Self Implosion

New ya gotta get in touch with your inner Jack (Nicholson). Pound those offensive little round balls into dust. Jackhammer those bastages into the pockets. When you crank a short straight in shot and the table vibrates you hit it hard enough. Take your frustration out on the balls. Abuse the little recalcitrant bastages. Teach them the fear of god. Let them know what will happen if they don't go in the hole like they are supposed to.

But more seriously it sounds like you're burning out some. Take a short break. And when you pick up your cue concentrate on the basics. Stroke proper alignment, grip check the small things. Big problems are usually a mess of little ones. Best of luck getting it back. I know you will.

Mark Shuman
 
I've been going through the same problem for a bit now (longer than a few weeks). It's driven me absolutely crazy, to point of almost giving up.

Here is what I have decided to do. Starting today, I'm doing a complete overhaul of my mechanics and going back to the absolute basics. I'm doing everything from making sure my feet are placed properly, I'm ensuring my cue is placed on the line of the shot, keeping my grip hand relaxed, focusing on my eye patterns, keeping my arm relaxed, no head movement at all, no twisting or moving, staying down till the ball is in the pocket, stroking the ball rather than hitting at it etc. etc. etc.

I definitely noticed an improvement from how I've been playing on average over the last little while. It doesn't feel as natural and flowing as it used to, but I guess I just work on buidling new habits.

But I've noticed a lot of bad habits when I started with this. It's tough, but I think I'll be a much improved player in the long run.
 
good solid advice

Tramp Steamer said:
All of the replies have been good but fail, in my opinion, to address the underlying issue and that is you probably suck at playing pool. Now I know that's a hard pill to swallow but I've seen it time after time after time. A guy goes to the poolhall, makes a few easy shots and all of a sudden starts thinking he's Willie Mosconi, or Fats Domino, or somebody.
There is only one remedy to your delimma, and that of course, is suicide. What I suggest you do is dress up in camoflage gear, from head to toe, and walk out into traffic. A busy intersection is usually best, say five-o'clock in the afternoon.
If that doesn't work, sneak into your boss's house, take off all of your clothes and quietly stand in his bedroom closet. This approach can be time consuming, but very effective.
I hope I've been of some help. Your pal, Tramp. :)

P.S. If all else fails, take a short vacation from the game. You'll know when you're ready to come back.
P.S.S. I was just teasing about sucking.
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The above is
Good solid advice, but I think you also have to consider changing your species. I've never seen a baby Orangutan win a set of pool. A couple of games, but never a full set. Think about it.:grin:
 
Blind Late Ball helps me...

Whenever I feel my own game dropping well below my average, I know that I'm probably letting a few key flaws creep back. Not sighting well, rushing, jumping up, or excessive BH english are usually the responsible demons. If I really need a good kick start to get back to a better place, I usually will start playing some blind late-ball as practice to focus on sighting, stroke, staying down, etc..

Blind Late-ball is a self-induced ghost bar bet type game. After break, BIH. You can shoot any ball / combination, but the 8 has to go in last. Plan your shot, line up, get down, take a couple practice strokes. After two or three practice strokes, close your eyes. Take at least one or two more practice strokes. Fire.

You have 25 shots total to clear the table after the break, sinking the 8 last. Subtract 1 shot for each ball made on the break. If you are good, set the total shots after the break to 20. If you win, the ghost pays you a c-note. If you lose, you pay the ghost $25.

After a half dozen or so games, I find that my game starts swinging back the other way.
 
if there is the case of unwanted thought patterns that enter your head and mess up your shots, i can offer advice that at one point really changed my game. when i needed to boost my confidence and get on a roll, i would do lots of physical exercise before playing pool - relax in a sauna etc. then afterwards you will be worn out and your body will be relaxed and untensed when playing pool, no way you are going to give yourself a hard time mentally. you will be playing relaxed and your stroke will slowly get into sync. good luck
 
NewStroke said:
Over the last couple weeks my game is really dropping off, just before this, I was running racks and never second guessed myself. Now when I get down on a shot, I have no confidence whatsoever. No only that but every part of my stroke feels out of whack. It's really bizarre but it's a terrible feeling. I know we go through stages, but I don't seem to be getting out of this one. If you have any words of wisdom that don't include using Blue Diamond chalk, I am all ears. I am really fed up at this point.
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I recently had an epiphany that was solved through the magic of video. In a nutshell, my game really fell into the toilet earlier this year. I mean, I became totally helpless. Nothing looked right. Nothing worked. I couldn't see the shots. I went to the Derby in January and only through old age and cunning was I able to win just one match (lost the next two hill-hill through bone headed mistakes). I did the straight pool challenge and couldn't get out of the first rack, except maybe once, in 12 tries. In all the years I've been playing pool, I have never fallen this far, or this hard. I was getting kinda depressed about the whole thing.

So right before the Derby, Dennis, from the 14.1 forum, emails me and asks if I want a DVD of me shooting from last year's 14.1 Challenge and I say sure and he says he'll bring it to the DCC and give it to me then. I go, he gives me the DVD, and it sits on my desk for a month.

In the weeks after the Derby, my game gets even worse. I mean, my game is not only in the toilet, it's also been flushed away. So one day I see the DVD sitting there and I remember that I was actually playing pretty good last year: beat Piggy Banks in the 1pocket, cashed, even had a 42 at the straight pool challenge (which may not sound like much until you've looked down the rail on a thin cut shot on one of those pro-cut Diamonds).

So I throw it in and... it was a revelation. I'm looking at the screen and I can't believe it. It's a totally different player. I'm a great one for messing around with my PSR and a bunch of other things and I'm watching this DVD and I'm like, "Wow. NO way. That's so totally different than what I'm doing now." Impersonating myself from the DVD, I'm raining 50's and 60's and a few 70's, and eventually a 120.

Sooo, my advice is to try the video. You'll eventually come out of this (we all do) and shoot some video then. It can be illuminating :-)

Lou Figueroa
 
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You're getting bad advice.

... IF you are still playing APA, ride this slump out until you get down to an SL3 or 2 and THEN fix your stroke.... sandbag from there :thumbup:
 
good advice for anyone

lfigueroa said:
I recently had an epiphany that was solved through the magic of video. In a nutshell, my game really fell into the toilet earlier this year. I mean, I became totally helpless. Nothing looked right. Nothing worked. I couldn't see the shots. I went to the Derby in January and only through old age and cunning was I able to win just one match (lost the next two hill-hill through bone headed mistakes). I did the straight pool challenge and couldn't get out of the first rack, except maybe once, in 12 tries. In all the years I've been playing pool, I have never fallen this far, or this hard. I was getting kinda depressed about the whole thing.

So right before the Derby, Dennis, from the 14.1 forum, emails me and asks if I want a DVD of me shooting from last year's 14.1 Challenge and I say sure and he says he'll bring it to the DCC and give it to me then. I go, he gives me the DVD, and it sits on my desk for a month.

In the weeks after the Derby, my game gets even worse. I mean, my game is not only in the toilet, it's also been flushed away. So one day I see the DVD sitting there and I remember that I was actually playing pretty good last year: beat Piggy Banks in the 1pocket, cashed, even had a 42 at the straight pool challenge (which may not sound like much until you've looked down the rail on a thin cut shot on one of those pro-cut Diamonds).

So I throw it in and... it was a revelation. I'm looking at the screen and I can't believe it. It's a totally different player. I'm a great one for messing around with my PSR and a bunch of other things and I'm watching this DVD and I'm like, "Wow. NO way. That's so totally different than what I'm doing now." Impersonating myself from the DVD, I'm raining 50's and 60's and a few 70's, and eventually a 120.

Sooo, my advice is to try the video. You'll eventually come out of this (we all do) and shoot some video then. It can be illuminating :-)

Lou Figueroa
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Lou,

This is great advice for anyone. I have found that most people don't do exactly what they think they do. A mirror is great instant feedback. Combine that with video that you can look at over and over again and see how you are really doing things in play and you can clean up a lot of problems that you never knew existed until watching video of yourself.

Nothing like a personal story to hammer a point home too.

Hu
 
Hey all, thank you very much for your advice. Just about everyone, EXCEPT TRAMP (lol), had some good advice. I believe I found the issue but now I just need to shoot alot more to get my "natural" rhythm and confidence back. First, I think venting about my problem helped alot, just sitting on it stewing about it was a waste of energy. The next thing I did was that I stepped through each step of my process and found that I had somehow shifted my stance which threw my head off line. This explains why I was feeling uncomfortable. For some reason I decided to shift my weight to the left. When I finally noticed and corrected it, my body felt way better and I was seeing my shots again from a familiar perpspective. From here I need to work on it repeatedly until it becomes "natural" again. It's funny how similiar these type of fixes are to shooting targets. Thanks again.
 
DoubleD said:
That is an interesting one. What has changed recently? Did you have an injury, get new shoes, etc.?

I ask because if I noticed that I was doing something differently than I had before it would be a cause of concern.

As an aside that relates, I dislocated an extensor tendon in my bridge hand shortly after I started playing pool a lot after a 2+ year layoff. I didn't notice I was doing anything different, but one night I went to make a bridge and heard/felt it snap out of place.

Long story short, figure out why you inadvertently changed your stance.

dld
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Aside from having occasional back spasms, I'm pretty fit. I really think, it was me being lazy and eventually falling into a bad habit. It is possible that I was getting too comfortable and not paying attention to the fundamentals. I won't be making that mistake anytime soon.
 
ShootingArts said:
Lou,

This is great advice for anyone. I have found that most people don't do exactly what they think they do. A mirror is great instant feedback. Combine that with video that you can look at over and over again and see how you are really doing things in play and you can clean up a lot of problems that you never knew existed until watching video of yourself.

Nothing like a personal story to hammer a point home too.

Hu
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Thanks, Hu.

Lou Figueroa
 
NewStroke said:
...I stepped through each step of my process and found that I had somehow shifted my stance which threw my head off line.
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One of the bestest things you can do for yourself is to kinda "go back up river" and figure out what caused (is causing) you do go this. There is usually a reason, but it may be hard to spot. Perhaps a different grip or setup motion.

Our bodies do things -- like shift weight or alter foot work -- for a reason. The trick is finding what it is that induces you to do a bad thing and what induces you to do the good one :-)

Lou Figueroa
 
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