pre shot routine AND a "check list"???

oldplayer

oldplayer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am trying to stick with my "PSR" and was watching a pool match stream the other day and the person commentating said something about the pro going thru his check list prior to his shot.... do you have a mental check list before executing the shot and if so, what is it?
 
[This is purely for shooting a particular ball, not for game strategy or anything outside of a 'PSR' as you say]

-Determine where I want the cue ball to rest after I complete the stroke
=Corollary: plan for speed and any spin if necessary
-Determine where I want to hit the object ball before getting down on shot
-Determine where I want to strike the cue ball before getting down on shot
-Square up and get down on shot
-Take practice stroke or two
-If all the points I mentioned do not reconcile, STAND THE F%$K UP!
-If all points are in agreement, stroke the ball

As noted in a recent post, people break the capitalized part of the rule all the time. Stand up and reanalyze.

I am pretty quick about it, all of the above taking 4-5 seconds. Sometimes longer, sometimes less.
 
Mine is simple

Pick up beer
drink beer
put down beer
wink at wife
scratch my butt
bend over to aim
close right eye
say in my mind nnnanannanannananannannana (ala caddy shack)
watch ball go in the hole and do happy dance in my head

rinse and repeat
 
oldplayer said:
I am trying to stick with my "PSR" and was watching a pool match stream the other day and the person commentating said something about the pro going thru his check list prior to his shot.... do you have a mental check list before executing the shot and if so, what is it?
Click to expand...
FYI, a recommended 10-step "best practices" pre-shot routine can be found at the bottom of the following article:
"VEPP – Part I: Introduction and Fundamentals," (BD, April, 2012)

and here's a video demonstration:
NV C.2 - Pre-shot routine recommendations, from VEPP I

More articles and videos on this topic can be found on the pre-shot-routine resource page.

Enjoy,
Dave
 
No.

I'm a feel player, not a mechanical player. I don't even have a set PSR other than to decide where I want to go with the cue ball. That determines how I will be hitting the shot.

One can play naturally or one can play like a programmed robot. I prefer to play 'naturally'.

Like CJ has implied, you can make the game complicated or you can make it simple.

I mean no offense to anyone that plays differently than I do. Each individual should play the way that is best for them.

Some people need a check list in a PSR & some would go nuts if they had to go through all of that just to shoot a shot. I'm the later.

True focus can be hard to come by & it can get away from you rather easily once you've got it. While the mind is an amazing 'entity', I'm not sure patience is one of it's qualities.

Regards & Best Wishes,
Rick
 
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My basic pre-shot routine goes like this:

Find the landing area and the easiest and safest path to get there. If rails are need for shape, I'll mentally pick out where the cueball needs to hit on the rail(s).

Chalk up and visualize the whole shot, decide what kind of spin and stroke are needed.

Set feet and do a couple air stroke to loosen up and get the speed of the shot.

Fold into the shot with eyes fixed on the object ball contact point.

Take practice strokes while visualizing the contact between the object ball and cue ball.

Set, pause and finish staying down through the shot.

It's a lot to go through but it's mostly automatic for me know, so I don't think about unless I start struggling and need to diagnose my game.
I think a preshot checklist is something that you build into your game during practice and go back to check on when things aren't going right. If you had to go through a mental checklist on every shot, pool would be a huge chore for both you and your opponent.
 
victorl said:
My basic pre-shot routine goes like this:

Find the landing area and the easiest and safest path to get there. If rails are need for shape, I'll mentally pick out where the cueball needs to hit on the rail(s).

Chalk up and visualize the whole shot, decide what kind of spin and stroke are needed.

Set feet and do a couple air stroke to loosen up and get the speed of the shot.

Fold into the shot with eyes fixed on the object ball contact point.

Take practice strokes while visualizing the contact between the object ball and cue ball.

Set, pause and finish staying down through the shot.

It's a lot to go through but it's mostly automatic for me know, so I don't think about unless I start struggling and need to diagnose my game.
I think a preshot checklist is something that you build into your game during practice and go back to check on when things aren't going right. If you had to go through a mental checklist on every shot, pool would be a huge chore for both you and your opponent.
Click to expand...

Victor,

Just out of curiosity, did you put your game together by yourself or have you taken lessons?

Regards & Best Wishes,
Rick
 
victorl said:
My basic pre-shot routine goes like this:

Find the landing area and the easiest and safest path to get there. If rails are need for shape, I'll mentally pick out where the cueball needs to hit on the rail(s).

Chalk up and visualize the whole shot, decide what kind of spin and stroke are needed.

Set feet and do a couple air stroke to loosen up and get the speed of the shot.

Fold into the shot with eyes fixed on the object ball contact point.

Take practice strokes while visualizing the contact between the object ball and cue ball.

Set, pause and finish staying down through the shot.

It's a lot to go through but it's mostly automatic for me know, so I don't think about unless I start struggling and need to diagnose my game.
I think a preshot checklist is something that you build into your game during practice and go back to check on when things aren't going right. If you had to go through a mental checklist on every shot, pool would be a huge chore for both you and your opponent.
Click to expand...

That's the same as what I do. It seems to work. It was a lot harder to try and dissect it out to write steps after all this time. Like you, it is mostly automatic for me now.
 
Mine's similar to victor's. For the most part I can just stand there, glance at the shot,
and see the the path the cue ball needs to take. Then I just decide the english to make that path happen.
I consider where I need to fall on the 'third ball' (the shot after the ball I'm getting leave on).
Then I address the shot.

The one part I used to skip but I'm now consciously adding to my checklist is...
"which side of the ball is the right side to fall on? What would definitely be the wrong side?
Is it a big deal to avoid that wrong side? If so, is it better if I overrun or underrun shape?
Overspin or underspin the cue ball?"

This is all one mental glob, not an actual series of questions I ask myself. I just sort of see
"ok, better I overspin and underhit this ball, because vice-versa would be a disaster."
 
ENGLISH! said:
Victor,

Just out of curiosity, did you put your game together by yourself or have you taken lessons?

Regards & Best Wishes,
Rick
Click to expand...

Never took any lessons formally, but learned a lot from just hanging around with great players. I definitely wish I had taken lessons when I started out though, so it wouldn't have taken years to figure it out and put it all together (its still a work in progress).

Like you, I'm a total feel player too, but I could only get so far on feel alone and played for years making the same mistakes over and over again and some of my weaknesses never got any better. In practice, I play very consciously and practice new things deliberately and I can see the improvement after every session when I put things back on autopilot.
 
victorl said:
Never took any lessons formally, but learned a lot from just hanging around with great players. I definitely wish I had taken lessons when I started out though, so it wouldn't have taken years to figure it out and put it all together (its still a work in progress).

Like you, I'm a total feel player too, but I could only get so far on feel alone and played for years making the same mistakes over and over again and some of my weaknesses never got any better. In practice, I play very consciously and practice new things deliberately and I can see the improvement after every session when I put things back on autopilot.
Click to expand...

Victor

I was just wondering because my perception from some of your posts was that you seem to be a blend of self taught & instruction.

Guys & 'Girls' today are lucky to have access to the all that is on the internet & actual instructors should they choice to utilize either.

Neither existed when I was learning. But I guess I was lucky too, as my next door neighbor was a an old 'gentleman' that knew it all & I had him to steal it all from as he would never teach me, a 13 yr. old boy, anything. That was just how it was for the most part, back in the 'old days'.

Thanks & Best Wishes,
Rick
 
The details of a pre-shot routine can vary from shot to shot but the guidelines are the same for me.

I use a guideline of think, see, feel, & trust.

1) think- this is done before anything else and I do not move on unless I know
A) the destination of the ob
B) the destination of the cb
C) the routes they will take

*there are unlimited questions I might ask myself to determine these three factors depending on each individual shot.

Once I have my shot picked out it is time to move forward to the next phase.

2) see- this phase of the routine starts once the shot has been determined and ends once I drop into the shot. (It is done while standing)

In this phase you will mentally visualize the shot and physically line up on it.

A) first you visualize the shot. See the path from pocket to ob this gives me the ghostball location, then see the path of the cueball from ghostball to final destination, then return to ghostball and see the shot line from cb to gb (shot line).

*the whole visualization process can vary in difficulty depending on how easy the shot is or how tired you are, etc. It could be something that takes just a second or it could be something that requires visualization tricks and/or calculations of where to cue the cueball in order to send it along its route. The important thing is that you are confident once you have seen the shot that you have got it.

B) once you see the line it's time to line up on it.i simply plant my back foot on the line and then drop in.

Now we are ready for phase three.

3) feel the shot- once you are down on the shot you should be confident that you have got things 99% handled. Simply allow yourself to feel before execution.

A) feel the stance- you should be comfortable and relaxed. No strain needed to be aligned to the shot.
B) feel the alignment look at the shot line from ob to cb (with soft eyes) to see if you feel lined up. This is not the time to aim IMO. If it don't feel right then you need to get back up. You might be able to make fine adjustments to your aim from here sometimes but if that is your regular process then I think it will cause inconsistency.
C) feel the stroke- feel the speed, feel the groove, feel the shot

Now we are ready for phase four.

4) trust- if all is well at this point then you should be ready to pull the trigger.

You should be able to trust in your preparation and the final execution should be effortless. If you still have any doubts then you are not ready and you need to start over. I find that it helps to have one key thought in this phase to occupy your mind. For example, stay down, follow through, etc. if you can't focus and your mind is still trying to figure out if you are going to scratch, you're not ready, get up and start over.


Hope this helps.
 
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dr_dave said:
FYI, a recommended 10-step "best practices" pre-shot routine can be found at the bottom of the following article:
"VEPP – Part I: Introduction and Fundamentals," (BD, April, 2012)

and here's a video demonstration:
NV C.2 - Pre-shot routine recommendations, from VEPP I

More articles and videos on this topic can be found on the pre-shot-routine resource page.

Enjoy,
Dave
Click to expand...

Dr. Dave,

I think you need to add a section to the preshot routine in regards to eye movement. Once my eye movement or (what I look at) became consistent, I became a much better player. Also, just recently I was playing not so great and I realized I have been focusing on the CB so much (working on Position Play and speed control) that I comprised my Eye Movement Pattern. Once i realized this and went back to my pattern I was beating the 10 ball ghost.
 
ENGLISH! said:
No.

I'm a feel player, not a mechanical player. I don't even have a set PSR other than to decide where I want to go with the cue ball. That determines how I will be hitting the shot.

One can play naturally or one can play like a programmed robot. I prefer to play 'naturally'.

Like CJ has implied, you can make the game complicated or you can make it simple.

I mean no offense to anyone that plays differently than I do. Each individual should play the way that is best for them.

Some people need a check list in a PSR & some would go nuts if they had to go through all of that just to shoot a shot. I'm the later.

True focus can be hard to come by & it can get away from you rather easily once you've got it. While the mind is an amazing 'entity', I'm not sure patience is one of it's qualities.

Regards & Best Wishes,
Rick
Click to expand...

Hi Rick,
Playing by feel is ok, but what happens is some times you do not do it the same way and you end up with bad days and good days, unless you are a pro and practice 8 hrs a day. Consistency and knowing why you miss require that you do it the exact same way all the time, and that leads to following a routine not necessarily taking time on every shot, but hard shots, long shots, and hard position shot do require a bit of attention before you bend over, that if high stake game is played, for fun you can do anything.
 
For many years I was a serious golfer with aspirations of turning pro. After watching what my sister went through after several years on the LPGA I knew that life really wasn't for me. Living out of a suitcase for 30 weeks a year doesn't interest me. That being said golf has always been 90% mental, even more so when you have the knowledge and the physical skills to perform. I started playing pool many hours a week in the winter months mostly after I got my drivers license. It was immediately clear to me that pool like golf was almost entirely mental. I considered it a great mental exercise in the off season. I never realized any serious success as a pool player. I've won some local nine ball events and played in a few 3 cushion tournaments. But I am convinced a PRS is a valuable component to the game. Even those that say they don't have one most likely do. It may be simple and completely sub conscious but it's there and it helps. Visualization and a positive frame of mind is critical. Without either no player would every run 20 or more balls in straight pool or a couple racks in nine ball.
 
oldplayer said:
I am trying to stick with my "PSR" and was watching a pool match stream the other day and the person commentating said something about the pro going thru his check list prior to his shot.... do you have a mental check list before executing the shot and if so, what is it?
Click to expand...

Yes and it only has one item on it. When my opponent misses and I stand up to the table, if I find myself thinking about any of that crap, I hear a voice in my head say, "Just go knock all the balls off before you screw it up." Since the first time I heard that voice, that process has never failed me.

Checklists and such are for practice time. When you are in a match, the time for practice is over. Everything is automatic. If you start thinking about things, you will interfere with what you trained yourself for. You are not going to improve yourself after you have gotten into the middle a game. You are what you are. Go with it.
 
what great, helpful responses. I can always depend on "az"s forum. I am going to institute some of the suggestions and also believe the subconscious is supposed to take care of some of this and we not overload our conscious mind with too much input. the visualization is an important factor to as this is your giving the instructions to your subconscious, telling it, "take care of business". this post was more about the "PSR" and more about the mental aspect and I feel I got much needed help. thanks again for the replies! :thumbup:
 
Developing a PSR takes time, it takes commitment to yourself. It absolutely is not "used" in match play, it is a trained sequence of events that has been developed with time, and patience.

Why develop a pre-shot routine? Why develop a consistent stroke? For self-evaluation purposes. You can't fix what you don't know. If the process is clearly defined by the player, and we have properly trained that process then we can expect consistent results, day in and day out.

Do you need an instructor to do this? Nope - you sure dont. Will they help with the process, yep they sure will. It is much like anyone can purchase a Calculus book and work through the book and learn, its a lot more efficient to do it from someone who has been trained to teach, and has taught others and uses that experience to aid in their teaching.
 
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