Improving the game

A

alojz_ferluga

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am playing pool for 2 years now and I am C+ player (maybe B- on good days) with some problems to become better.
1. My stroke is not the best - my follow through is not as should be and many times (even more when in tournament under stress) I "poke" the ball instead of a good clean shoot. I am improving, but not so fast and so much as I would like.
As result - my long draw shoots are not very good and efficient.
Can you help me with some advice how to improve this in some efficient way?

2. My angle cut estimating could be better. From time to time I just aim and shoot at wrong position. I am using simple fractional aiming method and my feel for correct aiming point.
Some good advice about this? ( I read some material about see aiming and some other methods, but they look to complex to me; as I know most snooker players use simple fractional method and million balls shoot style and snooker is much more precise than pool is)

I don't have access to a good coach near me, so I am looking for some great advice. :)
 
If there are no true pool teachers around you, find a good player with good fundamentals (think more of a Buddy Hall type player than a Keith McCready (Sorry JAM hehe)) and ask for some advice. Almost everyone outside of a pro that would charge for lessons will be more than happy to spend time with a player trying to learn.

There is really not much to pool aside from learn the right way to play from the start and then practice the shit out of that way.
 
alojz_ferluga said:
I am playing pool for 2 years now and I am C+ player (maybe B- on good days) with some problems to become better.
1. My stroke is not the best - my follow through is not as should be and many times (even more when in tournament under stress) I "poke" the ball instead of a good clean shoot. I am improving, but not so fast and so much as I would like.
As result - my long draw shoots are not very good and efficient.
Can you help me with some advice how to improve this in some efficient way?
Click to expand...

You can get out of the poking habit by teaching your brain what an accelerating stroke feels like. Right now I don't think it is sure what it is supposed ot feel like. Practice for a few hours by focusing on the object ball as the target for your tip, not the cue ball. When you stroke, try to actually touch the tip to the object ball no matter how far away it is, even if it is very exaggerated. (Of course the object ball will be gone by then, but just put the tip where it used to be) You'll realize that after a short while that the mass of the cue ball is what is stopping a lot of the momentum of the cue stick... it shouldn't be your arm! After a few days your exaggerated follow-through will shrink back down to optimization, and you'll be left with the muscle memory of what it feels like to efficiently transfer energy to the cue ball instead of poking.

2. My angle cut estimating could be better. From time to time I just aim and shoot at wrong position. I am using simple fractional aiming method and my feel for correct aiming point.
Some good advice about this? ( I read some material about see aiming and some other methods, but they look to complex to me; as I know most snooker players use simple fractional method and million balls shoot style and snooker is much more precise than pool is)
Click to expand...

Try Joe Tucker's Aiming by Numbers. Its clear and easy to understand.

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Added note:

From what I've seen since I've started playing pool till now, is that there is a correlation between a player's proficiency at pool and his awareness of tip contact on the cue ball. Everything everyone tells you about stance, elbows, stillness, etc. is about consistently putting the tip where you consciously want it to go. And the awareness of this is what takes a lot of time to acquire. I think that players who tell you that they don't think about tip position still deliver the tip exactly where they want to by perfect timing in their stroke, and some kind of swoop. Either way, if you always keep this in the back of your mind you'll always find a way to improve.

For example, just the other day I did a speed test on myself. 10 game of 10-ball, 1 point per ball, break, ball in hand after break, try to run out. I was scoring 50's, which is in the A speed range. Near the end of my practice session I had another epiphany about my tip position, and realized that I could do a little better job stroking in the direction of my side spin (since I use pivot to apply side spin). Anyway, I did another test and couldn't get past 10's, which is below a D speed. The cue ball was traveling too far and I knocked myself out of calibration, BUT, a felt way more confident in tip position and pocketing balls. My brain felt better, there was less uncertainty going on. It'll take a couple days to recalibrate myself with this slightly new stroke I found, but it'll be worth the new layer of clairity.

So I guess what I am trying to say is not to be afraid of crashing out your speed over and over again in pursuit of improvement. One step back for the investment of two steps forward.
 
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alojz_ferluga said:
2. My angle cut estimating could be better. From time to time I just aim and shoot at wrong position. I am using simple fractional aiming method and my feel for correct aiming point.
Some good advice about this? ( I read some material about see aiming and some other methods, but they look to complex to me; as I know most snooker players use simple fractional method and million balls shoot style and snooker is much more precise than pool is)
Click to expand...

I am not one for "aiming systems" so my advice will be as simple as it gets.

Two things...

1. You can start by always walking over to the line from the pocket to the object ball (OB). If you stand "behind" the object ball in a straight line from the pocket, looking the object ball into the pocket along that straight line, then you have a very good idea of where the point of contact needs to be (not accounting for throw). Stand there for a good long moment staring the OB into the pocket in order to really get a good fix on the contact point.

2. Realize that you are not actually trying to hit the contact point of the OB with the center of the cue ball. Assuming you know what the ghost ball is, you need to realize that you are trying to hit the center of the ghost ball with the center of the cue ball. This means (the only exception being straight in shots) the contact point of the OB is off to the side somewhat (once you go back over to the cue ball to set up for the actual shot).

This second point may be too obvious. Apologies if that is so. You've been playing for two years. But sometimes I meet people who are not really understanding this second concept, and make as many balls as they do only because their subconscious is adjusting for the error that they are about to make.

I try to describe it to people that you are "slicing" off a section of the object ball. What ever percentage of the OB gets sliced off on that side, an equal percentage of the cue ball needs to get sliced off on the opposite side of it. You are not trying to hit the object ball's contact point with the center of the cue ball.

Fatz
 
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