Examples Of How I Hose Up Racks

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DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The two diagrams below are classic examples of why I fail to run racks of 9-Ball on a more regular basis. I broke 60 times today and only had 9 - 9 out of 60 - chances to runout. Of those 9 chances probably 5 of them were very difficult and the remaining 4 were ones I thought I should have got out. I succeeded only one time out of the 4.

In the first diagram I wanted to hit pocket the 1-Ball and drift up to where the red CB is. But apparently I didn't hit the CB hard enough and it ended up about where the yellow CB is. From there it was an impossible cut shot on the 2-Ball and even if I did make the 2-Ball I would have to turn the CB loose. End of runout.

https://pad.chalkysticks.com/276dd


In the 2nd diagram I didn't have much angle on the 1-Ball so I had to hit it with some left English to bring it off the rail to hopefully where the red CB was. That would give me the angle to come back across for the 3-Ball. But I didn't get the CB where I wanted and ended up where the yellow CB is, almost straight in. And as a result almost impossible to get back across for the 3-Ball. End of runout.

https://pad.chalkysticks.com/1ca37

These types of things plague me, and they have for years. I wish I knew what to do about it.

r/Mike
 
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Ok, forgetting about the break for a minute ---- You have to learn from your mistakes. If you're repeating the same errors, you're not properly analyzing the result when it happens.

In the first example --- based on the diagram --- I would choose about a tip of left side spin, a hair above center. It's not necessary to hit the shot hard as long as you have some topspin working on the cue ball. Too much top will drive the cb too far forward which is why I'm suggesting just slightly above center. The left spin will take the cb where you need it to land.

In the second example, the cb traveled too far. You have to ask yourself which side you would rather the error be on. In that case, a little shorter would have been better than a little farther. Favor the correct angle and if you miss position, you'll at least get a decent shot at it.

But you must learn from your mistakes. Study them --- set them up again ---- until you completely understand what you have to do next time. Then you'll remember the next time you'll see something similar.
 
As for your break --- You need to keep working on it. 9 out of 60 opportunities isn't that great, especially if only 4 were realistic runout possibilities.

Don't give up. Keep working on it. Try to improve your odds just a little each time.
 
I finished up my 100 breaks. I ended up 16 out of 100. 16 chances to runout. Of those 16 probably half were decent opportunities, the other half maybe Allison or Earl might have gotten out.

I got out once. One time. Missing position as described above cost me and missing shots on my 4.25 inch pockets cost me. On 3-4 spreads I got out of position by about a ball and that cost me.

You would think after 17.5 years of trying I'd be getting better just through sheer perseverance. Guess not. I am about at my wits end.

r/Mike
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I finished up my 100 breaks. I ended up 16 out of 100. 16 chances to runout. Of those 16 probably half were decent opportunities, the other half maybe Allison or Earl might have gotten out.

I got out once. One time. Missing position as described above cost me and missing shots on my 4.25 inch pockets cost me. On 3-4 spreads I got out of position by about a ball and that cost me.

You would think after 17.5 years of trying I'd be getting better just through sheer perseverance. Guess not. I am about at my wits end.

r/Mike
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Remember: Pool is just a giant puzzle. Figure it out one piece at a time. Puzzles are fun.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I finished up my 100 breaks. I ended up 16 out of 100. 16 chances to runout. Of those 16 probably half were decent opportunities, the other half maybe Allison or Earl might have gotten out.

I got out once. One time. Missing position as described above cost me and missing shots on my 4.25 inch pockets cost me. On 3-4 spreads I got out of position by about a ball and that cost me.

You would think after 17.5 years of trying I'd be getting better just through sheer perseverance. Guess not. I am about at my wits end.

r/Mike
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You are pressing too hard, relax a little, and lose the anxieties

Learn to play through your center core

Get your feet under you

Open up your arms yet keep them contained,

Relax your eyes yet burn a hole through your contact points.

See the visuals and back off on the book stuff a little, find some of your natural.

Breath soft, you are a waterfall, let it flow naturally, stop pressing.

Feel the cue ball, it's all that matters, keep one in your pocket at all times

Get your body and mind into position as if you are in bed ready to go to sleep for the night.

If I were to guess one thing about your game it would be you do not complete and extend your follow through.

There is a difference between follow through and the completion of it.

When you complete with full extension your stroke will flow smooth, as will you.
 
4.25 inch pockets are plenty big enough, so stop mentioning it. It's starting to sound like you're blaming the smaller pockets.

First thing I've noticed from the diagrams are the red circles don't give you much margin for error. On the first one it's simple to come up short, which you found out. Your focus on this shot should be to land between the headstring and the 5 ball. Even landing straight in is better than landing short here. It gives you way more margin for error here, and landing on the other side of the 2 ball is just as easy position to get a good angle on the 3.

The second diagram is much the same. Poor selection for the red circle which doesn't leave much margin for error. If you over run it you're slightly screwed. On this shot I'm hitting it with stun and a little bit of inside to check the cue ball off the cushion and land mid table. Aiming for mid table means I'd have to hit it terrible to land with not enough angle on the next ball and the inside not only ly helps land mid table but I can hit the shot a little firmer because the white will slow right down off the rail.

I seriously advise when you are practising like you have been to cut a 2 1/4" diameter disc from card or paper and start placing this on the table for required position. As you go to place it you want to stop trying to get perfect position on shots that don't require it and play the percentages game. You might have longer pots, more angle than is perfect but at least you will be able to clear the table without losing the cue ball. Figure out your zone first. Where is too much angle, where is not enough angle and place the cut out in the middle of them.
 
Pidge said:
4.25 inch pockets are plenty big enough, so stop mentioning it. It's starting to sound like you're blaming the smaller pockets.
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I just recently played on some pockets that were 4 1/4 to 4 3/8. They seemed a lot bigger and easier to make shots on than my new 4 1/4 inch pockets. My table is a Gold Crown IV, and the other table was a Diamond. The Diamond table corner pockets seemed to "accept" shots while my Gold Crown doesn't.

r/Mike
 
Pidge said:
4.25 inch pockets are plenty big enough, so stop mentioning it. It's starting to sound like you're blaming the smaller pockets.

First thing I've noticed from the diagrams are the red circles don't give you much margin for error. On the first one it's simple to come up short, which you found out. Your focus on this shot should be to land between the headstring and the 5 ball. Even landing straight in is better than landing short here. It gives you way more margin for error here, and landing on the other side of the 2 ball is just as easy position to get a good angle on the 3.

The second diagram is much the same. Poor selection for the red circle which doesn't leave much margin for error. If you over run it you're slightly screwed. On this shot I'm hitting it with stun and a little bit of inside to check the cue ball off the cushion and land mid table. Aiming for mid table means I'd have to hit it terrible to land with not enough angle on the next ball and the inside not only ly helps land mid table but I can hit the shot a little firmer because the white will slow right down off the rail.

I seriously advise when you are practising like you have been to cut a 2 1/4" diameter disc from card or paper and start placing this on the table for required position. As you go to place it you want to stop trying to get perfect position on shots that don't require it and play the percentages game. You might have longer pots, more angle than is perfect but at least you will be able to clear the table without losing the cue ball. Figure out your zone first. Where is too much angle, where is not enough angle and place the cut out in the middle of them.
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Your thoughts about the 2 1/4" inch target is a good idea. I've done that in the past.

Your analysis on how to play the two shots is wrong. Seriously wrong.

r/Mike
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
Your thoughts about the 2 1/4" inch target is a good idea. I've done that in the past.

Your analysis on how to play the two shots is wrong. Seriously wrong.

r/Mike
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why do you say that??
i find pidge is usually spot on with his comments
and what do you think is the "right way"?
 
bbb said:
why do you say that??
i find pidge is usually spot on with his comments
and what do you think is the "right way"?
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I agree that Pidge is usually on top of the game. But the two shots analysis here are way off base. Its too detailed to go into here.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I agree that Pidge is usually on top of the game. But the two shots analysis here are way off base. Its too detailed to go into here.
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There is no right or wrong way to play the shots, everyone has there preference, so you can't say someone is "seriously wrong" on the matter.

All I know is my run out game is up there with anyone's, and my break building in snooker is too. The major reason why is how I plan racks out.
 
I agree with pidge and Fran Crimi. The first shot should have been played with inside and if you are counting on position coming off a rail then you have to make sure it gets to the rail. Sounds easy but it's a common mistake.

Are you confident playing shots with inside English? I ask because in the first shot you didn't play the shot with inside and your position choice seems to be predicated on avoiding shots where you'd have to play inside English.

With the position pidge mentioned, you would be okay if you overran your position but you would have to use inside to hold the cue ball. You seemed very particular about leaving the CB right in that small window.

Also, as long as you've been posting here you have been making errors that I would describe as timid. You want to creep up on position. Similar to how amateur golfers can't mentally hit the ball over the green. They are terrified of it.

If you were playing to the spot correctly, you would overshoot position as often as you come up short. I get the feeling you come up short a lot more, especially when a shot has to drive through for position like in the first diagram.

If you want my advice. I would spend less time focusing on the statistics and tracking things and more time shooting the bleeping ball in the hole. A good shotmaker could shoot that two ball in diagram two from where you ended up and get workable position on the 3 most of the time. But it would require inside English. Also, if you came up shorter on you position in that one it wouldn't be a problem it you can make a ball with inside English.

Do you ever just throw balls out and shoot them in in any order, playing position for whatever ball you feel like? This might help your confidence.

A lot of your posts are focused on finding the faults of your pool game. You should be having fun. Getting down on yourself about pool because you are not perfect doesn't sound like very much fun to me.
 
Mike, you may not like what I have to say, but you need a swift kick in the pants. You are looking for someone to enable you here. I won't do that. All you are doing here is looking for affirmation on how cursed you are, that you will never be given the chance to play good pool.

It's that loser mentality that prevents you ever getting a lot better. You look for excuses on why you can't, instead of for ways that you can. I was expecting in your diagrams to see actual impossible runnouts. Instead, I see nice layouts that your loser mentality found a way to screw up to affirm your beliefs about yourself.

For starters, go get a couple books on positive thinking and study them. You have to start by totally changing your attitude. As long as you think like a loser, you will fullfill your dreams. You even went so far as to break one hundred racks just to prove that you are cursed and aren't given the same chances as everyone else. Yet, you didn't even give yourself ten tries at that one ball to learn how to get on the two properly. You got what you wanted, failure, and then proceeded on to find the next failure.

Nothing will change until you stop looking for failure, and start looking for success. You have to stop thinking and saying "this is why I can't do ...." and start thinking "how can I succeed at doing ...".

Take your first example: you state you have an impossible cut on the 2, and even if one could make it, you have the next excuse handy, have to turn the cb loose. First off, the two is a very makeable shot. You don't think it is because you haven't spent any time learning how to make it. Second, you think you have to turn the cb loose, because you again haven't spent any time learning how to move the cb around and even to look for what you can do to get on the 3.

Why spend hours breaking one hundred racks to prove you can't do something? When you could spend that time doing things like Kinnisters 60 minute workout, or Dr. Dave's Billiard University drills. Something where you actually learn how to make shots and move the cb around.

You failed position on the two, then stop there and keep shooting the one until you master how to get on the two. Edison spent thousands of attempts to learn how to do something. You spend thousands of attempts to prove you can't do something. Huge difference.

As to your second diagram, you write it off as a failure, when it is very possible to still get on the 3 ball. But, you don't know that, because you haven't spent any time at all learning how to do just that. Pool is about precision, but more often than not, we will not end up with the exact shot we were trying to get. You can either be a perfectionist and write it off as a total failure when your position is a little off, or you can think like a winner and find a way to get back in line. You often won't get right back in line with one shot, but work your way back to right in line over several shots.

So, quit looking for excuses, and start looking for ways to succeed.
 
I have to agree with Neil. You need to adjust your thinking. Start looking for possibilities instead of problems. Both times even with the positions I would have been happier to be shooting instead of watching. Both positions offer possibilities you apparently overlooked.
 
Neil said:
SNIP......

................think like a winner and find a way. SNIP.....................
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Very powerful!

One thing that makes Efren the best. He would shake his head and maybe even scratch it, give a little chuckle at his bad luck, then look for a way out of the impossible situation. He makes some unbelievable escapes with that attitude.
 
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Guys, you can't ask someone to change their personality. You can, however, help them to manage the negative stuff in a better way.

Confidence is a personality trait that starts in childhood. Turning it around requires intense therapy and it may not be possible at all. That doesn't mean that a player who isn't confident can't perform well. They just have to figure out how to manage it when those negative thoughts creep into their brain.

In this case, I feel that compassion is a much better solution than a kick in the butt.
 
FranCrimi said:
Guys, you can't ask someone to change their personality. You can, however, help them to manage the negative stuff in a better way.

Confidence is a personality trait that starts in childhood. Turning it around requires intense therapy and it may not be possible at all. That doesn't mean that a player who isn't confident can't perform well. They just have to figure out how to manage it when those negative thoughts creep into their brain.

In this case, I feel that compassion is a much better solution than a kick in the butt.
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Fran, yes you can. It's called free will. You are totally free to choose how you want to think and behave. Sure, it can take a while and sometimes a lot of effort to change bad habits, such as negative thinking. But, that does not equate to not being able to do it. It can be as easy as flipping a switch is one so chooses.

Past influences surely can influence how we think, but each action we take is a choice. You can either choose to be negative, or choose to be positive. Many choose negative because it is usually the easier choice to make. It takes no effort to say "I can't". It takes a lot of effort to say "I can, and I will find a way.". They are used to being negative, and are comfortable there, so they stay there. They are afraid of the unknown, which for them is positive thinking. All the while, they hold themselves back, and make themselves slaves. It's in accepting that we are free to make our own choices that one becomes actually free. All one really has to do is choose to flip that switch, and say NO MORE!

You can say I don't know what I am talking about, but, in reality, I know exactly what I am talking about, been there, done that.
 
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