So....The last week I have had a ton of extra time on my hands and have been playing quite a bit of free pool (at my house)
I have been trying to find a reason for random missed shots...
I know I can run racks...I know I can make pretty much all the shots (except for a few extreme stroke shots or gaff type shots that rarely come up in a match that you would normally play safe on anyway)
I have been told that when I get comfortable against someone that I am playing I find a whole new gear, but when I get in a match that I am unfomfortable with I tend to let the pressure blow up my ability to pocket key balls in a rack...and sometimes even routine shots.
I have been spending time trying to figure out what is happening when I miss these balls....normally I can set the same shot back up and fire it in with no problem at all.
I think I finally may have realized that my problem is not a mechanical problem (or even visual) I belive my eye focus (eye pattern) changes on crucial shots and I am focused in-between the CB and OB....in essence I am closing my eyes on the shot....so to speak.....I am actually losing the visualization of the shot right at the stroke....I now also believe this may be what causes the dreaded jump up
I have worked on eye pattern methods to get myself focused correctly and it works up until that "key" shot in a rack and I dog the ball...
I can of course work on drills that help the focus...I acually have one where right at the pause of the final practice stroke I close my eyes and maintain the visualization of the last thing I saw (which should be the contact point and image of the OB path into the pocket) ...this works for a while...but then after time and under pressure my eyes seem to revert back to a "natural" pattern of doing something else and I end up in-between on that crucial shot...It may not even be a difficult shot, it may be a routine easy shot but the shape may need to be precise in order to be able to run the rest of the rack.
I am a believer that whatever you are doing during crunch time needs to be natural and not something you need to think about....
My question after all this, is there some trick that will make you naturally keep the focus locked in on the OB and path to the pocket?
Drills work, but after time they tend to wear off since it is not what your mind naturally wants to do.
I have been trying to find a reason for random missed shots...
I know I can run racks...I know I can make pretty much all the shots (except for a few extreme stroke shots or gaff type shots that rarely come up in a match that you would normally play safe on anyway)
I have been told that when I get comfortable against someone that I am playing I find a whole new gear, but when I get in a match that I am unfomfortable with I tend to let the pressure blow up my ability to pocket key balls in a rack...and sometimes even routine shots.
I have been spending time trying to figure out what is happening when I miss these balls....normally I can set the same shot back up and fire it in with no problem at all.
I think I finally may have realized that my problem is not a mechanical problem (or even visual) I belive my eye focus (eye pattern) changes on crucial shots and I am focused in-between the CB and OB....in essence I am closing my eyes on the shot....so to speak.....I am actually losing the visualization of the shot right at the stroke....I now also believe this may be what causes the dreaded jump up
I have worked on eye pattern methods to get myself focused correctly and it works up until that "key" shot in a rack and I dog the ball...
I can of course work on drills that help the focus...I acually have one where right at the pause of the final practice stroke I close my eyes and maintain the visualization of the last thing I saw (which should be the contact point and image of the OB path into the pocket) ...this works for a while...but then after time and under pressure my eyes seem to revert back to a "natural" pattern of doing something else and I end up in-between on that crucial shot...It may not even be a difficult shot, it may be a routine easy shot but the shape may need to be precise in order to be able to run the rest of the rack.
I am a believer that whatever you are doing during crunch time needs to be natural and not something you need to think about....
My question after all this, is there some trick that will make you naturally keep the focus locked in on the OB and path to the pocket?
Drills work, but after time they tend to wear off since it is not what your mind naturally wants to do.