Returning To Game & Practicing

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DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
To make a long story short I have sort of got the desire to play pool again. Its been a couple of years since I had the fever to practice/play. I am even having new Simonis Cloth put on my table this weekend - weather permitting as we are forecast for 5-8 inches of snow.

Anyway, below are the things I am going to practice/focus on in hopes of gradually improving. In no particular order:

1) Slowing down. I've noticed I take a couple of practice strokes and fire away.
2) Straight In shots. Follow, Stun, Draw. Focus on speed on follow/draw.
3) Speed Control shots. 1 rail, 2 rails, 3 rails.
4) Stroke Drill. Shoot the CB between two object balls that have about 1/4" clearance between them. Follow, Stun, Draw.
5) Run the Mother Drills some, focusing on keeping the elbow up/still.
6) Use the Elephant training ball. Focus on striking the CB where I am aiming.
7) Four Ball. Throw four balls on the table and run them out. Focus on getting perfect position.

Thoughts posters?

DCP
 
what color did ya go for?

Any plans to make use of your pool playing, as in tournaments or other play outside ye olde castle?

Congrats on the retirement too, btw. I am jealous.
 
English Green, regular Simonis 860, not the HR.

Yes, eventually one day. If a big tournament is close enough I would certainly consider playing for the heck of it.

Retirement is March 31st.

DCP
 
I basically took a 15-year hiatus from the game and got the itch to play competitively again a little over a year ago. I returned to playing regularly again by first playing in a couple of cheap weekly local tournaments, and then ended up walking into the pool hall in my area that that I felt was the "best one" in terms of clientele, equipment and atmosphere...

There, I asked around when they do their league nights and came back on the night that best suited my schedule. Luckily, I ended up running into someone there I had played golf with before, and who also happened to be an acquaintance of father. Had no idea he was a pool player. Well, I ended up joining his team and have been having a pretty good time with that since.

Drills are great, and I do some at home from time to time (got table since comeback to the game) but it was more important to me in the short term to get my competitive itch scratched. League and small weekly tournaments have done that for me quite nicely. Plus, I've won some money and enjoyed LOTS of free table time in the process. It's really been a win-win for me.

Glad to be back playing and mostly winning.

Good luck,
 
I will probably even work on stuff like this:

Stroke
Aim/Alignment
Cue ball Knowledge
Speed Control
The mighty Stop Shot.


r/DCP





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Good for you. Glad you're coming back to the game. I came back to the game for good 3 or 4 years ago and really spent the last year to year and a half working on my stroke and fundamentals and have really seen an improvement I didn't think was possible. I got a lot of benefit from working on Dr. Dave's Billiard University drills as well as Mark Wilson's Play Great Pool book.
 
Why just 4 balls and not all 15?

With 15 balls just rolled out on the table, this provides enough variety in shot selection to practice everything you mentioned in one session.

And even those areas you don't such as combos, caroms and banks.

Starting with the 15 ball drill, you will quickly see what areas needs work and what doesn't.

Then do one ball drills in those areas.

Then go back to 15 ball drill and kinda focus on selecting shots that you were working on in the 1 ball drill.
 
I took off 30 years for Golf. When I came back to pool picked it up within an hour of play again. Now the best part. Streaming weekend tournaments have made me a much better player and I was decent. Just learned so much. Far less english, softer hits, sliding and figuring angles much clearer now along with aiming and stance changes. Now I can run 4-5 racks of balls randomly spread on table, no clusters. Playing every day and enjoying it very much with utmost confidence in what I'm doing. It is really a simple task if one has the information embedded in one's brain. Not just watching streaming but studying it and listening to commentating. Good luck.
 
Starting back playing again after a few year lay-off is the perfect time to go over your basics, from stance to pocketing the ball. I bought Mark Wilsons book and started pool over from the beginning. I beat the 9 ball ghost and have more higher runs in 14.1 than anytime in the last 60+ years. Of course I'm not playing for money and no one is firing back at me. Sometimes it's not fun if the rabbit has the gun. Johnnyt
 
Well, I've got the new English Green 860 Simonis on the table now. Don't really like it, too dark, but we wont go into that.

I've basically just been racking and breaking, trying to take full advantage of playing on new cloth at the moment. In the next few days I will probably start on the aforementioned practice routine. Right now I am rusty and having a little problem adjusting to the new slick cloth. And, like has ALWAYS been the case, I aint having any luck on the break shot. Rarely have a chance to run out as I rarely pocket a ball AND have a decent shot.

Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, or should I say, the stroke of things.

r/Mike
 
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Don't rush things. You will get used to the color or ad more light.. Maybe a change to the lighter colored balls like pastels will brighten things up. I left game for golf for 35 years and returned with same problem. Did quite a bit of reading and watching streaming and everything fell into place. Refresh stroke, bridge and stance. If you are not breaking balls to your liking get a cheap heavier cue for breaking and try different angles to rack of balls. Make sure you shift weight into stroke instead of moving back. Move chest towards table upon forward stroke for more power. And of course hit cue ball and object ball as square as possible. You may want to try some light weights.
 
We are not gonna talk about your break woes until you break the balls 10x and post pics of the spreads!
 
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