Forum challenge

F

Flip_dat_Quarta

Banned
Everyone has weaknesses in their pool game. Some players are more honest about their game than others, but nobody enjoys putting in the work to fix their shortcomings.

So here's a forum challenge:

1. List 5 of your top weaknesses.
2. Choose one of the 5 weaknesses which hurts your game the most.
3. Make a plan to fix it. What will you do? How long will it take? When will you start?

Playing, gambling, and hitting balls is fun but it leads to a natural plateau. It's time to quit being lazy and make a plan to get to that next level. I'm sure we all have a lot of the same weaknesses so it will be interesting to share various solutions.
 
My weaknesses, in order of importance:

1. I sometimes miss when I must really, really power the ball.
2. I sometimes shoot long, soft shots and miss because the ball rolls off. I need to take my medicine and shoot these the proper way!
3. My stroke tends to become less smooth when I get tired.
4. I sometimes (only when I play pool, not snooker) tend to move in from the side instead of from the back.
5. Some specific shots are still tougher to me than they should be.

Plan to fix:

1. Building power with progressive excercise. Shooting gradually harder until I lose control, then staying at the power level just before that happens. Hopefully I will be able to build up some stroke power this way. Guess maybe 20 minutes of this every time I play will help.
2. I'm aware of this and will keep it in the back of my mind. Guess I could set up some shots as well.
3. I honestly have no idea how to work on this. I guess I could try to increase my stamina with road work? Maybe bring some bananas to keep my energy up?
4. This is only a matter of discipline. I'm allready aware of this happening, so I just have to be focused on it.
5. These shots will neeed to be put into a routine.
 
My stance, how I align and stand is atrocious. There are more than 5 things wrong with my stance.

My plan to fix it is to give away my table, light, and other equipment.

Anyone near League City, Texas want a free 9' Olhausen, light, and all the peripherals? Not joking.
 
Envelop/Send

TX Poolnut said:
My stance, how I align and stand is atrocious. There are more than 5 things wrong with my stance.

My plan to fix it is to give away my table, light, and other equipment.

Anyone near League City, Texas want a free 9' Olhausen, light, and all the peripherals? Not joking.
Click to expand...

Stick it in an envelop send to North Carolina.

Really, you can fix it if you want. I would bet I could do it over the phone.
 
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The toughest part for me is the discipline needed to stick to a pre shot routine. Period. To me the PSR is everything once you are able to move whitey around the way you want and your fundamentals are sound. PSR is a cure all for a multitude of mental evils. Why do I move away from it. Discipline!
 
rate game

I did this years ago but a little bit differently . I decided to rate all parts of my game
and work to bring them all to the level of the one that was the best. like this.
1. pocket balls. Make the ball as if its the game ball. Semi-hard shots, just cinch
it, because a lot of times I knew if I just make this ball I'm out. Could be the 1 or 2 or.
2. Position. Getting not only position but the correct position.
3.Banks. Make the banks that you're supposed to make. Every Time. Little cross
corner and cross sides.
4.Carom and Kiss. Again just making the ones I felt that I should at a high percentage
and controlling the first ball for a shot after or safe.
5.Combinations. Same as above
6.Break.
7.Bridge or left handed. After practicing these I realized I was better with the bridge
than left handed on some shots.
8.Special shots. These to me are shots that come up quite a bit but are different
than a little harder than most. CB frozen to rail, I practiced these for hours and felt
very confident that I would make them. In the day of 2 foul I would roll out and try
and leave a long shot off the rail, as I felt I would make every time.Stun shots,
little curve shots, long thin cuts Etc. These are different for for everyone.
9. Safety. I started working on this after 1 foul started. Put some balls on the table
and play myself safe trying not to just hook myself but freeze the CB to the ball.
10. Kicks. Not just hit the ball but try if possible to kick safe.
I rated myself on each before doing each one. It was a real eye opener. I was not
near as good on almost all of these as I thought. So I figured if I can bring them all
up to the one that I do best I will be a complete player for my speed. Then work on
bringing them up a level. sorry for so long a post
jack
 
Problems I am aware of .

1 I shoot to fast I need to slow down
2 I need to walk around the table and look at all my options before I shoot
3 I need to aim part of the shooting to fast thing
4 Want to work on seeing the run out sooner


I think if I could get my self to slow down all the others will follow and correct them selves .

I will start immediately I usually play on Fri,Sun and Mon I will make this work consistently in 3 weeks for city cup .

To slow my role I need to walk around the table, to look for the run out , and do a PSR .
 
These I feel are my 5 biggest problems at the moment

1. My stance/psr
2. Shooting when the cue ball is on the rail
3. My pattern play
4. Not stroking through all the way
5. Forgetting to chalk

Ways to fix this

1. More practice mentally drilling myself to keep head down, body stable, etc
2. I try shooting through with a small angle through the ball but still needs lot of work
3. Been watching videos and practicing small drills as well as throwing a few balls(atm about 2-4)on the table and visualizing ways to run out to get to the 8 ball
4. Practice drills of just stroking through the cue
5. Just a mental aspect I'm working into incorporating into psr or buy magic chalk
 
Pardon my observation but five is way too many to think of or even duly consider.
There are mechanical flaws and weaknesses to contemplate......a flaw happens regularly
while a weakness tends to be more occasional.

If you really had 5 flaws in your mechanics, the likelihood is you'd need a lot of coaching.
When you have 5 weaknesses in your mechanics, your mental approach assumes greater importance.
Intermittent or occasional breakdown in mechanics often comes from poor pre-shot routine adherence.

All of us can spot things in others before we spot something wrong in our stroke....you feel it when
your stroke unintentionally changes and the shot goes awry long before you can see the breakdown.
Anyway, the OP brings up a interesting subject and personally, I suggest working on 2 things at a time.
When you mastered one of two, simply replace it with the next biggest flaw or weakness to work on.
 
Bavafongoul said:
Pardon my observation but five is way too many to think of or even duly consider.
There are mechanical flaws and weaknesses to contemplate......a flaw happens regularly
while a weakness tends to be more occasional.

If you really had 5 flaws in your mechanics, the likelihood is you'd need a lot of coaching.
When you have 5 weaknesses in your mechanics, your mental approach assumes greater importance.
Intermittent or occasional breakdown in mechanics often comes from poor pre-shot routine adherence.

All of us can spot things in others before we spot something wrong in our stroke....you feel it when
your stroke unintentionally changes and the shot goes awry long before you can see the breakdown.
Anyway, the OP brings up a interesting subject and personally, I suggest working on 2 things at a time.
When you mastered one of two, simply replace it with the next biggest flaw or weakness to work on.
Click to expand...

I never said the weakness had to be mechanical. Lotsd of people have great fundamentals but they still struggle with shot making, speed control, judging cue ball rebound angles, etc...
 
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