Yep. I still think playing-time and intuition are key. Of course one needs some level of technical chops to play good but the good 'ol HAMB deal still applies today.
Dr. Dave SAWS calibration
- Thread starter BlackMamba416
- Start date
Nothing wrong with trying to shorten the learning curve just keep in mind if you're an APA 4 level player, your stroke will cloud your judgement a bit making it more difficult to see what's really going on.
B-o-o-o-r-i-n-g
I think this is the main reason beginner players don't get totally hooked on pool. If you're not spinning the cue ball around, the game quickly begins to feel like putt-putt.
Spin the rock, have fun.
Well said BUT there's a huge caveat. The good news is I think it can actually be done with some practice. I think you have to get good at leaving most of the acquired knowledge at the practice table and when you compete you just play. This can be done and it also works like a built in reward system. You practice hard and your reward is mental freedom when you compete
So there's some compartmentalization but it's not too bad. Of course you can draw on your knowledge for speciality shots, but all the rest you just need to let it flow. This hasn't always been easy for me, but I've gotten better over time. Tricky part for me is I just don't compete enough.
Just did a little research to refresh my take on SAWS. The bhe and fhe is where I get off the bus. I enjoy and agree with the physics part.
This is what I found on youtube/)-----
The analysis and calculation adjustments are good. My implementation of adjustments need to go back to step 1 to reset the foundation for the adjusted choice of path through whitey. Well that's for large adjustments. The fingers always retain the ability to play beautiful music with the delicate touch to the white. So okay....I concur.....mostly.
The analysis and calculation adjustments are good. My implementation of adjustments need to go back to step 1 to reset the foundation for the adjusted choice of path through whitey. Well that's for large adjustments. The fingers always retain the ability to play beautiful music with the delicate touch to the white. So okay....I concur.....mostly.
The shots you miss with regularity since you're not that good of a player to begin with but would like to make those on
this forum believe you are. Please, no 2D drawings. It's not so much about the shot but whose hands the cue is in with the ability to aim and strike the CB exactly where it needs to be struck. It could be any shot.
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Intuition comes down the road after some semblance of skill level and experimentation takes hold after they HAMB.
That's like telling a golfer, "Hit those big slices and hooks into the woods and lake. Spin that rock, have fun. Lose a dozen balls over 18 holes and shoot a 130+. What a BLAST!"
I would say all the above. Some might argue that just banging balls around on a friend's table could instill bad habits. Maybe, but I say anytime on a pool table is better than no time.
I like to think I was a naturally talented pool player in my teens. Because all these instructional and learning tools weren't available in the early 80s, I only progressed to a certain level because of all the things I didn't know / understand. I know and understand more now, but now my old eyes and stiff back are holding back my game. Plus, I lost my desire to practice hour on end. If only we were young again!
It's actually nothing like that. Almost the exact opposite. Your method is more like telling a golfer to only work on driving the ball straight down the fairway for a couple of years or just work on putting the ball straight until you can make all the five footers for a few years. Only then do you move on. On paper, a linear progressive model works out. In real life, the games have to actually be fun or you lose interest. Find me one top tier player that played without English for a significant amount of time. Well don't do that, because I'm skeptical of all the pros that promote this method because I'm quite doubtful that they employed it themselves.
Sounds like Moe Norman to me.
Our high-school football coach taught that. Well his words were, "We play to have fun. It's easier to have fun when we win!" When he took over the team hadn't won a game in 2 years. Under him we won 32 straight. Hmmm is this the high run thread?
You either have a vivid imagination or are whacko to begin with to come up with all of that. What I posted was a snippet of the game and what needs to be learned. The key to both games is learning the FUNDAMENTALS first. They both are predicated
upon the same things. Grip, stance, posture, alignment. What can be included in alignment is also aiming the body, eyes, ball, and club/cue chosen.
In the beginning and beyond there's not much fun in hitting crappy shots. Fun comes in the work and progress and seeing positive results to achieve new levels of proficiency. No teaching golf pro has their students trying to hit slices and hooks (spin) (English in pool) before learning to hit the ball straight with a fundamentally sound approach. NONE!
The pool to golf analogies always fall apart. No different here. So I'll just leave it alone.
Simply put -- I wouldn't teach anybody to avoid using English early in their pool journey. Nobody. Of course that's within reason considering not all shots are created equal AND hitting the cue ball in the center will always be the most important skill but still....find time to spin the rock or zzzzzzzzz.
There are in fact a lot of similarities. I know a good number of golfers with low handicaps and teaching pros who play pool and THEY'RE the ones who tell me about the similarities. I'm not making it up. Are you a low handicap or pro in golf?
Are you a for hire pool instructor? Who do you teach and who have you taught? How many lessons have you given?
It comes with time. Not all beginners have a table at home or a pool room very close.
I disagree strongly that an apa 4 should not play with spin.
I’d go as far as on day 1 of picking up a cue, a player should be shown spin and practice it. It is the core of all cue sports. Why introduce it late in development instead of at the beginning?
Joe Tucker, a great instructor and pro player, has the same opinion. He made some videos and posts about it 15 some ago when he was active on here.
I’d go as far as on day 1 of picking up a cue, a player should be shown spin and practice it. It is the core of all cue sports. Why introduce it late in development instead of at the beginning?
Joe Tucker, a great instructor and pro player, has the same opinion. He made some videos and posts about it 15 some ago when he was active on here.
I don't think using/not using spin early on is a one-size-fits-all matter. In my first year of playing pool seriously (that'd be last year), I reached a point where I decided to ditch spin almost completely, and went back to center ball almost exclusively. I had gotten my stroke down well enough, my aiming, etc..., but once I started incorporating more and more spin, that all fell apart. Like, really bad. That's not going to be the case for everyone, but it was for me. After about a month of building my foundation back up well enough, and my confidence, I started going back to spinning it.
The analogies don't work. In golf spin is a product of changing your stroke. In pool, spin is just a product of hitting the cue ball in a different spot.
Who cares about the instructor stuff.
Like I said the analogies always fall apart. Someone can make a good golf analogy and upon closer inspection it falls apart as the games are just different.
Here's an analogy I could probably defeat...
Bowling. I know very little about bowling but no matter ...
Tell a new but serious bowler they are NOT to hook their ball until they have mastered the straight ball. Show me ten strikes in a row with a straight ball then I will begin to teach you about hooking it. Seems odd on the surface but probably a more apt comparison to pool than golf is.
You went one month with ALMOST no spin. One month. Try it for 6 months with ZERO spin and see if you're still interested in playing pool.
I once did a Tor Lowry like stroke drill for a couple of weeks and I love the game as much as anyone I know and that's all I could muster.
It's the spin of the cue ball that truly mesmerizes and keeps serious players coming back.