I ordered the DVD from John Schmidt and received it very quickly and watched it last night.
In February 2006, John gave himself a goal of playing straight pool 2 hrs a day for one week to try and capture a 150 ball run on camera. In his words "On day 2 I received the rolls I needed and exceeded my goal and ran 245 and caught it all on tape"
John did this in a friends garage in Milton, Florida on a Brunswick Gold Crown IV with 4 and 5/8's pockets on new Simonis 860 cloth and "clean Brunswick Centennial Balls"
I have to say that I learned more about straight pool watching this DVD then I have in my whole life! John setup a home video camera and after the fact, did audio commentary through the entire run so that you can get an insight into his mind about the run, and straight pool in general. He talks about mistakes he made, reasons for shooting certain shots and lots of mention and tips about the key balls and break balls. The video quality is okay, sometimes difficult to tell which ball is which but John does a good job of letting you know which ball he is talking about as he says "I am just a guy in a garage with a video camera"
John has a very good voice for audio commentary and makes watching the run very enjoyable and interesting.
It is interesting to note that John mentions that the first shot he shoots to begin the run is a break ball shot that he learned from another AZ billiards member Leil Gay at the derby city classic one year (go AZ!)
I also like the fact that John took a sharpie and drew a line around the rack on the felt so that it is easier to see the exact location of the rack area when deciding on the keyball during the run.
He also mentions Thomas Engert, Mosconi and his own 400 ball run (interesting stuff)
The entire run takes 1 hr and 7mins. After watching I wanted to go play straight pool, I feel I now know more about the game and I have a nice 245 ball run that I can review anytime I want.
Worth the $$?....absolutely
