Help me with a dilema, please

justadub

justadub

Rattling corners nightly
Silver Member
I'm struggling as I try to improve at this game, as usual. I need to reconcile something, and would appreciate everyone's opinion.

I'm still really a beginner. I have very little real practice time, so I try to do the best I can with what time is available.

I don't consider my stroke to be consistent. I'm still struggling to find that perfect, repeatable motion, position, stance, grip. (I know, I probably never will find "perfect!") So I try to concentrate on that when I have time at the table.

Yet in my quest to improve my game, I find myself conflicted on how to approach certain shots. I can usually play the shot at hand reasonably well, but when I try to do the "extra" stuff to get a better leave, I find myself getting away from what works in the basic shot making. Either too hard, too much spin, trying to do too much...

My conflict comes from realizing that in order to ever get good at the "extra" stuff for better leave and position, I have to keep trying it, and working on it. But for some reason, doing so seems to take me away from stroking the ball well, and refining that.

Does this drivel make sense?

I know I need to see an instructor. As that isn't likely to happen any time in foreseeable future, I need to do what I can and learn as best I can on my own. As always, I appreciate everyone's help here.
 
That is the challenge, isn't it? For me it's the opposite, I can do all the extra stuff, just can't shoot straight anymore... :)

Some suggestions:

- Keep working on your stroke, don't get too wound up focusing on the position stuff and forgetting about the stroke. Without a good, consistent stroke none of the other stuff will matter anyway

- When doing the "extra" stuff to achieve position - shooting harder, using english, etc. - really pay attention to any adjustments that are needed to still make the ball. Shooting harder shouldn't make a huge difference, other than some slight differences to angles and collision induced throw, but does typically impact your stroke, so working on smooth power is good. As for english, work on drills or other repetitive shots to really learn how to compensate for english (BHE etc.) at different amounts, speeds, and distances so you are as confident making a ball with english as without

- When doing the extra stuff, be aware of your personal limitations, and don't try shooting too hard, or with too much english, when you basically know you're a very low percentage to make the shot and get shape. Choose another shot instead, accept a longer or tougher position, or play safe

- If you find yourself having to do something extra on too many shots, even if you get good at it, you need to work on your patterns so more of your shots become routine. No one can shoot non-routine shots over and over and expect to string enough of them together to run racks consistently

Good luck!
Scott
 
Thanks for the reply, scottjen26. I think I pretty much knew all of that, but it's often good for me to have it reinforced. A good friend of mine often reminds me that when stuff osn't working, get back to basics, shoot center ball, little to no english... I've been trying to work in that mode lately, but then I found that when trying to make better runs I was getting away from that in order to get better position. Thanks.

Scott Lee, as always, I appreciate the thought. I don't believe I could get a group together currently, and I am in a pretty tight spot right now so any extra spending probably isn't a good idea, for the next few months at least. I assure you, when I get my stuff together so that I can put some $$$ away, I'm gonna try and catch up with you. Your insight here is always appreciated, too.

Thanks again, guys. I guess I just wanted to vent a little. :p
 
justadub said:
I'm struggling as I try to improve at this game, as usual. I need to reconcile something, and would appreciate everyone's opinion.

I'm still really a beginner. I have very little real practice time, so I try to do the best I can with what time is available.

I don't consider my stroke to be consistent. I'm still struggling to find that perfect, repeatable motion, position, stance, grip. (I know, I probably never will find "perfect!") So I try to concentrate on that when I have time at the table.

Yet in my quest to improve my game, I find myself conflicted on how to approach certain shots. I can usually play the shot at hand reasonably well, but when I try to do the "extra" stuff to get a better leave, I find myself getting away from what works in the basic shot making. Either too hard, too much spin, trying to do too much...

My conflict comes from realizing that in order to ever get good at the "extra" stuff for better leave and position, I have to keep trying it, and working on it. But for some reason, doing so seems to take me away from stroking the ball well, and refining that.

Does this drivel make sense?

I know I need to see an instructor. As that isn't likely to happen any time in foreseeable future, I need to do what I can and learn as best I can on my own. As always, I appreciate everyone's help here.
Click to expand...

Yes, it makes a lot of sense. What you're experiencing is perfectly normal. It takes a lot of playing time to develop your game.

When I start to mess up the complicated stuff, I go back to the basics to reinforce my fundamentals. Then I slowly start to let the complicated stuff back in again, but only after I'm secure again with the basics.

So, I keep going back and forth, but each time I do it, my game gets a little stronger.

That's the process that works for me.
 
FranCrimi said:
Yes, it makes a lot of sense. What you're experiencing is perfectly normal. It takes a lot of playing time to develop your game.

When I start to mess up the complicated stuff, I go back to the basics to reinforce my fundamentals. Then I slowly start to let the complicated stuff back in again, but only after I'm secure again with the basics.

So, I keep going back and forth, but each time I do it, my game gets a little stronger.

That's the process that works for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the validation, Fran. I went to league tonight, didn't play a match but spent a bit of time on the practice tables playing. Stayed "back to basics" and played pretty well, for me. Even got to mix in a little of the extra stuff for position play, occasionally. Feeling a bit better about things. Hopefully I can stay consistent with this evening in the future, then perhaps I can grow my game some this year. That's the plan, at least! :p
 
Position Play

Here's something that could be useful:

Setup a shot - relatively simple cut shot - and use hole reinforcers to mark the cue ball and the object ball.

Now split the table into 1/6ths (in half down footspot to headspot and thirds about 2 1/2 diamonds). So you have 6 zones.

Targets: shoot the shot until you can get the cue ball into zone 1 3 times in a row. Then move to zone 2. Shoot until you can get position 3 times in a row. Repeat until you get position consistantly for all zones.

After you are confident with this you can setup another shot (mark with hole reinforcers) and play to the zones. The best thing about this drill is that it doesn't take too long to do. You can jot down any problem shots you have in league/tournaments/play and work on those shots at this.

Doing this a little each week over months you will get a better idea of which position play shots are more difficult (low percentage) and these you might decide to play safety instead of forcing anything.

Advanced level: this is relatively easy for higher level players so if it is too easy for you, play position into the zone 2 different ways (different spin, rails..).
 
RWOJO said:
Here's something that could be useful:

Setup a shot - relatively simple cut shot - and use hole reinforcers to mark the cue ball and the object ball.

Now split the table into 1/6ths (in half down footspot to headspot and thirds about 2 1/2 diamonds). So you have 6 zones.

Targets: shoot the shot until you can get the cue ball into zone 1 3 times in a row. Then move to zone 2. Shoot until you can get position 3 times in a row. Repeat until you get position consistantly for all zones.

After you are confident with this you can setup another shot (mark with hole reinforcers) and play to the zones. The best thing about this drill is that it doesn't take too long to do. You can jot down any problem shots you have in league/tournaments/play and work on those shots at this.

Doing this a little each week over months you will get a better idea of which position play shots are more difficult (low percentage) and these you might decide to play safety instead of forcing anything.

Advanced level: this is relatively easy for higher level players so if it is too easy for you, play position into the zone 2 different ways (different spin, rails..).
Click to expand...

Fine suggestions.... Hopefully I can try this soon. Dedicated practice time is difficult to obtain, usually I have friends around when I can get to the room. Still, I love the concept, and will try to do some of this when I get a chance. Even when there are others around, I usually can get a few minutes on a table by myself, especially if there are 3 or more of us taking turns playing. This will be a good way to spend that time.

And trust me, I'm not "advanced" :)

Actually, I'm pretty sure my best buddy will enjoy doing this drill, too, and he's a far better player than I. Thanks again for the suggestions.
 
I had this trouble a while back and my problem was punching at the ball to get more action.

To fix it I started with very close draw shots that I could stroke through with a slow speed. Once you get used to how that feels step up the speed a little. You'll be really surprised at how much action you can get with a well placed tip and minimum effort.

Practicing this has helped my game well beyond that single problem.
 
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