Good news though. It's the stick does the hitting.
How To Get A Really Good Player
- Thread starter Sharivari
- Start date
I
If I'm using spin, low right, let's say, mine has an area about the size of a dime. Ala I stroke within that dime, I'll get what I need on that shot. It's when I really must have precise stuff that I'll tighten up and hit my sweet spot if needed.
I don't have any problems hitting where I aim for the most part as it's an ingrained part of my game done subconsciously after the decision is made .
Once I post my Digiball review this will make more sense. Look for it by weeks end.
Thanks Hu!!
was basically regurgitating what a famous coach from this area told me. But as you said, why would you want to unless ...
If I'm using spin, low right, let's say, mine has an area about the size of a dime. Ala I stroke within that dime, I'll get what I need on that shot. It's when I really must have precise stuff that I'll tighten up and hit my sweet spot if needed.
I don't have any problems hitting where I aim for the most part as it's an ingrained part of my game done subconsciously after the decision is made .
Once I post my Digiball review this will make more sense. Look for it by weeks end.
Thanks Hu!!
Oh
Oh No!!! Not that arrow/indian thing again!!
I always played off the wall gambling. That means I beat some elite players with them using their cue and me playing off the wall. The sticks I played with were a lot less than perfect but since the road players were usually coming to me I was usually familiar with the stick I was playing with. I was also used to playing off the wall so even when traveling I quickly adapted to a stick. Indexing the bend of a stick was so automatic that I still turn the CF shaft looking for the sweet spot that doesn't exist sometimes.
Hu
Most certainly the arrow.Oh
Oh No!!! Not that arrow/indian thing again!!
That's too funny, In a sad sorta way. I get it tho. I never carried my axe in with me. Stayed in the trunk until I determined If, and that's a big 'if', I could bring it in and play with it. Most times the competition wasn't such that I'd need my axe and some of those old dufferins or Brunswick and valley cues hit pretty damn sweet.
Besides, most of it was big ball bar box stuff and a nice axe isn't gonna perform much better than one of those off the wall one piece beauties anyway. You know... The crooked ones with awful tips. I especially liked playing with those big ol glue over ferrule tip combos so many places I played in had on their cues. Most went 14mm plus!!
You had to beat em on their terms.It's deceptively simple to roll that big ol cue ball around and put balls down. Good shape was the key. They didn't notice that you were always on your next ball as much as a shot they couldn't make, like a big draw, some forced follow or a difficult bank. Had to avoid all that if possible and concentrate on center ball slow roll. Break out clusters by slamming 3 and 4 rails or Carom off other balls makes it look like a lucky shot. (Turning the cue ball loose to a knowledgeable player)
If you went 3 rails and broke out a ball, that wasn't as bad as making an obvious break out shot that puts em on their guard. Had to beat them playing their game.
I tried to avoid making any shots the locals couldn't make themselves. Endears you to the pack right out of the box. Buy a round or two and you're good to go.
Never play harder than you have to to win.
Besides, I didn't want to humiliate anybody. Just wanted their money.
Heck, I even made a few friends. People often get the wrong impression of road players. Find a successful one who did it their way and they probably won't have a Fargo, a stroke as sweet as honey and a very likeable, charming persona. Disarmingly so. You'd never guess this guy's a killer.
He will convince you otherwise. A master of self deprication.
Rabbit holes. Sheesh.
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
Caroms are so fun... the more sloppy it looks the madder they get.
At least with good players. I like it when someone measures out breakouts and such with their stick, then I just kind of whack it and get a break out. Of course I'm looking at it with my eyes and determining the same things they are, but for some reason unless you put your stick out on the table some people think it's slop/luck. I figure using your stick to map things out gives your opponent extra info and lets them know you know what you know. I'd rather be thought of as lucky than good. I don't know why but I've always played pool like cards and tried to maintain a poker face.I have no idea why but some opponents can actually get thrown off if you don't show much emotion on making a good shot or missing something. I guess if you show no emotion on a miss they may think you meant to do it or set a trap or something.
That's too funny, In a sad sorta way. I get it tho. I never carried my axe in with me. Stayed in the trunk until I determined If, and that's a big 'if', I could bring it in and play with it. Most times the competition wasn't such that I'd need my axe and some of those old dufferins or Brunswick and valley cues hit pretty damn sweet.
Besides, most of it was big ball bar box stuff and a nice axe isn't gonna perform much better than one of those off the wall one piece beauties anyway. You know... The crooked ones with awful tips. I especially liked playing with those big ol glue over ferrule tip combos so many places I played in had on their cues. Most went 14mm plus!!
It's deceptively simple to roll that big ol cue ball around and put balls down. Good shape was the key. They didn't notice that you were always on your next ball as much as a shot they couldn't make, like a big draw, some forced follow or a difficult bank. Had to avoid all that if possible and concentrate on center ball slow roll. Break out clusters by slamming 3 and 4 rails or Carom off other balls makes it look like a lucky shot. (Turning the cue ball loose to a knowledgeable player)
If you went 3 rails and broke out a ball, that wasn't as bad as making an obvious break out shot that puts em on their guard. Had to beat them playing their game.
I tried to avoid making any shots the locals couldn't make themselves. Endears you to the pack right out of the box. Buy a round or two and you're good to go.
Never play harder than you have to to win.
Besides, I didn't want to humiliate anybody. Just wanted their money.
Heck, I even made a few friends. People often get the wrong impression of road players. Find a successful one who did it their way and they probably won't have a Fargo, a stroke as sweet as honey and a very likeable, charming persona. Disarmingly so. You'd never guess this guy's a killer.
He will convince you otherwise. A master of self deprication.
Rabbit holes. Sheesh.
The "old masters" weren't trying to make a better cue. They were trying to make a cue that played as well as a one piece but had a joint to be toted around easily.
The big cue ball was my friend. That eight hundred pound gorilla was easier to control than a cue ball the same size and weight as the other balls. It was what was common when the phrase "draw for show, follow for dough" was coined. If you could draw that thing a few feet people were awed!
Generally the worse the warp the better the tip since nobody played with it. Too, I tried to make a point of rolling it on the table while my opponent watched the tip hop up and down. "Good enough for me the way I play."
Wouldn't it be fun to have a big cue ball event on seven foot or even nine foot Diamonds? That would probably blow some minds! They have wooden racquet tennis matches so why not? I'm sure people would line up to play if the dollars were right.
Hu
The Old Jaybird
Well-known member
only if we are playing really "large", ten cents a game is my max.Will you give me the last 3?? You're way better than I am.
A Top All Around player from the mid 60's - mid 80's was Mexican Johnny!
He Only played Pool to fuel His racetrack habit!
He didn't drive, took the bus to all the spots with a 'One Piece cue' wrapped in newspaper!
I used a one piece snooker cue in pool tournaments for awhile. I wrapped it in a big towel or a cut piece of blanket, uptown all the way!(grin)
Hu
Gotta pick your poison. Evaluate everyone playing. Like a good card player, then mark your mark and work em.Caroms are so fun... the more sloppy it looks the madder they get.
I have no idea why but some opponents can actually get thrown off if you don't show much emotion on making a good shot or missing something. I guess if you show no emotion on a miss they may think you meant to do it or set a trap or something.
That way you know what you got and no surprises. It can be like a box of chocolates at times. Never know what you're gonna get. Adapt fast. Gotta be able to think on your feet or you wind up sleeping in the car and eating bologna Steak.
Count me in!!!
Class act bro.
Those 800 pounders as you put it wound up being what most of us had to play with bcuz that's what those little dives had.
Ditto on the I liked them part.
You learn a lot about wasted motion and slow roll control banging that bad boy around!!
Separates the men from the boys real quick.
It's simple! Become obsessed with pool for three years, to the exclusion of just about everything else. After you hit a million balls or so you will be getting the hang of it, I promise!
Too many times I saw Keith walk in with a two piece cue and a rubber band around it. That was his case.
I bet Keith just laughs at all the tech-obsessed loonies playing today.
I have a cue case with a couple big pockets. Things in those pockets I haven't used in ten years and lint from the nineties!
I find it fun and somehow liberating to leave the case with two cues in it at home. Go back fifty years and stick a BRAD tool and a bit of sandpaper in my watch/telephone pocket, a little cash in anudder pocket and I am ready to get it on!
House cues are the best I have ever seen generally speaking. I started to buy an assortment of the slide on tips many years ago. Taking a few of them in a pocket would let me do a serious upgrade to most bad tips too. Slip on tips are pretty much standard on house cues many places anyway.
Hu