Discussion Topic: Consistency
- Thread starter Da Bank
- Start date
Consistently employ the Four Fundamentals on each and every shot, regardless of your opponent or the circumstances involved.
Roger
Roger
What are the Four Fundamentals?
sweatinNbettin said:
The Four Fundmentals:
1. Straight alignment
2. Level cue
3. Stay down
4. Follow through
Roger Long said:
thanks, pretty simple stuff, but often times it is the simple stuff that we neglect and can get you in trouble.
But, again, I'm not really looking for advice on how to properly hit a pool shot... I'm looking for a discussion on what people do to reinforce their consistency and what it takes to be confident that you are going to be as consistent in the finals of a tournament as you were yesterday shooting by yourself at home. I suppose that also has a lot to do with mental toughness and handling pressure, but that can be discussed too!
For me personally, I can recognize when I'm just not having a good day and either put the cue down or try to play through it, but I allow myself to get pretty upset when I'm not playing to the ability that I know I possess. Now that doesn't mean I get upset if I'm not playing the best pool of my life. I also find myself playing excellent at the beginning of a session, but allow shots I *should* make get in my head.
Consistency = WORK
If you're not willing to work then forget about consistency IMO.....
work on your stroke..... When I was young and badly wanting to improve..I decided my stroke was the first major building block.... so I went and hit a shot on the snooker table (5x10) CB 1/8" off the rail at the first diamond, side rail... OB 1/8" off the rail one diamond away...I shot this shot down the rail at varyious speeds for 6 HOURS!!! That shot or similar ones will develop the stroke you need.... you then have "confidence" in your stroke......
Now do some diagonal drills...... until you have "confidence" in them....
Then do positional drills.... until you have "confidence" in them....
Then do cue ball path drills....until you have "confidence" in them....
................................... It NEVER ends!!!! Continue as needed. Asperin or Tylenol recommended.....severe masochistic tendency required! :wink:
td
Blackjack said:
If you're not willing to work then forget about consistency IMO.....
work on your stroke..... When I was young and badly wanting to improve..I decided my stroke was the first major building block.... so I went and hit a shot on the snooker table (5x10) CB 1/8" off the rail at the first diamond, side rail... OB 1/8" off the rail one diamond away...I shot this shot down the rail at varyious speeds for 6 HOURS!!! That shot or similar ones will develop the stroke you need.... you then have "confidence" in your stroke......
Now do some diagonal drills...... until you have "confidence" in them....
Then do positional drills.... until you have "confidence" in them....
Then do cue ball path drills....until you have "confidence" in them....
................................... It NEVER ends!!!! Continue as needed. Asperin or Tylenol recommended.....severe masochistic tendency required! :wink:
td
David...You took the words right out of my mouth. When you have built an accurate & repeatable stroke, your confidence soars. Be able to "trust" your stroke, and confidence will follow. As a caveat here, We do NOT recommend the long endurance type of practice some posters have described. Highly focused, strong discipline, short duration...those are the key ingredients.
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Blackjack said:
I am looking to improve my consistency also. I am not instructor but think the only way to know the right anwer for you is to know why you are not consistent. Example what type of shots or in what situations do you seem to miss. For me it is lack of mental focus I make the hard shots but will seem to miss an easy shot because I take it for granted. I think for some people the problem could be bad fundamentals, no preshot routine, or just mental.
Don
Don
Thought i'd throw in something here... It has greatly increased my consistency.
Something i've found is that when you get down and you start doing your practice strokes.. you're already lined up. Can't tell you how many times I see players wiggle their eyes back and forth from cue ball to object ball trying to get lined up. I only look at the OB twice at most and once I hit the zone, just once right before I stroke it.
FOR ME at least, i'm lined up when i'm down to aim. At this point it's just a matter of making sure I hit the cue ball right where I want to hit it.
Something i've found is that when you get down and you start doing your practice strokes.. you're already lined up. Can't tell you how many times I see players wiggle their eyes back and forth from cue ball to object ball trying to get lined up. I only look at the OB twice at most and once I hit the zone, just once right before I stroke it.
FOR ME at least, i'm lined up when i'm down to aim. At this point it's just a matter of making sure I hit the cue ball right where I want to hit it.
consistency
it comes in ur set up,
sighting, then stance, bridge arm, to the cueball then the cue comes back on the up slope and then dropping the elbow drives it through on the down slope and driving the ball not pecking the cueball,
u do the same routine in 5 simple steps and its then repetitive and the same and solid holding up when under pressure....
1.. sighting from back from the table
2...walk in on the line with ur right leg(left if ur left handed) setting ur stance on the line of the shot.
3... bridge arm to the cueball not cueing till down on the shot chest to cue not cue to chest.
4,...cue arm comes back on the up slope.
5... then dropping the elbow drives the cue on the down slope
very simple and gets consistency
it comes in ur set up,
sighting, then stance, bridge arm, to the cueball then the cue comes back on the up slope and then dropping the elbow drives it through on the down slope and driving the ball not pecking the cueball,
u do the same routine in 5 simple steps and its then repetitive and the same and solid holding up when under pressure....
1.. sighting from back from the table
2...walk in on the line with ur right leg(left if ur left handed) setting ur stance on the line of the shot.
3... bridge arm to the cueball not cueing till down on the shot chest to cue not cue to chest.
4,...cue arm comes back on the up slope.
5... then dropping the elbow drives the cue on the down slope
very simple and gets consistency
One of the pro players said that they practice a shot until they can't miss whereas others practice until they make it.
I think that sums it up. Any thing that requires skill involves muscle memory. Take something that we all do and take for granted: walking. We do it without thinking but watch a baby try to walk or someone that had a stroke or leg injury.
Set up a shot and practice, practice and practice not only to make the shot but to land the CB on a spot or area. Doing it once does not count. Try to do it ten times without missing the area. If you miss you start back at zero.
I think that sums it up. Any thing that requires skill involves muscle memory. Take something that we all do and take for granted: walking. We do it without thinking but watch a baby try to walk or someone that had a stroke or leg injury.
Set up a shot and practice, practice and practice not only to make the shot but to land the CB on a spot or area. Doing it once does not count. Try to do it ten times without missing the area. If you miss you start back at zero.
lee brett...I disagree that dropping the elbow promotes a consistent stroke. NOT dropping the elbow (using a pendulum stroke) is what will deliver consistent results. Dropping the elbow does nothing to improve the quality of the stroke, since the CB is gone off the tip in 1/1000th of a second, and in fact, can cause several inconsistent results (note I said "can", not will).
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
scott lee
any time you want a coaching challenge let me know, as the worlds best coach and world snooker head coach, who taught ronnie o sullivan this, ur coaching methods ur teaching are 30- 40 years behind the times, does a golfer stop his golf club at the golf ball, does a tennis player stop his racket when hitting a ball no he hits through the ball, do u know what an up to down cue action is?
im sorry but not being funny but i get lots of personal emails asking me about this as coaches keep trying to stop people doing this its called driving the cueball not pecking at it..
what i cant understand is why especially people in america wont acknowledge the advanced coaching techniques, and keep persisting in the old times, times have changed and so has coaching.......
any time you want a coaching challenge let me know, as the worlds best coach and world snooker head coach, who taught ronnie o sullivan this, ur coaching methods ur teaching are 30- 40 years behind the times, does a golfer stop his golf club at the golf ball, does a tennis player stop his racket when hitting a ball no he hits through the ball, do u know what an up to down cue action is?
im sorry but not being funny but i get lots of personal emails asking me about this as coaches keep trying to stop people doing this its called driving the cueball not pecking at it..
what i cant understand is why especially people in america wont acknowledge the advanced coaching techniques, and keep persisting in the old times, times have changed and so has coaching.......
I don't know much about snooker, but I do know a little about pool, and I can't see where pool in America has changed so much that it requires totally new stroking and coaching techniques. Could you please enlighten me on this?
Roger
I can't put words in Lee's mouth but I think what he's saying is the stroke is exactly what you and all the other certified instructors are saying but in the finish/follow through, after the ball is gone, the elbow drops. The follow through is simply longer than if we don't allow the elbow to drop. In this kind of action the wrist plays less or maybe no role in the stroke. I'ts more of an arm stroke. The cue does the work. Even though the ball is gone, "the motion" is what counts. If "the motion" doesn't matter, then "follow through" would not be a critical part of a stroke, afterall the ball has already left. We all agree that follow through is critical. Now it's simply an argument of degree.
The problem I see in this, is coaching an elbow drop before a sound/classical stroke is established. Again not to put words in his mouth but I think that's why he calls it an Advanced Technique. I developed an elbow drop because it seemed to give me more feel and control of the Cue Ball. That's my game, 3C. I'm not saying I'm right, just what I do and why.
Now that I've been reading on elbow drop I've started looking at top players and see that the very best Snooker players do in fact drop. Is this a fault, a fad, or the new way? It looks like all the top players drop, not just one or two. Take a look. Also look at early videos of Allison Fisher vs Current vids. You will see a difference. Is that a fault she picked up and needs to get rid of or did one of her coaches teach it? I don't know.
I don't claim to have the answers or to be an expert. I'm just a bum swinging a cue. But I'm a curious bum wanting to learn as much as I can.
Ok I left myself wide open. Give it to me if I need it.
The problem I see in this, is coaching an elbow drop before a sound/classical stroke is established. Again not to put words in his mouth but I think that's why he calls it an Advanced Technique. I developed an elbow drop because it seemed to give me more feel and control of the Cue Ball. That's my game, 3C. I'm not saying I'm right, just what I do and why.
Now that I've been reading on elbow drop I've started looking at top players and see that the very best Snooker players do in fact drop. Is this a fault, a fad, or the new way? It looks like all the top players drop, not just one or two. Take a look. Also look at early videos of Allison Fisher vs Current vids. You will see a difference. Is that a fault she picked up and needs to get rid of or did one of her coaches teach it? I don't know.
I don't claim to have the answers or to be an expert. I'm just a bum swinging a cue. But I'm a curious bum wanting to learn as much as I can.
Ok I left myself wide open. Give it to me if I need it.
The only thing you need is a pat on the back for having observant eyes and an open mind.
I filmed myself the other day, and I noticed that I have a slight elbow drop on most shots. At the time, that was a little disconcerting.
Then at the pool room last night I was watching Rodney Morris practice, and I was specifically looking for the elbow drop. And guess what? It was there.
Now one thing I noticed that Rodney and I have in common is that we are both a little more upright in our stances than a lot of other players. It then occured to me that the higher you are in your stance, the more vertical your upper arm becomes, and the less swing range you have from the elbow down. That could lead to some forward movement of the upper arm (elbow drop) in order to get a full stroke through the ball. For further evidence of this, look at how low Allison Fisher gets over the cue. That allows her more swing range from the elbow down; and she does get a full stroke through the ball with no elbow drop.
Now, I'm beginning to think that stance height, forearm length, and bridge length all play a major role in whether the elbow drops, or it doesn't.
What do you think? Could I be onto something here?
Roger
Gotta agree with you here Scott.
Attention span varies from person to person. The type of activity is an important consideration, as people are generally capable of a longer attention span when they are doing something that they find enjoyable or intrinsically motivating.
Estimates for the length of human attention span are highly variable and range from 3 to 5 minutes per year of age in young children, to a maximum of around 20 minutes in adults.
Continuous attention span, or the amount of time a human can focus on an object without any lapse at all, is very brief and may be as short as 8 seconds. After this amount of time, it is likely that an individual's eyes will shift focus, or that a stray thought will briefly enter consciousness.
You can tell when you have reached your limit of attention span as you start straying from the four fundamentals (Roger spoke of) and stop trusting your stroke -- not good. That's when it's time to take a break and do something totally not related to pool. Too much "consecutive" time can be counterproductive. As your game improves, the length of you attention span will increase because problems areas that once were have been replaced by confidence and muscle memory. If you have "been there and done that" enough times the once "hard to do" no longer seep into your head. In other words, you stop talking yourself out of that particular shot/over thinking. Less head games = winning more pool games.
Hope this helps.