Reasons For Missing This Shot?

D

DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ok, one of the racks i failed to runout last night was because of this. i missed this shot. honest, no foolin, i missed this shot just exactly like the arrows show. when i missed it i just tossed the cue onto the table, shut the lights out, sat in the dark, and wondered how on earth after 8 years of playing/practicing every day i miss a shot like that???

assume it had to be one of the following:
1) Alignment was off
2) Aim was off
3) Stroke was off
4) Mentally scared of missing
5) Took it for granted

When i was standing over the shot, i noticed as i took a couple of warmup strokes that i was pretty certain i had the angle i needed to make the shot. but, i missed.

my question for you posters is: When you miss a shot like this, what do you feel is the reason you missed?

Thanks in advance for any criticism, constructive or otherwise.

DCP

CueTable Help

 
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Looks like it's just a matter of plain old bad shotmaking ability. Maybe you need to practice shotmaking drills.:)

Obviously, there's never going to be a point when you never miss. It isn't the first time and it won't be the last. All you can do is try to improve your shotmaking ability.:)
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
When you miss a shot like this, what do you feel is the reason you missed?
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I always tell my students -> when you miss "close" it's your body, when you miss by a diamond or more, it's your brain.

The body part is usually some small anomaly that needs conscious effort to correct. Standing, swaying, arm moving, excessive gripping, etc are very hard to fix. Dont forget there may be some reasons out of "your control" that cause you to miss: humidity, temperature, skid, chalk-spot contact, equipment, and artifacts on the table.

The brain part is usually laziness or fatigue. This includes poor alignment, misreading the shot, flopping down, showing off, etc. "Brain" slips tend to correct themselves overnight. Even the "talk youself into missing" (AKA scared of the shot) type brain mistakes go away quickly.

-td
 
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Have you ever heard the saying, "Paralysis, by analysis"? Buddy, you are there. I wish you luck, but if you are at the point that you sulk in a darkened room because you miss a pool shot while practicing...

Seriously, I see you post a lot and you do nothing but beat yourself up over missed opportunities. Think about it...you are going so far as to document your mistakes on the internet! Your anguish over each miss leads to the next one, which leads to the next one,...

Your "game" is a reflection of your current mental state and it looks like yours is pretty low right now IMO.

I know, because I have been there. I have a pile of broken 314's to prove it.

Take some time off and reflect on what you are doing and what you are trying to accomplish. Is this a "game" or "life & death"? Are you a recreational player or a professional? Are you even an aspiring professional?

A night out in a bar slamming brews and beating up on the huckle-berries just might knock some sense into you and put some confidence in your stroke.

Good Luck!
 
You probably either

1) took your eye off the ball
2) misjudged the angle and hit the ball fat because you wanted to hold for the 6 ball

Neither of these are particularly massive errors. If I turned off the lights and questioned my abilities every time I did that I would have given up the game in favor of barber school 20 years ago.
 
IMHO:

90% of the time when you miss a shot like this you are not aligned up properly. Your aim on the cue is correct but if the body alignment is off it wont go in.

I was at the last IPT tournament and saw a pro shooting a very similair shot.
I happen to be in front of his shot in the crowd. I could see from his body alignment that he was going to miss, and he did. Francisco was shocked it didn't go in...a rare miss from him indeed...

I have been giving my body alignment to the shot a lot of work lately and its paying off...


hth
SR
 
It is hard to imagine making that shot EVERY time. I'll miss that one once or twice in 20 tries, I consider myself a B player. A C might miss it 5 or 7 times in 20, an A maybe 2 times in 50. Bottom line is that everybody misses. While it may be worthwhile understanding why you miss it once, I think it more important to know how the 'typical' miss is played, and work to correct these cronic problems. To do that you need to see any patterns that repeat themselves on the misses.

jmo

Dave
 
Being able shrug it off, and look towards the future, while learning from.. but not becoming agitated by the past will help you greatly in the future.

DJ
 
cheesemouse said:
You've finally succeeded at something......I am offically NUTS!!!
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Dido!!! I have a suggestion to you if you REALLY want improve your game. This is very serious and it WILL help you but you have to trust me.

1. Take your computer and bash it with a hammer.
2. Take your cue out of its case.
3. Shoot pool for 6 hours with a half hour break after 3. Shoot practice drills. Shoot racks. Shoot banks. Shoot spot shots. It doesn't matter just stay on that table for six hours.
4. repeat steps 2 and 3 each and every day.

Do this for 6 months and then go out and buy yourself a new computer and tell us the results. You won't be dissapointed. Its 100% GUARANTEED.
 
you seem to be missing a lot of shots like this lately that are fairly routine. Are you sure your not jumping up during the shot or something? It's hard to imagine you can go from running racks to missing the cheese like that without some fundemental flaw creeping in from time to time.

And like everyone always says to you, quit dwelling on all the negative sh*t! I am normally a very patient person but damn man, you gotta start taking some of our advice and approach things a different way or this will never stop!
 
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DrCue'sProtege said:
ok, one of the racks i failed to runout last night was because of this. i missed this shot. honest, no foolin, i missed this shot just exactly like the arrows show. when i missed it i just tossed the cue onto the table, shut the lights out, sat in the dark, and wondered how on earth after 8 years of playing/practicing every day i miss a shot like that???
QUOTE]

Hi Dr. I know you don't know my game (and vice versa) but I have some advice anyway. I know exactly how you feel. I've missed shots and then decided to unscrew the cue and go watch TV.

My theory for your situation (not that you missed, but your reaction to missing, which is more important) is this: You just aren't as good as you think you are. That's kind of blunt, but if you really analyze why you are upset, you might conclude the same thing. (ie. I've played "every day for 8 years"...and so I should never miss a shot like this).

Putting it another way, you have to give this game due respect. It is very, very difficult. When you set such a high standard for yourself that you are not allowed to miss a half table length shot, you are being unrealistic in judging your ability.

I also have to think that if you were well rested and not overplayed, that missing this shot might make you think about what you did wrong rather than react the way you did. But that's the trick. You don't know what you did wrong (which you shouldn't do anyway because you've been playing for 8 years) and feel helpless to fix it, so you give up. If you knew right away what caused you to miss, of course you wouldn't be so upset. I think you need to channel that negative energy toward systematically analyzing your game. Give yourself some basic drills and tests, and see if you don't learn something that you didn't know before.

As far as why you missed the shot, maybe going back to basics could shed some light (see above): Put the cue ball on the head spot and shoot to the foot of the table with the same speed you used for the shot you missed. Shoot 20 times and see how many times the ball comes back to your tip. If you miss by more than a ball diameter more than once, then you have no business being so hard on yourself. Just a little shooting error will cause a lot of problems. If you can't make the ball come back to your tip every time, then you have to figure out why. This can be tough to diagnose, but a camcorder can really help.

Also read The Pleasures of Small Motions by Fancher, if you haven't already. You seem to be the analytical type, so this might be your kind of book.

Good luck, and no offense intended.

Dan
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My two cents

After I had been playing regularly for 6 months, the counterman asked me how I was doing. In disgust, I said "Great! Another ten or twenty years and I'll have this game figured out." He replied, "If it takes you only twenty years, that will be a new world's record." Seven years later, I know he was right.
 
What level would you describe yourself? A, B, C player?

It's not your aptitude, it's your attitude that determines your altitude.
 
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NineBallNut said:
you seem to be missing a lot of shots like this lately that are fairly routine. Are you sure your not jumping up during the shot or something? It's hard to imagine you can go from running racks to missing the cheese like that without some fundemental flaw creeping in from time to time.
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DCP,
It sounds like you're overdue for at least one lesson with an instructor to evaluate your fundamentals, and correct them if necessary.
 
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