How long for change to take?

mworkman

mworkman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I bought some dvd's from Tim White. I watched a couple of them and am attempting to implement some changes to my game. So far I've been working on the Set-Pause-Finish-Freeze. Of course my game went into the toilet as soon as I started working on this. It was very painful last night in league play as I couldn't get out at all. I basically stunk up the place the last two league nights.

How long should I give this to work? Its been a couple weeks and I'm still going backward. Also, how should I go about this? Just work only on this and nothing else? I would think that if I practiced straight pool or just played that I would fall back into the old way. Or should I still practice straight pool but stay in the Conscious mode all the time working on this new stuff?

Also, I have a big tourny comming up in a couple weeks and I dont want to let my team down. Am I being selfish by making changes now? :confused:
 
midchange is brutal

How long it takes depends on how long and how often you practice but also how well you practice. Another trick is mental practice, which can cut learning times dramatically.

A man who was a grand master in another sport wanted to test the value of mentally practicing. He had never juggled so he set out to learn to juggle. He only practiced thirty minutes a day however mentally he focused on exactly how to juggle the three balls many many times a day. In three days he could juggle. Granted this was someone with a monster mental game but it does indicate the value of visualization. Visualize getting down in perfect alignment over a shot, including the table and the money ball, visualize using set, pause, release, and visualize the ball going straight to the middle of the pocket. If you can build this in your mind and play it over and over it will become real. Also speaking aloud the steps or writing them in longhand over and over can aid learning.

Hu
 
I took a lesson almost a year ago. Changed my stroke. My game also went way down. I am now finally getting back to speed. But I can tell that sometimes I slip back to my old ways. Old habits are hard to break. It depends on some factors. Age, time spent working on it, frustration to name a few. Chances are right now you will not be up to speed by then.

Are you selfish. No. You have to bite the bullet sometime.

For me I found that setting up and practicing shots like those that Joe Tucker has in his book helps. Slow down and concentrate on every shot. Do quality and not quantity.

Good Luck
 
I changed my stroke radically about two years ago when I tok a lesson from a BCA instructor, and now I think I'm ready for my next lesson, because I've finally had the time and experience I feel I needed to incorporate many of the ideals I learned into my actual game. I have a lesson scheduled with Scott Lee later this month to re-evaluate the way my technique has evolved since then, and see what would benefit from changing about the way I do things now. I'm not an A player by any means yet, so I know Scott can find PLENTY of things to improve about my game.

Anyway, it does take time and practice, but it also takes applying the things you're learning in a way that makes sense. I don't mean to cast any doubts on your abilities, but I'm not sure if learning stroke technique from a DVD can result in you really learning it right. You probably want to learn from a more interactive source of knowledge that can give you some feedback (namely a human being, preferably an experienced instructor), or else you really could be hearing good advice and applying it to your game backwards. You have no guarantee that you're applying things the way DVD intends, because you can't ask it if what you're doing is right.

Lastly, you're likely sucking at leagues because you're trying to think about the techniques you've learned while you're shooting. That's unavoidable at first, but it's guaranteed to hurt your game because you're not able to fully focus on the task at hand. You need to spend a lot of very careful practice, shooting balls meticulously to make sure you're doing everything right on every shot, until the new techniques are ingrained in the way you shoot. Lapsing for even a shot or two cancels out progress you've already made. A few practice sessions of hitting every single ball in careful accordance with the techniques you're learning will make it so you don't have to devote precious concentration to those techniques in competition, and instead you can relax your mind and allow your best game to come through.

Probably not anything you didn't already know, but maybe something you needed to hear right now.

-Andrew
 
Most any change to your game - stance, stroke, etc - results in a temporary downswing in your game 'til you adjust to the changes. It's not unusual at all. Just keep at it and you'll unconsciously "get it" in time.

I'm sorta going through the same thing - I just did a 3-day pool clinic about three weeks ago. There's several things I got out of that clinic that I'm trying to apply to my game, at the same time. :/ For the most part, my game has just gone up - some of these changes, the results of the changes have more than made up for the typical downswing - but I still stink on ice sometimes as I try to apply these adjustments. I changed my stance, my stroke, my grip, both in normal shooting and breaking, how/where I aim to hit the object ball. A BUNCH of stuff. :P

One of the things I learned was the whole SPFF bit. That's taking some getting used to. What I'd recommend is to do drills, by yourself, and just work on that stroke. Put the cueball behind the headstring - line up a bunch of balls on the headstring in a line - and just work on shooting balls down into the far corners, concentrating on NOTHING but your stroke. Do it over and over - drill that stroke into your brain, your arm, etc. Don't sweat it so much if you miss shots this way - it's stroke training, not ball-pocketing training.
 
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Thank you for all your replies so far. Trying to get this into a natural rythm is the tricky part so far. Here is what I've come up with: a set 1-2 and a pause and a finish and a freeze 1-2. I'm saying this in my head as I shoot. When I say set, the tip is on the cueball and my eyes then shift to OB for the 1-2. I'm going to have to find the right words to get the timing and rythm down.

I guess I just needed some encouragement so I don't give up. Last night I felt like it wasn't worth it.
 
I actually have this all down to a science and can say with all certainty that all changes take EXACTLY 1.75 days (42 hours). I'm not going to divulge how I attained this knowledge but I do know that 42 is the answer to everything.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
I actually have this all down to a science and can say with all certainty that all changes take EXACTLY 1.75 days (42 hours). I'm not going to divulge how I attained this knowledge but I do know that 42 is the answer to everything.
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Thank you, Deep Thought. :D
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
I actually have this all down to a science and can say with all certainty that all changes take EXACTLY 1.75 days (42 hours). I'm not going to divulge how I attained this knowledge but I do know that 42 is the answer to everything.
Click to expand...

That would be sweet. I could even handle 42 days. :D
 
I'll expand on that. It also only takes 23 days to create a habit. So 23 days of the same repetative motion should at least calm you down a bit.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
I actually have this all down to a science and can say with all certainty that all changes take EXACTLY 1.75 days (42 hours). I'm not going to divulge how I attained this knowledge but I do know that 42 is the answer to everything.
Click to expand...

Now now, that's the answer to life, the universe, AND everything.

-Andrew
 
Bishop said:
I'll expand on that. It also only takes 23 days to create a habit. So 23 days of the same repetative motion should at least calm you down a bit.
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It's 28 days and cranberry juice helps.
 
Stay with it!

I say this not so much as a poolplayer, but as a general life experience observer, (Wow does that sound unneccessarily deep! :D )

The key to successfully incorporating something new is being able to trust these new things under pressure. It doesn't matter if it's a pool stroke, a golf swing, or a particular decision making process, whatever. It's all about changing habits and once you've decided to make a change, you have to remain confident and totally commited in spite of the completely natural urge to fall back into the fake comfort zone of our old habits.
 
A couple more suggestions

I've gone through the same things in the past 5 months. Here's a couple other tips that may help.

First, if possible, say the words out loud as you're building you're rhythm. I know you're saying it in your head, and that's fine when you're playing with or against someone. Saying it out loud really cements it for me.

Second, limit your practice sessions to 30 minute intervals. It's very difficult to keep your focus for longer than that, at which point you start to get sloppy and lose your rhythm. At that point, you're hurting yourself instead of helping. Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. When you're practicing improperly, you begin to add incorrect behaviors that will hurt your improvement.

Third, get a drill where you're shooting the same shots over and over. This will also help you build the rhythm in your game. These little building blocks will provide a good foundation over time.

Finally, when you find yourself just slapping balls around, stop. No matter how much time you planned to devote to that session, you're doing more harm than good by continuing.

One last thing. Jude, not only is 42 the answer to just about everything but you can move the decimal around (4.2 or .42) and those answers appear to be correct as well. It's an amazing number series, really!

Brian in VA - nearly 8 years past the perfect number.
 
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mworkman said:
Hmm. Is it a coincidence that I started this thread and I'm 42 years old? :D
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No, not a coincidence at all. It could have only been that. I wouldn't be surprised if your birthday was 42 days ago or 42 days from now.
 
mworkman said:
Hmm. Is it a coincidence that I started this thread and I'm 42 years old? :D
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Or that I replied to this thread and *I'm* 42 years old...?

Curiouser and curiouser... :P
 
Or that I replied to this thread, and my real name is Douglas Adams? Although I wouldn't call it a coincidence, really just an infinite improbability.

-Andrew
 
Andrew Manning said:
Or that I replied to this thread, and my real name is Douglas Adams? Although I wouldn't call it a coincidence, really just an infinite improbability.

-Andrew
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Well, I have some bad news. I'm Ford Prefect and you need to accompany me to the bar right now!
 
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