Hit a wall - not improving any more

[pinkisntwell]

Sorry if this post is sort of directionless. Hope this helps

It isn't directionless at all. Thanks a lot.

I used to be indecisive about which approach I should take, should I consciously think about everything in my game, or should I just "let it flow"? It's nice to have the opinion of a top player. Alex is a great shotmaker and very careful and methodical player, you can tell by watching him play.

 

[LastTwo]

If you've only reached the level of a 'C' player, you might want to try taking on some new fundamentals, like changing your stance and stroke trying to emulate your favorite pro that has the same height and build as you. Before venturing into the world of new mechanics, it would be a smart thing to write down a description of how you stand and stroke now in case you want to go back to your old mechanics later. You would be surprised at how easily the average person forgets things like that. Although changing your mechanics can improve your game a few notches, if you are not playing enough, don't expect to get any better, and if you are playing scarcely enough, your game can drop. For the last couple of years I have reached a plateau of inconsistency, if that makes sense. I play good for one week and then play terrible for another week, sometimes it lasts for 2 weeks, but I have never been able to stay in stroke for longer than 2 weeks. I attribute all of this to not playing as much as I used to. A couple of years ago I was in stroke 6 out of 7 days per week for about a year, and during that year I played at least 30 hours per week. Right now I am at about 5 hours per week, so I don't expect much to happen with my game until I can start playing more. Remember that first and foremost. You need to put in the hours.

 

[TheConArtist]

Wow, thanks for all the replies on such short time people, really thanks.

The article by Blackjack Sapolis was good too, especially the second part.

I haven't really tried at doing drills during my practice sessions. Sometimes I would throw balls and run them. If I missed, I would take that shot and set it up again and shoot it 5-10 times to learn it a bit better. That got to be too much work (the setting up thing) and I thought that by simply continuing shooting I would make better use of the time. Maybe not as it turns out.

Any drills suggestions or help in general is still greatly appreciated.


@randyg:

I would be interested in attending a pool school, but I don't know if I could afford it. Feel free to message me when you're over here.

Practice with the proper respect, drills is all i do when practicing alone, my favorite is the rail drill, place two balls on each rail leaving the middle diamond out and place the remaining three balls in the middle of the table and take ball in hand with your first shot and pocket a ball and try to run out the balls on the rail without disturbing the three balls in the middle of the table, takes good shot making and positioning the reason i love this drill is cause i hate rail shots. The last week or two i also been practicing safeties and trying to get outta the same safeties, Breaking up clusters is another drill i do cause i play alot of eightball, i set up different clusters and practice making shots breaking up the balls, but all my practice drills are mainly shot making.

This drill has all five different shots, pocket the straight in shot and place the cueball in the same spot for each shot

Backward cuts Drill, again place the cueball in the same spot for each shot

Position play drill place nine ball in a circle and place cueball in middle of circle and pocket any ball after this pocket another ball without touching any ball if so then replace all balls in original spot and start over.

 

[pooltchr]

Save your money. Take a part time job for a few weeks. Do whatever you have to do, but get into Randy's class! You will learn enough in 3 days to keep you improving for a long time.
Steve

 

[Hal]

This is taken from the book The Inner Game of Tennis:
Tips are a dime a dozen. and there are good ones and bad ones. But what is more difficult to come by is a workable way to apply tips, to replace one pattern of behavior with a new one. It is in the process of changing habits that most players experience the greatest difficulty. When one learns how to change a habit, it is a relatively simple matter to learn which ones to change. Once you learn how to learn, you have only to discover what is worth learning.

 

[chefjeff]

This is taken from the book The Inner Game of Tennis:
Tips are a dime a dozen. and there are good ones and bad ones. But what is more difficult to come by is a workable way to apply tips, to replace one pattern of behavior with a new one. It is in the process of changing habits that most players experience the greatest difficulty. When one learns how to change a habit, it is a relatively simple matter to learn which ones to change. Once you learn how to learn, you have only to discover what is worth learning.

Nice post, Hal.

I like the term, "...change a habit..." vs. "stop doing ____." Habits aren't stopped; they're replaced by something else, hopefully a better habit.

Jeff Livingston

 

[recoveryjones]

Save your money. Take a part time job for a few weeks. Do whatever you have to do, but get into Randy's class! You will learn enough in 3 days to keep you improving for a long time.
Steve

To get good at this game, you need cue ball control.To obtain cue ball control you need to know where (one o'clock,2 o'clock,3 o'clock, etc)on the cue ball to apply your english and at what speed.

Use the cue ball like a clock....set up the exact same shot and watch where it goes (as you go around the clock) applying various forms of english.Once you get a general idea of how the cue ball moves with shape appplied, now you just have to do it.....that's the HARD part.If you are like I was(and still am sometimes) you'll line up for a four O'clock hit and stroke five o'clock because of your self learned(flawed) fundamentals.

Unless you can consistently stroke the cue ball where you intend to stroke it, cue ball control can never be obtained.That's why lessons and fundamentals are sooooo important.Doing drills,reading books,watching accu-stats,watching instructional DVD'S etc etc, are all great ways to obtain knowledge.You can learn a lot on your own, no question.All the knowledge in the world will not be THE ANSWER without a consistent repeatable stroke.

How do I know all this:

For two straight years, I've practised religiously doing drills on a(twice) weekly basis.Drills have taught me a lot and by doing a certain drill, I always become better AT THAT DRILL.

I've worked as hard as I could on stroke, following the advice of many different instructional videos and books.My stroke has improved considerably with much expermentation, trial and error.You can improve....To a point...on your own.I've got the Stroke Trainer, Stroke perfector and the Third Eye stroke trainer.I've progressed from a B+ player to an A player locally.

My road to improvement has been very slow and I only wish I had received professional instruction two years ago.Without proper fundamentals, practice can be counter productive because you will be just ingraining the bad habits over and over as you practice them.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to see a Master instructor the sooner the better to take my game to the next level.It is my goal to do just that, this year. I highly recommend that you take some lessons as well so that you'll have a solid foundation to build on.Once you learn to stroke the cue ball, where you intend to, your game will improve.That's mandatory!!! Getting to the point where you can stroke where you want to can be obtained much more quicker with some help, or very slowly(or never) by yourself.

After you've obtained a good stroke, then comes the MENTAL game

Best of luck,
RJ