How Do You Track Your Progression As A Player?

Andrewk1988

Andrewk1988

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just curious if anyone takes notes or anything. And if so, how do you account for "bad days" and ups and downs. I think I focus on the "I played really good the last few days but now I'm having a bad day" ups and downs and lose track of the big picture.

It just dawned on me that I play at a higher speed than I did a year or so ago, but I have no idea when it happened or why or anything. The reason I noticed was there are a few guys I play with regularly off and on. I went from not being able to play with them, to not seeing them for a few months, to now playing with/beating them regularly.

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I notice progression when I meet a new milestone or start doing something consistently that I have not done in the past. A new 14.1 high run is a good track. Win any tournaments that you couldn't win in the past?

One thing I noticed in my progression has been a better awareness of my stroke. I have been hitting the CB where I want to. I have been drawing the ball better.

One thing to improve upon would be my knowledge of the diamonds. When that improves I will chalk it up as progress
 
Andrewk1988 said:
Just curious if anyone takes notes or anything. And if so, how do you account for "bad days" and ups and downs. I think I focus on the "I played really good the last few days but now I'm having a bad day" ups and downs and lose track of the big picture.

It just dawned on me that I play at a higher speed than I did a year or so ago, but I have no idea when it happened or why or anything. The reason I noticed was there are a few guys I play with regularly off and on. I went from not being able to play with them, to not seeing them for a few months, to now playing with/beating them regularly.

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I think of the progress that I've made in terms of new "Aha! Momments" that I've had. Things that finally click for me and change the way I visualize shots.

For example, while struggling with a simple drill I saw on Pro Skill Drills. Just put a ball on the spot and shoot it in with draw, replace and repeat without touching the cueball again. You have to stay in perfect line. My goal was 8 in a row.

I couldn't do more than 3 in a row for about 100 tries, then I happened to look at the bottom of the object ball, then at the bottom of the cueball. I realized that these precise points (where the ball touches the cloth) were much more accurate than whatever I was looking at before. This totally blew me away. Then I realized that it works with the tip too. I ended up doing 23 in a row that day. That stuff sticks with me forever, and I think they are a good marker of progress. Unfortunately there's still a lot of empty space on my aha! shelf.

Mind numbing repetition seems to be the key. :sorry:
 
i keep a written log and ill write down those "aha moments" i have so i can refer back to them. I got in the habit of it after pool school with randy g, lots of writing involved with that class. I think it definitely helps improve your game and your consistency. I track my progress mostly by the players i play and my win/loss against them....occasionally ill play the ghost and keep track of my results.
 
Andrewk1988 said:
Just curious if anyone takes notes or anything. And if so, how do you account for "bad days" and ups and downs. I think I focus on the "I played really good the last few days but now I'm having a bad day" ups and downs and lose track of the big picture.

It just dawned on me that I play at a higher speed than I did a year or so ago, but I have no idea when it happened or why or anything. The reason I noticed was there are a few guys I play with regularly off and on. I went from not being able to play with them, to not seeing them for a few months, to now playing with/beating them regularly.

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Click to expand...


That's the best way - by who you can now compete with where you couldn't before.

Even more is to be gained by understanding why.
 
TATE said:
That's the best way - by who you can now compete with where you couldn't before.

Even more is to be gained by understanding why.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what I've been thinking about today. It was kind of an "aha moment" for me when I thought about it. I just kind of said "wow, I used to not be able to play with these guys at all and now I'm not even nervous about playing them". But I don't necessarily understand why, and I feel like that could be a much bigger "ah ha" moment if I could.
 
For just general runout ability, the ghost is ok.
You think of a race length you consider fair (say, race to 7 or 9).
Then you see if you can beat the 6 ball ghost that way.
Move up to the 7. 8. 9. And so on.

Cell phones are great for casually recording this sort of thing.
It's not enough to have one good day and beat the 9b ghost, even though you lose
that challenge 99% of the time. Just note the score every time you play the ghost.
Even if you don't win you can see the scores improve.
 
Personally, I don't really notice "aha" moments. (I goof around wayyyyyy too much sometimes)

I tend to notice by how I "get to work" ,(as someone once said to me) when it has to happen,... aka the heat is ON. When you make it happen there is that quiet sense of self-satisfaction that tells you have excelled. :)

Do a speed test after an "aha" moment to confirm what you believe.
 
Andrewk1988 said:
Just curious if anyone takes notes or anything. And if so, how do you account for "bad days" and ups and downs. I think I focus on the "I played really good the last few days but now I'm having a bad day" ups and downs and lose track of the big picture.

It just dawned on me that I play at a higher speed than I did a year or so ago, but I have no idea when it happened or why or anything. The reason I noticed was there are a few guys I play with regularly off and on. I went from not being able to play with them, to not seeing them for a few months, to now playing with/beating them regularly.

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Click to expand...

I remember when I really sucked. Now I suck a bit less. That's about all the progression I can really quantify :embarrassed2::) What happened in the 25 or so years between those points I don't know.

Really the only way to measure progress is to either do a set drill and see how well you do over time (say line up a 3 diamond draw show and leave the cueball within a ball of where you started) or play the ghost (for a C player, start with the 5 ball ghost or maybe 6) 10 racks and see how you progress. You may only win 3 racks now. In a few months, you may win 5 racks, in a year you may beat the ghost and go to the 7 ball ghost. If you do this regularly (say do 3 sets of 10 a week), you can measure things pretty well.
 
The best way is to keep track of how much you win and against which level of opponents. Skill in pool has so many factors that using statistics from real matches is the only test that has any meaning.
 
Interesting.......isn't there some sort of training system out there that either mika or thurston used to promote that allowed for someone to gauge their abilities?
 
That's the way I look at it, Masayoshi . I just play, and play a lot, against anyone. But that doesn't leave much for tracking. I guess I could use tourney finishes and things like that to gauge, but there is a lot of things that go into that. (like not playing in them regularly).

I guess I'm going to have to put in some work playing alone. I'm such an outgoing person that I'd rather play someone I beat for hours just to have someone to talk to than play alone.

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Try this....

This exercise is fairly simple yet very effective in the long haul. Put out a full rack of 15 balls on the table spread evenly over the entire table with no 2 balls touching each other.
Take your measal ball and place it anywhere you like for your 1st shot then shoot from wherever the cue ball rests for your next random shot. Try running out the 15 balls without a miss. If you miss replace the balls pocketed take ball in hand and try again.
Do this each time you visit the poolhall at least a few times keeping track of your highest run until you are successful in running all 15 balls without a miss. Once you are batting 500 at this exercise you will be ready to learn the very interesting and captivating game of 14.1 straight pool. Good luck:thumbup:
 
the easiest track of progress is beating the ghost at 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 ball
as you go up a ball you have progressed...:)
 
Why and here's a pic of Thurston teaching Gilligan the finer points of CTE. But I still don't see any Thorsten character - maybe he was a guest on "Swiss Family Robinson"?
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Andrewk1988 said:
That's the way I look at it, Masayoshi . I just play, and play a lot, against anyone. But that doesn't leave much for tracking. I guess I could use tourney finishes and things like that to gauge, but there is a lot of things that go into that. (like not playing in them regularly).

I guess I'm going to have to put in some work playing alone. I'm such an outgoing person that I'd rather play someone I beat for hours just to have someone to talk to than play alone.

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You don't have to be that detailed with keeping track of how much you win.

Just enter a B tournament, if you get first more than your fair share, you are a B. If you get kicked out you are an A- and so on.
 
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