How did you get from b speed to a speed and above?

Get yourself a good coach, this can be your key to make the transition. If professional athletes do this, you can to.

Take some videos, watch your game & see your mistakes.

Write down some errors in a small spiral binder about your play >>> i.e. missed easy cut shot in 4th game, then lost -- Broke & ran 5 balls, hooked myself & gave up ball-in-hand in 5th game, Broke & ran down to the 7 in game 7, did not get favorable position, so I played leave. Opponent overcame the situation, 8th game missed easy 3 ball, 9th game choked on 5 ball... & so on & so on.

Re-read these notes after the match is over, rethink the outcome if you had not made these mistakes. Understanding your mistakes may keep you from repeating that mistake, because you will know to be extra cautious in your performance.

Good Luck
 
You are so right

manwon said:
Now the major problem with [relying on safeties] is, what a B-player sees as a good safety, will often either be reversed upon them or made by the A-player. So like I have said the major difference between levels of play are what is considered a percentage shot, and when it is necessary to play a safety.
Click to expand...

I learned this the hard way this weekend. I absolutely embarrassed myself in a regional event. First, let's be honest, for whatever reason I wasn't playing my best. I've played much better against equally tough opponents than I did this weekend.

Nevertheless, a fact was pounded into me this weekend. I will not play in another regional event or tournament of similar difficulty until I can routinely beat the 9-ball ghost in a race to 7.

I'm used to leaving people "long, tough shot" kinds of safeties, "knowing" my equally B-level opponents won't even try such a shot, and will play a weak safe back, and leave me something I can make. Not last weekend! These guys either make the shot or pull off a safety that leaves the CB frozen between two other balls or something. And if I left them a shot and a reasonably clear runout, they ran out three times out of four. Winning one game out of four is not the way to win a regional tournament.

So...that's my vow. Until I can beat the 9-ball ghost, forget the regional tours. What really sucks is, given my life, I may never be able to put in the kind of hours necessary to get that good. Either that or it'll take ten years.
 
Falling straight on balls or the wrong side

Here is a perfect example:

I just played jose parica yesterday and lost had him 5 to 4 in the blaze tour. I fell straight on a 7 ball which would have put me up 6 to 4.

If you just fall on the right side of the ball everything else is gravy.

At a B speed you should be making balls consistantly and working on your pattern play. The only times you should miss is if you get out of line.


STAY IN LINE. .. haha.. My mistake.. I didnt do it. Now I get to hit the practice table til I get it right.

- anyways - good luck...
 
So many times I have heard B players at the pool room say that they wished they played A speed. That they play all the time and dont get better. I have observed one common element in these "lifelong" B players and that is their concentration level and the things they do that sabotage their ability to learn higher levels of concentration. For example, one kid in the pool room who went from a C to an A in about 18 months was in the pool room every day, playing with intensity and working on his concentration as well as all kinds of drills and exposing himself to pressure. Meanwhile the group of B lifers is there yukking it up and laughing and playing with true intensity and focus on only a few shots per game, if that.

If you really want to get better, REALLY...then you have to quit goofing off mentally and try to learn to teach yourself the move to the higher level of concentration that A players reside at. Everyone can learn the right angle that a ball hits one another, but can you focus like a laser beam on that point under pressure? To me, this ability to summon concentration and block out out the distractions is a learned experience and when I am out of stroke I can feel that this is one of the missing elements. Unfortunately, its also one of the last elements to fall back into place when I start playing again. I relearn the angles quick and then speed, rhythm, preshot routine but that concentration thing is the hardest thing to master for me.

There are no easy secrets to getting to this higher concentration level. Its a matter of repeating the experience over and over again. Pressure evokes involuntary responses from your body and you learn over time to suppress and control these responses. You have to constantly put yourself into this environment and get comfortable with it.
 
Chris Lynch brings up accu-stats and I wanted to second that opinion as well. Humans learn fastest I think by watching others and observing things achieved at levels they thought were impossible. For example the 4 min mile was something that was an unbroken record for hundreds of years. For a long while runners thought that it was impossible. Then Roger Bannister broke that record and within a short time period thereafter many others did as well. Now high school kids are threats to break a 4 min mile. When things are seen as impossible its no surprise it doesnt happen. When you see players achieve at the highest levels your mind begins to accept that this is possible to achieve.

For myself, I watch accustats all the time when I am in layoffs from pool. I find it helps me to learn and reinforce patterns for position play as well as observing how players handle pressure. A friend of mine Chip Klein has an interesting perspective. He likes to watch the great players dog it on accustats. He will rewind and replay the dogged shot over and over as a means to demonstrate to himself that all of the top players are human, miss and are most importantly beatable.

When I come back from a long term period of no play but lots of accustats, I also find myself very motivated to play. Lots of players come into the room with feelings of ambivalence towards playing, sorta wishy washy as to whether they want to be there. I go so infrenquently (its been 5 weeks now since I have played a tournament) that when I go, I am highly motivated to being there. I think that motivation drives me to be a better player and using accu-stats as a tool to drive your motivation level is a good method.
 
This is a great website with some great information, but it is interesting to see a topic like this. If you hang around a pool room you can see who the A players are and pick their brains for advice. On here, most of the time you can't tell if the guy giving advice can play or not. The only thing you know for sure is he can use the internet.
 
Just wanted to say that this was a great thread, one of the best i've seen on here.

Since i'm a D player, the only thing I can contribute is:

"The greatest tradegy in the world is not the person that tried and failed, but the person that never tried at all." That is usually the frame of mind I have when walking into a tourny.
 
Playing different games I think will help you out a lot.

For example, I would recommend looking at playing bank pool or one pocket to work on fine tuning areas of your game.

I think certain instructional material can also help you.

To name a few:

banking with the beard
joe tuckers racking secrets + great break shot by charlie bond
8-ball bible
the old school one pocket books

Also I think having good equipment will help.

Try out a whole bunch of different jump and break cues (shoot 10-20 breaks with each) and find something that works really well for you and buy that cue. You won't regret it. I can't stress how much using the right break cue has helped some of the guys on my APA team.
 
IMO

Most B players stay on that level because they had some ability and coupled with time at the table achieved their natural maximum. Some players will go a little higher or lower with the similar input. Talent, raw models, desire, etc., all play part.

There are numerous problems when comes to improving and many have been mentioned before. I find that the biggest obstacle is unwillingness to change. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result is madness.

First thing is to get a coach who can point out the flaws in STROKE, setup, etc.
Then have him show how the QB should behave with different type of hits, spins, etc.
After that practice, practice and follow up visits to fine tune the fundamentals. Incidentally mirror and camera are great tools as well.
Knowledge is power, so reading, watching videos and talking to strong players are essential.

Once the proper fundamentals are in place then the game becomes mental and that?s another story. Hope this make sense. :)
 
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