I'm not sure what you were expecting from a video called "perfect practice". If those drills are for "lower level players", you must play pretty damn good.
Thank you for the feedback and purchase.
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My pool lesson with Darren "DynoMite" Appleton
- Thread starter JoeyA
- Start date
I'm not sure what you were expecting from a video called "perfect practice". If those drills are for "lower level players", you must play pretty damn good.
Thank you for the feedback and purchase.
You are correct. The title does define the video.
I am not trying to disrespect the video. I based my expectations from JoeyAs review. I'm not talking about the level of difficulty each of the drills presented, I'm saying that from what he wrote I expected a much more in depth insight to many more aspects of the game.
Not everyone sees things from the same perspective, I think you have to take reviews both good and bad into consideration and expect varying views. I didn't say it was a bad video, just the concepts you leave the video with are nothing most B level and above players don't already know.
It was well compiled, and deserves a spot in players collections. Beyond that I can only say I was as honest as I could be from my personal opinion.
I'm not offended, I appreciate the feedback good and bad.
I watched Mika's video and he hardly speaks at all I was very disappointed ,,
I had the pleasure to watch Darren warming up getting ready for a match against a friend of mine Ryan McCreesh and it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen and I've seen many of the top pros practice none of them pocked balls like he did ,, it was truly a thing of beauty
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I had the pleasure to watch Darren warming up getting ready for a match against a friend of mine Ryan McCreesh and it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen and I've seen many of the top pros practice none of them pocked balls like he did ,, it was truly a thing of beauty
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He's just mad it caters to 9 ball
No not at all .. He even talked about the benefits of straight pool and how valuable it was for concentration and touch. Mad would have been a D or an F rating.
I honestly felt it was an average well done video by a great player that focused more on how to set up various practice drills than I thought it would.
In fact Darren did an amazing thing in that straight pool match a while ago against Bustamonte running 200 and out. Super human performance. To accomplish something like that certifies the depth of his knowledge runs far deeper than he got into or than what I had hoped for.
If I had to pick the best all around video for pool instruction it would still have to be the Byrnes stuff after all these years.
My idea of a video to top all would be a question and answer interview with multiple world class players asking them individually to open up their thoughts on the mental game, offer some insights to their imagination, envisioning of shot execution, centers of focus, thought patterns, everything and anything that came to their mind while discussing their ability to stay so focused.
Then compiling each of their thoughts to segments on the same video would be an amazing look into the mental side of the game.
As far as the physical side of the game, I'd like to see more on how to influence complex changes of direction to dead balls or nearly dead balls in clusters, steering carom angles of both kissing OBs and non kissing balls, banking techniques, even some kicking techniques. Turning banked balls into pockets with english, friction, speed. Techniques on how to use what I call complimentary englishes and opposing englishes. How to enhance or decrease CB spin off OBs and rails based on stroke, speed of stroke angle of stroke.
These kinds of things get to the meat of the learning IMO.
Anyway ... its all good and it all adds to knowledge as spoken by a champion.
Wait a minute....did you pay for this? Do you mean to give a review on a pool related product that you actually paid for, and have no monetary interest in it's success?
I'm not sold. Will the forum ever believe you?
{Insert EXTREME sarcasm throughout this message.}
I paid up and watched it. Pretty good stuff.
What I found most interesting is that Darren talked about aiming exactly, umm, let's see, zero times. An hour and a half of drilling shots without a miss, and not one mention of "this is how I aim" or "this is how I adjust for English and deflection." He simply got down over the shot, applied whatever speed and spin necessary for shape, and ran out like water.
I could be wrong, but it fits with my understanding that aiming becomes completely subconscious at the elite levels, and that the angle is just seen/felt and the brain leads the eyes and body to the correct line.
What I found most interesting is that Darren talked about aiming exactly, umm, let's see, zero times. An hour and a half of drilling shots without a miss, and not one mention of "this is how I aim" or "this is how I adjust for English and deflection." He simply got down over the shot, applied whatever speed and spin necessary for shape, and ran out like water.
I could be wrong, but it fits with my understanding that aiming becomes completely subconscious at the elite levels, and that the angle is just seen/felt and the brain leads the eyes and body to the correct line.
Well you're not totally wrong.
When I drive to work I don't think about the route, but on the first day of work it's nice to know where the turns are.
And most car accidents take place within a few miles of home
It is completely subconscious well below elite level.
I would personally say it is completely subconscious above basic beginner level.
It is the eyes that lead the brain and body to the correct line. The brain cannot see. But you are largely right in this.
Yes, when you download it, it's on your computer forever. You will also have access to it on the vimeo website.
Great video, just purchased and watched and I'm very pleased with it, thanks JoeyA for the tip!
Darren's drills have shots that all of us see the pros do EACH AND EVERY GAME, and Darren just talks us into what exact english he uses, how he strokes, where he wants to land the cue ball and why...in my opinion this is a great video, without all the aiming bullshit and just down on shot selection and strategy...and I was quite surprised to see all those zig-zag shots with the cue ball position from the rail, how slowly he shots these shots...I always overpower these shots, but the professionals shot them so smooth, I gotta try and practice them Darren's way!
Darren's drills have shots that all of us see the pros do EACH AND EVERY GAME, and Darren just talks us into what exact english he uses, how he strokes, where he wants to land the cue ball and why...in my opinion this is a great video, without all the aiming bullshit and just down on shot selection and strategy...and I was quite surprised to see all those zig-zag shots with the cue ball position from the rail, how slowly he shots these shots...I always overpower these shots, but the professionals shot them so smooth, I gotta try and practice them Darren's way!
Actually, Darren did mention about aiming, but only very briefly. He mentioned the See System which is an aiming system he uses. I suppose that it would be very foolish economically speaking to include an aiming system in a video called Perfect Practice.
Also, I was thinking about the video and having watched it a couple of times now, I guess like most things, watching a video and getting "X" out of it is in the eye of the beholder.
I think I am an experienced player and while I have seen some of things that Darren has talked about in the video elsewhere, I find that his way of explaining what he thinks, does and does not do, fits me to the T. It is apparent that some people can look at the video and won't get as much out of it as others do. I have always found very useful information in practically every video that I have ever viewed.
I suppose if I had purchased the PAT drill videos I might be able to say the same things about those drills as I do the ones shown in Darren's video. I practiced a few of Darren's drills before a big event recently and I can tell you that I will be making Darren's drills a part of my routine. :grin:
When the opportunity presents itself, I am sure that I will be taking a pool lesson from "DynoMite" because I like the way he communicates about what he does and does not do, besides admiring the way the balls fall in the hole effortlessly. :grin:
JoeyA
He didn't want to get into it because it's not part of the video, but he showed me the see system and how he aims at shadows on the table, especially on rail shots. Pretty cool stuff.
Makes sense that it is not part of the video. I have read about penumbra and umbra shadow in the past. Worked for me some of the time but couldn't make it work 100% of the time. I probably left out a piece of the puzzle.
Hope Darren has additional videos coming out in the future, maybe just one specializing only in the mental part of the game. He covered some of that in this video but not thoroughly enough for my taste buds.
He has one of the strongest "mental games" of all of the professional players. He reminds me a little bit of Ralf Souquet who still has a strong mental game.JoeyA
Feedback
In the future please have them mention the distance from center ball along with the clock reference.
Hitting at 3:30 1/2 tip off center is a lot different than 3:30 2 tips off center. Really would have been nice to have the tip distance too.
Nice video over all. I was surprised by how often he used english.
In the future please have them mention the distance from center ball along with the clock reference.
Hitting at 3:30 1/2 tip off center is a lot different than 3:30 2 tips off center. Really would have been nice to have the tip distance too.
Nice video over all. I was surprised by how often he used english.
Joules, believe it or not, it isn't that cut and dried. Imagine one person in a vw car and another in a corvette, telling them to take a particular corner at half throttle would certainly produce very different results in that corner.
Everyone's stroke is different. One tip of english on a persons stroke may be over doing it on another's.