looking for 100 ball runners

T

tim913

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm 54, and I still haven't run 100 balls. My high is 78, and last night I hit 56, but time is running out. Is there something out there that takes you from where I'm at to where I want to be. I practice all the time, but I make no visible progress. I've been to Madison pool school with Jerry, and
Rockford with Bob, but I still suck!! Are there drills or something that really work? I know we can't all be pros, but we should still make progress. How did the pros go from bad to BAD? They had to find something other than the drills, drills, drills. I'd like to hear from some 100 ball runners about what REALLY works..

Thanks
 
I do beleive that what makes the difference is focus. You know when your in that zone and you can't miss then all of a sudden you loose it for that particular shot and that stops your run. The older we get the harder it is to keep focus for a long time. I know it happens to me and I'm 64. Played in a tournament one time had ball in hand and my brain just shut down and I mean completely shut down because up until that point I had beaten some of the top shooters in the tournament to get to where I was and my brain got burnt out. I don't know has anyone else expeianced this?
Thats why you don't see a lot of older players in the Big Tournaments. You probably know when you ran your highest run (78) how focused you were then so if you could keep that focus you could easily run the 150.
Ron
 
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all in our minds....

I'll quote a hundred ball runner who once told me..."its probably not that they shoot bad, they can't run balls because they make bad choices, this games easy if you make the right choices"

My high run is 92, I grew up playing it and alot of bank pool and good old 8 ball. In my opinion the biggest thing that gets in the our of a great run is lack of focus, lack of not paying attention to what is sitting right in front of us. Rythm is a good key too...a good rythm can keep us in tune with whats going on around us.

Just like inexperienced players can't get the good breakshot down, they just don't bother to look ahead and choose a break ball/balls. To me if you can run 50+ there's no reason to not be able to hit a 100, it's actually a goal of mine soon also :) I started playing 9ball as I got older, an was then stricken of the wonderfully uncurable disease of one-pocket. Which kind of put a hold on my 14.1 roots :(. I now have my own table in my place, and thanks to dartman I'm about to get cloth on it to pursue that holy straight pool number myself. :thumbup:

Progress your mental game and pick up The Inner Game Of Tennis its a great read very insightful and will be a benefit to your game. I would not be surprised if it adds many balls to your high run.


Best Wishes,
Greyghost
 
100 ball run will come.

Hang in there. The best thing that I can tell you is to play as many straight pool matches as you can. You will learn to relax and play better under pressure. 100 ball run will come within time. First of all 78 & 56 are very good runs. There are not many players that can do that. Remember, you do not have to run a 100 balls every time that you step up to the table. Not even the Pros can do it. There are many Accu-Stats tapes to prove that point. Those are the best tapes to watch, when there are not big runs b/c it is good to learn defense. If you can run 30 t0 50 balls and leave the table on a Safey and not a miss, then you are becoming a "Player".
mreightball makes a great point about Focus and age.
Good luck and let us know how your progress comes along.
 
14-1StraightMan said:
Hang in there. The best thing that I can tell you is to play as many straight pool matches as you can. You will learn to relax and play better under pressure. 100 ball run will come within time. First of all 78 & 56 are very good runs. There are not many players that can do that. Remember, you do not have to run a 100 balls every time that you step up to the table. Not even the Pros can do it. There are many Accu-Stats tapes to prove that point. Those are the best tapes to watch, when there are not big runs b/c it is good to learn defense. If you can run 30 t0 50 balls and leave the table on a Safey and not a miss, then you are becoming a "Player".
mreightball makes a great point about Focus and age.
Good luck and let us know how your progress comes along.
Click to expand...



Very true point....play as many matches as you can, along with the relaxing and pressure part, the natural patterns in the game will become more and more natural to you. Just as it does in every other game.
 
I'm not a 100 ball runner, but there are a couple on this forum, that post regularly. I would say to contact Steve Lipsky, Grady, John Schmidt and Marop. These guys are on the forum a lot and are true 100+ ball runners.

Also, check the 14.1 section- http://forums.azbilliards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=61

I would suggest Danny Barouty, but that guy seems preoccupied with 9 ball :p


Eric
 
I can't personally give you any advice, I've yet to run my age {60}. You might want to post in the Straight Pool section.
 
I would talk with blackjack. I think he could do wonders for your mental game as well analyze your current game and find your problems. If you can run 60, you can run 100. Your own mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy.
 
If you havnt I would suggest watchin Jim Rempe's.. How to run a a rack of straight pool and.. How to run a hundred.. =) couldnt hurt..
 
Purchase/find Johnny Holidays book, Position Play for High Runs, its a great foundation for what your trying to accomplish and was instrumental in getting myself over that huge threshold of 80 balls then over 100, personally I never found my maximum because once you got to 100 you usually won the match.
 
I Have broke 100 three times in my life, a 104,117, and 119. ran the 117 and 119 both within the same six months as of recently.

And, what i find helps if you walk away from the table in between racks. Wipe your hands or take a drink of water, do whatever to forget the previous rack.

This way you will have a clearer mind for the up coming rack.

i also dont set my goals too high, for instance now i strive to run 120. just 1 ball higher than my highest, everything else thereafter is all gravy!

Yeah i would like to run 150 or even 200, but for now the mark is set at 120.

Good luck and i hope this helps !
Steve

Kudos to robertduke for giving the advice on the Rempe Tapes. Couldnt of suggested a better video to learn from myself!

Rep for you sir !
 
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I can recommend you this book

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I know a few Players that their average increased by a respectable number after studying this book.

Additionally you should get the Video by Grady Matthews and Jim Rempe about Straight Pool. They show many helpful shots and how they should be played.

Practise your break balls. Often the run is stopped because of a weak or unsuccesful break shot.
 
You also need to give yourself a break as far as not getting over the century mark yet. One must realize, that for all the pureness of skill required to excel at straight pool, there is some luck involved to running 100+ balls, especially in how the balls spread on break shots or spreading clusters. A lot more can go wrong that is somewhat out of your control getting to 100 as compared to running 50.

You really need to analyze what happens when you end a decent run. Was it clearly a poor choice in shot selection or reading patterns, missing an easy shot (i.e. focus or concentration issues), missing position (may or may not be the result of a poor choice), etc. If you tend to end runs on difficult shots, why does this happen? Did you choose the difficulty shot as part of the pattern you selected to get out of the rack or were you forced to take the shot due to poor position? And when you miss position, why? Is it due to mainly to speed control, inaccurate tip placement, etc.

Then go from there.
 
ive learned a very good lesson for actually practicing for 14.1 although alot of people might say how can you practice 14.1 its simply shooting balls in, but thats the point of the practice just shoot the balls, rack up 15 balls break it and run 15 balls rack it again and keep running, when you can run 100 doing that (break shots dont have to count) when you can run 100 doing that a few times then start working on the break aspect of it start leaving yourself a good break shot and see how often you can get that, then start shooting real 14.1 with the breaks and all its worked for me
 
tim913 said:
I'm 54, and I still haven't run 100 balls. My high is 78, and last night I hit 56, but time is running out. Is there something out there that takes you from where I'm at to where I want to be. I practice all the time, but I make no visible progress. I've been to Madison pool school with Jerry, and
Rockford with Bob, but I still suck!! Are there drills or something that really work? I know we can't all be pros, but we should still make progress. How did the pros go from bad to BAD? They had to find something other than the drills, drills, drills. I'd like to hear from some 100 ball runners about what REALLY works..

Thanks
Click to expand...

You should take a look at what and how you practice. Contact the instructors you have had in the past and tell them your goal. They should be able to mold your practice specifically to achieve your goal.

If u can run 56, and 78 - then you can run 100. Sounds like a matter of focus/concentration. Perhaps you begin to try to hard. Could be plain old mental or physical fatigue. Do you exercise? Endurance sports: cycling, running, and the like are great training grounds for mental endurance.

Only way to know is to see for myself. Call the coaches/instructors.

Edit: Man I just can not shut-up about this...

Visualization practice will help. In your minds eye, see yourself achieving your goal. See it in every detail: what the back ground looks like, what you look like, how you feel/will feel when you achieve your goal, the pace of your run, how you hold the chalk, what you are wearing, what music (if any) is playing, what pool room/home room you are in... I think you get the picture - now paint that picture (I mean, write all the details down).

Look at the details and recount the mental imagery everyday before you play/practice.

Last thing - after you achieve your goal, send me a check for $75...
 
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If you've run 78, you obviously can run 100. However, you are putting stress on yourself to accomplish something that CANNOT be willed. I ran a 94 a couple of nights ago and convinced I was onto something tried in subsequent nights to top 100. I think I hit at best 34 before giving up after almost 6 hours of play. I was playing very well, however, it just seemed that the balls where not separating, clusters, etc....I was also too goal oriented.

On a side note, I witnessed Thorston Hohman at the Derby City Straight pool event run something like 2, 0, and 13 in his trys in the high run event. The point being that it just don't happen all the time, despite the pedigree.

I would say that you are too goal oriented. Instead, try and play correctly every time. Adopt the Ralph Soquet (sp?) approach of playing "perfect" pool, and let the rest take care of its self. When scoring, casually move the coin, or beads, as you score racks. Absolutely do not "count" how many racks you've run. In other words, as you play, don't keep mental track of the number of racks your on. My runs over 100 almost always came when I simply moved a coin after each rack without attaching any significance to it. Every time I've run 100, I had no idea of the run until after I had missed and actually counted the movement of the coin. There was none of that pressure that said, "I'm on 87, all I need is 13 more balls and I've done it". More than likely, you'll miss because of the "significance" of the moment.

As they say in philosophy, joy is not in the destination, but the journey.
 
Steve Lipsky said:
Tim, here's a good thread:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=656945&highlight=driving#post656945

Best of luck!

- Steve
Click to expand...


Here's an excerpt which might help:

Running 100 balls is a frame of mind. You need a high level of skill to do it, and to insinuate anything different is not fair. I'm not saying you are; I'm saying that changing a mindset in a 30-ball runner is not instantly going to make him a 100-ball runner. You need a certain skill set and until you have it, you're not going to run a lot of balls consistently. I am not saying YOU don't have it, mind you; I am talking generically about a 30-ball runner.

That said, back to my original advice. The run should be getting easier as it progresses. Your mindset must be not "I have to keep doing good things to continue the run", but instead, "Something bad is going to have to happen to end this run."

It does not take inordinate amounts of concentration to run this many balls, because most of your shots should be very easy. If in every rack you're forced to take one or two 50% shots, then (math aside) you're probably not going to run 100. You're wasting too much energy focusing on one ball. While at the table, your external focus is on shooting every ball - but your internal focus should be nothing of the kind. Your internal focus should be on keeping your rhythm and feeling the art of what you are creating. It might sound pretentious, but it's not meant to be. Every well-played large run is a thing of beauty; it should not be taken for granted. At the end of the run, you will have a general feeling of satisfaction with what you have done; you won't be thinking "in the third rack, I got really nice position from the 5 to 3." It's no longer about the individual shots... it's about the sum of all the shots together and what they let you create.

As the run progresses, and you are into some high numbers, every succeeding shot should have a difficulty function exactly equal to that individual shot's difficulty. Once the shot becomes more difficult simply because of the number you're on, you're done. You probably won't run another 7 balls once the run itself is making things more difficult.

For me, the shots start becoming more difficult once I'm around the 130-140 range. I have a suspicion that for a player like Blackjack, that number is around the 170-180 range. For Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Hohmann, or Mr. Harriman, who knows, maybe it never happens. You raise this number by consistently getting there and surpassing it.

- Steve
 
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