I've been disappointed with my straight pool performance the last year. I am hitting them pretty strong playing 9/10 ball and 8 ball, but in straight pool I continue to stall out at pretty unimpressive numbers. I feel at the level I play at I should be able to post much higher runs. At first this was just irritating and nagged at me but it wasn't a big deal because I don't really compete at straight pool. But then I realized whatever the weak link was it might help me to identify it and work on it.
It quickly became obvious it was the break shot. Once the balls were broken I had no trouble running through the rack, picking another break shot, and even saving a good key ball and sequence leading up to it. Yet a surprising number of times I'd get bad on the break ball, miss the break ball, get stuck on the rack, or draw up table and miss my next shot. I've posted some good runs in the past and figured I was just having an off day or getting lazy, but over time I've concluded I am indeed weak in this area. To run 100 you need to execute 7 consecutive break shots in a row. If you're 50/50 that means 1/256. Factor in running the other balls of the table in between break shots and you can see that it would likely take 1,000 attempts. I have run 100 a few times but I've also had many, many failed attempts. So I really need to work on this. My confidence is just really low in this area.
My latest practice sessions involve me playing a race to 9 against the straight pool 'break shot ghost'. I set up a break shot, roughly speaking 40% on the left side of the rack, 40% on the right side, 10% behind the stack, and 10% non-traditional (side pocket, side rail, etc). Then I put 3 other balls on the table, not connect the dots with a dream key ball, but not tricky or tied up balls either. I then take ball in hand. The goal is to run the three balls, get on the break shot, make it, spread some balls, and make the next shot to get control of the table.
It's not perfect as you have to make some judgement calls, i.e. sometimes I count it as a miss if I get stuck on the rack and get lucky to have a ball go cross side and hang on a pocket, and I don't shoot hail mary shots. But in general it's a really good way to make sure that your time at the table is spent doing what is needed to get better. If I had John Schmidt shooting those 5 shots for me I am quite confident I could clean up the rack and get him a good last four balls consistently, so this is what I have to do if I want to post better runs. I also do score visualization, saying '14' to myself on the first break ball, then '28' when I am shooting the second, all the way until I dog one. It's funny, when I have 5 in a row and I'm announcing 'run of 70' to myself I can actually feel the pressure build the same way as when I'm actually running the balls.
My scores are dismal, like 9-7 and 9-6, again, not much better than 50/50. My high run is 5 in a row which would explain why I'm not breaking 70 very often. But I've only done this twice so I'll give it time.
Of course I also spend time just rifling in individual shots in break ball position so I can pocket a bunch without having to slow down and rack. But taking the time to practice getting on it and actually breaking open a rack is very valuable to me as well.
I am hoping I improve at this over the next month so I can start posting up more regular 100s. I'll keep you guys posted. I was going to start my own thread announcing I was going after JS's 626 but I have decided to respect his wishes and give him a year
It quickly became obvious it was the break shot. Once the balls were broken I had no trouble running through the rack, picking another break shot, and even saving a good key ball and sequence leading up to it. Yet a surprising number of times I'd get bad on the break ball, miss the break ball, get stuck on the rack, or draw up table and miss my next shot. I've posted some good runs in the past and figured I was just having an off day or getting lazy, but over time I've concluded I am indeed weak in this area. To run 100 you need to execute 7 consecutive break shots in a row. If you're 50/50 that means 1/256. Factor in running the other balls of the table in between break shots and you can see that it would likely take 1,000 attempts. I have run 100 a few times but I've also had many, many failed attempts. So I really need to work on this. My confidence is just really low in this area.
My latest practice sessions involve me playing a race to 9 against the straight pool 'break shot ghost'. I set up a break shot, roughly speaking 40% on the left side of the rack, 40% on the right side, 10% behind the stack, and 10% non-traditional (side pocket, side rail, etc). Then I put 3 other balls on the table, not connect the dots with a dream key ball, but not tricky or tied up balls either. I then take ball in hand. The goal is to run the three balls, get on the break shot, make it, spread some balls, and make the next shot to get control of the table.
It's not perfect as you have to make some judgement calls, i.e. sometimes I count it as a miss if I get stuck on the rack and get lucky to have a ball go cross side and hang on a pocket, and I don't shoot hail mary shots. But in general it's a really good way to make sure that your time at the table is spent doing what is needed to get better. If I had John Schmidt shooting those 5 shots for me I am quite confident I could clean up the rack and get him a good last four balls consistently, so this is what I have to do if I want to post better runs. I also do score visualization, saying '14' to myself on the first break ball, then '28' when I am shooting the second, all the way until I dog one. It's funny, when I have 5 in a row and I'm announcing 'run of 70' to myself I can actually feel the pressure build the same way as when I'm actually running the balls.
My scores are dismal, like 9-7 and 9-6, again, not much better than 50/50. My high run is 5 in a row which would explain why I'm not breaking 70 very often. But I've only done this twice so I'll give it time.
Of course I also spend time just rifling in individual shots in break ball position so I can pocket a bunch without having to slow down and rack. But taking the time to practice getting on it and actually breaking open a rack is very valuable to me as well.
I am hoping I improve at this over the next month so I can start posting up more regular 100s. I'll keep you guys posted. I was going to start my own thread announcing I was going after JS's 626 but I have decided to respect his wishes and give him a year
