Curse Of Being Straight In

[DaveK]

You are way off base here Boro. Go back to the original post. He was complaining about being straight on the 8 ball and having no angle to get to the other end of the table to make the 9 ball.

I am offering advice to help him get the angles needed to make it to the 9 ball. You are simply telling him to get straight on the 9, who doesn't already know that?. He wasn't talking about the straight pot itself being difficult....he was talking about how getting an angle from a straight shot to another ball at the opposite end of the table is hard.

I'm not stupid, I understand that straight shots are easier than hard cuts, but the post is really about his lack of ability to get good angles that lead to run-outs. Simply saying get straight on the last ball doesn't help at all if he can't get on to it properly.

Ooops, a thousand appologies for letting this thread meander into a minor (?) discussion on the relative difficulty and forgivingness of straight shots versus cut shots. We will now return to the thread ... hey DCP, GO PRACTICE !

Dave

 

[vapoolplayer]

If you say straight pots are easier than cuts I'll say it's harder to get to where you'd like to be on the table from a straight pot. How's that?

Boro Nut

ok, now you're acting like an idiot..........go back and reread my posts.......if you still don't see the point.....then enroll in a reading comprehension course......

VAP

 

[LastTwo]

I'm talking about pool. In practicality, long straight shots are difficult because you have to hit the cueball with no side spin. This sounds easy to do but it's not. Even a hint of left or right will spin the ball out of the hole on a tight table.

If your aim is pretty good, angled shots are more forgiving because a small amount of spin has much less effect on the object ball (because of the glancing blow).

I don't know how good you are, but just to pocket the ball most good players would rather have a slight angle to aim at on long shots rather than be straight in. You can test this yourself by shooting slightly angled long shots and compare your pocketing percentage versus straight in.

Chris

I think you are absoloutely right. It is very easy to make all kinds of cut shots with every type of english. Try shooting a straight-in shot, especially a long one with a hint of sidespin and you will miss the shot many more times than you will make it.

I also agree with your post about playing more simple patterns. I've noticed you do this when I watch you play. When I am in the zone, I pay really close attention to detail about my position play. I take a bit longer and actually try to visualize almost exactly where the cueball will stop, even on 3-4 rail position shots. I leave myself straight-in when I feel it makes the runout easier. When I am not in the zone, I have this horrible habit of not thinking out my position play, and I just play general area shape, and I often get out of line.

The answer to the first post of this thread is easy- just bear down and pay attention to detail, like sjm said. Sometimes it helps to imagine where you would give yourself ball in hand on the next shot, and see if you can get the cueball there, or as close as possible. Just pay attention and think the shot through, and I can almost guarantee you will stay in line alot more often.

 

[predator]

Sometimes you will end up straight in when you don't want to no matter how good your positional game may be. For us intermediates it happens more often than one would expect. But usually a good draw stroke can save you. Follow can too sometimes, but more cheating of pocket is required.

 

[vapoolplayer]

Good point VA. My god, if I played as many hours as everyone says they do, I might be a AA player. You sort of get the impression that everyone is an AA player from the amount of hours they put in.

I think we should get JAM to resumbit her question

PS WW is taking vacation soon and may try to get in one of those 13 hour days so that I can raise my C- rating to a B level and play respectfully in the Planet Pool thing the 1st of June. May see you there. My pool case will have a CCB tag on it with a black magic marker X in the middle.

yea, these forums are full of world beaters and mosconis........

 

[DaveK]

Color me confused, were you replying to the right post?. I don't believe I was accusing you of anything at all, unless DaveK and Boro Nut are the same person?.

Nah, we live on different continents, if you can believe us. And sometimes I'll just jump in whenever ... whatever ... although in this case I was involved with diversion of this thread a bit earlier ... And no, you didn't acuse me of anything. Were you acusing Boro Not of something bad ?

Hey, I was just giving you a hard time for you comments about thread-drift. I've seen it happen lots, starting in '93 or '94 or so when I first started reading usenet news goups. Ain't the Internet great ? And btw, it is not likely to change, no matter what you might wish for.

Dave

 

[DaveK]

Well, if you ever saw Mike Suchak play you would know what I am talking about. His drives were high and straight as an arrow.

I know what you are saying about the accuracy of the driver, and you are correct, but for me my driver was the most accurate club in the bag. With irons one has a tendancy to snap your wrists, so it may appear that you are being more accurate with irons in such a short distance, but it is possible for the anlge of error to be less on a driver for a very few players, but when you measure how many yards the shot went astray, this is due to how far the driver hits the ball. An optical illusion one may think, but true for some of us.

This is nonsense. Urban legend fodder.

" ... for a very few players ..."
"...optical illusion ... "

Give me a break !

Dave

 

[Boro Nut]

ok, now you're acting like an idiot..........go back and reread my posts.......if you still don't see the point.....then enroll in a reading comprehension course......

Acting like an idiot? Now I'm insulted. Where on earth do you get 'like' from? OK, maybe I do pull the ocassional leg. Maybe I am guilty of slipping in the odd punchline. But I swear I have never, ever, ever, acted the idiot when there was a chocolate biscuit at stake.

I did read your posts, honestly. I understand the thrust of the original thread, and didn't see any point in adding anything to endless stating of the obvious - ie don't run out of positon or you will make it will harder for yourself. But when I read statements to the effect that the straight pot is the hardest to pot then I DID want to stick my oar in. It's an urban myth. Millions of average players are saddled with a mental block implanted by other average players who's only problem is they can't cue straight. It's not new news either. Newton proved it years ago.
Law 1 - For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Law 2 - An object in motion will remain in that motion unless acted on by an external force.
Law 3 - Straight pots are a doddle.

Rereading my posts, the statements I took issue with were:

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

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.

I still know I am right. And I resent the rumour currently sweping this post that I am an anally retentive pedant. That is my final word on the matter. I have to return home urgently now, I think I may have left a knife in the fork drawer.

Boro Nut

 

[Travis Bickle]

But when I read statements to the effect that the straight pot is the hardest to pot then I DID want to stick my oar in. It's an urban myth. Millions of average players are saddled with a mental block implanted by other average players who's only problem is they can't cue straight.


Law 3 - Straight pots are a doddle.

Boro Nut

Boro, I must concede the point, though I hadn't disputed it, that being among the average, straight pots are, indeed, a doddle.

It's much harder to type doddle, actually, and to hear oneself say it as one does. To say it aloud would be even harder than to say snookah!

Seriously, I had been fighting long straight-in shots some lately and decided that thinking of what you posted couldn't hurt any, so I did that last night. At the same time, since the shot is automatic, even at maximum length on a 9-footer, I decided to cut down my warmup strokes to no more than 3. Because if they are a "doddle," then all I need is to be aligned properly and hit the ball the same as any half-table straight-in shot, which inconsistently as I sometimes shoot, ARE about unmissable.

As it turned out, I couldn't miss ... stop shots, slight draw, follow, jacked up, on the rail, hardly mattered. Only trouble came on the shot I don't practice anywhere near enough, the stun-follow.

Thanks, but I'll probably need some new mental trick next week!

And that's essentially my theory on the missability of long, straight-in shots ... the creeping thought that you could somehow brick it and look like a turkey can put concrete in your elbow and wrist. Not to mention gain a rep for ugly mixing of metaphors.

 

[DaveK]

You probably can't even play a lick, am I correct? Never could, never will, only dreams.

WW

You are correct, I can't hardly play. Last year I got out twice, both times for 9 holes. Scores were 42 and 44 (par 36). But I do get a chance to swing golf clubs on a GolfTek swing analyser and a fancy launch monitor system on a weekly basis (roughly). My best golf was in 1989 when I played many rounds at a municiple course somewhere in Orange County, CA. That summer I shot my best score for 18 holes, a 75. It sure helps to play every day .

Drivers are the most difficult club to control because they are the longest club, and they tend to hook/slice more because of their loft (or lack thereof). This applies to everyone. Of course my 'driver' is a 2 wood, and it's only 42 inches long .

I don't dream about my abilities, I measure them and try to improve through training methods. But I have not worked on my golf game since I got married, 13 years ago now. These days I work on my pool game, it's so much easier with a table in the basement.

...At age 53 with 2 herniated disks I went to the driving range after having not played but a few times in 35 years.

So if you've only played ' but a few times in 35 years' how do you know that your driver is so straight ? This is a rhetorical question btw.


Dave

 

[Splinterhands]

If you think you're cursed by getting straight in all the time, you might as well blast it with high left/right and hope for the best. And remember, the more rails you hit the better chance you have to pocket a ball. Good luck.

 

[DaveK]

If it will make you happy, let me state that my driver was my best club in the bag, besides the putter. Maybe you are technically correct in that it could not be the straightest, but maybe not.

I was referring to a story that happened to me 35 years ago. Back then I was agile, skinny, etc. BTW, the reason I quit golf was to play pool. Today, I, like you, only dream of playing again. Got tremendous pleasure out of playing Jack Nicklaus on the computer. In our pool hall, people loved to gamble playing computer golf on the big screen.

To not only me, but others also, the driver is the best club in their bag because:

(1) The tee-off area is always level. You are always hitting off a tee. An iron is used off of long grass, no grass, titled landscapes, divots, etc.

(2) A driver is heavier and it is harder to snap your wrists to much as in iron play. To me it was easier to 'drag' through the hitting area on a consistent plane. Like in billiards, a heavier club/cue is easier to control.

(3) The driver is used more than any club in the bag besides the putter. thus you get used to it.

ww

'

I hear what you say ww. I think there are a few folks who play driver better than other clubs because they practice it at the range. That's cool. People who hook badly may hit driver better for your reasons. But for scoring, I use my 5 iron more than any other club. I'm pretty anal, just ask my wife. (She'd say " 'pretty anal' , for Christ sake, he's a flippin engineer !".)

Dave, who used the backspace key about 100 times in that post, someone get me another beer !

 

[DaveK]

I do agree....The 3 iron is the toughest club in the bag...(unless you carry a 2 iron) Especially with todays Driver Technology....The driver may be the easiest club in the bag...

He was talking 35 tears ago, drivers were 105ccs and made out of wood !

Dave, still looking for that beer