Curse Of Being Straight In

[JimS]

While planning the shot think about where you don't want to be but then make sure you complete the plan with a thought confriming where you DO want to be. If you don't consciously plan where you want the cue ball to stop then your brain will subsonsciously pick a spot without your input and a part of your brain will see the next shot straight in so that's where it will put the cb.

You have to have a precise plan as to where the object ball should hit inside the pocket and exactly where you want the cue ball to stop. If you don't have a precise plan then you're just "non-chalantin around".

 

[DrCue'sProtege]

ok, i am going to practice some shots tonight, and concentrate on NOT GETTING STRAIGHT IN!!!! 1 rail, 2 rail, 3 rail, and 4 rail shots i am going to practice tonight.

i think, at times but not always, i see just 3 balls left on the table and think to myself "aw, just get down there somewhere, with just the 8 and 9 left, it wont be a problem", but often times it turns out to be a problem. and the STRAIGHT IN or ON THE RAIL problem, is, well, just that, the problem.

DCP

 

[CaptainJR]

i say that, because i'm sure 99.9 percent of the people on this forum don't practice.

your above statement validates that. a weekly 9 ball tourney, and a lesson......is NOT practice.

i do understand that some people don't have as much time as others.......for those people quality practice is MUCH MUCH more important that the people who can play 40 hours a week.



what other answer would you like me to give.

if you're getting straight in on all your shots............then practice not getting straight in

thats it, its that simple............its just like baseball...........if someone was having trouble hitting a back door slider.....whats the cure???? practice hitting the back door slider.

when i was in the military and some guy would be having trouble doing push-ups........and instructor would jokingly say "can't do pushups? know how to solve that??? MORE PUSHUPS!!!! DROP!!"

PRACTICE is the answer to his question.......plain and simple, its not like its a certain shot that requires a working knowledge of something like squirt and throw.............he's just playing shitty position............again whats the answer????? POSITION PRACTICE.


thats the problem with alot of poolplayers........they try to over analyze the shit out of everything and make it more difficult than it is.

i gave a simple generic answer, because it was a simple generic question.

thanks

VAP

Do you actually realize how ridiculous that sounds?

News flash!! News flash!!

The forum is closing, from now on when you click on the forum link at AZBilliards you will be directed to this screen.


"We decided to close the forum because the only thing you need is to practice whatever is going wrong. All pool instructors need to find something else to do because we don't need them anymore. We know this because vapoolplay told us so."

 

[DaveK]

Do you actually realize how ridiculous that sounds?

Souds like fine advice to me, unfortunately it's advice many do not want to hear, prefering a magic fix instead.

News flash!! News flash!!

The forum is closing, from now on when you click on the forum link at AZBilliards you will be directed to this screen.

"We decided to close the forum because the only thing you need is to practice whatever is going wrong. All pool instructors need to find something else to do because we don't need them anymore. We know this because vapoolplay told us so."

Now that is ridiculous, imo.

Dave

 

[CaptainJR]

Souds like fine advice to me, unfortunately it's advice many do not want to hear, prefering a magic fix instead.



Now that is ridiculous, imo.

Dave

Dave
What you just said was ridiculous is just me repeating what VAP said.

 

[DaveK]

Dave
What you just said was ridiculous is just me repeating what VAP said.

No, I meant your comment about closing the forums was ridiculous.

Dave

 

[sjm]

Others have already pointed you in this direction, but getting straight is often the price you pay for lack of attention to detail. Here's a layout where you often see players go wrong. If you play it as in the top diagram, with the cue ball's path into diamond seven, you risk getting straight. If, on the other hand, you play the line into diamond six, you greatly reduce the danger of getting straight. How's your attention to detail?

 

[vapoolplayer]

That's a pretty ignorant accusation. Most people on this forum do nothing but practice as they truly love the sport of billiards.

I have one thing to say about your many posts advising people to just "P R A C T I C E"............Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. You can practice by yourself 5 hours a day, but if all you're doing is bashing the balls around it's no more effective than 1/2 hour of proper practice.

my fault for assuming that people on here have common fu&%ing sense.

of course you have to practice right.......i hope that everyone can figure that out when someone advices practice.

again excuse me for assuming people on here have enough common sense to read into the word practice...........

and if you think most posters on here practice all the time..........you need to get out more. if you look over posts and pay attention to them, there are tons of posts where people admit to not finishing out drills, and just banging balls around..............thats not practice.............i doubt there are more than 20 posters on here that are dedicated enough to practice right.

VAP

 

[cubswin]

my fault for assuming that people on here have common fu&%ing sense.

of course you have to practice right.......i hope that everyone can figure that out when someone advices practice.

again excuse me for assuming people on here have enough common sense to read into the word practice...........

and if you think most posters on here practice all the time..........you need to get out more. if you look over posts and pay attention to them, there are tons of posts where people admit to not finishing out drills, and just banging balls around..............thats not practice.............i doubt there are more than 20 posters on here that are dedicated enough to practice right.

VAP

Know I don't practice very much, and can't think of very many folks that play pool around here that do. Can think of exactly one that practices daily. He does it because he has a pool hall and its slow during the summer and likes to see how many different ways he can bank balls in, kick balls in, and get out of leaves.

I would be a lot better player if I practiced, but given a choice between playing someone or doing drills I'm playing. Limited time in a day after all.

 

[TATE]

Others have already pointed you in this direction, but getting straight is often the price you pay for lack of attention to detail. Here's a layout where you often see players go wrong. If you play it as in the top diagram, with the cue ball's path into diamond seven, you risk getting straight. If, on the other hand, you play the line into diamond six, you greatly reduce the danger of getting straight. How's your attention to detail?

The straight back draw shot is the most overlooked position play in pool. Players become so obsessed with angles they forget they have the option of getting straight and drawing back the cueball. I've simplified many a layout by playing for a straight draw to the opposite end of the table.

Below is a situation just happened last week. My Opponent scratched on the break. I had ball in hand. I looked at the rail routes first and didn't like what I saw. My inclination was to put the cueball in position "A" and punch it past the side pocket. That was OK but it was simpler to just put it in "B" and draw it straight back, which I did. I've found that very few players will do that.

Long straight in shots are some of the most difficult shots in pool, even for expert players. I spend a lot of time practicing straight in long shots. I find this improves my overall stroke and accuracy on all shots because there is such little room for error.

These are shots players miss when the pressure is on.
Better to avoid straight long shots if you can, but also better to practice them in case you need to shoot one. What "not to do" is try to make angle on long straight in shots.

I think the difficulty is that on a long straight in shot you can actually see what you're aiming at - and it's not the edges. This throws off a lot of players.

Chris

 

[mjantti]

I'm sorry, no one has not yet mentioned the basic principle in any sport: Don't think what you don't want to do, think what you want to do ! If you think about not leaving yourself straight in, you'll find yourself right there quite often. A close example is in golf, let's say the green is behind a bunker. If your last thought is "don't hit the bunker", you'll most likely end up hitting it short and find yourself in the bunker. Instead, you must ignore the bunker and think "hit the center of the green".

So, if there is an area on the table you don't want to leave yourself (straight in for instance), take that into account when deciding where to play position but choose another better place to play position and forget the unwanted area completely and just concentrate on making the cueball travel to the desired position. The crucial thing is to have a positive mindset instead of a negative one.

How many times you have missed an easy shot with a thought "I'm going to miss it!" and how many times you have made the exact same shot with a thought "I'm going to make it!" ? What you think during the preparation for the shot and also at the last moment before the shot affects the outcome tremendously ! If you want to get over it, forget the negative thoughts and concentrate on the positive thoughts. I know it's easier said than done, but IMHO the mental side needs also practise.

Just my two cents...

 

[TATE]

I'm sorry, no one has not yet mentioned the basic principle in any sport: Don't think what you don't want to do, think what you want to do ! If you think about not leaving yourself straight in, you'll find yourself right there quite often. Just my two cents...

I agree but I think that one good angle leads to another and another and another. It's a combination of accuracy and speed control that gets precise shape. Ideally these angles become a habit as a player gets better. getting straight is just another way of getting out of line.

Intermediate players are going to find themselves out of line a lot, so they need to practice getting out from there anyway.

Chris

 

[mjantti]

I agree but I think that one good angle leads to another and another and another. It's a combination of accuracy and speed control that gets precise shape. Ideally these angles become a habit as a player gets better. getting straight is just another way of getting out of line.

Intermediate players are going to find themselves out of line a lot, so they need to practice getting out from there anyway.

Chris

Agreed. Well, I thought the original poster had difficulties ending up straight and the mindset with that, not with choosing to play the angles and going towards the ideal position line, not across it. If you play 9-ball clever enough, you rarely need to go across the ideal position line. But you're absolutely right, many times you have better results if you leave a good and big angle. I nowadays tend to leave a little bit too much angle instead of going for the small angle and risking to leave myself straight in. I don't like forcing the cueball around the table from a small angle... Blackjack's advice on leaving the cueball near the center of the table is excellent. Being a priceless piece of advice for straight pool, it applies in 9-ball as well in many occasions.

 

[Boro Nut]

Long straight in shots are some of the most difficult shots in pool, even for expert players.

I have to disagree. If you can't pot a straight ball there is something wrong with your cueing. Long cuts are more difficult, and long thin cuts the most difficult of all. When cutting a ball you have to judge the correct angle, and then cue straight. On a straight shot you only have to cue straight. It's that simple. You also have less and less margin of error on your cueing line the further toward the edge of the object ball you get. Complete novices know this intuitively. You never see them setting up 89° cuts for themselves. It's always straight-ins.

Boro Nut

 

[JoeyInCali]

i dont know why, but i have a really horrible curse of seemingly always ending up straight in when you cannot afford to be straight in. and what often compounds this is that i end up on the rail too.

last night, for example, i had to go 3-4 rails off the '7' to get to the '8' at the other end of the table. so i go all the way around the table, i think it ended up 4 rails, and of course end up completely straight in on the '8' ball. of course, the '9' was all the way down at the other end of the table.

it literally amazes me how often this happens to me. when i get ready to shoot a shot often times i say outloud "Now Please Dont End Up Straight In" and more often than not, it does. and when it ends up on the rail too, you are absolutely hosed since you cant draw back with left or right english.

just amazes me, how when i need some angle, even if its just a very small angle where you can force the cue ball around, i usually end up straight in. do you other posters have this problem at times too?

DCP

Times like these, you need a Meucci shaft.
Just use parallel english. Go forward b/c you won't scratch with all that squirt.

 

[CaptainJR]

No, I meant your comment about closing the forums was ridiculous.

Dave

Dave, LOL come on now, you had to know I was making a point, using a joke.

 

[DaveK]

I have to disagree. If you can't pot a straight ball there is something wrong with your cueing. Long cuts are more difficult, and long thin cuts the most difficult of all. When cutting a ball you have to judge the correct angle, and then cue straight. On a straight shot you only have to cue straight. It's that simple. You also have less and less margin of error on your cueing line the further toward the edge of the object ball you get. Complete novices know this intuitively. You never see them setting up 89° cuts for themselves. It's always straight-ins.

Boro Nut

The most forgiving shot wrt hit point are 1/2 ball shots. Straight in shots are not all that forgiving. I'll hear some howls, but trigonometry tells us so. It also says that 89 degree cuts are fn impossible. Straight in shots are very easy to align/aim, even for novices. But somehow I think you knew this and I fell hard for that dry English humour, n'est pas ?

Dave

 

[DaveK]

Dave, LOL come on now, you had to know I was making a point, using a joke.

About closing the forums, sure. But I still don't think that VAPs advice/post was ridiculous. If DCP is regularly straight in when he doesn't want to be, the only way to fix the problem is through practice. If practice does not fix the problem, then it's the wrong practice, or poor practice habits, or not enough practice. It will take time, more than until next Thursday. This was the message I read into VAPs post. A few cap's would have been nice, but otherwise it was right on the money. For those without time or motivation to practice ... too bad !

I believe you mostly objected that VAP provided no specifics for the poor fellow. I'll try. If I were DCP, I'd try to understand why the cb ended up straight. If it is coming straight down the line, then the line is wrong, choose (learn ?) another route or learn to adjust the line appropriately. If the line is fine but the cb is over hit or under hit, then work on speed control is needed. Last, but not least, it may be a draw/follow control issue. Whatever it is, practice that skill.

Dave

 

[vapoolplayer]

About closing the forums, sure. But I still don't think that VAPs advice/post was ridiculous. If DCP is regularly straight in when he doesn't want to be, the only way to fix the problem is through practice. If practice does not fix the problem, then it's the wrong practice, or poor practice habits, or not enough practice. It will take time, more than until next Thursday. This was the message I read into VAPs post. A few cap's would have been nice, but otherwise it was right on the money. For those without time or motivation to practice ... too bad !

I believe you mostly objected that VAP provided no specifics for the poor fellow. I'll try. If I were DCP, I'd try to understand why the cb ended up straight. If it is coming straight down the line, then the line is wrong, choose (learn ?) another route or learn to adjust the line appropriately. If the line is fine but the cb is over hit or under hit, then work on speed control is needed. Last, but not least, it may be a draw/follow control issue. Whatever it is, practice that skill.

Dave

wow........someone that doesn't have to be held by the hand to learn how to play

VAP

 

[Rod]

I think our mind set in the beginning is to play straight in position. After all in the beginning we don't want a difficult shot. As time goes along we realize that being straight in isn't our best option. However the speed is burnt into our memory so if we haven't decided on a specfic area, we end up straight in or very little angle and the wrong angle many times.

The learning process through play and practice tells us to be aware where we want the c/b. However untill we break that bad habbit and learn better position routes, it's bound to strike back. So what's the answer? Practice different routes with correct speed so we don't get into trouble. SJM shows one very good example and there are many more.

Practice until you can come in short or long to leave yourself an angle. You soon find out why short or long for a particular shot could be a nightmare but it's all part of learning. Many times as BlackJack posted around center table works wonders. I visualize speed and angle comming off the last rail. Seldome I get caught but if I do I didn't take the necessary steps before shooting the shot.
I believe they call it think before you shoot, don't just shoot. OR you know what you might get.

Rod