Playing better players to get better?

Hinekanman

Hinekanman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So I have heard this phrase for years. By numerous people. So a C player should play B’s and possibly A’s correct? In apa terms a 5 should play with 6 and 7’s. Right? So now when the good player is going to local tournaments and playing in league who are playing at pro level. Who should they play? In joss tours and stuff like that right? If that’s the case they shouldn’t go to local tournaments and say you should play better players to get better. Couldn’t you say then what are you doing here if no one can beat you? Just curious on others thoughts.


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different guys different purposes

when you are not good enough you want to get better, you play better players

when you are good enough you want to get money, you play lesser players

food for thought
 
When you get to around the A level, I think it's best to play someone right around your speed, maybe a hair under.

Playing someone better than A, and you'll just be racking most games, and when you do get to the table, you'll probably get a chance to kick at a ball.

Not sure what good it is watching someone else play. You can watch videos at home to do that.


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Just ask them what drugs they take.

Some of the outbursts by the male professional players during a match are dead giveways of substance users.

For female players its unheard of to even think about any of them going crazy during a match.
 
justnum said:
Just ask them what drugs they take.

Some of the outbursts by the male professional players during a match are dead giveways of substance users.

For female players its unheard of to even think about any of them going crazy during a match.
Click to expand...

I guess you didn’t see the match that led to the retirement of Jean Balukas...
...it’s a bit jaded to say that drugs lead to outbursts.....
....it’s more often passion, IMO, which any good player has.
 
Different people respond to different things differently, that is - nothing works for
everyone. Something I discovered early on is that I love to play pool but I really don’t
like to play against other people. The biggest steps I’ve take weren’t made when I was
racking for a better player, but when I could practice something until it became automatic.
Find what works for you, as long as you’re having fun doing it keep doing it until you get
right. That’s how you get better.
....and watch better players whenever you can and ask questions : How’d they do that?
Look for inspiration and don’t give up
 
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justnum said:
Just ask them what drugs they take.

Some of the outbursts by the male professional players during a match are dead giveways of substance users.

For female players its unheard of to even think about any of them going crazy during a match.
Click to expand...

Drugs? Aren’t they testing now?
 
pt109 said:
I guess you didn’t see the match that led to the retirement of Jean Balukas...
...it’s a bit jaded to say that drugs lead to outbursts.....
....it’s more often passion, IMO, which any good player has.
Click to expand...

Jaded or not, it is still true. For how many, that is up for debate.
 
Celophanewrap said:
Different people respond to different things differently, that is - nothing works for
everyone. Something I discovered early on is that I love to play pool but I really don’t
like to play against other people. The biggest steps I’ve take weren’t made when I was
racking for a better player, but when I could practice something until it became automatic.
Find what works for you, as long as you’re having fun doing it keep doing it until you get
right. That’s how you get better.
....and watch better players whenever you can and ask questions : How’d they do that?
Look for inspiration and don’t give up
Click to expand...

Same here.

Also record yourself, you'll learn a lot more by watching your bad habits and fixing them, than getting beat to death by somebody else.

Besides who wants to learn from a B or A player when you can watch Shane, Shaw, Dennis, etc. And then spend your whole time at the poolroom playing alone rather than splitting(or less) your time with somebody else.

If you play with somebody else equal or better 10hrs per week that's 260hrs/year, if you play by yourself that's 520hrs/yr - huge difference! Plus you can choose to push a ball in if it hung up or re-shoot the shot. So many advantages to playing alone.
Jason
 
I understand where you guys are coming from. Glad I got to see some opinions. It would seem to me. If I was an A+ player. Would I get anything from running over C players or challenge myself and play pros. By the skill the A+ player would get more out of playing the pro. The C wouldn’t be a challenge. I just feel stupid now telling someone to play better players and the response can be why is that guy who should be a pro here. For a night of their time for maybe a 100 dollars. Which is getting smaller because the same guy keeps winning. That would seem to hurt their action.


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jasonlaus said:
Same here.

Also record yourself, you'll learn a lot more by watching your bad habits and fixing them, than getting beat to death by somebody else.

Besides who wants to learn from a B or A player when you can watch Shane, Shaw, Dennis, etc. And then spend your whole time at the poolroom playing alone rather than splitting(or less) your time with somebody else.

If you play with somebody else equal or better 10hrs per week that's 260hrs/year, if you play by yourself that's 520hrs/yr - huge difference! Plus you can choose to push a ball in if it hung up or re-shoot the shot. So many advantages to playing alone.
Jason
Click to expand...

100% correct. Play better players and get spanked but not to the point where it smashes your desire to shoot. There are so many dvds available and pro matches on YouTube you can learn from. Work on simplifying things, shoot the shots with inside, outside, center ball etc....and you’ll learn the reactions of each. Do this for a year then shoot the better players and you’ll see how much you have improved.
 
I jumped several levels by playing couple of friends who were semi pros or top local players regularly for a few years. We didn't gamble, just played for time and I would buy them dinner or something as a social event. Basically I learned what I needed to work on. It was a real experience to see their patterns and safety's, each player having a unique style, so I learned something different from each. It was motivating to know that if I wasn't in stroke, I was going to get destroyed. I got to the point where our races became fairly even and that was quite a confidence builder. It made me practice a lot harder!

I would say the "one level up" approach would be good, B player playing an A player. APA 4 or 5 playing a 6 and a 6 playing a 7 regularly. Jumping to a much higher level isn't really going to help much. You need to be good enough to give the player some competition.
 
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TATE said:
I jumped several levels by playing couple of friends who were semi pros or top local players regularly for a few years. We didn't gamble, just played for time and I would buy them dinner or something as a social event. Basically I learned what I needed to work on. It was a real experience to see their patterns and safety's, each player having a unique style, so I learned something different from each. It was motivating to know that if I wasn't in stroke, I was going to get destroyed. I got to the point where our races became fairly even and that was quite a confidence builder. It made me practice a lot harder!

I would say the "one level up" approach would be good, B player playing an A player. APA 4 or 5 playing a 6 and a 6 playing a 7 regularly. Jumping to a much higher level isn't really going to help much. You need to be good enough to give the player some competition.
Click to expand...

Truer words have never been spoken. I watch a sick amount of live streams and I keep learning from osmosis. When I do get into a match some of what I learned from watching comes back around. It seems at my age slumps....just don't go away like they did when I was little, they are there for a reason and it takes work and thought to make them gone.
 
There is a reason that people are playing better than you.

They are doing something that you aren't.

Playing them allows you to observe, up close, things that maybe you need to emulate.

I know, for a fact, that people I have played with for a long time have picked up things from me. They see my routes, they see my strategies, they see that I'm "flattening" out the cue ball, etc., etc. Then a few weeks, or months, later they are doing the same things. Things that they NEVER did, for all our times playing, until they spent a lot of time playing with me.

I give them tips at the table, which most people won't bother to do. They'd rather beat your brains out and watch you rack over and over.

When I first started playing pool, as a kid, I learned to play with the best people there and gambled with them. I learned in a relatively short time, compared to some people, because I spent hours and hours in the pool hall every week and I didn't have to pay for table time.

Nobody sat me down and "schooled me", but I learned through watching, practicing, playing, and then gambling with the top players.
 
Have you ever seen the better players in a pool room playing each other, if there wasn't a backer or 2 involved?
I already know the answer , No, Never, No How, No Way.
It's the same song hustlers have used, to get people who actually enjoy the game, to pay for their participation, since Moses Yatter opened his pool room. .
Most of them hate pool , but they show up at the pool room to make their 20 dollars a day because it's easier than getting a job.
I have been fascinated since my first week in a pool room, at how little money some people, can actually survive on.
I predict that the last thing to die on this planet, after an Apocalyptic Event will be a pool player.
A couple of months ago a young guy that plays A speed was in the room after a long absence , explaining how someone in his captive audience, should step up and stretch themselves by playing him ,and that it was the only way, they were ever going to get past the same pool plateau, they had been on for so long.
It was an eloquent spiel and he had a couple of them eager to improve , then one of the best players in town came in with a guy a ball below him , and told him he could have the wild 8 from him , or play even with the other guy, and he disappeared better than Houdini ever dreamed of.
Funny thing is , I remember this guy from 25 years ago, he lost about 20 dollars the first week he played pool and after that he never made a game, he didn't have at least a ball the best of.
The only reason to play a much better player for money, is if you want to be the center of attention for a little while, don't mind paying for the privilege , and don't mind that it's because everyone is giggling, about what an idiot you are.
These are my experiences after 55 years in pool rooms all over the country.
If your's were much better , I wish I had found your spot, I sure as heck looked for it.
 
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https://youtu.be/lYRVMQ5sBWY

Training in Kung Fu requires body conditioning. Using your fists as an example. Driving your fists into buckets of rice for a couple months, then change the rice out to gravel. Having a sparring partner kicking each others legs and so on for conditioning. Watching Kung Fu videos or not changing the rice out for gravel will never condition you for the real thing.
 
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