Guys get "good enough" just by keeping on doing it. In a desk career, that's how you get passed by and phased out buh bye.
It's about quality input making quality output.
Shoot a Million Balls? Give me a break.
- Thread starter jjohnson
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It's about quality input making quality output.
The math is 1% inspiration, 99% perpiration. But, it's gotta be efficient and concise work or it's just global warming.
Selling the shot was a big part of things. Acting as surprised as anyone then proclaiming somewhat pompously "I did that on purpose" when a tough shot falls. One trick is learning how to make your voice ring false so everyone hearing thinks you are full of crap! I used to sell "misses" by blurting out something angry and waving a stick angrily usually over my head. I made enough noise about a lost game everyone around knew it, when I won I was quieter than a popcorn fart. All just part of the schtick in the day.
As for shooting center pocket, I had five primary lanes I aimed at. Strong players might have seven or more. I have known more players that said they never aimed center pocket than those that claimed they always aimed center pocket. Shooting a pistol the class of the field was still running clean after three relays, so was I. Difference was he was shooting very tight groups, I was all over the ten point area. A newcomer laughing said, "Look at his groups then look at yours!" Next stage you could cover my groups with the palm of a small hand. I passed by the laugher, "Ten points is ten points." The same thing applies to pool. When they start giving center pocket a higher value than the rest of the pocket then I'll start aiming center pocket.
Hu
Cole was talking about a slouch. Not a hustler. Don't forget, it takes one to know one and Cole was unquestionably one hell of a hustler.Don't wish to argue here, but I've known a few players the purists would call bums for using the whole pocket and cheating them regularly in order to leave with the cash. Thot never occurred to them not to.
My standards must have fallen when I wasn't playing 14:1 regularly and hit the road, If I had any to begin with??
The standard I held myself to was to win. Period. Use the whole green, pitch, court, field, board, any and all of it.
I met a guy at Hard Times, Bellflower. He would come in regularly there for a while. He told me that Cole wouldn't come into a town to hustle up a game. He came into town to hustle the whole town!
Fallacy: "When they start giving center pocket a higher value than the rest of the pocket then I'll start aiming center pocket." You mean that whenever you make the ball it doesn't matter if you hit center pocket. How much money have you ever taken down by not aiming center pocket and missing the shot? This is very similar to that ancient Greek argument about with every step, if you get half way to your destination, you will never get to your destination. But we know this is not reality. You do get to your destination because you in fact cover a given distance in a given time. This is called your rate or speed. Nice try.
Luck, by definition, happens infrequently. And if it's rare enough, it's called a miracle. So, if you get lucky, get a few rolls, in a session, but you lose much of, if not all your cash to a better player, a good player, you can walk away happy? I think not. Good is consistency. You can take that to the bank. The Hip-pocket National bank.
Tip top advice for all pool players:
"put in the work"
"Guys get "good enough" just by keeping on doing it."
"The math is 1% inspiration, 99% perpiration. But, it's gotta be efficient and concise work or it's just global warming."
"A good breathing routine helps endurance as well." You mean "good" is like, in and out, and don't stop?
I'll by that for a dollar!
Great. There's more where this comes from. Lots more.
Not me. But if you charge $30 an hour for this drivel, it then could garner some respect. It may actually become worthwhile. Let me think about it.
"put in the work"
"Guys get "good enough" just by keeping on doing it."
"The math is 1% inspiration, 99% perpiration. But, it's gotta be efficient and concise work or it's just global warming."
"A good breathing routine helps endurance as well." You mean "good" is like, in and out, and don't stop?
I'll by that for a dollar!
Great. There's more where this comes from. Lots more.
Not me. But if you charge $30 an hour for this drivel, it then could garner some respect. It may actually become worthwhile. Let me think about it.
I have won hundreds in one session by not aiming center pocket and missing shots. I have won a lot more by not aiming center pocket and making shots. Very often the center of the pocket is not the sweet spot to make the shot. One of the major advances in my game was when I learned to not always aim at the center of the pocket or the center of the available opening which often isn't the same thing.
I wish the jelly for giving advice on this forum was one percent of the money I have made doing these things. I would make enough in a year to buy a new pool table, and the house to put it in!
Hu
Isn't its higher value that if you aim for center pocket you're less likely to miss the shot?
pj
chgo
There is one thing every single professional pool player does. He/she delivers the cue stick as perfectly and consistently as humanly possible. The only question is: how will you do this? Opinions are like... everyone has one. Advice? How about knowledge. How about technique. How about a process. A fact of life: the more scarce something is and the more in demand this scarce item is, the more it will cost. And the more something costs, the more the worst aspects of human nature will emerge around it. It's a jungle out there.
You are not talking about not being able to hit the center of the pocket. You are talking about your strategies/tactics for not aiming for the center of the pocket. Duh. But you've never intentionally not aimed for the center of the pocket when that was the only way to win, and you end up missing because you couldn't execute. Say you are hill-hill. You're on the 9-ball. It's a difficult shot. You are all in, all your money is on this one shot. You miss and you're busted. I'm not going to ask you what you're going to do. I know what you're going to do. And so do you.
Bingo!
Attachments
The corner pockets at steep angles are wider on one side than the other. On the tables I play, caressing the rail will cause a rattle, so I shoot to avoid rail contact.
The side pockets at a steep angle make you aim for where the ledge of the slate is--you want to roll OB over the ledge--this maximizes you ability to miss the tit of the rail (and end up missing)
I can put 7 rounds into a palm at 25 yards 1986 1911A with 5,000+ rounds through it.
I generally shoot 1-5-shot group inside 0.5" at 100 yards, 2-5-shot groups around 0.4 at 100 yards, and 1-5-shot group near 0.35 from a box of 20 hand loaded 308 rounds in my M40. Oh, and BTW, when you are in a situation where you have to miss by at least X, it is the largest group you have to worry about, not the smallest.
A tight group that misses the bulls-eye is worthless in real life.
Mitch
If shooting 45 degree or greater angle it is probably better value to aim at the near side of the pocket. Especially with dirty balls and high humidity, pretty typical conditions when gambling. Then there are times I want to put a good bit of spin on the cue ball. All of a sudden aiming at center pocket might give me a quarter pocket or less to make the ball in. Shooting at the edge of the pocket opens up close to the entire pocket.
Mitch, you shoot pretty fair for sure! Shooting benchrest we shot for score or we shot for groups, depending on the match. Shooting for groups the hole(s) just had to be in the scoring area, anywhere in it. If I had opened up anything bigger than a bughole chances are I was going to use all of the existing group size to be sure my later shots were inside the existing group regardless of where it was at in the scoring area. Shooting for score the X ring was the only goal.
I was shooting a good match one day but the mirage was running hard using a forty power scope at 200. The target would disappear for awhile then an image would pop up in one of three places. The clock was ticking. Wind from the left when there was a wind so I tossed out the image on the right as fake. Left or center? My gut said the center one was real but how the hell could the image pop up on the upwind side? I was looking at a very respectable placing shooting with some of the very best. My gut said the middle image was real. My head said the wind was from the left, the left image was real. I hadn't shot a group over a quarter inch all day. My last shot made my last group a big ugly around an inch or more. I didn't even go over to the scoring area!
The bolded part is where your post dropped into the twilight zone. From there pure gibberish and impossible situation.
Hu
In snooker you have a better look at what is and what isn't center pocket. It's apparent that most of the field is on "close enough". Even the guys making all the money would rather stay in rhythm than absolute precision. They get on ducks or close straight ins and more often than not, these pass through the opening on the bias - not at all center pocket.
This is not good enough - especially in the context of the tons of shots they pass up for lack of certainty.
The ball swath is what's important. Tell me decades into your meeyun bawws, you still cant tell how big the ball is and what line it's on.
I've got 3 lines and another 2 if I'm trying to cheat the crap out of the hole cuz I blew shape or there's no other way to get where I need to get without cheating.
I believe it was meant tongue in cheek. Def not a proverb to play by.
