author like this to have so many errors.

The good:

There is a lot of good information in the book. I especially liked the order to learn things (or fix things). Too many people focus on aiming instead of correcting their mechanics and then they think the aiming is the problem. He takes care of this by explaining that by having an excellent "landing" and a straight stroke the aiming will come automatically. And he used "natural aiming" which is another description for aiming by feel. I don't want this thread to turn into an aiming thread, but natural aiming is certainly my preference. I'm glad to see an author use it instead of ghost balls, contact points, etc. He also had a section on the phases of learning: Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, unconscious competence, and finally unconscious mastery. That part looked to be taken right out of The Inner Game of Tennis, and was a good part to include in this book.


The book so far is worth buying and giving it a good try. I think the people who regularly post on here will understand what he is saying because we have talked about many of the topics he goes over. But I think a C or even B player who never reads these forums or pool magazines might get lost in some places of the book.

I'm going to try to read the rest of the book in the next few days and then I will take it to the table and go through everything step by step. My game needs an overhaul and this seems like a complete series of steps to fix one's game.
 
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