Noob Needs Advice

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The enumerated steps in CreeDo’s above advice for ingraining proven draw stroke fundamentals into your muscle memory are excellent, as is the use of the edge-limit of the encircling white portion of the number as a gauge while establishing your ideal cue tip contact point.

I use a very similar numbered ball gauging system for local students learning to draw consistently well, but I add one important step that (a) simultaneously reinforces the gradually-learned precise CB maximal draw contact point, and (b) in a fool-proof way allows them to easily set up on that contact point’s relative height (or “lowness”) when they proceed to the normal situation of striking the actual cue ball:

After the student can (fairly consistently) repeatedly stroke into that productive lower portion of a numbered ball’s white circle, I have them carefully notice how far above the cloth their tip is in terms of a tip width, tip-and-a-half, etc.

For the student, *distance above the cloth* then reflexively becomes a kind of “always available” gauge that seasoned players with a reliable and repeatable draw stroke have generally learned to unconsciously incorporate into their pre-shot routine for draw.

Arnaldo

Just to be clear, the "maximum draw contact point" and the "maximum lowest spot you can hit without miscuing" are two different spots. You can hit down very near the stripe line before you miscue.
edit: see this article bottom of first page- http://billiards.colostate.edu/bd_articles/2009/june09.pdf
 
Last edited:
This is one of the funniest things I've seen on AZ in a while. I'm right there with ya. My self-image is still 18 years old, but my reflection is 33. :o

Just wait, it doesn't get any easier, the older you become... :grin:
 
Just wait, it doesn't get any easier, the older you become... :grin:

Just wait until you really feel like going out for a run, your mind is all set to go, but then you realize you are stuck in some old body that finally really understands why old people walk the way they do. :(
 
So, right now you cannot draw easily.
I have what I consider the best draw-learning trick of all time. I'm surprised it hasn't caught on more. [...snip...]

CreeDo you ROCK man!!! Thanks so much. I worked on this all afternoon and:

a) I was AMAZED that I was aiming so low but still somehow managing to hit center or even above;

b) I caught on REALLY QUICKLY (twenty minutes? Half an hour?) and started drawing the ball all over the place!!! It was...well, I hate the word awesome, but it was awesome! Or let's try "brilliant," that's British for "awesome."

c) I was STILL not hitting it very low! All afternoon I was practically aiming for the cloth and yet I never left a chalk mark below the yellow stripe. I got very close a lot, but the mark never went on the white part of the ball.

I am going to practice this a LOT.

THANKS, THANKS and THANKS!!! This is really exciting and I'm fired up. I'm going to be drawing all my shots for the next three days whether the shot needs it or not. :grin: This has really been a big frustration for me, so this is great.

CreeDo ROCKS.

I got so much out of this post here, thanks a lot all you guys.

Mike
 
CreeDo you ROCK man!!! Thanks so much. I worked on this all afternoon and:

a) I was AMAZED that I was aiming so low but still somehow managing to hit center or even above;

b) I caught on REALLY QUICKLY (twenty minutes? Half an hour?) and started drawing the ball all over the place!!! It was...well, I hate the word awesome, but it was awesome! Or let's try "brilliant," that's British for "awesome."

c) I was STILL not hitting it very low! All afternoon I was practically aiming for the cloth and yet I never left a chalk mark below the yellow stripe. I got very close a lot, but the mark never went on the white part of the ball.

I am going to practice this a LOT.

That totally makes my day ^^ Glad it helped. I really like this method,
works every time I've tried it.

If you just get near the bottom of the number's circle you're doing great.
Hard to hit the perfect sweet spot because it's close to a miscue and nobody
wants to jump a ball and look like a fool... but take a risk and try anyway.
Won't kill anyone if you scoop a ball trying to hit that ultra-low sweet spot,

Now that you have draw down pretty well, see if that 5-9-2-4 pattern is any easier.
The hardest thing now will be to avoid the temptation to draw all the time for no reason :grin:
 
you need to play a stop shot on the 4 first. then you can play a stop shot on the 5. that will leave you a shot on the 9 in the side which you hit with just a rolling ball and the cue will drift down toward the 2!! that will be the simplest out possible with the least amount of cue ball travel!! You don't have to draw anything, you don't need to cut anything it is the most natural path for the cue ball!! Try to keep the cueball movement to a minimum!! That will give you less of a chance of making a mistake and getting out of position!!!

This is the correct pattern, and if you want a second opinion you can always ask me again!!!! LOL

I thought that too, but I think the 5/9/2/4 is actually easier.
 
The hardest thing now will be to avoid the temptation to draw all the time for no reason :grin:

And believe me, that is what is gonna happen :D

I speak from experience. :p

I'm glad CreeDo got the OP headed in the right direction. That is very cool. This is why this forum is so cool.
 
CreeDo you ROCK man!!! Thanks so much. I worked on this all afternoon and: ...THANKS, THANKS and THANKS!!! ...and I'm fired up.... :grin: This ...is great.

CreeDo ROCKS...

Mike

angry-woman-733632.jpg
 
Mike, I watched your video. You are doing most things very well, a few- not so well.

2. You have no followthrough to speak of. And, you tend to "pull the cue back" on every shot. Remember, you are striking the cb, but your action needs to be striking THROUGH the cb. Stroke like you are trying to hit a cb 6" farther away from the one blocking your path.

Neil,
Thanks. That was not my best. I'm very inconsistent about my stroke, although I've been working on it. (Maybe not enough.)

I've come around to the conclusion that my "new to me" Olhausen might even be distorting the way I'm learning the game. For starters, unbeknownst to me, according to the Olhausen factory the pockets on my table are not standard but were shimmed by the previous owner (either that or the table was special order with longer rails and tighter pockets). This is something the dealer did not tell me when I bought it.

I will admit to being a little ambivalent about this, because while I find the corner pockets VERY frustrating, I will admit that they have increased the need for accuracy and I am much more careful how I aim.

On the other hand it's distorting the way I'm learning to make my way around the table, because the side pockets are so much easier that I'd rather have a hard shot on a side pocket than an easy shot on a corner pocket. When I go downstairs to throw the balls out on the table I notice that it's the side pockets that are usually full.

I also think the table is too fast...note the second shot in the video. It's a very soft stroke but the CB goes and goes. I think this is distorting the way I'm learning to stroke...it encourages me to decelerate on the CB as you noticed I do. I am more often punished for hitting the ball too hard than anything else, even when I'm trying to hit softly. And some shots just cannot be hit softly enough. When I go to the pool hall and play on the 9-footers there it's very striking how much more controllable the CB is, because it naturally rolls to a stop on the slower cloth.

I'm trying to buy a used Diamond to replace the Olhausen, but the process is going very slowly.

All this sounds like a massive excuse, but I don't mean it that way. I'm just fascinated by the learning process is all. (And I'm being forced to learn a whole lot about pool tables.)

Mike
 
Neil,
Thanks. That was not my best. I'm very inconsistent about my stroke, although I've been working on it. (Maybe not enough.)

I've come around to the conclusion that my "new to me" Olhausen might even be distorting the way I'm learning the game. For starters, unbeknownst to me, according to the Olhausen factory the pockets on my table are not standard but were shimmed by the previous owner (either that or the table was special order with longer rails and tighter pockets). This is something the dealer did not tell me when I bought it.

I will admit to being a little ambivalent about this, because while I find the corner pockets VERY frustrating, I will admit that they have increased the need for accuracy and I am much more careful how I aim.

On the other hand it's distorting the way I'm learning to make my way around the table, because the side pockets are so much easier that I'd rather have a hard shot on a side pocket than an easy shot on a corner pocket. When I go downstairs to throw the balls out on the table I notice that it's the side pockets that are usually full.

I also think the table is too fast...note the second shot in the video. It's a very soft stroke but the CB goes and goes. I think this is distorting the way I'm learning to stroke...it encourages me to decelerate on the CB as you noticed I do. I am more often punished for hitting the ball too hard than anything else, even when I'm trying to hit softly. And some shots just cannot be hit softly enough. When I go to the pool hall and play on the 9-footers there it's very striking how much more controllable the CB is, because it naturally rolls to a stop on the slower cloth.

I'm trying to buy a used Diamond to replace the Olhausen, but the process is going very slowly.

All this sounds like a massive excuse, but I don't mean it that way. I'm just fascinated by the learning process is all. (And I'm being forced to learn a whole lot about pool tables.)

Mike

The speed of it is not the table, it's the cloth and how tight it's stretched. The rail speed is what type of rubber, and how the cloth is stretched on them. You can get the table slowed down a lot by just re-covering it.
 
Back
Top