Slow Down Before You Shoot 10-15 sec.

i think you can shoot as fast as you want as long as your able to make good decisions quickly and your stoke is able to keep up and you don't get stressed running 6 or more balls.
 
There's absolutely no reason you cannot do that quickly. Assessing a shot with speed is a skill in itself. Slow play is the death of pool. Pool is unwatchable when the snails are in town.

Time is a precious commodity. We simply don't live in an age where we can afford a sport where the spectator is watching a man watching a table for 10 mins at a time.

Bottom line: pool speeds up or pool dies completely. The message should not be 'slow down'. The message should be, for the common good, get on with it already!

Faster. More thrilling. More drama.

You are so correct. Have a guy in our league who takes so long it is ridiculous. One guy said if he has to play him again he will forfeit. Does it in purpose.
 
You are so correct. Have a guy in our league who takes so long it is ridiculous. One guy said if he has to play him again he will forfeit. Does it in purpose.

Does your league have a shot clock rule ? Mine does. It's 45 seconds. I have no idea if that is a typical rule time for league/tournament play. 45 seconds is pretty long.
 
There is a lot to be said for rhythm and cadence. It starts with your breathing while you are in the the chair. It continues with the way you walk to/around the table, the way you chalk your tip, the way you survey the table, the way you get down on a shot, the way you take warm up strokes and the way you execute the shot. Think about the last time that you were "in the zone". I'll bet you'll recall feeling a certain rhythm and how everything just felt so natural and connected. Not too slow... not to fast... just right.

Couldn't of said it better my self. Forget slow down find your rhythm ...
 
There is a lot to be said for rhythm and cadence. It starts with your breathing while you are in the the chair. It continues with the way you walk to/around the table, the way you chalk your tip, the way you survey the table, the way you get down on a shot, the way you take warm up strokes and the way you execute the shot. Think about the last time that you were "in the zone". I'll bet you'll recall feeling a certain rhythm and how everything just felt so natural and connected. Not too slow... not to fast... just right.

Totally agree, and this jives with what Lou is saying in post #8. Ditto for Scott in #20 and Big_Mike above.

I got "The Pleasures of Small Motions" by Bob Fancher for Christmas and am about half-way through. Establishing and maintaining your ideal rythym is critical to consistently stroking well.

It was a great time for me to read this book because I was starting to figure this out on some level on my own. The book helped me to make better sense of it and put it together into something I could more easily practice and learn. I hope I practice it in enough to make it stick because just yesterday I was starting to "get it" more often and I can tell that if I can ritualize this to the point where it is my new normal that my game will shoot up to a whole new level of non-suckiness.
 
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I've played and watched 1000's of average to better than average players shoot pool and the one thing I believe that would bring up most of their games is SLOW DOWN. Before you get down to shoot, know where the CB is going. Whats the best route to send the CB safely for position. If its a tough shot and you feel you might miss, think how to play safe if you miss and still have a makeable shot if you make it. The list goes on and on what you should be thinking of. This way when you finally get down on the ball you won't have any negative thoughts in your head, because you had everything covered BEFORE you got down on the shot. Johnnyt

Thanks for the good idea that can help many players. Funny how people miss the intent behind your post and use the forum to vent. Wish there were more like JohnnyT around here.
 
Thanks for the good idea that can help many players. Funny how people miss the intent behind your post and use the forum to vent. Wish there were more like JohnnyT around here.

I don't think anyone missed the intent behind his post. I wish there were a few younger posters around here, because I don't see many younger players.

Now, why is that?
 
How young we talking...? I'm 23, just got into pool seriously about a year and a half ago. Just been floating around this site grabbing as much info. and pointers as I can. Thought I might finally chime in. From my short experiences with pool the mental aspect of pool is 75% of the game. Confidence, concentration, rhythm....I feel like you get to a point where your just about capable of beating anyone out there but the mental game is what makes or breaks a player.
 
I've found my best rhythm is the one in which thinking deeper about the shot doesn't affect the outcome. After pulling the trigger too many times to count before deciding how much english, where to leave, taking the shot for granted, etc, I've been forcing myself to spend a little more time and commit to the shot before moving forward. This doesn't mean I have to spend a long time staring down an easy shot, it just means that I must recognize that I need to know and accept my target and goal before going ahead..

How's that saying go, Johnnyt? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.. and boy there sure are a lot of cures out there.
 
How young we talking...? I'm 23, just got into pool seriously about a year and a half ago. Just been floating around this site grabbing as much info. and pointers as I can. Thought I might finally chime in. From my short experiences with pool the mental aspect of pool is 75% of the game. Confidence, concentration, rhythm....I feel like you get to a point where your just about capable of beating anyone out there but the mental game is what makes or breaks a player.

Younger. Much younger. I don't see kids playing it anywhere. The game will be dead within a generation or two if we don't fundamentally alter it, and that means less threads like this.
 
I've found my best rhythm is the one in which thinking deeper about the shot doesn't affect the outcome. After pulling the trigger too many times to count before deciding how much english, where to leave, taking the shot for granted, etc, I've been forcing myself to spend a little more time and commit to the shot before moving forward. This doesn't mean I have to spend a long time staring down an easy shot, it just means that I must recognize that I need to know and accept my target and goal before going ahead..

How's that saying go, Johnnyt? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.. and boy there sure are a lot of cures out there.
 
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