Going outside you comfort zone

[justnum]

Practicing or shooting some in your free time it is easy to fall into bad habits or overconfidence.

An alternative to playing the ghost is having a pocketing requirement.

Select any billiards game to play, and follow the rules normally.

In addition to those rules have requirements. I used to cycle through different requirements.

My requirements were start with a bank, kick and a kiss shot. The reason for the added requirement is to stop "hoping" the player leaves a shot and start expecting the next shot to be low-percentage.

Also to benefit was getting my heart rate up before shooting. Sometimes in a match, my HR gets jacked as if my girlfriend just caught me cheating on her in our bed.

The heart rate training requires an exercise and then try to calm down during your stroke. It sounds easy, but give it a try. Even more challenging then having a high heart rate is breathing heavy from exhaustion.

Two tips for practicing outside your comfort zone:
Limit yourself to pocketing shots that require additional contact.
Exercise between shots, misses or run-outs to get used to having a high heart rate.

 

[activeshooter9]

Good advice. Once I started sprinting three laps around the table between each shot my game improved so much people don't even want to play me anymore.

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[Black-Balled]

Something else i found to have a pretty immediate benefit- some days, i wil only allow myself to play one short race against the ghost.

Forces you to either come with it immediately, or deal with being a loser for a while.

 

[Bugz]

Something else i found to have a pretty immediate benefit- some days, i wil only allow myself to play one short race against the ghost.

Forces you to either come with it immediately, or deal with being a loser for a while.

I adopted the same strategy. I use to play 7 ahead, now i do a race to 5.

Another trick I use for not getting lazy: Play Fargo or 8 ball with a two rail minimum requirement.
Why: Shooting too many soft easy shots will get your fundamentals out of whack. If you are hitting balls sporty and playing two rail shape, it keeps your stroke honest.

 

[Tooler]

I always practice for a while alternating every shot with a safety.
Shot,safe,shot, safe..... you'll be surprised how many times during a match, you'll play the safe, rather than taking the flyer. I've had to force myself way too many times, to just play the safety..... I HATE playing safe, but this really helps to see the different options you may have.

 

[Cracktherack]

Sometimes I play so slow that a spider will weave a web over my pocket while I'm considering which ball to shoot.

 

[MahnaMahna]

Dear god, make it stop.

 

[TheBook]

Good advice. Once I started sprinting three laps around the table between each shot my game improved so much people don't even want to play me anymore.

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I don't think too many players would want to play if you ran three laps around the table in between each shot. :shrug:

 

[activeshooter9]

You're saying that you don't want to shoot with me?

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