Maybe I'm wrong about shooting rhythm?

CreeDo

CreeDo

Fargo Rating 597
Silver Member
I usually tell people that the whole idea of shooting rhythm and trying to keep a certain pace is crap. I've heard guys talk about counting practice strokes and whatnot and I cringe, because my theory is you should only shoot when you are good and ready, and there are 0 doubts in your mind. Never before.

But I noticed something -
At the end of the night, when my buddy says "one more rack", I always say "ok speed pool". We play 8 ball at warp speed, taking 0 time to plan or worry about leave. We just pop balls in, literally running around the table. We can get in like 3 more games in 10 minutes.

When I play this way, I don't miss. I get worthless leaves and I spin in every ball, but I make everything I aim at.

I don't recall all the shots in this particular runout, but a lot of them were ugly. Here's how it ended:

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My thinking is - when you let your subconscious brain take over and reduce the game to pure hand-eye coordination with no thinking, you get a little edge in shotmaking. Maybe that's the power that earl taps into when he goes 1-2-stroke on every shot.

I'm not saying I run out more when I play this way, I definitely don't, but maybe I can find a way to mix the speed pool style shotmaking with my usual methodical game and end up getting out more.
 
I think you are right about the idea of playing much better when you are not thinking, and when playing machine gun pool this tends to help you avoid analysis paralysis.

But I also think, and your experience may back me up on this, when you play too fast occasionally carelessness can bite you in the arse. The problem with a slower, more normal rhythm is the tendency to think while down on the shot.

So, I would say the idea is to play at a rhythm that is comfortable to you, but adhere to the notion of doing all your thinking standing up. Once you get down your mind should be clear of all ancillary thought. Get a final read on speed then focus on aim (tip placement and object ball). Dial in that aim point and then fire.

I find I play my best when I'm really staring hard at the aim point on the object ball because this focus keeps all the other stuff out of my head.
 
DogsPlayingPool said:
I think you are right about the idea of playing much better when you are not thinking, and when playing machine gun pool this tends to help you avoid analysis paralysis.

But I also think, and your experience may back me up on this, when you play too fast occasionally carelessness can bite you in the arse. The problem with a slower, more normal rhythm is the tendency to think while down on the shot.

So, I would say the idea is to play at a rhythm that is comfortable to you, but adhere to the notion of doing all your thinking standing up. Once you get down your mind should be clear of all ancillary thought. Get a final read on speed then focus on aim (tip placement and object ball). Dial in that aim point and then fire.

I find I play my best when I'm really staring hard at the aim point on the object ball because this focus keeps all the other stuff out of my head.
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I don't think ANYONE could've said it better! when I read the CreeDo's post I had all these thoughts in my head to put down but you beat me to it. CreeDo definitely has some good points too but you hit the nail on the head here
 
Willie Mosconi said that rhythm was the second most important thing to playing good pool with eye sight being #1.
He may not know what he's talking about though but I heard he was pretty a pretty good player at one time. :-)
 
I really can't think of any sport where rhythm is not an extremely important aspect. Good rhythm doesn't mean that everyone should play at a specified beat. We all will be a little different. But consistent rhythm is one of the pieces of the consistency puzzle. Ever wonder why a top player can come to a table and play superbly even after a very long layoff? This is one of the reasons in my opinion.

You should know that one of the hustle moves is to change the beat of the game. If you're a fast player I could play real slow and vise versa just to though you off.

It might just be that your normal playing speed/rhythm is too slow. Your speed pool experience may be telling you to pick up the beat in your normal play.
 
I play at a moderate pace and i'll probably stay that way for a while now.

I don't get down to shoot until I know exactly what is needed to be done.

I use to shoot and just wait to gain momentum and pick the pace up at that moment. But that's just foolish as your opponent can counter it very easily and screw you all up.

As someone already said also, your tendency to make mistakes or shoot the wrong pattern or what not goes tremendously high.

I think corey deuel plays at near the perfect pace.
 
I believe it has to do with commiting to the shot rather than spending too much time down on the shot and deciding last minute that you might want to change something and might end up hitching. Deep down after all the years of shooting and practice, we all know that some shots are simple and shouldn't be missed, but if we let ourselves start to second guess our commited shot then we're bound to miss it.
 
bought my first table when I was fifteen

I bought my first table when I was fifteen. When we got bored we played speed pool before there was any such thing and I also practiced shooting on the move, stepping into the shot and firing as soon as my bridge hand hit the table. Got to where I was about 90% as good like that as any other way. Definitely taught me to see patterns in a hurry and I think it probably helped with stance and alignment since it was always a one stroke deal. I shoot best when an inning feels like one continuous motion regardless of the particular rhythm and speed I am shooting with at the moment.

Forget who now but I was watching a snooker player that one stroked every shot the other night. He scored over a century like that, maybe a 147.

Hu
 
I've been fighting myself on this for a while. When I get a good rhythm I tend to shoot at my best, but my run generally ends with a stupid miss that I never saw coming. By far my best performances, were not comfortable at all. Slow, nervous and not feeling like I am playing my best. The only thing this has taught me so far is that if you break down your game into it's components you have different possible rhythms. You can play slow or fast, but still get down on you shot and stick with your routine and play well.
 
The problem a lot of us have is that voice in our heads that tells us a shot is difficult, or reminds us our past performance in similar situations have been unsuccessful. It's kind of like an internal commentary, and it serves no useful purpose. Shooting fast often eliminates that voice as we don't have time consider just how difficult the shot is. Unfortunately a faster pace also keeps many people from completing the decision making process.
 
Rhythm and preshot routine are very important. You make every shot when you shoot fast, but if you have to shoot that kind of a shot on the 8 for the cheese, I'll be happy to play some sets with you!!

IMHO you would be better off getting a little better shape!!
 
Neil said:
You were shooting way too fast! Nice shot, but shouldn't you have made the 9 ball first?? :D
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LOL - good catch neil. I started with the default 9-ball rack on the cuetable diagram and didn't bother clearing it from the table >_<

Our shooting pace was such that we didn't let all balls finish rolling, sometimes. I couldn't swing the instant my palm hit the table but we did a three-mississippi count for every shot once the CB slowed enough.

I played a lot tonight but didn't get the chance to play speed pool or to try faster shooting in my regular game. If anything I shot a little more methodically than usual and I got out a LOT. I was trying to teach my buddy and when I do that, I try to "walk the walk" and do all those little things I advise others to.. like pick an exact leave on every shot, pick a spot on the rail where I want the CB to hit when doing leaves off a rail, planning the whole out ahead of time, etc.

I'm still open to the idea of rhythm having some merit but I think some players have a pretty slow rhythm (hi ralf). I shoot my best when I sweat all the small stuff.
 
Your shooting rhythem can be fast of slow or anywhere in between. The trick is to find the pace of play that suits you the best.
Unless you are trying to develope a preshot routine, I don't think anyone is counting practice strokes. They seem to come naturally is 2's or 3's.

A preshot routine is like the instructions on a shampoo bottle. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. My point is everyone knows How to wash their hair, how many times you lather rinse and repeat is up to you.


:)
 
CreeDo said:
I usually tell people that the whole idea of shooting rhythm and trying to keep a certain pace is crap. I've heard guys talk about counting practice strokes and whatnot and I cringe, because my theory is you should only shoot when you are good and ready, and there are 0 doubts in your mind. Never before.

I'm not saying I run out more when I play this way, I definitely don't, but maybe I can find a way to mix the speed pool style shotmaking with my usual methodical game and end up getting out more.
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Getting into a cadence helps you get into the zone. Like the old watch swinging back and forth hypnotizes you.

I have advocated taking the same number of strokes because on the final practice stroke your mind is used to thinking - okay, this is it, your only option now is to stroke the damn shot - the same feeling you get in speed pool.

Transferring this theory to what happened to you in speed pool, your mind didn't have time to think about anything and you just stroked in the shot.

If you really want to incorporate this 'feeling' into your game, you must PRACTICE the cadence method. If you really want to think this is bull, then watch someone like Efren: one two three pause one two pause shoot - most every shot.
 
whitewolf said:
Getting into a cadence helps you get into the zone. Like the old watch swinging back and forth hypnotizes you.

I have advocated taking the same number of strokes because on the final practice stroke your mind is used to thinking - okay, this is it, your only option now is to stroke the damn shot - the same feeling you get in speed pool.

Transferring this theory to what happened to you in speed pool, your mind didn't have time to think about anything and you just stroked in the shot.

If you really want to incorporate this 'feeling' into your game, you must PRACTICE the cadence method. If you really want to think this is bull, then watch someone like Efren: one two three pause one two pause shoot - most every shot.
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Most of the time Efren has no pause before his final stroke. His pause is before the last practice stroke. His last practice stroke and his real stroke are linked together. It gives him a real rythm on the actual shot.
 
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