i want to take time out here to thank sparkle84, Steve Matthieu, for helping me out.
Steve had been angling to meet up with me for some time to play some 14.1, and i finally found some time free on a weekend, when i normally work, so we could get together in Ivory Billiards in Holyoke, Mass. it turned out to be an APA league night and was pretty zooey, but i'm very very glad that we shouted and worked our way through it.
Steve clearly has very deep knowledge of the game and all of its subtleties, old school or new. he watched me play for a little while (unbeknownst to me!), then introduced himself, and right away had some comments on my game, all of which later proved insightful and invaluable.
the most important point i think he made was philosophical: that i was playing a very contained game, trying to stay so far within my comfort zone that i was far beyond the point of "minimizing cueball movement" -- i wasn't moving the cue ball around enough to reach the places i needed to get to, but Could get to if i tried.
and in fact, it had been so long since i'd really tried to get great position, that i'd about forgotten How. which was turning into a nasty little feedback loop of not trying even more. duh. so much so, that i'd lost the ability to really spin the ball when i needed to, or even to use spin instead of brute force in some situations where it made sense, to move the cue more easily and accurately. there were even some shots -- like a drag shot -- that i used to play as a kid before i stopped playing for 40 years, that i'd completely forgotten i knew how to play! my game was largely reduced to Only the brainwash drill; i'd stopped almost altogether playing even 1-rail shots for position, let alone using 2-3 to come into the next shot zone better.
putting it in a positive way, he advised me after opening a rack, and until it was fully opened, to "determine where the most beneficial spot for the cue ball would be" and try to get there asap. makes perfect sense in hindsight, but i wasn't really doing that. i was playing patterns based on what i could easily achieve ball-pocketing-wise, starting from where i was on the table to get to a good position, but wasting way too many balls on the way there. Steve showed me how to turn that process upside down, and that it was often possible on easy shots to make the cue ball work much harder than i had been.
i've been working pretty hard on my game the past week, and a lot of it has, predictably, been full of errors as i try to let my stroke out and remember how to move the ball. but after a lot of work, i'm coming out the other side of that as a Much stronger and more confident player. and it's been Fun!
sometimes all it takes is someone looking over your shoulder and giving you some encouragement.
thank you, Steve!
Steve had been angling to meet up with me for some time to play some 14.1, and i finally found some time free on a weekend, when i normally work, so we could get together in Ivory Billiards in Holyoke, Mass. it turned out to be an APA league night and was pretty zooey, but i'm very very glad that we shouted and worked our way through it.
Steve clearly has very deep knowledge of the game and all of its subtleties, old school or new. he watched me play for a little while (unbeknownst to me!), then introduced himself, and right away had some comments on my game, all of which later proved insightful and invaluable.
the most important point i think he made was philosophical: that i was playing a very contained game, trying to stay so far within my comfort zone that i was far beyond the point of "minimizing cueball movement" -- i wasn't moving the cue ball around enough to reach the places i needed to get to, but Could get to if i tried.
and in fact, it had been so long since i'd really tried to get great position, that i'd about forgotten How. which was turning into a nasty little feedback loop of not trying even more. duh. so much so, that i'd lost the ability to really spin the ball when i needed to, or even to use spin instead of brute force in some situations where it made sense, to move the cue more easily and accurately. there were even some shots -- like a drag shot -- that i used to play as a kid before i stopped playing for 40 years, that i'd completely forgotten i knew how to play! my game was largely reduced to Only the brainwash drill; i'd stopped almost altogether playing even 1-rail shots for position, let alone using 2-3 to come into the next shot zone better.
putting it in a positive way, he advised me after opening a rack, and until it was fully opened, to "determine where the most beneficial spot for the cue ball would be" and try to get there asap. makes perfect sense in hindsight, but i wasn't really doing that. i was playing patterns based on what i could easily achieve ball-pocketing-wise, starting from where i was on the table to get to a good position, but wasting way too many balls on the way there. Steve showed me how to turn that process upside down, and that it was often possible on easy shots to make the cue ball work much harder than i had been.
i've been working pretty hard on my game the past week, and a lot of it has, predictably, been full of errors as i try to let my stroke out and remember how to move the ball. but after a lot of work, i'm coming out the other side of that as a Much stronger and more confident player. and it's been Fun!
sometimes all it takes is someone looking over your shoulder and giving you some encouragement.
thank you, Steve!
