In a rut.

H

horton129

New member
I have had a prety good upswing in the past 12 month where I increased my pools skills by two balls (5 to a 7 in 9 ball - pros play as 11). Lately it's like my game is gone down a full ball WTH??? I've gone from running the occasional 75 balls to often stumbling after 3 or 4. It never suprises me when the end of my run is because i missed on a longer cut shot but I have a lot of misses that are the short moderate short angle shots (the kind that if you had a second chance you would make 100 in a row). As I want to continue to practice and improve it seems my game would be better by 20% immediatly if i removed those classic "lack of concentration" mistakes out of my game. For those of you who have broken through that ceilling or are in the process of (and only you will know because you are most likely a 8+ by now), what were the steps you took? What would realy good practice be to beat this down. Interested in how you resolved this in your thinking.
 
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maybe its a confidence thing?

maybe the reason ur missing early and not running the balls like u did is because you are too overconfident about some shots and neglect the basics. I try to watch guys like shane VB and i see that he doesnt take any shot for granted. For me its a comfort thing, it dont matter whats at stake for me, im pretty immune to higher stakes since im used to playing poker where there is alot of money at stake. What i mean is that if u can be comfortable with what you are doing but not so much that u overlook your routine or your timing on even the simplest shots then u will gain that ball back and perhaps improve on that. Take it for what its worth, and if it dont work for u then there is nothing wrong with trying something else.
 
If you want to be good, practice and play.
If you want to be really good, practice and play and gamble.
I you want to be the very best, ye must be born again, my son. Probably somewhere in the Phillipines.
 
horton129 said:
For those of you who have broken through that ceilling or are in the process of (and only you will know because you are most likely a 8+ by now), what were the steps you took? What would realy good practice be to beat this down. Interested in how you resolved this in your thinking.
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I'm currently struggling with this issue, and the thing that helps me (when I successfully do it) is sticking religiously to my pre-shot routine. There are steps I tend to skip when I get to the point of overconfidence and carelessness, such as stepping back away from the table, so that I'm stepping directly into each shot instead of moving laterally towards it, or pausing at the set position long enough to get my eyes really firmly glued to the object ball. Analyze your own routine when you miss these easy shots, and figure out if you skipped steps that shouldn't ever be skipped. For me the answer is usually yes.

Once you know which steps you tend to skip, you have to really firmly convince yourself that there is no such thing as an easy shot, so that you will be methodical and meticulous in doing everything you need to do right to pocket the ball, even when it's a shot you should make 100 times in a row.

I'm pretty sure I just gave you sound advice, but it's WAYYYYY easier said than done. I still really suck at following the advice I just gave.

-Andrew
 
Like others have said, take no shot for granted (EVER). For example, lets say you walk up to the shot, take your normal amount of warm up swings/pause and then pull the trigger and matters seem in hand. Next you've got a shot thats REAL easy ""(no shot is REAL easy unless its hanging in the pocket and you don't have to play shape on another ball, but it still can be missed, every shot in pool has been missed).""" Are you still utilizing your normal shot routine to make this ball because its unmissable and shape is natural....OR do you do something just a little different but still make the ball and get shape????? You have set in motion a shot routine now that will cause you problems with your whole game. Someone said "back to basics'' how true this statement is, why, because you've gotten away from your basic routine. This game is sooooooooo difficult because its sooooooo precise and any let up/mental/physical/shot routine wise will cause your demise. Hope this helps.
 
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It's not good to always play pool, it is good to always want to play tho. Too much of anything can be bad for you in many diff ways. Have you ever tried taking a small break from playing and focusing just on how you approach everything mentally? Give it a shot, don't hit any balls for a week and just study the game...and meditate to work on your focus, picture yourself playing through racks and shooting diff shots etc. Take a little bit of time to try and reset your thought process to where you think it should be. Taking a break and re-evaluating what you know and working on your mind can be just as advantageous as any other practice or drills, it also helps to keep you fresh as your game can most definitely become stale.

You might be surprised what good can come out of doing that.
 
Neil said:
As others have said, you need to use the same routine on every shot. One other thing you can do to make sure you take your time on the easy ones- when you have an easy shot, now is the time to really pay attention and try and get the most precise position play you can out of it. Doing that will help ingrain in your mind exactly how the table is playing at that time.
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I have to agree with what Neil said.Get a routine and stick with it on
all shots.
 
I don't know your age, but maybe your eyesight is in decline. It's #2 on my list of pool-shooting ability worst enemies (just plain sucking being #1).

Maniac
 
I was always tought in order to improve my game I must first start over with the Basics. I find when my game goes bad it is because I went back to old bad habits and not following my routine.
 
FWIW IMHO consistently missing routine shots is not a mental error, it's a break down in mechanics.

For me mental errors generally relate to playing the wrong shot.
 
Andrew Manning said:
I'm currently struggling with this issue, and the thing that helps me (when I successfully do it) is sticking religiously to my pre-shot routine. There are steps I tend to skip when I get to the point of overconfidence and carelessness, such as stepping back away from the table, so that I'm stepping directly into each shot instead of moving laterally towards it, or pausing at the set position long enough to get my eyes really firmly glued to the object ball. Analyze your own routine when you miss these easy shots, and figure out if you skipped steps that shouldn't ever be skipped. For me the answer is usually yes.

Once you know which steps you tend to skip, you have to really firmly convince yourself that there is no such thing as an easy shot, so that you will be methodical and meticulous in doing everything you need to do right to pocket the ball, even when it's a shot you should make 100 times in a
I'm pretty sure I just gave you sound advice, but it's WAYYYYY easier said than done. I still really suck at following the advice I just gave.

-Andrew
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What he says
 
Cameron Smith said:
FWIW IMHO consistently missing routine shots is not a mental error, it's a break down in mechanics.

For me mental errors generally relate to playing the wrong shot.
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What do you consider the term "mechanics" as you use it, to encompass? If you're including the eye-foot-torso-bridge-grip coordination involved in just getting your self aligned to the shot before you even practice stroke, then I might agree.

I generally refer to pool "mechanics" as including mostly the positioning of the body and the action of the shooting arm, in which case you can be mechanically perfect and still miss by a mile if you're not pointing the right way.

The pool cue, except when you're using the mechanical bridge, is not like a rifle. You can't put your eye right on or behind the cue and literally sight along it, the way you do with a rifle barrel. Therefore making sure the cue is pointing at the target to an extreme degree of accuracy is a mental feat, in my opinion. It's a matter of focusing on the target and convincing your subconscious to position the portion of your body which is behind your field of view in exactly the right way.

So for me the pre-shot routine is all built around the idea of putting my subconscious in a position to perform magic - to know to the nearest millimeter where my right hip, my right elbow, my right wrist, and my left hand all need to be placed to put this cue on a specific line which I can't really see, and to control my muscles with infinite subtlety to actually put myself in that position.

After that's done, the "mechanical" action of drawing the cue straight back and accelerating it forward in a straight, smooth, and relaxed (unhindered) motion, actually seems mundane to me. It's the easy part, by far.

-Andrew
 
Andrew Manning said:
What do you consider the term "mechanics" as you use it, to encompass? If you're including the eye-foot-torso-bridge-grip coordination involved in just getting your self aligned to the shot before you even practice stroke, then I might agree.

I generally refer to pool "mechanics" as including mostly the positioning of the body and the action of the shooting arm, in which case you can be mechanically perfect and still miss by a mile if you're not pointing the right way.

The pool cue, except when you're using the mechanical bridge, is not like a rifle. You can't put your eye right on or behind the cue and literally sight along it, the way you do with a rifle barrel. Therefore making sure the cue is pointing at the target to an extreme degree of accuracy is a mental feat, in my opinion. It's a matter of focusing on the target and convincing your subconscious to position the portion of your body which is behind your field of view in exactly the right way.

So for me the pre-shot routine is all built around the idea of putting my subconscious in a position to perform magic - to know to the nearest millimeter where my right hip, my right elbow, my right wrist, and my left hand all need to be placed to put this cue on a specific line which I can't really see, and to control my muscles with infinite subtlety to actually put myself in that position.

After that's done, the "mechanical" action of drawing the cue straight back and accelerating it forward in a straight, smooth, and relaxed (unhindered) motion, actually seems mundane to me. It's the easy part, by far.

-Andrew
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Yup, on an easy shot if your properly aligned you can stroke the ball pretty badly and still make it.

I may however be willing to entertain that perhaps missing more difficult shots can come down to mental errors which generally relate to rushing the shot. However I contend that during competition the execution of a shot (including the setup) should be handled subconsciously as humans perform best and most consistently when relying on muscle memory. The conscious mind simply acts like an annoying backseat driver hindering your performance rather than augmenting it. Therefore if your doing that and still missing easy shots, it can't be a mental error. But can thinking be a mental error? Perhaps for some I guess.
 
Cameron Smith said:
Yup, on an easy shot if your properly aligned you can stroke the ball pretty badly and still make it.
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That's sort of the opposite of my point. My point was if you're improperly aligned, then your stroke mechanics make no difference; you'll miss no matter what.

Cameron Smith said:
I may however be willing to entertain that perhaps missing more difficult shots can come down to mental errors which generally relate to rushing the shot. However I contend that during competition the execution of a shot (including the setup) should be handled subconsciously as humans perform best and most consistently when relying on muscle memory. The conscious mind simply acts like an annoying backseat driver hindering your performance rather than augmenting it. Therefore if your doing that and still missing easy shots, it can't be a mental error. But can thinking be a mental error? Perhaps for some I guess.
Click to expand...

You have to give your subconscious mind some guidance, though. If I just move from shot to shot without thinking at all, eventually I'll miss an extremely easy shot, and I'll realize I was gruesomely misaligned and I didn't realize it until I hit the ball, because I never "told" my subconscious to line the shot up.

The way I tell my subconscious to line the shot up is to step back away from it, stand directly behind it so I can see the line from CB contact point to OB contact point, glue my eyes to the OB contact point, and keep them glued there while stepping forward into the shot, lowering myself into position, and placing my bridge hand on the table. Without following that routine, I'm not properly engaging my subconscious. When I skip part or all of this, I'm precluding it from doing its job.

For a novice driver (perhaps a good analogy for the conscious mind), an automatic transmission may be faster at shifting and better at controlling fuel economy than fumbling with a stick-shift and clutch, but he has to put it in drive before it'll give him any benefit. And I personally believe that putting the subconscious into drive, when it comes to intricate muscle control and coordination, is a good deal more complicated than moving the gear selector in a car. You have to coax it out, using all the right stimuli.

-Andrew
 
Everyone goes through ups and downs. The improvement you made gave you higher expectations of yourself.

Stop evaluating every little thing and stop thinking so much. Don't live and die on every shot. Develope a level of consistency, you can live with. It will help you improve even more.
 
Thanks Andrew,
You have the right perspective. Do you mind discussing more? If i was to pinpoint an area to work hard on, it would be in my pre-shot routine. I have one, but is not consistant from shot to shot and i do tend, when i feel like i can't miss to disrespect some "easier" shots (one stoke). I understand perfectly how this laziness will affect my game. What i don't have is a good way to build the right pre-shot routine. I tend to do it differently depending on the shot, sometimes it is becuase i change my aiming technique based on the shot in front of me. Is there any reference material to learn all the steps of pre shot routine to your knowledge and how to practice or aply them in the correct order? You talk about how you walk into the shot, which is great for me for zero to moderate angle shots but less so for angled shots or back cuts (that is mostly when i start doing things differently. Ideas thoughts?
 
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