Playing Consistently

pocket

pocket

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Is there some trick to playing consistently? It absolutely drives me nuts to wild swings in my level of play.

It's not winning or losing either. I can lose a set and walk away feeling good because I made the shots I thought I should and executed at what I consider my ability level.

It's when I go out and play and it's as if I had just picked up a cue last week.

I assume there will always be a normal sine wave of play, but the absurd extremes are driving me insane.

FRUSTRATED in SoCal.
 
pocket said:
Is there some trick to playing consistently? It absolutely drives me nuts to wild swings in my level of play.

It's not winning or losing either. I can lose a set and walk away feeling good because I made the shots I thought I should and executed at what I consider my ability level.

It's when I go out and play and it's as if I had just picked up a cue last week.

I assume there will always be a normal sine wave of play, but the absurd extremes are driving me insane.

FRUSTRATED in SoCal.
Click to expand...

The book "Pleasure of Small Motions" by Bob Fancher helped me greatly with this. I think you might also benefit from reading it!
 
pocket said:
Is there some trick to playing consistently? It absolutely drives me nuts to wild swings in my level of play.

It's not winning or losing either. I can lose a set and walk away feeling good because I made the shots I thought I should and executed at what I consider my ability level.

It's when I go out and play and it's as if I had just picked up a cue last week.

I assume there will always be a normal sine wave of play, but the absurd extremes are driving me insane.

FRUSTRATED in SoCal.
Click to expand...

without trying to sound too simplistic, stick to your fundamentals.....keep stance, preshot routine, and stroke the same......repeat this until you are a world champion :eek:
 
Simple is always better

poolplaya1976 said:
without trying to sound too simplistic, stick to your fundamentals.....keep stance, preshot routine, and stroke the same......repeat this until you are a world champion :eek:
Click to expand...

I agree. Know how you do everything you do and little adjustments are all you really have to learn to make.
 
pocket said:
Is there some trick to playing consistently? It absolutely drives me nuts to wild swings in my level of play.

It's not winning or losing either. I can lose a set and walk away feeling good because I made the shots I thought I should and executed at what I consider my ability level.

It's when I go out and play and it's as if I had just picked up a cue last week.

I assume there will always be a normal sine wave of play, but the absurd extremes are driving me insane.

FRUSTRATED in SoCal.
Click to expand...

Something in your fundamentals isn't consistent. I'd get a coach or a knowledgeable player to take a look at you.

Alternatively, try to get some video of yourself playing well and then take a video of yourself playing poorly and see if you can spot the inconsistencies.
 
Part of what makes pool so frustrating is, you learn through trial and error. Much of your improvement, until now, has been through utilizing methods that worked and dismissing methods that didn't. This puts your game in a constant state of flux. As you continue to improve and play more, some of these good habits become more automatic. You think less about whether you're arm is in the right position or if your feet are properly aligned and more about the specifics of the game. The problem, unfortunately, isn't as simple as it may seem.

If you're seeing a wide range of results, it's important to understand why. The best first step is to try and see if there's something consistently wrong. Perhaps you're missing long shots and on "good days", you're simply seeing less of them. Or, maybe your cue ball control is awry and the good days have less dubious layouts.

The most common is, there's probably something about your mechanics that's firing inconsistently. For me, I find myself not getting aligned properly. I'll focus heavily on one aspect of a shot and less of my focus is spent insuring that my body is in the right place. I think of it like a rifle. If you want the rifle to shoot in a specific direction, you have to point the whole gun at the target, not just the barrel. In pool, your whole body is the rifle and the cue is the barrel. Get that rifle in line and good things will happen. Once the balls start going in, your brain will have room to process other things like speed and spin.

Starting with a firm base of knowledge of pocketing is going to help you as you continue to try new things. You're going to continue to change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse but if you can always refer to that base, you'll never see your game drop much.
 
How often do you play or practice? When practicing do you focus on a goal, or do drills?
Do you have a pre-shot routine? Do you warm up before you play a set?
 
Thanks for all the thoughtful responses.

poolplaya1976 said:
snip...stick to your fundamentals.....keep stance, preshot routine, and stroke the same...snip
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Definitely something I am aware of and working on, thank you. If only being aware, and solving the issue were the same!

Cameron Smith said:
Something in your fundamentals isn't consistent. I'd get a coach or a knowledgeable player to take a look at you.

Alternatively, try to get some video of yourself playing well and then take a video of yourself playing poorly and see if you can spot the inconsistencies.
Click to expand...

Video is a good idea, I certainly am equipped to do it. Getting video with contrasting play may be more difficult. I will ask around about what other players may be seeing. Thanks.

Jude Rosenstock said:
snip..Perhaps you're missing long shots and on "good days", you're simply seeing less of them. Or, maybe your cue ball control is awry and the good days have less dubious layouts...snip snip.
Click to expand...

I'm absolutely sure this is true and a good observation. Definitely some of what someone would easily interpret as "swings in skill" are attributable to good layouts and bad. Appreciate the thought.

ctyhntr said:
How often do you play or practice?

I have a table at home and practice 45mins to an hour most every day that I am not playing in league or with someone else.

When practicing do you focus on a goal, or do drills?

I start by warming up by spreading balls and just making shots. Then I work on shots I'm having trouble with, cuts, angles, banks etc. I usually end by playing 3, 4, 5 ball patterns.

Do you have a pre-shot routine?

I do, and try to be militant about performing it. This may be where my problem is though, sometimes I feel like when I get down on the shot I'm dialed in, other times I don't.

Do you warm up before you play a set?
Click to expand...

Absolutely try to warm up before a set.

Again thanks for all the input.
 
if someone figured this out they would be rich.
every athlete in the world would pay for this.
Not going to happen with human beings. We are too complex mentally and physically.
Even the worlds greatest predators (lions-sharks etc.) have an off moment.
the best we can hope for is a some what steady performance with not a lot of drastic ups and downs like driving across the Rocky Mountains, more like a drive across Kansas.
 
measureman said:
if someone figured this out they would be rich.
every athlete in the world would pay for this.
Not going to happen with human beings. We are too complex mentally and physically.
Even the worlds greatest predators (lions-sharks etc.) have an off moment.
the best we can hope for is a some what steady performance with not a lot of drastic ups and downs like driving across the Rocky Mountains, more like a drive across Kansas.
Click to expand...

That's exactly my point. I expect there to be normal swings in my level of play. Its the dramatic peaks and valleys that are driving me insane.
 
pocket said:
Is there some trick to playing consistently? It absolutely drives me nuts to wild swings in my level of play.

It's not winning or losing either. I can lose a set and walk away feeling good because I made the shots I thought I should and executed at what I consider my ability level.

It's when I go out and play and it's as if I had just picked up a cue last week.

I assume there will always be a normal sine wave of play, but the absurd extremes are driving me insane.

FRUSTRATED in SoCal.
Click to expand...

Pre-shot routine... Stance feet in line? Back hand grip in same spot? Keep your pre-shot routine the same on every shot. Watch Efren... same amount of warm up strokes, a pause, one last warm up stroke, then shoots the shot.

Here's a tip borrowed from golf... pre-visualization. See the line you want the CB to take in your mind before you get down... you'd be surprised.

My .02 from SoCal!
 
It's part of the natural progression in learning pool to have big swings in the beginning. A nice part of getting better is that the swings get smaller - your bad days aren't so much worse than your good ones, and they come less frequently (especially if you've paid attention while improving).

pj
chgo
 
It's important to keep a list of shots you miss during a match. Then next practice session, just do one of those on the list over and over and over.........and over and over and over...........and over and over

Then move to the next on the list and repeat.

When you miss, before you set it up again....you must first know why you missed. It's useless to just repeat the shot and don't know why you miss at times.

It's also good to do the shot with different spins before moving on to the next one on the list.

It takes a lot of discipline to do one shot for a hour....but this is what it takes.

Oh...try to stop thinking while shooting, just do.
 
pocket said:
Is there some trick to playing consistently? It absolutely drives me nuts to wild swings in my level of play.

It's not winning or losing either. I can lose a set and walk away feeling good because I made the shots I thought I should and executed at what I consider my ability level.

It's when I go out and play and it's as if I had just picked up a cue last week.

I assume there will always be a normal sine wave of play, but the absurd extremes are driving me insane.

FRUSTRATED in SoCal.
Click to expand...

Is this play in tournaments, action or just leisurely?

As Sam had eluded to earlier, the mental part of the game can be one of the toughest things to get a handle on. There are times when I am playing great and then play in a tournament where someone is really firing back at me and just start playing bad. I know what I am capable of and get pissed when I make a simple mistake which brings my game down. I often have to give myself some internal "attitude pep talks" to get my game back in line. :D Stay positive.

On another note you could follow Patches O'Houlihan' advice...."You gotta get angry! You gotta get mean! That's the only way you can play" -Lol:rotflmao:
 
Cameron Smith said:
Something in your fundamentals isn't consistent. I'd get a coach or a knowledgeable player to take a look at you.

Alternatively, try to get some video of yourself playing well and then take a video of yourself playing poorly and see if you can spot the inconsistencies.
Click to expand...

Great advice. Take heed.
 
It's unnatural for human beings to do the same exact motion repetitively. Our bodies are not built that way and yet that is what our sport requires. Often times inconsistency in play is due to inconsistency in form.

When you say you are militant about your preshot routine this may be true but it is only the start. Stroking consistently is something that many people don't do. Look at the player who always strokes the same amount of times before pausing during the backswing and then delivering the final stroke through the cueball. That player will almost always be consistent in their play. It takes a great deal of mental discipline to do this every single time but it usually is something that will elevate your game.

It's also but a small part- in order to consistently play well in pool your stance and alignment need to be spot on every time. You also have to develop a vast knowledge of pattern play and how balls react in every situation that can arise depending on what English is used.
 
Update

I had someone I trust take a look. Sure enough my pre shot routine was out of whack. Hips in the way, crowding the cue, bridge too large, feet out of alignment.

I didn't feel right, but I couldn't see what was off.

Made some adjustments, and immediately felt the improvement. I guess I wasn't as militant as I thought.

Back to work.
 
My game is inconsistent even though I have a good PSR and mechanics. I work on my mechanics a lot, with an instructor. So nothing is a cure all. But my game has improved a lot over the last few years due to the above work and practicing drills a lot.

Also, think about your inconsistency this way: before a match if you are playing good during practice, tell yourself you are shooting well tonight. If you are practicing poorly, take a break, wash your hands and face, and go into your match knowing you easily could play much better than you were 30 minutes earlier. Many times I've practiced poorly and walked into a match and played great. Taking that break shakes you out of the pattern of playing bad.

Jeff
 
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