Hi,
I just would like to share my personal 14-1 story. I'm a B player from belgium, and I'm one of the rare players who's favorite game is straight pool. I just don't know why, but i can get into the zone and enjoy the game a lot more then any other game. i rarely play it in a match, as there isn't any 14-1 tournament that i know off, but there is one match in the national team competitions that has to be straightpool and that's when my team is happy they have one player who likes to play it.
I've decided to make some goals for myself. shortterm, midterm en longterm. Like someone once told me, if you have no goals, how can you ever achieve them. Obviously the 100 club is a dream, and no idea if this is realistic as i'm only a amateur player who plays maybe only 4hours of pool a week.
I'm watching a lot of matches, and writing down all my struggles as to learn my weakness , and like it has been said in other posts, running 14 balls isn't that hard, its the setup, key and breakball that is the hard part.
I'm getting more and more respect for how hard the game is and how much more thinking there is involved then in any other game i play. it looks the easiest game but it's actually the hardest one because of the options
Last night, I finished my 50ptn match in 5 runs, each averaging 10+ but my biggest break lifetime is only 40'ish and in tournament 20ish, but i can run 14 balls on a breakball in hand, 50%+ of the time but 80% of my break ends in the last 2 balls.
Knowing this, i've been working a lot on the breakball, and i'm finally understanding why i was always missing the breakball, but now that i'm not missing them, i'm still not doing big runs, because i'm not getting the right shape on the breakball enough, because my endpattern position play isn't good enough. I think the key and setupball are also a big problem (and maybe the biggest reason if end of runs), even if the error occurs later its often there where the problem (position error) starts and it's hard to correct them with only 3 balls on the table) and i need to select them better as to have a tighter positional play. (beside choosing better breakballs and other things i still need to improve)
The recent post about the mid pocket keyball opened my eyes. I was leaving this very often, but i was almost never straight and i often still had to go 2rails to get position, making my positional game not as accurate. i think i never respected the key and setupball enough and i need to choose them as wisely as the keyball, instead of (anything close to the keyball will do)
So thanks for the posts that are NOT about the keyball. i think they need a lot more attention then what i currently see in video's and in posts. If anyone has good video's or book's to the setup and keyball feel free to post them !
One question: I want to put myself a realistic lifetime goal. How realistic would it be for a B player (maybe a A player one day if i continue to improve) to ever run a 100 ball run in practice. Am I fooling myself or is this a low % but ok'ish goal, or in the achievable ballpark?
I just would like to share my personal 14-1 story. I'm a B player from belgium, and I'm one of the rare players who's favorite game is straight pool. I just don't know why, but i can get into the zone and enjoy the game a lot more then any other game. i rarely play it in a match, as there isn't any 14-1 tournament that i know off, but there is one match in the national team competitions that has to be straightpool and that's when my team is happy they have one player who likes to play it.
I've decided to make some goals for myself. shortterm, midterm en longterm. Like someone once told me, if you have no goals, how can you ever achieve them. Obviously the 100 club is a dream, and no idea if this is realistic as i'm only a amateur player who plays maybe only 4hours of pool a week.
I'm watching a lot of matches, and writing down all my struggles as to learn my weakness , and like it has been said in other posts, running 14 balls isn't that hard, its the setup, key and breakball that is the hard part.
I'm getting more and more respect for how hard the game is and how much more thinking there is involved then in any other game i play. it looks the easiest game but it's actually the hardest one because of the options
Last night, I finished my 50ptn match in 5 runs, each averaging 10+ but my biggest break lifetime is only 40'ish and in tournament 20ish, but i can run 14 balls on a breakball in hand, 50%+ of the time but 80% of my break ends in the last 2 balls.
Knowing this, i've been working a lot on the breakball, and i'm finally understanding why i was always missing the breakball, but now that i'm not missing them, i'm still not doing big runs, because i'm not getting the right shape on the breakball enough, because my endpattern position play isn't good enough. I think the key and setupball are also a big problem (and maybe the biggest reason if end of runs), even if the error occurs later its often there where the problem (position error) starts and it's hard to correct them with only 3 balls on the table) and i need to select them better as to have a tighter positional play. (beside choosing better breakballs and other things i still need to improve)
The recent post about the mid pocket keyball opened my eyes. I was leaving this very often, but i was almost never straight and i often still had to go 2rails to get position, making my positional game not as accurate. i think i never respected the key and setupball enough and i need to choose them as wisely as the keyball, instead of (anything close to the keyball will do)
So thanks for the posts that are NOT about the keyball. i think they need a lot more attention then what i currently see in video's and in posts. If anyone has good video's or book's to the setup and keyball feel free to post them !
One question: I want to put myself a realistic lifetime goal. How realistic would it be for a B player (maybe a A player one day if i continue to improve) to ever run a 100 ball run in practice. Am I fooling myself or is this a low % but ok'ish goal, or in the achievable ballpark?
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I can run racks, but my fundamentals aren't the best. I don't get yet the double KB idea, but i always loved danny's straight game. i'll check it out.
