George Rood's cure for "jumping up" and "poking" instead of stroking

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SciotoSteve

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George Rood's cure for "jumping up" and "poking" instead of stroking

George"s method for eliminating these common errors was a two step process. Step One- Aim your shot until it looks perfect while taking your practice strokes. Step Two-After you have taken your last practice stroke, Close Your Eyes .and Then Stroke! Do this in a very relaxed manner and think only on delivering the cue straight and smooth thru the ball. You'll be surprised how smooth your stroke will feel and how accurate you will be. After you become adept at this practice exercise, then begin shooting with your eyes open, but try to retain the feeling that you had with your eyes closed. In other words, play with your eyes open but stroke the way you did with your eyes closed! I would appreciate feedback from those who have ever used this method, along with feedback from those who try it for the first time. George was and still is a pool genius!
 
SciotoSteve said:
George"s method for eliminating these common errors was a two step process. Step One- Aim your shot until it looks perfect while taking your practice strokes. Step Two-After you have taken your last practice stroke, Close Your Eyes .and Then Stroke! Do this in a very relaxed manner and think only on delivering the cue straight and smooth thru the ball. You'll be surprised how smooth your stroke will feel and how accurate you will be. After you become adept at this practice exercise, then begin shooting with your eyes open, but try to retain the feeling that you had with your eyes closed. In other words, play with your eyes open but stroke the way you did with your eyes closed! I would appreciate feedback from those who have ever used this method, along with feedback from those who try it for the first time. George was and still is a pool genius!
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Excellent first post. I'll give it some tries. :groucho:
 
SciotoSteve said:
I would appreciate feedback from those who have ever used this method, along with feedback from those who try it for the first time.
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50 years ago a local poolroom owner told me to line up my shot and then close my eyes.
He said my stroke wasn't smooth and only think about pushing the cue straight through the shot.
 
good post I've been doing that for years but not for jumping up I do it for checking my alignment with the shot I am a firm believer that proper pre shot allignment is 90% of shot making.
 
not a bad idea.
But here's Marcus' cure for getting up....
DONT F*$#&in get up, just stay down till the cue ball stops moving for a couple games and u wont get up anymore.
 
Poolwiz99 said:
good post I've been doing that for years but not for jumping up I do it for checking my alignment with the shot I am a firm believer that proper pre shot allignment is 90% of shot making.
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Tap. Tap. Tap. .... and an Amen brother!

When I first started playing ten years back they told me over at the CCB that you do your aiming standing up and I thought they were leading me on.... didn't believe it. I went right on moving all over the place while down on the shot and I went right on being inconsistent as hell.

Fast forward and about 5 years ago I got wise to the wisdom of aiming while standing and it did wonders for me.

Then a year or so back a poster on this forum... unknownpro suggested that the best possible practice method was one stroke shooting. You aim while up, drop down, stroke once and shoot... NO HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT ALLOWED AFTER YOU GET DOWN.

I've worked hard at taking every suggestion anybody gave me and putting it into practice and nothing I've learned along the way helped as much as one stroke practice.

One stroke and shoot forces a guy to concentrate while up and then it's easy to make the shot while down. You just have to position the cue on the cb where you need it and shoot.... maybe eyes closed! :groucho:
 
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This is very sound advice and a practice exercise I have used and recommended for years (like may others on this forum and elswhere). Many readers on this forum will appreciate and benefit from your sharing this practice exercise.

But, it bothers me when something like this, which has been around for many years, is represented as a specific individual's "system" or "method", as if they (by implication) have invented it. With all due respect to Mr. Rood and yourself, simply passing on information gleaned over the years from others does not make anyone a "genius".
 
Great post!I've done this for years in practice with very good results.
It's amazing how you can take away one "sence" and another
"sence" will be multiplyed.Don't know if that made any sence!,lol.:D
 
daveb said:
This is very sound advice and a practice exercise I have used and recommended for years (like may others on this forum and elswhere). Many readers on this forum will appreciate and benefit from your sharing this practice exercise.

But, it bothers me when something like this, which has been around for many years, is represented as a specific individual's "system" or "method", as if they (by implication) have invented it. With all due respect to Mr. Rood and yourself, simply passing on information gleaned over the years from others does not make anyone a "genius".
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With all due respect to you, sir, Mr. Rood himself has been around for many, "many years" -- about 93 in fact. Maybe he didn't invent it, but he sure could have been such an early advocate that by himself he has been promoting the idea for several generations of players. That's good enough for me!
 
Sweet...Genius....I have actually posted in the past that when I am out of stroke usually from lack of play...I tend to start jumping up...I use this specific drill to get back in stroke.....I have never heard of George Rood...but he sounds like my kind of guy!!!!!

One thing I might add is something I also tie in to this drill...derived from a comment from Croy Duel......He said "If the last thing I see is the pocket...the ball goes in...if the last thing I see is the rail...I usually hit the rail...

When I do this drill.....The last thing I do right before I close my is is to take a mental picture of the contact point and visualization of the ball going in the pocket...I try to maintain that "image" while my eyes are closed....I think it helps in maintaining focus on the shot.....How many times have you shot...and then thought to yourself..."what the heck was I looking at".....This cures that

When I am done with the drill.....I shoot with my eyes open but it as if I have closed my eyes and am looking at my shot image that I just created.
 
SciotoSteve said:
George"s method for eliminating these common errors was a two step process. Step One- Aim your shot until it looks perfect while taking your practice strokes. Step Two-After you have taken your last practice stroke, Close Your Eyes .and Then Stroke! Do this in a very relaxed manner and think only on delivering the cue straight and smooth thru the ball. You'll be surprised how smooth your stroke will feel and how accurate you will be. After you become adept at this practice exercise, then begin shooting with your eyes open, but try to retain the feeling that you had with your eyes closed. In other words, play with your eyes open but stroke the way you did with your eyes closed! I would appreciate feedback from those who have ever used this method, along with feedback from those who try it for the first time. George was and still is a pool genius!
Click to expand...

Sounds good.
Except for someone that shoots left to right, they might be in trouble with that
 
Closing my eyes has been something I've used for years as a way to check my mechanics. I'm also a firm believer in the theory that once you get down, lock on, and do a couple of practice strokes, if everything is correct, you should be able to pocket balls with your eyes closed.
Another drill similar to this was an image trainning thing a mentor/coach made me to once. He would make me get down on the cb, practice stroke it with my eyes closed while he moved the ball either closer, further away, left or right from where it originally was. After stroking it, then he'd ask me to tell him where the cb had been moved.
One more muscle/stance memory drill. Get down on the cb, do your practice strokes and lock in, close your eyes and then stand up. With eyes closed, try to get back down on the cb according to where your body remembers the position being. Then open your eyes to see how far off you are. Very few people can do this, but those that can have near perfect muscle memory all the way down to their stance.
dave
 
This is a great post and i'm going to try it. When i'm not playing my best I catch myself rushing and jumping up on certain shots and usually when I jump up I miss the shot. It's a bad habit that i've battled with for a long time. When i'm playing well I don't jump up at all.......

James
 
JimS said:
Tap. Tap. Tap. .... and an Amen brother!

When I first started playing ten years back they told me over at the CCB that you do your aiming standing up and I thought they were leading me on.... didn't believe it. I went right on moving all over the place while down on the shot and I went right on being inconsistent as hell.

Fast forward and about 5 years ago I got wise to the wisdom of aiming while standing and it did wonders for me.

Then a year or so back a poster on this forum... unknownpro suggested that the best possible practice method was one stroke shooting. You aim while up, drop down, stroke once and shoot... NO HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT ALLOWED AFTER YOU GET DOWN.

I've worked hard at taking every suggestion anybody gave me and putting it into practice and nothing I've learned along the way helped as much as one stroke practice.

One stroke and shoot forces a guy to concentrate while up and then it's easy to make the shot while down. You just have to position the cue on the cb where you need it and shoot.... maybe eyes closed! :groucho:
Click to expand...

I agree with the aim technique you spoke on,, but the one stroke method, I dont believe to be consistent ,, I feel you need at least 3 practice strokes to feel the weight of the cue, and better control your Cue ball speed, every time ive used the one stroke method My sets come short..

Of course thats Just my opinion........
 
What I do is:

During shot practice strokes at the OB I say to myself:
Made it that time.......made it that time.........made it that time then pull back the cue and shoot.

To keep me from jumping up from the shot I am listening and looking for the pure on hit on the OB and dont raise up until that happens.

Try it.
 
SCCues said:
This is a great post and i'm going to try it. When i'm not playing my best I catch myself rushing and jumping up on certain shots and usually when I jump up I miss the shot. It's a bad habit that i've battled with for a long time. When i'm playing well I don't jump up at all.......

James
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I think the preshot routine needs to be slowed down. If it's slowed down you'll be breathing slower and you'll be more relaxed and ready to follow thru and not move until the balls stop rolliing or your hand hits your chest.

The shot isn't done until your hand hits your chest. When the hand hits your chest you know you haven't jumped up. :groucho:
 
donny mills said:
Sounds good.
Except for someone that shoots left to right, they might be in trouble with that
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True... I have been amazed lately at the number of top pros who's stroke comes from one side to the other... Seems amazing that something so important has been developed without correcting... but if it works.....
 
Get a flipping clue son!

daveb said:
This is very sound advice and a practice exercise I have used and recommended for years (like may others on this forum and elswhere). Many readers on this forum will appreciate and benefit from your sharing this practice exercise.

But, it bothers me when something like this, which has been around for many years, is represented as a specific individual's "system" or "method", as if they (by implication) have invented it. With all due respect to Mr. Rood and yourself, simply passing on information gleaned over the years from others does not make anyone a "genius".
Click to expand...

Actually, you comment is quite disrespectful, Mr. Rood would be considered a pool genius by many and a total gentleman.. He is one of the best players to have ever held a cue.

No one said he invented this technique, they were just sharing a tidbit that they learned from George.. By your red dots next to your name, it appears that many agree.
 
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