i think i am turning into one of " those " league players

L

lorider

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You know the kind I am talking about. The type that most of you lump all league players into. Social player....no interest in improving yada yada yada .

I get to the pool hall tonight to play my scotch doubles league and I just so happens our opponents were no shows. My team mate asks if I wanna practice some. free play I say nah...just gonna sit here and watch football.

A lil while later a young girl brings a tray of balls over to the table next to the one i am sitting at...cant be a day over 16. She proceeds to start a simple drill. Straight in spot shots. She missed the first one but I never saw her miss another.....but i was spending my time just watching her between plays during the game so she may have missed some when I was not looking.


What was so interesting was watching her psr. She spent quite a bit of time setting up her stance between shots. She was deliberate in making sure her feet were in the exact same place on the exact same shot every time. Her stroke was the same in every shot. It was a nice was pendulum stroke every time. Nothing moved but from her elbow down shot after shot. Her closed bridge was the same distance from the cue ball shot after shot. Her chin was down on the cue on every shot.

Sad to say ...she has better fundamentals than I do .

When I first joined apa I aspired to become a 7. Over the last year I have fluctuated between a 5 and 6. I also play masters because I wanted to play better players in hopes of learning a few things. As I watched her the thought entered my mind about getting up and practicing some myself. Then I thought....nah....i going home and watch tv.

Either I am turning into one of " those league players " or at 62 I just dont have the inclination to improve....feel like my better days are behind me any way.
 
Gee......the many reasons people feel like confiding in forum strangers.

If you "feel" this way, then that's fine. Feel that way.

Are you looking for some solution to a nonexistent problem?
 
9Ballr said:
Gee......the many reasons people feel like confiding in forum strangers.

If you "feel" this way, then that's fine. Feel that way.

Are you looking for some solution to a nonexistent problem?
Click to expand...


Well.excuse me for you wasting 2 minutes of your life reading my post. Next time I might start the gaziillionth post about what's the best chalk..would that make your day ?
 
I'm also becoming disenchanted with league. I don't enjoy bar box 8 ball or being told when and where to play. However my love affair with pool is as strong as ever. I want to practice and improve for myself. Maybe being burnt out on league is making you burnt out on pool. I've been there. My advice, take a couple weeks off of leagues and pool and see if you still have the desire.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
 
StraightPoolIU said:
I'm also becoming disenchanted with league. I don't enjoy bar box 8 ball or being told when and where to play. However my love affair with pool is as strong as ever. I want to practice and improve for myself. Maybe being burnt out on league is making you burnt out on pool. I've been there. My advice, take a couple weeks off of leagues and pool and see if you still have the desire.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
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Tonight was the first night of league after a week and a half off due to the holidays.

I have been playing on 5 teams and actually dropped off 2 of them after last session.

Thanks for the advice....i just might take another week or 2 off and hopefully get my desire back to be the bed I can be.
 
lorider said:
You know the kind I am talking about. The type that most of you lump all league players into. Social player....no interest in improving yada yada yada .

I get to the pool hall tonight to play my scotch doubles league and I just so happens our opponents were no shows. My team mate asks if I wanna practice some. free play I say nah...just gonna sit here and watch football.

A lil while later a young girl brings a tray of balls over to the table next to the one i am sitting at...cant be a day over 16. She proceeds to start a simple drill. Straight in spot shots. She missed the first one but I never saw her miss another.....but i was spending my time just watching her between plays during the game so she may have missed some when I was not looking.


What was so interesting was watching her psr. She spent quite a bit of time setting up her stance between shots. She was deliberate in making sure her feet were in the exact same place on the exact same shot every time. Her stroke was the same in every shot. It was a nice was pendulum stroke every time. Nothing moved but from her elbow down shot after shot. Her closed bridge was the same distance from the cue ball shot after shot. Her chin was down on the cue on every shot.

Sad to say ...she has better fundamentals than I do .

When I first joined apa I aspired to become a 7. Over the last year I have fluctuated between a 5 and 6. I also play masters because I wanted to play better players in hopes of learning a few things. As I watched her the thought entered my mind about getting up and practicing some myself. Then I thought....nah....i going home and watch tv.

Either I am turning into one of " those league players " or at 62 I just dont have the inclination to improve....feel like my better days are behind me any way.
Click to expand...

I've always been in the camp that believes you DON'T have to get your brains beat in by better players and you are actually wasting your time getting beat.

If you wanna watch/see better play youtube is your friend, you can watch/rewind etc and fully concentrate on what exactly they are doing. Then when you go "play" you can spend all your time on the table - don't even play league(maybe a day or 2/week) just play the ghost or do drills.

If you go to league how much time do you actually play? 1/5th, 1/8th, a 10th of the time you are there?

If you play the ghost or drills it is 100% of the time, think about that for a minute. Let's say it's a 10th of the time you are there, by changing how you spend your time you could get 10 times the amount of practice everytime you go.
Jason
 
You can't teach an old dog new tricks!

Jk

I have someone on our team around the same level as you (5 or 6 depending on the week). He has improved after taking some time off (recharge the battery) and also has liked our BCA league, which I think the change has reinvigorated him. Lorider I enjoy all your post in the how y'all doing in league thread. Maybe you've overstretched your bounds, and need to take a session off or only shoot one night a week on your favorite night, or try a different format to keep things fresh. At 62, I kinda feel like you know what you know and are what you are. You can definitely improve, but improvement may need to be judged differently than when you were younger.
 
Lorider post whatever to hell you feel like;)

As for apa perhaps the need to meet a # limit has finally got to you? Just my 2cents worth. Hope the game becomes fun again.
 
I will be the first to tell you that I don't know anything about leagues other than what I have read or heard. I can tell you though that if you are willing to put the time in to practice (Drills) and learn from others unless you have a physical restriction like blindness you can improve. There are lots of resources such as DVDs, books, youtube etc... that can show you how to improve. There are some great personal instructors out there as well. Your age is likely not the problem you are facing. It sounds to me like you have hit that plateau simply because your not concentrating on doing drills and practice. Like your playing in league for the most part. Not saying it is wrong to do so just that if you want to improve for yourself you can do that anywhere you have access to a table.

As I mentioned in another post on here I have found a player that lives basically in my area and we have been splitting up playing at each others table on a weekly basis. He is a higher skill level than I am and he has a 9 foot table while I have a 7 footer. He is older that I am and possibly older that you. Since I have been meeting up with him to play pool it has made me want to practice more than ever to improve my game. Now I spend a lot of time watching videos over and over and going to the table every day spuratically for hours at a time. I perceive improvements in my game all the time. I know they may not be significant but I believe I am becoming a lot more critical of what I am doing. On a side note I remember watching the pros at SBE and noticing how robotic Karen Corr was with her PSR. She did very well there and since then she has significantly improved her skills in the past nine months or so.

I hope this helps
 
Get beat by the right person and it will fire you up, doesn't even have to be someone cocky, arrogant or a better/worse player. Most likely at some point you're going to say to yourself "Fcuk this crap, it's time to play some POOL!!" which will motivate you to take the game more seriously and maybe even practice a little. Just like any relationship there are ebbs and flows involved, a passion that will cause you to do things that you normally wouldn't. It will come back to you just like a long lost lover, she will reach out and you'll be there to receive her touch which will spark the flame anew.


Neil
 
Fuji-whopper said:
Get beat by the right person and it will fire you up, doesn't even have to be someone cocky, arrogant or a better/worse player. Most likely at some point you're going to say to yourself "Fcuk this crap, it's time to play some POOL!!" which will motivate you to take the game more seriously and maybe even practice a little. Just like any relationship there are ebbs and flows involved, a passion that will cause you to do things that you normally wouldn't. It will come back to you just like a long lost lover, she will reach out and you'll be there to receive her touch which will spark the flame anew.


Neil
Click to expand...

True that. An azbro came to town a few months ago and beat me up.

I got fired up and have been playing pretty well, as of late.
 
lorider said:
You know the kind I am talking about. The type that most of you lump all league players into. Social player....no interest in improving yada yada yada .

I get to the pool hall tonight to play my scotch doubles league and I just so happens our opponents were no shows. My team mate asks if I wanna practice some. free play I say nah...just gonna sit here and watch football.

A lil while later a young girl brings a tray of balls over to the table next to the one i am sitting at...cant be a day over 16. She proceeds to start a simple drill. Straight in spot shots. She missed the first one but I never saw her miss another.....but i was spending my time just watching her between plays during the game so she may have missed some when I was not looking.


What was so interesting was watching her psr. She spent quite a bit of time setting up her stance between shots. She was deliberate in making sure her feet were in the exact same place on the exact same shot every time. Her stroke was the same in every shot. It was a nice was pendulum stroke every time. Nothing moved but from her elbow down shot after shot. Her closed bridge was the same distance from the cue ball shot after shot. Her chin was down on the cue on every shot.

Sad to say ...she has better fundamentals than I do .

When I first joined apa I aspired to become a 7. Over the last year I have fluctuated between a 5 and 6. I also play masters because I wanted to play better players in hopes of learning a few things. As I watched her the thought entered my mind about getting up and practicing some myself. Then I thought....nah....i going home and watch tv.

Either I am turning into one of " those league players " or at 62 I just dont have the inclination to improve....feel like my better days are behind me any way.
Click to expand...

Well pool can be pretty boring when there's nothing on the line. I mean, I do enjoy practice by myself, but with friends it has to be a minimum for a beer.

I think the only true way to get better is if it cost you if you didn't. Even if it meant "punishing" yourself after some practice racks if you don't meet your goal. Heck, given enough time you might be able to train a chimpanzee to pocket a ball on the spot; but you probably couldn't train it one-pocket strategy. Like the girl you mention, you can stand there all day and make that shot. Doing it when your hill-hill and a few thousand, hundred, or even a beer is on the line, and it's a different story.

That said, I think it's useful to practice good mechanics. But you also don't want to go to the table like a robot, because you'll stroke like one, and you need to be a little "loose." Now, if you can make a spot shot using center, follow, draw, or any of those with side English, consistently, I think that's more important, because that takes a bit of "feel" that can't be learned mindlessly worrying about aim. Like cinching in a ball on the rail. You don't think about it, you just use a little outside English and the ball scoots into the pocket with no thinking how to aim it.
 
My quick opinion about your situation is your playing too much league. I think once a night is good enough to get you out of the house to socialize, but other than that I think your wasting a lot of good practice time siting around playing league. To improve your game i would suggest practicing and playing tournaments. League is good to get you to vegas but not to improve your game, there's too much sandbagging for you to measure your game against someone else your skill level. You never know if they sandbagged or not. Practice and tournaments will work for you. Good luck.


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League night during the week. Tournaments on the weekend. Practice racks every time I walk through the living room.

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Another thought... If you join a league, and you enjoy watching football (or girls practicing), do NOT do it on football night. Less distraction = more business...
 
I get the how do you become a 7/9 question in apa all the time lol Well it isn't at leagues. Leagues our fun and a way to test your knowledge but you get better on the practice table. That's where you work on a consistent stroke and knowledge. Golfers get better by spending countless hours on the driving range. It isn't exciting buts it's where the foundation is set. Fortunately shooting the same shot over and over again doesn't bore me. I love the game so if my cue is in my hand I'm happy
 
Pool can be enjoyed on many levels. If you enjoy just playing, then there is nothing wrong with that. It's no crime to not improve.

Improving takes work, and working can sometimes be boring and unsatisfying, especially working on your biggest weaknesses, because it's so damned hard. The reason you got these weaknesses to begin with, is probably because you didn't like shooting these shots. Well, you'll probably hate shooting 5000 of those shots.

I've got to tell you, I spent a lot of time working on my game and there is really not a whole lot I can show for it when you are talking about pure enjoyment. Sure, I'm a lot better than I used to be at pool, but a lot of shots just end up as boring chores, to be honest. The better I get, the harder the work becomes. It's come to the point now where I'm actually dreading the things I have to do to improve just a little bit! It's work, and not even fun work. When most drills become quite easy and you're working on single shots only, that's where the line is...the one that shows who the real players are. Like you, I'm beginning to doubt if I have what it takes mentally to do this and I fear I might get turned off pool completely if I actually go through with it. For now I'm doing my best to hang in there, but I'm struggling.
 
Not every league is APA team leagues. I'm in three leagues. Only one is APA team on barboxes. The other two is an in-house 14.1 league and an NAPL individual 9 ball league. The individual leagues have an hour practice, you play your match and go home (if you want, I usually stay and play fun matches with other members) The APA league has virtually no practice. I usually go to a pool room once or twice a week for practice alone. I enjoy all three leagues.
 
Maybe if you're tired of leagues, try switching to playing 14.1. Straight Pool has it's own challenges and rewards.
 
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