How To Get A Really Good Player

I have always believed, and still do, that you have to be born with something special, talent wise. Then work your ass off and maybe something good happens, maybe not. But unless you are blessed with a natural talent for the game you will not, in my opinion obviously, ever be a top player.
This right here. It's the same for any endeavor. You can never outwork your talent. Great players are hard workers who had natural talent. There are levels to everything, and to reach the highest level of something takes God-given natural ability.
 
Hi AZB,

I am wondering what it takes to get a really good pool player and what you have to do to get a winner. So I want to start a little discussion here.

I think the main factor is the commitment to work on every single aspect of your game and really analyze the weaknesses and put a lot of time into practicing.

And.. you just gotta love this game.

----

I also made a pool lesson for beginners where I am giving tipps how to improve and to become a better player.


Regards,
Sharivari
Natural talent and starting at a very young age really helps. And when you say practice a lot you need to understand that unless you are extremely talented, that means a minimum of like 30+ hours a week for 10+ years - nearly the equivalent of a full time job.
 
My take on this is that it depends.
If one start very young age. He got huge advantage over those that start learning later on life. That how our human brain just works.
So young age starters: Just play and practice as much they can and brain naturally pick a lot of good stuff for learn. Neurocircuits are then very adaptive and learning is very easy.

Those who want to get better and good on later on life(18+) route is lil different. Then you need right kind of practice that will create more neuroplasticity. Also getting to competitive with as good players that one can find, helps a lot. It motivates and gives lessons that one cannot find just in practice.

here is what is neuroplasticity:

Huberman have many episodes where you can learn about learning.

Here is one for those that are interested.

I keep still improving at age of 48 and most of my skills i got after age of 33.
 
This right here. It's the same for any endeavor. You can never outwork your talent. Great players are hard workers who had natural talent. There are levels to everything, and to reach the highest level of something takes God-given natural ability.
I don't agree. We are all born with natural attributes. Some blessed with better than others, but those same attributes can be taken to whatever level you're willing to achieve. I'm speaking of non naturals. Naturals have a peak beyond which they cant go further.
 
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You need the following...

God-given talent, hand-eye coordination, excellent eyesight, physical abilities, mental skills to plan a pattern on the table, commitment to LOTS of GOOD practice, not just shooting balls around but doing so with a plan and purpose, an inner drive to improve and become the best you can be, above average intelligence to learn, remember and apply these skills and knowledge.

And an old man or uncle who owns a pool room.
 
You need the following...

God-given talent, hand-eye coordination, excellent eyesight, physical abilities, mental skills to plan a pattern on the table, commitment to LOTS of GOOD practice, not just shooting balls around but doing so with a plan and purpose, an inner drive to improve and become the best you can be, above average intelligence to learn, remember and apply these skills and knowledge.

And an old man or uncle who owns a pool room.
Flowchart to excellence right there!!👍🏻
 
Dr. Dave’s advice is simple. Pool is IMHO a game of Skill.

Pool players are like Golfers, many think the next great Cue, or Club will elevate their game.

Truth is IMHO.

Only practice will.

People hate practicing.
Better equipment Only exponentially helps Better players!

Because they know how to take Full Advantage of the innovations!
 
I agree 1000%! 1 that you forgot though. Proficiency shooting with either hand. I work on it daily and it really pays off more than a lot of players think!
I went through a time where every other day I would play left handed, except for breaking. It was great. I would be mentally drained after just an hour or two, probably less at first.

Eventually I got to a point where I’d forget just for a second which hand was my off hand. I’d get to a shot that was a reach for my off hand and I’d switch back to normal and wonder if I was coming or going.

It’s a major advantage for sure. I’ll have to get back into that habit
 
Don’t forget how important seasoning is. It might not be as vital if your goal is house pro level, but if you want to be a world beater you have to play everybody and play everywhere. And then you need to figure out how to bring your game when you’re up against the top guys at big events/money matches. Each new experience is a lesson.
 
The athletic pyramid. To reach the top in any sport. An elite talent and mind are necessary along with an ocd like determination and an unyielding amount of self-confidence. Lack any of these and the pinnacle is out of reach. Can't ride a single gift to the top. A chink in any, all the hard work and talent alone leaves the rest of us somewhere below the top point. Once reached, new factors come into to play. New talents and our undefeated foe, time.
Hard job.
Josh Filler and Fedor Gorst probably standing on the point presently.
 
Someone with talent or skills that serve an activity well learn faster. Hard to say they have a higher ceiling. I have studied those that were world class since I was a child, world class at almost anything. A man was an olympic gold medalist shooting a pistol one handed duelist style. He lost his arm in an accident and came back to win another gold medal with the other hand. There are many stories of world champions overcoming great adversity to become champions again. Sicknesses or injuries that kept them in bed for many months and left their bodies wasted away. Having to learn to walk again. Coming back to win. Just watched a runner doing a face plant in a fairly short race, 600 meters I believe. She came back to win.

Speaking for me personally, I was one of the worst pool players ever! It took me six months of near nightly effort to win more beer than I lost in bars. Once I started winning more than losing I kept raising the level of competition I played against and kept winning. The time came that when I was holding home field advantage few road players could even break even. I could take the other local shortstops.

As much as anything else it was simply a refusal to lose. I was known as slow and clumsy as a child and adolescent. Few noticed my timing and accuracy. In later years I selected things that I was best able to compete at. No way I would be a distance runner but I beat one on the pool table. I ran very well, with a stock car or sprint car wrapped around me! Later in life I found a gift for shooting pistols fast but I didn't try to run and gun. I shot benchrest rifle too, that took a lot of expertise but only a bit of talent.

Being good at something is a matter of liking it enough to work like hell at it. One gift I did have as a teenager and young adult, I needed very little sleep. I could go twelve or fourteen days on two hours of sleep a night, sleep twelve to eighteen hours and repeat the cycle. This let me work or go to school and still have plenty of time for pool and other things like building my race cars. When I was ready to sleep I was ready! I have slept a few feet in front of concert amplifiers or with stock cars passing a couple three feet from me while I slept on the inside pit wall with a foot dropped on either side of it to keep from falling.

You can do almost anything at a high level if you want to badly enough. There is so much information available now it is almost easy to play pool very well. The catch is that so many people can learn to play very well that it is harder than ever to cross the tiny gap between "very well" and elite, top handful in the world.

Hu
 
I went through a time where every other day I would play left handed, except for breaking. It was great. I would be mentally drained after just an hour or two, probably less at first.

Eventually I got to a point where I’d forget just for a second which hand was my off hand. I’d get to a shot that was a reach for my off hand and I’d switch back to normal and wonder if I was coming or going.

It’s a major advantage for sure. I’ll have to get back into that habit
That is the neuroplasticity mentioned previously.
You grew new connections by doing exactly what you did.
Unfortunately, unless those new connections are used regularly, they shrink and carry less of an effect over time.
 
Someone with talent or skills that serve an activity well learn faster. Hard to say they have a higher ceiling. I have studied those that were world class since I was a child, world class at almost anything. A man was an olympic gold medalist shooting a pistol one handed duelist style. He lost his arm in an accident and came back to win another gold medal with the other hand. There are many stories of world champions overcoming great adversity to become champions again. Sicknesses or injuries that kept them in bed for many months and left their bodies wasted away. Having to learn to walk again. Coming back to win. Just watched a runner doing a face plant in a fairly short race, 600 meters I believe. She came back to win.

Speaking for me personally, I was one of the worst pool players ever! It took me six months of near nightly effort to win more beer than I lost in bars. Once I started winning more than losing I kept raising the level of competition I played against and kept winning. The time came that when I was holding home field advantage few road players could even break even. I could take the other local shortstops.

As much as anything else it was simply a refusal to lose. I was known as slow and clumsy as a child and adolescent. Few noticed my timing and accuracy. In later years I selected things that I was best able to compete at. No way I would be a distance runner but I beat one on the pool table. I ran very well, with a stock car or sprint car wrapped around me! Later in life I found a gift for shooting pistols fast but I didn't try to run and gun. I shot benchrest rifle too, that took a lot of expertise but only a bit of talent.

Being good at something is a matter of liking it enough to work like hell at it. One gift I did have as a teenager and young adult, I needed very little sleep. I could go twelve or fourteen days on two hours of sleep a night, sleep twelve to eighteen hours and repeat the cycle. This let me work or go to school and still have plenty of time for pool and other things like building my race cars. When I was ready to sleep I was ready! I have slept a few feet in front of concert amplifiers or with stock cars passing a couple three feet from me while I slept on the inside pit wall with a foot dropped on either side of it to keep from falling.

You can do almost anything at a high level if you want to badly enough. There is so much information available now it is almost easy to play pool very well. The catch is that so many people can learn to play very well that it is harder than ever to cross the tiny gap between "very well" and elite, top handful in the world.

Hu
I can tell you aren't a natural Hu. The fact you have no ceiling is proof of that. I would get frustrated early on as some players just seemed to get it, and had an actual stroke while I struggled, banging away until one day it all finally clicked.
Always been like that for me.
Never looked back.
I'm the only player in my family that struggled to learn this game. Father and brother seemed to take to it like gravy. I was a fish out of water for quite a while. I'm still learning things about this game. Might be stuff I've forgotten over the years, but it's all new to me, so ... 😂😉
 
Someone with talent or skills that serve an activity well learn faster. Hard to say they have a higher ceiling. I have studied those that were world class since I was a child, world class at almost anything. A man was an olympic gold medalist shooting a pistol one handed duelist style. He lost his arm in an accident and came back to win another gold medal with the other hand. There are many stories of world champions overcoming great adversity to become champions again. Sicknesses or injuries that kept them in bed for many months and left their bodies wasted away. Having to learn to walk again. Coming back to win. Just watched a runner doing a face plant in a fairly short race, 600 meters I believe. She came back to win.

Speaking for me personally, I was one of the worst pool players ever! It took me six months of near nightly effort to win more beer than I lost in bars. Once I started winning more than losing I kept raising the level of competition I played against and kept winning. The time came that when I was holding home field advantage few road players could even break even. I could take the other local shortstops.

As much as anything else it was simply a refusal to lose. I was known as slow and clumsy as a child and adolescent. Few noticed my timing and accuracy. In later years I selected things that I was best able to compete at. No way I would be a distance runner but I beat one on the pool table. I ran very well, with a stock car or sprint car wrapped around me! Later in life I found a gift for shooting pistols fast but I didn't try to run and gun. I shot benchrest rifle too, that took a lot of expertise but only a bit of talent.

Being good at something is a matter of liking it enough to work like hell at it. One gift I did have as a teenager and young adult, I needed very little sleep. I could go twelve or fourteen days on two hours of sleep a night, sleep twelve to eighteen hours and repeat the cycle. This let me work or go to school and still have plenty of time for pool and other things like building my race cars. When I was ready to sleep I was ready! I have slept a few feet in front of concert amplifiers or with stock cars passing a couple three feet from me while I slept on the inside pit wall with a foot dropped on either side of it to keep from falling.

You can do almost anything at a high level if you want to badly enough. There is so much information available now it is almost easy to play pool very well. The catch is that so many people can learn to play very well that it is harder than ever to cross the tiny gap between "very well" and elite, top handful in the world.

Hu
If you can't hit the cue ball within .5 - 1 mm of center or where you aim consistently, forget about becoming a world beater.
 
If you can't hit the cue ball within .5 - 1 mm of center or where you aim consistently, forget about becoming a world beater.

When I tested that very thing I found that most people weren't trying to hit an exact spot. When I told them where to hit the nine ball that I was using as a cue ball or to hit the spot on the cue ball for the spin I wanted they didn't pay much attention to where they hit the cue ball and even A+ players and shortstops didn't hit the exact spot. Only when I told them the purpose of the test was to hit the exact spot on the cue ball did they do so.

It wasn't that they couldn't hit the cue ball with great precision, they didn't feel the need to even shooting a pretty tough cut shot. Not sure how that plays into overall skills, might hurt them on really tough shots though.

Hu
 
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