wow -- thank you for the annotated analysis, Steve!
at the end of the first rack [Reference #1], i had actually tried to get on the 1 ball to shoot it in the lower left corner, because the other 2 were a good kb/bb pair, in either order (although the 5 was the best bb). if i could've gotten reasonably straight on the 1, that would've been a classic out. even after i came up short, i debated staying with that plan, going across the table and back from the 1.
on Reference #2, in the video you can see how much i'm stretched trying to reach the shot (i'm the same height as Alex P). i frequently leave myself with this kind of stretch on break shots, and eventually when i get good enough, i'm going to have to learn to plan well enough so that it doesn't happen. your point is well-taken, though, because i didn't think to punch it into the rack; i need a lot more experience knowing how to work the rack on the break. oddly, it's my Instinct from that spot to draw, but after examining where i was going to hit, i used top instead, because a few times earlier in the evening i'd drawn the cb all the way to the back rail.
i guess it all comes down to #4. believe me, i was looking at that situation hard, and actually before i got to that point, because i also knew that the 10 was by far the best breakout opportunity. in fact, you can see the chagrin on my face in the video, just before the frame you selected, because i knew i was on the wrong side of the ball.
someone like you or Dan probably could've held the cue ball there for the 10. i was pretty sure i could not. even if i hit the ball a bit full, i was almost certain i was going to drift too low and/or too close to get a shot on the 10. it doesn't look that severe in the video (and maybe it wasn't, maybe i was letting my getting on the wrong side of the ball shark me), but in real life with my positional skills, it looked pretty daunting, and if i Didn't execute it, the run was over.
[aha moment: the Real problem was i got sloppy with the shot Before that, and got on the "amateur" side of the 6 as a result. i should've looked at that situation more closely, because it wouldn't have been hard At All to get on the proper side. i remember even thinking about that, but didn't take it seriously enough, thinking "oh, really, Anywhere around there will be fine, you don't need to be precise."]
a harder shot, but one i would've had the chops to position if i made it, would've been to come off the bottom rail with some inside, to get back up to the 10. i'm not 100% on shots like that, but oddly, i'm more comfortable with that shot than many better players. i'm not sure in hindsight why i didn't try that, as it doesn't look tough from the picture.
again, thank you for the frame-by-frame observations! sorry you had trouble getting it into your program. i took it using the front-facing camera lens on my iPhone. the advantages to that are: (1) i can position the camera, even against a wall, perfectly, (2) i can see if it drops out of Record, and (3) it's only 640x480, which is plenty adequate, but doesn't chew up all the memory in the phone. the downside is that apparently iOS doesn't save orientation information for that lens (as it does for the back-facing one), since of course Nobody would use it unless it was facing them, and for the purpose of showing their face. [!]
so i had the similar, but opposite, problem with my video s/w when i tried to use that lens in landscape mode. i wound up using VLC to rotate the video, which i guess then applied the correct orientation data to it. wasn't easy to figure that out, though!
at the end of the first rack [Reference #1], i had actually tried to get on the 1 ball to shoot it in the lower left corner, because the other 2 were a good kb/bb pair, in either order (although the 5 was the best bb). if i could've gotten reasonably straight on the 1, that would've been a classic out. even after i came up short, i debated staying with that plan, going across the table and back from the 1.
on Reference #2, in the video you can see how much i'm stretched trying to reach the shot (i'm the same height as Alex P). i frequently leave myself with this kind of stretch on break shots, and eventually when i get good enough, i'm going to have to learn to plan well enough so that it doesn't happen. your point is well-taken, though, because i didn't think to punch it into the rack; i need a lot more experience knowing how to work the rack on the break. oddly, it's my Instinct from that spot to draw, but after examining where i was going to hit, i used top instead, because a few times earlier in the evening i'd drawn the cb all the way to the back rail.
i guess it all comes down to #4. believe me, i was looking at that situation hard, and actually before i got to that point, because i also knew that the 10 was by far the best breakout opportunity. in fact, you can see the chagrin on my face in the video, just before the frame you selected, because i knew i was on the wrong side of the ball.
someone like you or Dan probably could've held the cue ball there for the 10. i was pretty sure i could not. even if i hit the ball a bit full, i was almost certain i was going to drift too low and/or too close to get a shot on the 10. it doesn't look that severe in the video (and maybe it wasn't, maybe i was letting my getting on the wrong side of the ball shark me), but in real life with my positional skills, it looked pretty daunting, and if i Didn't execute it, the run was over.
[aha moment: the Real problem was i got sloppy with the shot Before that, and got on the "amateur" side of the 6 as a result. i should've looked at that situation more closely, because it wouldn't have been hard At All to get on the proper side. i remember even thinking about that, but didn't take it seriously enough, thinking "oh, really, Anywhere around there will be fine, you don't need to be precise."]
a harder shot, but one i would've had the chops to position if i made it, would've been to come off the bottom rail with some inside, to get back up to the 10. i'm not 100% on shots like that, but oddly, i'm more comfortable with that shot than many better players. i'm not sure in hindsight why i didn't try that, as it doesn't look tough from the picture.
again, thank you for the frame-by-frame observations! sorry you had trouble getting it into your program. i took it using the front-facing camera lens on my iPhone. the advantages to that are: (1) i can position the camera, even against a wall, perfectly, (2) i can see if it drops out of Record, and (3) it's only 640x480, which is plenty adequate, but doesn't chew up all the memory in the phone. the downside is that apparently iOS doesn't save orientation information for that lens (as it does for the back-facing one), since of course Nobody would use it unless it was facing them, and for the purpose of showing their face. [!]
so i had the similar, but opposite, problem with my video s/w when i tried to use that lens in landscape mode. i wound up using VLC to rotate the video, which i guess then applied the correct orientation data to it. wasn't easy to figure that out, though!
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