Observe Ronnie in practice.
He is LEGEND b/c he makes the PRO's look like amateurs.
Ronnie O' Practice before Macau Open
He is LEGEND b/c he makes the PRO's look like amateurs.
Ronnie O' Practice before Macau Open
Pre-shot routine
- Thread starter SeniorTom
- Start date
SeniorTom
Well-known member
As those have mentioned in here, which I appreciate, I intend this routine to be accomplished second nature almost or subconsciously almost, where it will only appear to be something rather short and almost not thinking about it as I go up the shoot. I guess sort of like a habit that is done without thinking much. It may be a bit drawn out at first but hopefully abbreviated when I am done. I'll say this, when I shot my best match a few sessions ago it was like I was in the zone and not thinking much at all. Just focused on what I was doing and confident and playing well. I ran the table and defeated my opponent handily without really much effort it seemed.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Exactly. You want to build ways to get back to that zone. Giving yourself a bunch of things to think and worry about isn't going to do that.
The tripod of the stance and bridge hand, with a body weight centered stance and sufficient weight on the bridge to insure stability in the shooting platform. Effective use of tripod in bridge also provides stability.
I try to think in terms of a full shot dance that is routine.
There's no equal weight distribution to the bridge hand though; mostly balance.The tripod of the stance and bridge hand, with a body weight centered stance and sufficient weight on the bridge to insure stability in the shooting platform. Effective use of tripod in bridge also provides stability.
I try to think in terms of a full shot dance that is routine.
Yes, yes, yes…Mark Wilson’s “Play Great Pool” is an outstanding book. Bert Kinister’s videos are also great.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
FYI, other good videos, articles, handouts, and other info dealing with pre-shot routine "best practices" can be found here:
This video highlight some of the most important elements:
I like to break it down to 4 phases, making note of what has helped me the most, with an emphasis on the mental aspects instead of mechanics:
1. Shot Selection
Observe the table and balls. Walk around it if necessary on tricky situations. Stand tall, be confident and determined, steely-eyed. Don’t shake your head or look at a terrible situation in disgust. Imagine yourself as a fighter stepping forward to meet his opponent mid-ring prior to the round-one bell. Your opponent will be watching you - give him only your confidence to worry about. Choose your shot and next position, along with the next 2 to 3 shots and positions. I like to finish this phase on more difficult cuts with a brief look standing behind the OB-Pocket line, and mentally note the angle the CB approaches the OB from that vantage point. It’s also easier for me to see the tangent line from this angle.
2. Shot Preparation
Stand tall and confident behind your shot line, and make your best determination of the aim line, speed, and spin you need, considering table and ball conditions and CIT/SIT. Know exactly where your feet will step to. Know exactly where your bridge hand and arm will rest. Know exactly where on the CB your tip will strike. Know exactly how low or high your cue will be elevated. Know exactly how much speed the CB will lose as it rolls, slides, or backspins, and how much it loses again after contact with the OB, based on the cut angle. Make air strokes with the bridge you plan to use, at the speed and length of backstroke you plan to use, with your back hand already in proper position for the shot. Sense the texture and weight of the cue in your back hand and fingers as you do this. MOST IMPORTANTLY: finish this phase with a crystal-clear visualization of how the shot will play out, in real life and speed, like you’re watching a video of it. In your mind, see and feel yourself sink into your stance, make your stroke (doing a final air stroke at this point), “hear” the ping of contact, feel the jolt of contact, follow the CB to its target, see the spin on the CB and any deflection or swerve if using english, see and hear the collision, see and hear the OB drop in a specific part of the pocket (if it’s an offensive shot), and follow the CB’s path post-collision as it gradually slows down and stops at a precise point on the table.
3. Shot Execution
With FULL COMMITMENT to your plan, and 100% confidence of the shot playing out as you visualized it, take a deep breath, exhale, then SHUT OFF YOUR CONSCIOUS BRAIN/THINKING. With 100% tunnel-vision on the target, step/sink into your stance while keeping your vision center on the shot line and focus on the target. Feel your back shoulder, elbow, hand and cue coming down with you exactly on the shot line. Feel solid and balanced with your lower body. Feel the connection of the cue with your chin and/or chest, if you get that low. Once down and settled, make any necessary warm-up strokes to get comfortable and loose, and while shifting your focus between OB and CB, make any necessary micro-adjustments on aim to achieve a LOCK on the target, then pause the tip near the CB. Recall the planned speed of the shot, and how far you’ll pull the cue back. Focus your full attention on either the OB or CB (I’m a CB guy), and freeze your body and eyes. Take a final breath and exhale. If ANYTHING feels or looks wrong to you, or negative thoughts intrude at any point in this phase, stand up and go back to phase 2. Otherwise, it’s GO TIME, so pull back slowly, pause at the back if it helps your transition (it does for me), and deliver your stroke. Stay perfectly still, and observe the follow-through position of your cue and the outcome of the shot (including exactly where the OB went and the sounds of impact and ball dropping) by using only your eyes and ears for at least 3 seconds or until the balls stop rolling (as long as you’re not at risk of a ball hitting you or your cue).
4. Post-Shot Analysis
This part is often overlooked, but vitally important to improvement and competitive outcome. Stand up and make a non-judgmental analysis of your shot, compared to your visualization of it in step 2. If you missed the shot OR position, try to determine why. Did you jerk the cue?Not follow through? Swerve the cue? Miss the tip’s contact point? Aim too thick? Too thin? Not compensate your aim properly for sidespin deflection or swerve? Put unintentional sidespin on the CB? Use the wrong spin or english? Hit it too soft, or too hard? Not predict the angle the CB would take off OB or rails correctly? Catch an unlucky skid? Try not to feel or show emotion during these few seconds - don’t sigh, shake your head, or slump your shoulders. Just be an impartial observer, and believe that your analysis will help your subconscious self-correct on future shots - because it absolutely will! If you don’t know why you missed, you won’t improve. Maintain the confident attitude and expression you started with in phase 1. If you made the shot but missed position, make a note of it internally but don’t let others know about it by shaking your head or pointing to where the CB should have stopped. If you got lucky, don’t laugh or show a guilty look or apologize with a gesture. If you made a great or even miraculous shot, move on to the next shot as if it’s routine for you. Your apparent confidence and neutral acceptance of the outcome is a weapon against your opponent, who will be watching you for and feeding off any signs of weakness. If you lost the game or your turn, walk back to your chair and sit confidently, holding your cue, and looking forward to your next opportunity. If you lost the match, go shake hands and congratulate your opponent with a smile and direct eye contact, and make no excuses about your performance. Go easy on yourself, and trust that every bit of experience will make you better if you follow the process.
—————
That’s all I got. It’s a lot of words (sorry!), but it goes fast and becomes automatic if you do it every time you practice and play. The hardest part for me is phase 4, especially controlling my emotions and reaction on a miss of the shot or position, or loss.
Would love to hear feedback or additional ideas on the mental aspects of pre- and post-shot routine from y’all.
1. Shot Selection
Observe the table and balls. Walk around it if necessary on tricky situations. Stand tall, be confident and determined, steely-eyed. Don’t shake your head or look at a terrible situation in disgust. Imagine yourself as a fighter stepping forward to meet his opponent mid-ring prior to the round-one bell. Your opponent will be watching you - give him only your confidence to worry about. Choose your shot and next position, along with the next 2 to 3 shots and positions. I like to finish this phase on more difficult cuts with a brief look standing behind the OB-Pocket line, and mentally note the angle the CB approaches the OB from that vantage point. It’s also easier for me to see the tangent line from this angle.
2. Shot Preparation
Stand tall and confident behind your shot line, and make your best determination of the aim line, speed, and spin you need, considering table and ball conditions and CIT/SIT. Know exactly where your feet will step to. Know exactly where your bridge hand and arm will rest. Know exactly where on the CB your tip will strike. Know exactly how low or high your cue will be elevated. Know exactly how much speed the CB will lose as it rolls, slides, or backspins, and how much it loses again after contact with the OB, based on the cut angle. Make air strokes with the bridge you plan to use, at the speed and length of backstroke you plan to use, with your back hand already in proper position for the shot. Sense the texture and weight of the cue in your back hand and fingers as you do this. MOST IMPORTANTLY: finish this phase with a crystal-clear visualization of how the shot will play out, in real life and speed, like you’re watching a video of it. In your mind, see and feel yourself sink into your stance, make your stroke (doing a final air stroke at this point), “hear” the ping of contact, feel the jolt of contact, follow the CB to its target, see the spin on the CB and any deflection or swerve if using english, see and hear the collision, see and hear the OB drop in a specific part of the pocket (if it’s an offensive shot), and follow the CB’s path post-collision as it gradually slows down and stops at a precise point on the table.
3. Shot Execution
With FULL COMMITMENT to your plan, and 100% confidence of the shot playing out as you visualized it, take a deep breath, exhale, then SHUT OFF YOUR CONSCIOUS BRAIN/THINKING. With 100% tunnel-vision on the target, step/sink into your stance while keeping your vision center on the shot line and focus on the target. Feel your back shoulder, elbow, hand and cue coming down with you exactly on the shot line. Feel solid and balanced with your lower body. Feel the connection of the cue with your chin and/or chest, if you get that low. Once down and settled, make any necessary warm-up strokes to get comfortable and loose, and while shifting your focus between OB and CB, make any necessary micro-adjustments on aim to achieve a LOCK on the target, then pause the tip near the CB. Recall the planned speed of the shot, and how far you’ll pull the cue back. Focus your full attention on either the OB or CB (I’m a CB guy), and freeze your body and eyes. Take a final breath and exhale. If ANYTHING feels or looks wrong to you, or negative thoughts intrude at any point in this phase, stand up and go back to phase 2. Otherwise, it’s GO TIME, so pull back slowly, pause at the back if it helps your transition (it does for me), and deliver your stroke. Stay perfectly still, and observe the follow-through position of your cue and the outcome of the shot (including exactly where the OB went and the sounds of impact and ball dropping) by using only your eyes and ears for at least 3 seconds or until the balls stop rolling (as long as you’re not at risk of a ball hitting you or your cue).
4. Post-Shot Analysis
This part is often overlooked, but vitally important to improvement and competitive outcome. Stand up and make a non-judgmental analysis of your shot, compared to your visualization of it in step 2. If you missed the shot OR position, try to determine why. Did you jerk the cue?Not follow through? Swerve the cue? Miss the tip’s contact point? Aim too thick? Too thin? Not compensate your aim properly for sidespin deflection or swerve? Put unintentional sidespin on the CB? Use the wrong spin or english? Hit it too soft, or too hard? Not predict the angle the CB would take off OB or rails correctly? Catch an unlucky skid? Try not to feel or show emotion during these few seconds - don’t sigh, shake your head, or slump your shoulders. Just be an impartial observer, and believe that your analysis will help your subconscious self-correct on future shots - because it absolutely will! If you don’t know why you missed, you won’t improve. Maintain the confident attitude and expression you started with in phase 1. If you made the shot but missed position, make a note of it internally but don’t let others know about it by shaking your head or pointing to where the CB should have stopped. If you got lucky, don’t laugh or show a guilty look or apologize with a gesture. If you made a great or even miraculous shot, move on to the next shot as if it’s routine for you. Your apparent confidence and neutral acceptance of the outcome is a weapon against your opponent, who will be watching you for and feeding off any signs of weakness. If you lost the game or your turn, walk back to your chair and sit confidently, holding your cue, and looking forward to your next opportunity. If you lost the match, go shake hands and congratulate your opponent with a smile and direct eye contact, and make no excuses about your performance. Go easy on yourself, and trust that every bit of experience will make you better if you follow the process.
—————
That’s all I got. It’s a lot of words (sorry!), but it goes fast and becomes automatic if you do it every time you practice and play. The hardest part for me is phase 4, especially controlling my emotions and reaction on a miss of the shot or position, or loss.
Would love to hear feedback or additional ideas on the mental aspects of pre- and post-shot routine from y’all.
Last edited:
Mr Machine
Well-known member
“Helloooooo Ball!”
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
Decide what you want to do then set your feet. Breath in and then out fully before you get down on the shot. This relieves tension in your body. Do whatever practice strokes you do. Breath in if you need to and execute the shot after breathing out. Something this simple works amazingly well. It also shuts your head up.
Less tension = truer tip placement at contact. You don't want tension in your body, the breathing helps.
I've tried all sorts of PSR in the past and this is the one that clicked with me. Do whatever you like while up... chalk, walk around and look at stuff, admire the redhead behind the counter (well maybe not that one!), make your plans while up. But once you set your feet the breathing becomes important. You're mentally sliding into the shot and freeing your body of tension.
I was a "look at the OB last" guy and after doing this for a couple weeks I'm now a "CB last" guy on most shots. You can see when the tip steadies itself after letting your breath out. When that tip stops it's go time. Who'd a thunk it but we were lining up correctly all this time, it's just minute cue tip placement errors that cause chaos.
Less tension = truer tip placement at contact. You don't want tension in your body, the breathing helps.
I've tried all sorts of PSR in the past and this is the one that clicked with me. Do whatever you like while up... chalk, walk around and look at stuff, admire the redhead behind the counter (well maybe not that one!), make your plans while up. But once you set your feet the breathing becomes important. You're mentally sliding into the shot and freeing your body of tension.
I was a "look at the OB last" guy and after doing this for a couple weeks I'm now a "CB last" guy on most shots. You can see when the tip steadies itself after letting your breath out. When that tip stops it's go time. Who'd a thunk it but we were lining up correctly all this time, it's just minute cue tip placement errors that cause chaos.
Yeah! This!
Local boy. One of the best!!
In the days that this works, it's a helluva lot of fun and boy can you put on a show!! Make an ass out of yourself in the process bcuz now nobody's gonna touch you for coin!! Lol.