When I first started coming up in the pool world I was always surprised by how much time people spent on their fundamentals. Guys that have been playing their whole lives were still putting the majority of their effort into achieving perfect fundamentals. At the time, I thought of fundamentals as beginner stuff, and once you have the basics down you should move on.
Years later, my skill level hit a plateau and I was struggling to make much improvement year to year. My practice routine consisted almost entirely of just playing races against the ghost at home (which was my real problem). After not seeing much improvement against the ghost, I convinced myself that it was my fundamentals that were holding me back.
My fundamentals were actually pretty solid at the time but there was room for improvement in a few areas. So I started making some simple corrections to my fundamentals and I liked the results. I wasn't necessarily performing better but my stroke felt better than ever and I felt like I was on the pathway to big improvement. Every time I corrected a fundamental flaw, I would find another two or three areas of my fundamentals that I wanted to fine tune as well. Down the rabbit hole I went chasing perfection, just like the guys I mentioned above in the 1st paragraph.
This has been the past 2 or 3 years for me. I haven't been competing much and I've just been hitting balls alone in my basement working on fine-tuning my stroke. The good news is, my stroke feels great. The bad news is, my game hasn't improved nearly as much as I expected at the start of this whole journey.
This past weekend I had an major epiphany. I was checking out Niels Feijen's YouTube channel and I came across his 60 minute tournament prep workout (
). It's mostly a series of shooting drills that he compiles together into a workout. So I gave it a try and quickly realized how inconsistent my shotmaking was on most of these drills. I was really struggling and I quickly realized how much time I've wasted dwelling on my fundamentals and only playing against the ghost.
I realized that all of the time I spent playing the ghost mostly involved short easy shots that I was comfortable with. I wouldn't face many long, tough shots until several balls later in the run when I would get out of line. So for every rack of balls I ran, only a few of the shots would really challenge me. I wasn't consistently challenging myself on every shot. The rest of my practice time typically involved aimlessly running balls with all of my focus on my stroke mechanics.
I now realize that my time would have been much better spent working on pure execution of difficult shots. Just from the few hours I spent on Neil's shotmaking drills this weekend, I can already see massive improvements. My focus on stroke fundamentals was certainly beneficial but it's gone way overboard and I need to get back to actual execution and consistency training. Putting in the hard work that is rarely enjoyable.
My outlook on fundamentals has officially come full circle. Fundamentals really ARE beginner stuff. Perfecting them is important but it's not the end-all/be-all. There is so much more to this game that needs to be mastered. At some point you need to accept what you've got and move on to other areas of development.
Dwelling too much on a tiny fundamental flaw will hold you back way more than the actual flaw ever will. Nobody has a perfect stroke. Nobody ever will have a perfect stroke. There comes a time to stop chasing perfection and work with the tools you've got.
I wonder how much I would have improved if I never started tweeking my fundamentals at all and I just went straight into practicing these shotmaking drills every day. I sure feel like that would have been a better use of my time. The same goes for playing the ghost all the time. Both seemed to have majorly derailed my learning curve. Regardless, I'm back on track and ready to put in the hard work to step up my game. Let's go!
Years later, my skill level hit a plateau and I was struggling to make much improvement year to year. My practice routine consisted almost entirely of just playing races against the ghost at home (which was my real problem). After not seeing much improvement against the ghost, I convinced myself that it was my fundamentals that were holding me back.
My fundamentals were actually pretty solid at the time but there was room for improvement in a few areas. So I started making some simple corrections to my fundamentals and I liked the results. I wasn't necessarily performing better but my stroke felt better than ever and I felt like I was on the pathway to big improvement. Every time I corrected a fundamental flaw, I would find another two or three areas of my fundamentals that I wanted to fine tune as well. Down the rabbit hole I went chasing perfection, just like the guys I mentioned above in the 1st paragraph.
This has been the past 2 or 3 years for me. I haven't been competing much and I've just been hitting balls alone in my basement working on fine-tuning my stroke. The good news is, my stroke feels great. The bad news is, my game hasn't improved nearly as much as I expected at the start of this whole journey.
This past weekend I had an major epiphany. I was checking out Niels Feijen's YouTube channel and I came across his 60 minute tournament prep workout (
I realized that all of the time I spent playing the ghost mostly involved short easy shots that I was comfortable with. I wouldn't face many long, tough shots until several balls later in the run when I would get out of line. So for every rack of balls I ran, only a few of the shots would really challenge me. I wasn't consistently challenging myself on every shot. The rest of my practice time typically involved aimlessly running balls with all of my focus on my stroke mechanics.
I now realize that my time would have been much better spent working on pure execution of difficult shots. Just from the few hours I spent on Neil's shotmaking drills this weekend, I can already see massive improvements. My focus on stroke fundamentals was certainly beneficial but it's gone way overboard and I need to get back to actual execution and consistency training. Putting in the hard work that is rarely enjoyable.
My outlook on fundamentals has officially come full circle. Fundamentals really ARE beginner stuff. Perfecting them is important but it's not the end-all/be-all. There is so much more to this game that needs to be mastered. At some point you need to accept what you've got and move on to other areas of development.
Dwelling too much on a tiny fundamental flaw will hold you back way more than the actual flaw ever will. Nobody has a perfect stroke. Nobody ever will have a perfect stroke. There comes a time to stop chasing perfection and work with the tools you've got.
I wonder how much I would have improved if I never started tweeking my fundamentals at all and I just went straight into practicing these shotmaking drills every day. I sure feel like that would have been a better use of my time. The same goes for playing the ghost all the time. Both seemed to have majorly derailed my learning curve. Regardless, I'm back on track and ready to put in the hard work to step up my game. Let's go!
