Ever pull the trigger when you're not ready to???

Maniac

Maniac

2manyQ's
Silver Member
I have this little quirk in my game that's driving me nuts (well, nuttIER, since I'm already a Maniac ;) ). Every once in a while, usually on a shot where the cue ball and the object ball are close together and the shot requires me to jack-up and hit the cue ball fairly easy, in the middle of my practice strokes I just take a little half-a$$ed poke at the cue ball and barely send it or the object ball far enough to do anything but give my opponent ball-in-hand. This poke just comes out of nowhere as I was not really ready to pull the trigger. It just happens, as if my right arm couldn't wait for my brain to finish processing all the information that the shot requires. And, in the middle of this little "poke", my brain is telling my right arm to pull back as though it was telling the arm that it wasn't through processing information yet. So the whole shot looks like I was trying to pop a housefly off of the cueball or something :o . Bear with me here, as I've tried to describe what happens to the best of my ability. Does anyone out there know what quirk I am describing? Does it happen to you? How often? There is no real pattern but it seems like I do this on the average of once every 10-12 racks. It happened to a lady in my 8-ball league last night. Then, lo and behold, I also did it in the second rack of my match. The lady that had done it earlier was so happy to see that someone other than herself does this that she called me over to her table and gave me a high-five. What causes this? What can I do to make it stop?

Maniac
 
Maniac,

Nobody shoots good jacked up, that's why we try really hard to bounce the cue ball off the rail and play shape away from object balls. When you jack up, make sure you still follow through the cue ball with the tip. Those strokes you are describing result in a lot of mistakes. Some players take a nervous, shallow poke at the ball from every position and wonder why pool is so difficult.

You hit the nail on the head. The one thing I think all players can do to improve, sometimes dramatically so, is to not shoot until they are zeroed in. It's like the sights on the rifle. You do't shoot until the cross hairs are lined up, then pull the trigger. In this case, the cross hairs are in your mind, cuball on track and object ball racing to the very center of the pocket.

Whatever you do, just don't shoot until you are certain you've got the object ball going into the center of the pocket. Then take a positive stroke at the cue ball. If you are going to shoot soft, just take the tip back an inch or two on the backstroke.

Sure, you will miss. But at the same time you will learn from your misses. A rushed shot teaches you nothing.

Chris
 
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Virtually everytime I do that, it's because I was thinking while I was doing my practice strokes. Just one more reason to reinforce the good habit of doing all the thinking before going down to stroke the shot.
 
Maniac said:
I have this little quirk in my game that's driving me nuts (well, nuttIER, since I'm already a Maniac ;) ). Every once in a while, usually on a shot where the cue ball and the object ball are close together and the shot requires me to jack-up and hit the cue ball fairly easy, in the middle of my practice strokes I just take a little half-a$$ed poke at the cue ball and barely send it or the object ball far enough to do anything but give my opponent ball-in-hand. This poke just comes out of nowhere as I was not really ready to pull the trigger. It just happens, as if my right arm couldn't wait for my brain to finish processing all the information that the shot requires. And, in the middle of this little "poke", my brain is telling my right arm to pull back as though it was telling the arm that it wasn't through processing information yet. So the whole shot looks like I was trying to pop a housefly off of the cueball or something :o . Bear with me here, as I've tried to describe what happens to the best of my ability. Does anyone out there know what quirk I am describing? Does it happen to you? How often? There is no real pattern but it seems like I do this on the average of once every 10-12 racks. It happened to a lady in my 8-ball league last night. Then, lo and behold, I also did it in the second rack of my match. The lady that had done it earlier was so happy to see that someone other than herself does this that she called me over to her table and gave me a high-five. What causes this? What can I do to make it stop?

Maniac
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I haven't seen you play, but I wonder if you are making the proper transition from the practice strokes to the final stroke. Do you have a pause before the final backwing? Is your backswing slow and smooth? Is there any pause at the end of your backswing? Doing these three things, particularly the first two, can really help you in terms of the physical and mental transition from the warm-ups to the actual stroke, and will definitely help you to stroke ball more definitively and authoritatively (and by that I don't necessarily mean harder) in all situations, including jacked up.
 
solution

Maniac said:
The lady that had done it earlier was so happy to see that someone other than herself does this that she called me over to her table and gave me a high-five. What causes this? What can I do to make it stop?

Maniac
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I'd say a smart-asset lady is the cause. Slap a knot on her head a time or two and she will stop calling you over to high five after you foul up!

That was what you were asking about, wasn't it? :D :rolleyes: :D

Hu
 
Maniac said:
I have this little quirk in my game that's driving me nuts What causes this? What can I do to make it stop?

Maniac
Click to expand...

Lack of a well-defined pre-shot routine, or being lazy and not using the pre-shot routine on EVERY shot! Pretty easy to fix, if you just follow your routine...always!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
Does anyone out there know what quirk I am describing?
I believe the technical term is - oops. :)

Does it happen to you?
It used to.:rolleyes:

What causes this?
Jacked up, you can't take your usual practice strokes. Your arms are in a different position. oops.

What can I do to make it stop?
Shoot a few of these each time you practice and you'll develope a preshot routine just for this situation. Everyone has an oops now and then. Everyone embarasses themselves now and then. :D
 
Move you back hand forward on the cue when you jack up. I'm not talking just an inch or inch and a half. Enough so that when you follow through completely you will not hit the cloth. Now you will need to consciously make a stroke through the cue ball and hopefully will eliminate this tentative little stoke you are making sometimes.


Just my first impression thoughts
JR
 
???????????

Thats what I call baby bunt stroke. Every one is guilty of that at one time or another. I learned how to avoid this long ago by watching a pro
player play this shot. I was always afraid of fouling cue ball with follow
thru. The way to hit this shot is to follow thru with your wrist many times
you don't even have to jack up. If you can't get it ask a one pocket or straight pool player to show you. They are constantly in that position.
If you a very slight angle you can draw your cueball big time with no jack up. Try It.
Pinocchio
 
Well back when I couldn't play shape for crap I was really good at being jacked up like that, and sure once in a blue moon I would poke at one on a practice stroke. 99% of the time it was the cue actually slipping forward in my hand just enough to touch the cueball. Reason being I was jerking the cue back and forth with a really light grip, normally on shots I was wanting to hit with some power and stop the ball or draw it a bit.

If your doing it alot my first thought would be shorten up your backstroke when your jacked up or slow it down a bit so you move your focus from the object ball to the cue ball before the tip gets too close to the cue ball. Simply put focus more on your stroke on those shots. I don't know about everyone else here but most of the time I make a mistake like that it's from lack of focus.

Also sounds like you kinda have it in your head that your gonna do it everytime now, so maybe practice shooting jacked up till you know you can depend on the shot without worrying about poking at it. Then the next time it comes up you won't think twice about it.

Just my .02
 
Thanks to you all for the tips. I'm gonna try some of them next time I practice. You know, I got to thinking after I made my OP that I DID have rotator cuff surgery 4 years ago on my right shoulder (I'm right-handed), and with a 15% range-of-motion loss on that shoulder, it could possibly be part of the problem. Again, thanks to all that posted!!!

Maniac
 
Maniac said:
I have this little quirk in my game that's driving me nuts (well, nuttIER, since I'm already a Maniac ;) ). Every once in a while, usually on a shot where the cue ball and the object ball are close together and the shot requires me to jack-up and hit the cue ball fairly easy, in the middle of my practice strokes I just take a little half-a$$ed poke at the cue ball and barely send it or the object ball far enough to do anything but give my opponent ball-in-hand.

What causes this? What can I do to make it stop?

Maniac
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, this is the yips. I've suffered with them all of my pool playing life, and as I noted a few months ago, it's gotten worse. It has always affected my jacked over balls shots. It now affects my break. Imagaine what you're feeling on these jacked up shots and then feeling the same thing on the break.

With me, they aren't nerves. The rest of my game is zoned in and controlled (during league nights). My heartbeat does not rise. The close jack ups and the break, it's like I have no control of my body, and it lunges out before my hands get on the table, or as you say, before I know I'm ready to stroke.

When you find a cure, tell me. Currently, I have to keep my eyes closed on the break until I'm comfortable in the shot stance. It's helped. Tough to do without fouling in the jacked-up case.

I'm not sure anyone can help you or understand you if they currently don't have the yips.

Good Luck,

Fred
 
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Cornerman said:
Unfortunately, this is the yips. I've suffered with them all of my pool playing life, and as I noted a few months ago, it's gotten worse. It has always affected my jacked over balls shots. It now affects my break. Imagaine what you're feeling on these jacked up shots and then feeling the same thing on the break.



I'm not sure anyone can help you or understand you if they currently don't have the yips.

Good Luck,

Fred
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The "yips" huh??? That's a good description right there. Can I use that term next time I do it in a game? I'll say "Oops, I yipped that shot". :D :D

Fred , I have always had the impression that you were a cool, calm, and collected pool-shootin' kinda guy. I won't say that I'm glad you get the "yips" too, just glad to see you're man enough to admit it. Sometimes it seems that players on this site want you to think that they are made out of steel or somethin' :rolleyes: . Good shooting my friend! If I ever find a cure for our little problem, you'll be the first one I contact!!!

Maniac
 
Maniac said:
The "yips" huh??? That's a good description right there. Can I use that term next time I do it in a game? I'll say "Oops, I yipped that shot". :D :D
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All of the golfers will understand you. It affects them in putting most often. Bernard Langer, one of the greatest golfers of all time suffered/suffers embarassingly from them. It's a combination of an uncomfortable stance with the important outcome. Unfortunately, the more it happens, the harder it gets to get away from it.

Work on it now. Make those shots comfortable (follow everyone else's advice), before it's too late.


Fred , I have always had the impression that you were a cool, calm, and collected pool-shootin' kinda guy. I won't say that I'm glad you get the "yips" too, just glad to see you're man enough to admit it.
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Hopefully the first step to recovery is admitting there's a problem. I think that's what they say.

Fred
 
It went off in my hand!

I have had the "yips" problem that Fred describes, but with me it is ALWAYS accompanied by nerves. It never happens when I am practicing by myself, only when I'm playing for cash or in a tournament. I am sure my heart rate is well above my normal 68 beats per minute and I am also sure that it happens when I fear missing the shot. So, for me, fear/anxiety is the root cause. One thing that has sometimes helped me is to back off the shot (VERY hard for me to do, for some reason), take a couple of deep breaths, and remind myself to follow my pre-shot routine (as Scott Lee stressed).

The expression I have heard to describe this phenomenon is that the shot "went off in my hand" like a gun firing before you really meant to "pull the trigger." In other words, like Fred said, your body seems to lunge into the shot long before you are ready.
 
i think one of BillPorter's points is very important: get your breathing under control (aka take a couple of deep breaths). this usually clears my head enough to shoot the next shot. i'm thinking the hardest part of all this is noticing when it's about to happen and pulling up to re-set. i play really fast which makes this even harder for me.

i wish everyone the best of luck in losing their yips, except of course if they're playing me.

-s

//why can't they just make a pill?? 'yip-be-gone' or something...
 
TATE said:
Maniac,

Nobody shoots good jacked up, that's why we try really hard to bounce the cue ball off the rail and play shape away from object balls. When you jack up, make sure you still follow through the cue ball with the tip. Those strokes you are describing result in a lot of mistakes. Some players take a nervous, shallow poke at the ball from every position and wonder why pool is so difficult.

You hit the nail on the head. The one thing I think all players can do to improve, sometimes dramatically so, is to not shoot until they are zeroed in. It's like the sights on the rifle. You do't shoot until the cross hairs are lined up, then pull the trigger. In this case, the cross hairs are in your mind, cuball on track and object ball racing to the very center of the pocket.

Whatever you do, just don't shoot until you are certain you've got the object ball going into the center of the pocket. Then take a positive stroke at the cue ball. If you are going to shoot soft, just take the tip back an inch or two on the backstroke.

Sure, you will miss. But at the same time you will learn from your misses. A rushed shot teaches you nothing.

Chris
Click to expand...

nice post TATE
 
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