Michael
I just watched both these videos, and would like to express my gratitude, and encourage you to go on with this little series. The second is already an improvement over the first in several respects (note I'm a teacher in real life, also coach/instruct pool billards part-time), and I mean didactically, apart from being a better run (there are fewer recovery shots to keep the run going). First of all, you have a great voice that apparently allows you to do all this without wearing a mobile mic. For some reason, it's yet easier to hear in the second part. You're also taking more time to explain key situations, as well as the use of spin on some balls, so there's multiple appeal now, that is, to different levels, beginners to advanced. More importantly, you're now pausing from time to time to analyze the layout - you're not only doing a great job at it, but the very fact that you do pause is sending the right message to e.g. beginners (the problem is, great Straight Pool players are so swift in their decision-making, they make the game look easy, which can be misleading). I do not always agree with your patterns (e.g. the situation Sean pointed out), but that is one of the beauties of Straight Pool, players can run hundreds doing it
their way, and still keep arguing over details. By the way, the fact that you're nervous makes you even more likable, and that you're admitting it gives you authority (all a matter of control). Love that dog, too! Needless to say, your execution, given you're giving a lesson, is awesome! :thumbup: I've done this live in front of students sometimes and find it extra tough, especially talking when one's already taken one's stance (which you do a few times in the first part, but rarely or not at all in the second).
As to 99 being a magic number, I feel with you, having run 99 twice lately, both times shooting the break ball just the way I intended (wouldn't change anything about them except the ironic outcome), and each time, came up with no shot: first time round a corner ball comes out of the stack two rails and lays (glues!) itself against the cue ball I'd left nicely near the middle of a nicely open table (= the perfect safety, thus far only happened to me after a guy missed his break shot and let me to the table, hilarious), second time, those open balls I could see from the cue ball's perspective masked each other's path to a pocket, off-angle and too close to each other to offer a combination, so that in competition, I'd have had to play safe. Pool's a b**ch sometimes…
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti