When I hit the grocery store, I'm a sucker for magazines, scanning the cover page for snippets of what delicacies await me. These mags that I spend $3 to $5 for will lay on my coffee table for a spell sometimes, me not having any free time to just sit back and enjoy. 
One of my favorite mags is called "More," geared towards the, shall I say, "mature woman," with articles about how to be fearless and fabulous at the age of 50-plus, favorite finds for gorgeous hair, anti-aging beauty secrets, and how to get a better body in 2 weeks. Hey, at 52, I keep reading, hoping to learn as much as I can about how to enjoy my autumn years.
Last night, I was catching up on my magazines, and lo and behold, on page 28 of More, there was a bright color picture of pool balls. The article, written by Juliann Garey, entitled "Shoot Pool Like You Mean It." Well, that caught my attention.
My curiosity piqued, I pored through the short one-pager. Garey relays her experience at "Slate Plus," an upscale Manhattan billiard lounge where "UPA Touring Pro Mark Finkelstein runs a weekly pool school."
As an aside, I have never heard of Mark Finkelstein. I tried to locate a picture of him on the UPA Tour website and the AzBilliards Players link on the Main Page, but to no avail. Maybe some of the AzB-ers from NYC can provide some details about this player/instructor.
The article states that one lesson with Finkelstein "will transform a banger's game." Finkelstein's pool school is filling up mostly with "groups of men in suits, drinking martinis and shooting pool with their pals."
Of course, it's impossible to teach someone the correct fundamentals in one magazine article, but, according to the author, "one lesson from Finkelstein will transform a banger's game...after an hour or two of instruction, you'll be able to walk into any bar and beat half of the men in the room."
It goes on about "The Stick," "The Stance," "The Stroke." "The Keys" which are to be followed before every shot, go like this:
loose deep breath in, loose grip, take your stance;
set aim, line up the stick on the ball;
target focus on where you want the cue ball to hit;
slow draw your stick back slightly;
and easy shoot at "pocket speed" -- just enough force to sink it; no more, no less.
The article concludes with this referral link: "For pool lessons near you, check out USPAPOOL.com." This is actually a very nice website, easy to navigate, and informative to boot.
JAM
One of my favorite mags is called "More," geared towards the, shall I say, "mature woman," with articles about how to be fearless and fabulous at the age of 50-plus, favorite finds for gorgeous hair, anti-aging beauty secrets, and how to get a better body in 2 weeks. Hey, at 52, I keep reading, hoping to learn as much as I can about how to enjoy my autumn years.
Last night, I was catching up on my magazines, and lo and behold, on page 28 of More, there was a bright color picture of pool balls. The article, written by Juliann Garey, entitled "Shoot Pool Like You Mean It." Well, that caught my attention.
My curiosity piqued, I pored through the short one-pager. Garey relays her experience at "Slate Plus," an upscale Manhattan billiard lounge where "UPA Touring Pro Mark Finkelstein runs a weekly pool school."
As an aside, I have never heard of Mark Finkelstein. I tried to locate a picture of him on the UPA Tour website and the AzBilliards Players link on the Main Page, but to no avail. Maybe some of the AzB-ers from NYC can provide some details about this player/instructor.
The article states that one lesson with Finkelstein "will transform a banger's game." Finkelstein's pool school is filling up mostly with "groups of men in suits, drinking martinis and shooting pool with their pals."
Of course, it's impossible to teach someone the correct fundamentals in one magazine article, but, according to the author, "one lesson from Finkelstein will transform a banger's game...after an hour or two of instruction, you'll be able to walk into any bar and beat half of the men in the room."
It goes on about "The Stick," "The Stance," "The Stroke." "The Keys" which are to be followed before every shot, go like this:
loose deep breath in, loose grip, take your stance;
set aim, line up the stick on the ball;
target focus on where you want the cue ball to hit;
slow draw your stick back slightly;
and easy shoot at "pocket speed" -- just enough force to sink it; no more, no less.
The article concludes with this referral link: "For pool lessons near you, check out USPAPOOL.com." This is actually a very nice website, easy to navigate, and informative to boot.
JAM
