I'm inconsistent and I miss pockets by MM

Saijin

Saijin

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I've been playing for a few weeks now and I'm very inconsistent with my pocket shots. Even when I'm aiming almost straight. One day I can run the table, other days I miss the same ball over and over and over again.

I can beat the average player at a bar, but against people who "play" pool... it's very tough to win for me.

I want to start from basics, but don't where where to start focusing on.
 
Saijin said:
I've been playing for a few weeks now and I'm very inconsistent with my pocket shots. Even when I'm aiming almost straight. One day I can run the table, other days I miss the same ball over and over and over again.

I can beat the average player at a bar, but against people who "play" pool... it's very tough to win for me.

I want to start from basics, but don't where where to start focusing on.
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Take lessons, lessons from a qualified person can cut your learning curve big time. Buy books and watch DVDs and videos of pros. Take note of their stance, stroke, and listen to the commentators ( so long as they aren't kids talking crap)

Visit Accu-Stats, take advantage of their library of videos.

Then, practice. But, don't just start out practicing, because if you practice wrong, correcting bad habits can be difficult to correct.
 
Weeks?

Saijin said:
I've been playing for a few weeks now and I'm very inconsistent with my pocket shots. Even when I'm aiming almost straight. One day I can run the table, other days I miss the same ball over and over and over again.

I can beat the average player at a bar, but against people who "play" pool... it's very tough to win for me.

I want to start from basics, but don't where where to start focusing on.
Click to expand...

Sometimes it takes more than a few weeks to master the game. Maybe a month or so for some people. LOL Seriously, try to work on a repeatable stroke. Short shots, same speed, straight in. Make that duck ten in a row and then increase distance. Repeat, rinse and dry on low heat. Watch good players play. Ask yourself what would I do here? Now watch what they do!!
 
What bar do you go that you beat everyone just playing for a few weeks? I'll take my old ass there and make some money. :rolleyes:. Johnnyt
 
Saijin said:
I've been playing for a few weeks now and I'm very inconsistent with my pocket shots. Even when I'm aiming almost straight. One day I can run the table, other days I miss the same ball over and over and over again.

I can beat the average player at a bar, but against people who "play" pool... it's very tough to win for me.

I want to start from basics, but don't where where to start focusing on.
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Where are you located? There are several good instructors who are very reasonable on the forums . Scott Lee and Lee Brett travel the country as does Genes Albright . If your in Kentucky I would recommend Stan Shuffett .
Stevie Moore would be great also. This is well spent money
 
Johnnyt said:
What bar do you go that you beat everyone just playing for a few weeks? I'll take my old ass there and make some money. :rolleyes:. Johnnyt
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Heh, I used to play snooker many years ago and started with 3 cushion because of my Grandpa. I just recently got back to playing the table.

I can still jump and masse decent too. Just accuracy is crap
 
I'm in Colorado. I'd prefer to learn on my own though, I know me very well.

So that book on amazon gives you from basics all the way up?
 
Saijin said:
I'm in Colorado. I'd prefer to learn on my own though, I know me very well.

So that book on amazon gives you from basics all the way up?
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Yes. He does go into more depth in his second book "Advanced techniques", but for the most part the first book has enough information to go pro with, not kidding. If you are a motivated self learner (like I was) you will be able to sit and read this book and learn TONS. Robert is the best teacher of the game I've ever seen or read.
 
just play on a bigger table .. you will never miss again in a 7ft bar box! :grin-square:
 
Byrnes Book of Billiards helped me tremendously when I was getting started. That book is awesome.

One of the main things that I had to overcome early on was my stroking arm swaying sideways, which causes dramatic errors, especially on shots with small margin of error. An easy drill that helped me get some consistency in my stroke and able to reliably hit my aiming point was to lay an empty beer bottle down on a table and stroking the tip of my cue into the open bottle top. And get to the point where you can look away, talk to someone, close your eyes and keep stroking that cue tip through the bottle top...

Good luck, and stick with it!
 
Saijin said:
Heh, I used to play snooker many years ago and started with 3 cushion because of my Grandpa. I just recently got back to playing the table.

I can still jump and masse decent too. Just accuracy is crap
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Ah so you're a player looking mainly for consistency tips. The beer bottle thing is a good idea, but I've never tried it myself. A solid and stable stance is key in the game. Make sure your feet are not too in line with the shot or you'll be too unstable to play effectively.

Also the absolute basics are essential in this game. If you have trouble with the most basic fundamentals your entire game will be off. Recently I've been shooting a lot of long straight in stop shots to get my stoke and alignment as perfect as I can. I recommend you doing this as often as you can during practice (and i mean OFTEN). There's many parts of a good pool game that DEPEND totally on absolute precision. Getting good at dead in stop shots will improve your game in many more ways than you can probably imagine.
 
My initial thought was that you should look into an aiming system.
That will take care of your immediate issue of missing shots.
 
A lot of great advice is already provided. Since you can already run racks of balls, even if inconsistently, your problems do not seem to be the mistakes of a beginner. IMO, inconsistency for a reasonably skilled player is due to the mechanics of your stroke and/or mental focus (probably a bit of both, since one can affect the other). I would not dismiss the value of quality instruction. A skilled instructor will be able to identify finer details of your stroke to work on that you may think you are doing properly after reading the books.

If you are looking for books, in addition to the Robert Byrne book and Dr. Dave's website, I would recommend:
The Secret Art of Pool by Lee Bret
Banking With The Beard by Freddie Bentivegna.
The 99 Critical Shots in Pool by Ray Martin and Rosser Reeves.


Practice, practice, practice.


Anybody have any advice about my golf game? :confused:
 
Thanks for all the tips. For me it's an angle and sight problem I think. When I'm focused enough, I can strike any part of the cue ball dead on. It's deciding the angle of target point of the target ball that's problematic for me. Plus, I need a new perscription for my contact lenses.

I will definitely invest in that book, hopefully it can help me.

@Sealegs50: I'm a staff tech rep for a USA and Japanese boutique golf companies.
I give occasional lessons and I build premium clubs for people. So if you need to know something,
post a youtube video some where in the forum and I can take a look.

Funny thing is I posted a thread in my golf forum about golf vs pool, and we got a TON of replies there
 
Btw, I have a Kamui SS tip, 11.5mm tip. Would a full size 13mm tip help me tremendously with my accuracy and consistency?
 
Saijin said:
I'm in Colorado. I'd prefer to learn on my own though, I know me very well.

So that book on amazon gives you from basics all the way up?
Click to expand...



You may know you BUT you don't know what you don't know!

randyg
 
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