That "Next" Level

[recoveryjones]

which player are you talking about who went from B to pro in 3ish years recovery?

Mike just came 3rd in the most recent Peachauer tour event in Tacoma narrowly losing 9-8 in the semi finals.You can read about it at this link:
http://www.azbilliards.com/2000tourmain.cfm?tournum=20

In Vancouver we have 3 players rated Pro-plus, John Horsfall,Paul Potier and Stan Tarrango in our tournament handicap system. We have a half dozen or more rated pro of which Mike Vidas is one.Mike is capable of beating our pro-pluses(and has) on any given day and is very talented at a young age.He has learned the game very quickly.RJ

 

[telkwa]

In Vancouver we have 3 players rated Pro-plus, John Horsfall,Paul Potier and Stan Tarrango in our tournament handicap system. We have a half dozen or more rated pro of which Mike Vidas is one.Mike is capable of beating our pro-pluses(and has) on any given day and is very talented at a young age.He has learned the game very quickly.RJ

Watching him play his talent is obvious, and if only I could break the balls as he does!

 

[scottthesnot]

Small Motions - False Expectations - The Next Level

Read this book, especially the part about charting your game. False expectations place additonal pressures on any performance in any sport. We all remember running racks of 9 Ball but forget missing a shot that Stevie Wonder should have made..... its called selective memory.

If you shoot a specific drill shot 10 times and make it 5 times... write it down. Make the same shot each day for 10 days in a row, writing down the results and you wil really know how well you hit the shot.... not how well you choose to remember you hit the shot.

Place the 9 balls in the most difficult layout you can think of, take ball in hand and see if you can get out. Set that same layout up 10 times, writing down how many balls you get thru on each attempt. Do that for 10 days.

Look at the results, acknowledge the results... it may not be pretty but that is how well you play!!

Don't make the game even more pressure packed than it is by having false expecations!

** You will be surprised how much tension you feel as you test yourself each rack and each day. In many ways - having to write down your results (and seeing on paper what the reality is) is even tougher than playing a match!!

Where am I going with this (sorry to ramble on) but once you have a realistic view of how you play (not how you think you play) you really know what you need to work on and practice.

 

[Jack Madden]

Where am I going with this but once you have a realistic view of how you play (not how you think you play) you really know what you need to work on and practice.

And define what "practice" is. Shooting a few games with the guys is not what I called "practice" - except when I was young, dumb and used that excuse for my mom and later my wife. If you are really serious and have that burning desire in the pit of your stomach or your heart (no its not heart burn!!) that won't go away then "practice" needs to be something else. For me it was setting up the very same shot that was difficult for me and shooting it again and again for HOURS and stop when I consistently made it - it became part of me. I was lucky my wife started setting up those shots for me/saved a lot of time that could be used for making more shots - nice memories, spent HOURS doing the same shots and having good conversations with the wife while the kids slept - and that was practice. Good luck and hope you are as fortunate.
John Madden
www.johnmaddencues.com

 

[recoveryjones]

And define what "practice" is. Shooting a few games with the guys is not what I called "practice" - except when I was young, dumb and used that excuse for my mom and later my wife. If you are really serious and have that burning desire in the pit of your stomach or your heart (no its not heart burn!!) that won't go away then "practice" needs to be something else. For me it was setting up the very same shot that was difficult for me and shooting it again and again for HOURS and stop when I consistently made it - it became part of me. I was lucky my wife started setting up those shots for me/saved a lot of time that could be used for making more shots - nice memories, spent HOURS doing the same shots and having good conversations with the wife while the kids slept - and that was practice. Good luck and hope you are as fortunate.
John Madden
www.johnmaddencues.com

Don Feeney has a video called "Advanced Practice Drills" On that video he reccomends setting up the same shot and shooting it over and over and over and over...etc etc again and again which validates the practice you are talking to in your post above.The shot becomes part of you and you'll have it someday when it matters most.RJ

 

[scottthesnot]

Jackie Madden - The Poolplayer

Anybody that lived/lives in the Phoenix area knows that Little Jackie Madden could play serious pool. I mentioned his name to someone yesterday and they said "Man - that guy can really play." In another post in another area of AZ Billiards, I mentioned that my Dad knows or knew Jack and ran around in the same pool room years ago and he confirms (when he's being totally serious) that Jack knows the game and is/was extremely difficult to get the best of. Listen to what Jack Madden says.

 

[jjinfla]

Logging the drills is excellent but people do not do it because then they have written proof where they are lacking. And the stats will show that they are not really as good as they think they are. LOL.

Doing the drills in "Blackbelt Billiards" by Steve Campana, and logging them , and striving to get ten out of ten has helped me a lot.

But although I can see where I improved, what I now realize is how bad I was a year ago and I still have no idea how really good the people who are better than me are.
You don't know waht playing at a certain level really is until you reach that level. The more I learn about this game the more there is to learn. It is a never ending struggle.

Still a C player, but now I am a better C player, if that makes any sense. or maybe a weak B player.

Fortunately I can use old age as an excuse.

Jake

 

[scottthesnot]

Logging the drills is excellent but people do not do it because then they have written proof where they are lacking. And the stats will show that they are not really as good as they think they are. LOL.

Doing the drills in "Blackbelt Billiards" by Steve Campana, and logging them , and striving to get ten out of ten has helped me a lot.

But although I can see where I improved, what I now realize is how bad I was a year ago and I still have no idea how really good the people who are better than me are.
You don't know waht playing at a certain level really is until you reach that level. The more I learn about this game the more there is to learn. It is a never ending struggle.

Still a C player, but now I am a better C player, if that makes any sense. or maybe a weak B player.

Fortunately I can use old age as an excuse.

Jake

Jake... You are so right. I play golf at a very high level and I can tell you that when I go to the teebox and hit and hit 10 drives...it is hard to ignore the fact that I only hit the fairway 6 times!! When I set up a 6 ft putt and putt is 10 times and only make it 5 times.... I am forced to deal with reality!!

But I really do want to know my stats so I do not have those false expectations/selective memory that create additional pressure. I can live with missing a fairway or not making a 6 ft putt or not getting out for the 4 ball every time... because I know how I play. It ain't pretty but it is the way it is!!

I play Total Offense and BIH 9 ball a lot and chart my results. I've been doing that for about 2 years now and I can say that I was playing better last year than I am now....that's okay - I'll keep working at it.

Scott

 

[Stretch]

Jake... You are so right. I play golf at a very high level and I can tell you that when I go to the teebox and hit and hit 10 drives...it is hard to ignore the fact that I only hit the fairway 6 times!! When I set up a 6 ft putt and putt is 10 times and only make it 5 times.... I am forced to deal with reality!!

But I really do want to know my stats so I do not have those false expectations/selective memory that create additional pressure. I can live with missing a fairway or not making a 6 ft putt or not getting out for the 4 ball every time... because I know how I play. It ain't pretty but it is the way it is!!

I play Total Offense and BIH 9 ball a lot and chart my results. I've been doing that for about 2 years now and I can say that I was playing better last year than I am now....that's okay - I'll keep working at it.


Lots of great advice here. Here's my 2 cents. Just because you practice like crazy does not mean that it is time well spent. Pool is a very Mental game and working hard does not always guarantee success, sometimes it can even make things worse. It will ruin your "Pool mind".

I think what is going on here is that when you practice you are spending all your time in the training mentality. Your anylizing shots, trying new things, working on your stroke, getting your pre-shot routine down, that sort of thing. This is good! But it tends to carry over to your game and you become too Mechanicly oriented. This is how your "Pool Mind" gets destroyed. In a game it's all about trust. You can't be thinking about your stroke, stance, routine. That's what will kill you. You have to play balls to the wall, and know that the stroke will be there to do what you want. The paradox is that by giving up control, you are getting control.

In practice then, it's neccesary to be analitical, and too work on things, but you must be able to turn that off and devote at least 60 percent of your time in the trusting mode. You need to resist the temptation to anilize a bad shot and think about what caused it and then try to fix it. If you don't, then this habit will creap into your "game" and ruin you for competition when inevitably this will happen and you revert back to your "training Mentality" and lose your touch. So Ya, practice just letting go and playing with your mind turned off. If you can do this for the magority of your practice time, you will have it for the game because that is what your brain will do if it's what it is the most used to. St~~hope this helps~~

 

[sjm]

...In a game it's all about trust. You can't be thinking about your stroke, stance, routine...

Right on, Stretch. In his classic "Golf is Not a Game of Perfect", Dr Bob Rotella, the renowned sports psychologist, argues that if you are thinking about your mechanics while you play, you probably won't succeed. True in golf and true in pool. Mechanics, as you note, have to be elevated during practice to a level at which you can just trust them when it comes time to compete.

 

[recoveryjones]

Good points SJM and Stretch. As one who spent hrs and hrs in practice over the last year or so, I can tell you that it's definitly not the same as pressure pool.

Recently I've become a regular at local handicap tourneys (I won one 3 weeks ago) and money matches. I can go into deadstroke in practice and run ball after ball at times.On the other hand,I've missed some pretty routine shots under pressure for sure.All those drills have really helped,and I feel as I get acclimatized to those pressure situations that my game will improve in that area as well.

As said before, nothing improves your game as much as playing the best players possible in pressure situations.In those situations you shoot your heart out and it is definitly not a time to be thinking about mechanics. RJ

 

[I'mdoingit]

Instructors

Does anyone know of a Instructor in the Georgia Area .... Atlanta or else where.... I rather use a instructor and not a curren Pro Player .....thanks

 

[diablo]

take a vacation in my country

how does one get to that so-called Next Level?

i am at a point in time where if i am playing good, i can break and run racks. however, if i am playing bad, its like i have never played before for the most part. last night i broke racks for 2 hours, tried running out, and managed to get out only one time. just one. now for the most part the balls, as always, didnt roll good for me, so i only had a handful of good chances. funny though, the night before i broke and ran the first rack i played.

anyway, you better players out there, how did you get to the Next Level? what can anyone recommend? i play/practice 2-4 hours a day, and its frustrating that i cant seem to see any noticeable difference. i suppose the following might help:

1) Competition. being from a small town there isnt much chance for regular competition, however.

2) Instruction. are there any good instructors out there that can "Fine Tune" your game and help get you started over the hump?

3) Watch & Learn. i do attend professional tournaments, buy tapes, record ESPN shows, buy teaching videos and books, etc, etc.

4) Good Equipment. i have a Gold Crown IV with Simonis 860, belgian balls, custom and production cues, etc, etc.

anyway, can some of you regular posters on here, the ones that are excellent players, make any recommendations? or have any thoughts here? i want to get to that "Next Level" but just cant seem to get there.

any thoughts would be appreciated.
DCP

hi!

one suggestion i think that has proven for even a former world champ. go take a vacation and spend a few months in the philippines. look how mika immonen raised his game to the next level when he started spending more time with the filipino pool environment. you won't regret it and you will see why souquet and immonen and even chamat spend more time here than other countries. and when they leave the country they always win big tourneys outside the philippines. its like taking a vacation while trainning with the world's best. hope this helps.

 

[mjantti]

At least I have benefitted a lot by entering handicapped weekly tournaments. I quickly raised my tournament speed and became a player with second lowest handicap in the tournament. You'll learn to respect every ball and every rack because every rack matters.

Also, taking notice on your improvement can be difficult. For a couple of years I didn't seem to be improving at all, I didn't break my high run in 14.1, didn't run more than 4 racks of 9 or 8-ball. I felt like I wasn't improving, because I didn't seem to be doing anything special. Then after a few successful weekly tournaments I finally realized that my B-game, my "worst" game, had risen to a totally new level and not suddenly, but during the last year or so. I just hadn't realized it at all. I was able to string racks together even when playing badly. A ran many 3-4 packs and ran 50 in straight pool feeling totally out of stroke. But somehow my mental game had benefitted from the handicapped tournaments and I took every game one ball at a time and concentrated on making a best effort on every single shot. I was winning matches 7-1 and 9-2 and if I lost, it was always a tight one with 5-7 or 7-8 scoreline. I wasn't playing badly anymore at all.

What I'm trying to say, rising your top game isn't the only goal. You'll need to start relying on your mechanics also when you're playing badly. Usually the bad day hasn't anything to do with your mechanics, it's just a matter of lack of rhythm or something. I keep wondering about people who think they know if it's a good day or a bad day during the first 5 minutes of play. How can you know that ? If you make yourself to believe it's a bad day after 5 minutes, then it'll most certainly be one for sure.

 

[sjm]

hi!

one suggestion i think that has proven for even a former world champ. go take a vacation and spend a few months in the philippines. look how mika immonen raised his game to the next level when he started spending more time with the filipino pool environment.

I certainly agree with you that spending time in the Phillipines is very good for one's game, as the Fillipinos play the game at such a wonderfully high level. Over the past two and a half years, Mika has defintiely kept his game sharp by spending lots of time in the Phillipines. Still, saying that it's what brought his game to his highest level is inaccurate.

I know Mika very well, and, though I'm not 100% sure of it, my recollection is that he won his first World Championship in 2001 before his first ever visit to the Phillipines. While its true that his game had leveled off while he remained in Finland in the mid 1990's, the turning point in his game was when he moved to New York City in, I think, 1998. Moving to the United States gave Mika very frequent access to tough competition, some of which he got as a road player traveling the country. Perhaps more importantly, moving to the United States enabled him to play the sixteen event Camel Tour that included in its fields the world's greatest players, including Archer, Hall, Strickland, Varner, Davenport, Reyes, Bustamante, Parica, Luat, and Andam. Mika also got to compete in the regional pro tours, so his tournament calendar in the United states was a very full one.

The record shows that moving to the United States is what brought Immonen's game to its highest level. His frequent tirps to the Phillipines came after he'd become a World Champion.

 

[piglit]

Jeezis! That will only get the poor guy broke!

Worth every penny!!

-piga

hi!

one suggestion i think that has proven for even a former world champ. go take a vacation and spend a few months in the philippines. look how mika immonen raised his game to the next level when he started spending more time with the filipino pool environment. you won't regret it and you will see why souquet and immonen and even chamat spend more time here than other countries. and when they leave the country they always win big tourneys outside the philippines. its like taking a vacation while trainning with the world's best. hope this helps.