well unfortunatly the holiday is over and i'm back at work. since of all the off time for the holidays, i really don't have anything to do tonight so i'm just gonna write a bunch of nonsense for a while to kill the boredom. hopefully if you sort through all the unimportant stuff i'll be writing here you'll find something worth reading. 
i got jim rempe's how to run a straight pool rack, and how to run a 100 balls for christmas. i spent about 3 1/2 hours watching the two over and over. then went and practiced for about 4 hours this evening. i just want to say thanks to everyone who replied to my questions about straight pool thread. i've been practicing alot of 14:1 the last couple weeks. seems that jim's video made some light bulbs click on. i ran a 38, a 26, and a 47 this evening. i'm ecstatic. this is unusual, i was playing WAY WAY WAY above my head today. i normally don't run more than a rack or so then mess up on the key ball and out of line on the break ball. but i was just shooting balls like a dumb 9 ball player would LOL, the last few weeks, i've really been analyzing the rack. i wasn't doing anything before but just turning the cue ball loose towards the rack, now i'm actually paying attention to where the break shot is and how i should hit the cue ball to come off the rack and back towards the center of the table. thanks to the videos, suggestions, drivermaker's holiday game, and good quality instruction.
ok, now that i've patted myself on the back enough, onto something worth reading i hope.
i've noticed alot of threads talking about the stroke mechanics, the pre-shot routine, rythm, etc, etc. but i'm surprised i've not seen more threads about trust. you could also call it confidence, but i like to call it trust. by that i mean your subconcious trust. hopefully i'm explaining this the way i intend to. i was and am still guilty of my subconcious not trusting my shots. although i'm getting better through practice. i can only speak for myself though i'm sure everyone has experienced this or still is. example: you have a shot, you do everything correctly, you line the shot up, you address the cue ball correctly, you do your pre shot routine flawlessly, you pause, stroke then as you are stroking, you notice (or don't notice, but it happens) that you cued the ball in a way other than you addressed it. basically, to your subconcious something looked wrong and you subcon. tried to compensate the shot and missed. i personally found this to be a problem with parrellel english. once you address the cue, and look down the shaft, on alot of shots it looks funny because the tip isn't pointed toward the object ball, it looks as if you will miss the entire ball. as i was stroking i would try to compensate and would actually be glancing the tip off the cue ball. i was told that the best way to trust myself was to address the shot, check my aim, then close my eyes and shoot the shot. i had already lined the shot up, so if i did everything correctly i didn't need to even look at anything after that. this solve A L O T of the problems i had pocketing balls. before that i was always analyzing my stroke, i was worried that something wasn't right, that maybe i needed to revamp my entire style of play, when all it was, was a simple problem with trust.
even now, after practicing trusting myself for many months, i still sometimes look at a shot and think "this doesn't look right, what am i doing" then i take a breath and tell myself "you've practiced this, this is the shot, it will go in" i make myself stroke through the ball and whallah, the shot goes in.
well thats enough nonsense for now, hopefully this will make for some good reading in the forum.
thanks
i got jim rempe's how to run a straight pool rack, and how to run a 100 balls for christmas. i spent about 3 1/2 hours watching the two over and over. then went and practiced for about 4 hours this evening. i just want to say thanks to everyone who replied to my questions about straight pool thread. i've been practicing alot of 14:1 the last couple weeks. seems that jim's video made some light bulbs click on. i ran a 38, a 26, and a 47 this evening. i'm ecstatic. this is unusual, i was playing WAY WAY WAY above my head today. i normally don't run more than a rack or so then mess up on the key ball and out of line on the break ball. but i was just shooting balls like a dumb 9 ball player would LOL, the last few weeks, i've really been analyzing the rack. i wasn't doing anything before but just turning the cue ball loose towards the rack, now i'm actually paying attention to where the break shot is and how i should hit the cue ball to come off the rack and back towards the center of the table. thanks to the videos, suggestions, drivermaker's holiday game, and good quality instruction.
ok, now that i've patted myself on the back enough, onto something worth reading i hope.
i've noticed alot of threads talking about the stroke mechanics, the pre-shot routine, rythm, etc, etc. but i'm surprised i've not seen more threads about trust. you could also call it confidence, but i like to call it trust. by that i mean your subconcious trust. hopefully i'm explaining this the way i intend to. i was and am still guilty of my subconcious not trusting my shots. although i'm getting better through practice. i can only speak for myself though i'm sure everyone has experienced this or still is. example: you have a shot, you do everything correctly, you line the shot up, you address the cue ball correctly, you do your pre shot routine flawlessly, you pause, stroke then as you are stroking, you notice (or don't notice, but it happens) that you cued the ball in a way other than you addressed it. basically, to your subconcious something looked wrong and you subcon. tried to compensate the shot and missed. i personally found this to be a problem with parrellel english. once you address the cue, and look down the shaft, on alot of shots it looks funny because the tip isn't pointed toward the object ball, it looks as if you will miss the entire ball. as i was stroking i would try to compensate and would actually be glancing the tip off the cue ball. i was told that the best way to trust myself was to address the shot, check my aim, then close my eyes and shoot the shot. i had already lined the shot up, so if i did everything correctly i didn't need to even look at anything after that. this solve A L O T of the problems i had pocketing balls. before that i was always analyzing my stroke, i was worried that something wasn't right, that maybe i needed to revamp my entire style of play, when all it was, was a simple problem with trust.
even now, after practicing trusting myself for many months, i still sometimes look at a shot and think "this doesn't look right, what am i doing" then i take a breath and tell myself "you've practiced this, this is the shot, it will go in" i make myself stroke through the ball and whallah, the shot goes in.
well thats enough nonsense for now, hopefully this will make for some good reading in the forum.
thanks
