The Curse Of One Pocket.

JoeyA

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
One pocket has been recongnized by many as the best of the pool games for various reasons. It is a great gambling game and involves skills from different disciplines such as banking, kicking, safety play, creative shots and shot making as well. For me and many who have taken the time to learn the game it is by far the most interesting. As a gambling game it is easy to hide one's speed and barely beat your opponent if they lack all of the experience that is necessary to play the game.

While I have never been a great player, I have had the honor to give some of the top players fits on occasion, especially in tournaments and small money matches with the right spot. A working man has trouble achieving the highest honors in pool but I won't make excuses for that. It is what I chose to do. Pool is a wonderful hobby that I take very seriously and I enjoy it immensely at least when I can see semi-positive results from my efforts.

All that being said, I have come to a personal conclusion and it may not be one that most agree with but I think that if you choose to play one pocket as your game of choice, you will never be a very good nine ball player and vice versa. I have seen many good nine ball players get beat in one pocket by players who couldn't run three racks of nine ball if their life depended on it. I have always tried to play different disciplines with a modest amount of skill. After years of attempts to play the best one pocket I am capable of I have become convinced that this attempt to play the best one pocket has come at a cost. The cost comes in the form of poor nine ball play. I have on occasion played fairly decent nine ball but for the most part have always failed to play up to what I THINK is my ability in nine ball. I believe that my ability to play one pocket, inhibits my ability to play nine ball so for a period of three months I plan to discontinue playing one pocket and will make attempts to play only nine ball and straight pool to see if I can achieve better results with my nine ball game. If my nine ball game was even close to my one pocket game, I wouldn't attempt to discontinue playing one pocket because I truly love the game. As an amateur player, while I may lack the consistency of the pros I still can be competitive at one pocket but I cannot say the same thing about nine ball and so I plan to do this experiment.

I have witnessed many pool players who's game is nine ball and when they switch to playing one pocket, their nine ball game suffers immensely. For one pocket players when they attempt to become nine ball players they revert back to being one pocket players. The stroke that it takes to play one pocket and the skills that it takes to play one pocket are different from each other. For amateurs, I think one pocket is a better game because if you learn the moves and safety play you can compete even if you are not constantly in stroke. With nine ball, you have to not only develop and maintain a different type of stroke, you must have a different mentality about the game.

You can name many players who have played one pocket well and most of them cannot play nine ball at the same level. It is the curse of one pocket. I hope that in three months I will be able to increase my level of play at nine ball to the point where I can be comfortable with that game and continue playing both games. At this point in time, I am disgusted with my speed at nine ball and am almost ready to quit the game altogether. It is really disgusting to play 50% worse at one game over another. Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot and see if I can discover any new Epiphanies.

Any advice will be appreciated. I'm open to all suggestions from the bangers to the best players on AZ.

Thanks,
JoeyA
 
I'll agree with you to an extent....

JoeyA said:
One pocket has been recongnized by many as the best of the pool games for various reasons. It is a great gambling game and involves skills from different disciplines such as banking, kicking, safety play, creative shots and shot making as well. For me and many who have taken the time to learn the game it is by far the most interesting. As a gambling game it is easy to hide one's speed and barely beat your opponent if they lack all of the experience that is necessary to play the game.

While I have never been a great player, I have had the honor to give some of the top players fits on occasion, especially in tournaments and small money matches with the right spot. A working man has trouble achieving the highest honors in pool but I won't make excuses for that. It is what I chose to do. Pool is a wonderful hobby that I take very seriously and I enjoy it immensely at least when I can see semi-positive results from my efforts.

All that being said, I have come to a personal conclusion and it may not be one that most agree with but I think that if you choose to play one pocket as your game of choice, you will never be a very good nine ball player and vice versa. I have seen many good nine ball players get beat in one pocket by players who couldn't run three racks of nine ball if their life depended on it. I have always tried to play different disciplines with a modest amount of skill. After years of attempts to play the best one pocket I am capable of I have become convinced that this attempt to play the best one pocket has come at a cost. The cost comes in the form of poor nine ball play. I have on occasion played fairly decent nine ball but for the most part have always failed to play up to what I THINK is my ability in nine ball. I believe that my ability to play one pocket, inhibits my ability to play nine ball so for a period of three months I plan to discontinue playing one pocket and will make attempts to play only nine ball and straight pool to see if I can achieve better results with my nine ball game. If my nine ball game was even close to my one pocket game, I wouldn't attempt to discontinue playing one pocket because I truly love the game. As an amateur player, while I may lack the consistency of the pros I still can be competitive at one pocket but I cannot say the same thing about nine ball and so I plan to do this experiment.

I have witnessed many pool players who's game is nine ball and when they switch to playing one pocket, their nine ball game suffers immensely. For one pocket players when they attempt to become nine ball players they revert back to being one pocket players. The stroke that it takes to play one pocket and the skills that it takes to play one pocket are different from each other. For amateurs, I think one pocket is a better game because if you learn the moves and safety play you can compete even if you are not constantly in stroke. With nine ball, you have to not only develop and maintain a different type of stroke, you must have a different mentality about the game.

You can name many players who have played one pocket well and most of them cannot play nine ball at the same level. It is the curse of one pocket. I hope that in three months I will be able to increase my level of play at nine ball to the point where I can be comfortable with that game and continue playing both games. At this point in time, I am disgusted with my speed at nine ball and am almost ready to quit the game altogether. It is really disgusting to play 50% worse at one game over another. Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot and see if I can discover any new Epiphanies.

Any advice will be appreciated. I'm open to all suggestions from the bangers to the best players on AZ.

Thanks,
JoeyA
Click to expand...

I agree with you Joey and I hope that you'll be willing to play atleast a couple of games of one pocket when I come out there...

I don't like playing one pocket by myself so I rarely get a chance to play but I have noticed when I do because I am focusing more on the decision making process and less on my preshot routine etc.... I don't hit as accurately as when I'm only playing rotation games.... I think that if wen playing 1p you concentrate on after making the decision for your shot you use the same preshot routine and stroke that you do in nineball, it will help you to stay in stroke....
 
Joey, this may or may not be similar to what you are talking about, but my biggest problem in trying to switch to 1 pocket has been making balls that I would normally make 9/10 times after ducking 10 times in a row. It really gets me out of stroke. Some days I do better than others, but man is it frustrating. The strangest part is that many people say my safety game is by far the best part of my 8/9/10 ball game. Playing safe in those games doesn't throw me off at all

I love the strategy of the game, and hope some day I can overcome the ball pocketing woes. If anyone cam relate to this situation, please do provide some help

Thanks
 
JoeyA said:
One pocket has been recongnized by many as the best of the pool games for various reasons. It is a great gambling game and involves skills from different disciplines such as banking, kicking, safety play, creative shots and shot making as well. For me and many who have taken the time to learn the game it is by far the most interesting. As a gambling game it is easy to hide one's speed and barely beat your opponent if they lack all of the experience that is necessary to play the game.

While I have never been a great player, I have had the honor to give some of the top players fits on occasion, especially in tournaments and small money matches with the right spot. A working man has trouble achieving the highest honors in pool but I won't make excuses for that. It is what I chose to do. Pool is a wonderful hobby that I take very seriously and I enjoy it immensely at least when I can see semi-positive results from my efforts.

All that being said, I have come to a personal conclusion and it may not be one that most agree with but I think that if you choose to play one pocket as your game of choice, you will never be a very good nine ball player and vice versa. I have seen many good nine ball players get beat in one pocket by players who couldn't run three racks of nine ball if their life depended on it. I have always tried to play different disciplines with a modest amount of skill. After years of attempts to play the best one pocket I am capable of I have become convinced that this attempt to play the best one pocket has come at a cost. The cost comes in the form of poor nine ball play. I have on occasion played fairly decent nine ball but for the most part have always failed to play up to what I THINK is my ability in nine ball. I believe that my ability to play one pocket, inhibits my ability to play nine ball so for a period of three months I plan to discontinue playing one pocket and will make attempts to play only nine ball and straight pool to see if I can achieve better results with my nine ball game. If my nine ball game was even close to my one pocket game, I wouldn't attempt to discontinue playing one pocket because I truly love the game. As an amateur player, while I may lack the consistency of the pros I still can be competitive at one pocket but I cannot say the same thing about nine ball and so I plan to do this experiment.

I have witnessed many pool players who's game is nine ball and when they switch to playing one pocket, their nine ball game suffers immensely. For one pocket players when they attempt to become nine ball players they revert back to being one pocket players. The stroke that it takes to play one pocket and the skills that it takes to play one pocket are different from each other. For amateurs, I think one pocket is a better game because if you learn the moves and safety play you can compete even if you are not constantly in stroke. With nine ball, you have to not only develop and maintain a different type of stroke, you must have a different mentality about the game.

You can name many players who have played one pocket well and most of them cannot play nine ball at the same level. It is the curse of one pocket. I hope that in three months I will be able to increase my level of play at nine ball to the point where I can be comfortable with that game and continue playing both games. At this point in time, I am disgusted with my speed at nine ball and am almost ready to quit the game altogether. It is really disgusting to play 50% worse at one game over another. Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot and see if I can discover any new Epiphanies.

Any advice will be appreciated. I'm open to all suggestions from the bangers to the best players on AZ.

Thanks,
JoeyA
Click to expand...

I've thought long and hard about this one too and after about 5 years of steadily playing 1 pocket, I have to dissagree with, in a sense.
Sure there is a different stroke in 1 pocket thatn 9 ball, but should there be? I think not. The pre shot routine and all should be the same, but we change it. Our strokes tend to get shorter and we tendto watch the cue ball much more than the object ball as in 9 ball.
I've developed many bad habits over the years and only corrected some of them in the past few months after watching Bill Incordona play all summer.
I notcied that when he rarely played 9 ball that his basics were still the same. His stance was the same, he always follows through on every shot, and he is always watching the object ball making contact no matter what game he was playing.
Like you, I had convinced myself that 1 pocket was bad for my game and ruining me and it was only until I realized that I was making mistakes and getting into bad habits did it improve. SO, for me, it was just about accountability. Nowit's all straightened out, but I'm still a DOG!
So what i'm trying to say here,,,,,, Hell, I don't have the 1st dam clue.
 
Good luck. Personally I think 9-ball is a horrible game for the most part, but you need it for the action some times.

I feel like 1P compliments a 9-ball game a lot, but I agree that playing it and not playing 9-ball will hinder your 9B game. But I feel like that's all mental. Just spending a little more time on that awful game will probably get you up to speed.
 
I've heard this a lot, that one pocket ruins your nine ball game. I think the biggest difference is, that when playing nine ball, every shot gets your complete attention. You must either pocket a ball and play position or play a lockup safety. in 1pocket, there are frequently shots where you don't have to do anything.
All you need to do is roll up on a ball, and touch a ball to a cushion. A lot of nine ball players get lazy in these situations, and sell out. Good 1pocket players try to bump that OB to a certain spot, and freeze whitey to the cushion. The point I'm trying to make is, you have to try as hard as you can on every shot, regardless of difficulty, and it is possible to excel at both games.
 
JoeyA said:
All that being said, I have come to a personal conclusion and it may not be one that most agree with but I think that if you choose to play one pocket as your game of choice, you will never be a very good nine ball player and vice versa.

Thanks,
JoeyA
Click to expand...

There have been some notable exceptions to this, of course, including Worst, Hopkins, Varner, Hall (whose 1-pocket game was underrated, IMO), and Reyes. All those guys were world-beaters though, and you may not be talking about the cream of the crop.
 
I disagree. I enjoy one pocket very much and I believe that by playing it, that my 9ball game is that much better. I also play a great deal of straight pool and it has also helped my 9 ball game. If you play any game to the exclusion of the other games, then of course you won't be a able to step up play great at the other games.

I took my lumps learning the game by losing to players that I could probably spot the 7 in 9 ball. I took me over 4 years to get a decent feeling for what moving is all about in one pocket. It is truly an advanced game that requires a discipline all its own. 9 ball, in retrospect, is conceptually very simple, but often difficult to execute. Oddly enough, at the very highest levels of pool, a miss in any of these games is liable to result in defeat.

As much as I like one pocket, I must take a break and go into ball pocketing mode (straight or 9 ball).
 
Joey, one pocket has been popular in my area since the 50s.
And we've noticed how it isn't always copacetic with 9 ball.
One example. We had a guy move here from Winchester
around 35 years ago. 9 ball & 8 ball playing son of a gun.
But we play much more one hole in Clarksburg.
As his one hole game got better & better, his 9 ball game
slipped a lot even though he tried to play 9 & 8 ball regularly.
To this day he blames one pocket for the decline in his other games.
He said you need a completely different type of stroke.
 
I think playing One Pocket, and Straight Pool will make your others game better. IMHO.
thumbsup.gif
 
How do 1-pocket skills differ from 9-ball skills?

I think that's the central question. Here are a couple of ways skills differ between 1-pocket and 9-ball:

1. OB speed control:

1 pocket: Must control OB speed (leave it near your pocket) as well as CB speed.

9-ball: Must control CB speed only (for shape on the next shot).

The result is that you hit most shots slower in 1 pocket, you have a smaller range of options for where to put the CB, and there's more on your mind for each shot.

2. Shotmaking vs. safety play:

1 pocket: CB safety is emphasized over shotmaking. You must hide the CB on virtually every shot, but coming reasonably close to making a shot is almost as good as making it. It's like playing 2-way shots every time in 9-ball.

9-ball: Shotmaking is emphasized over safety play. Missing a shot is usually doom, and many games don't include any safeties.



Any others?

pj
chgo
 
Patrick Johnson said:
I think that's the central question. Here are a couple of ways skills differ between 1-pocket and 9-ball:
..

Any others?

pj
chgo
Click to expand...
The subtle difference are what can really spell doom. Just the idea of "what's a good shot."

In one-pocket, a good shot might include hanging a ball, whereas a hung ball in 9-ball is no good.

In one-pocket, missing on the professional side leaves the ball close to the pocket, but unbankable. In 9-ball, missing on the professional side leaves the ball away from the pocket. Usually (coming down the length of the table) these two (one pocket vs. 9-ball 'professional miss') are on opposite sides of the pocket.

So, just the two different idea so vastly different makes the approach to each shot different. And for a lot of us, the approach of the preferred game is so ingrained, that we don't have to think about it.

Fred
 
JoeyA said:
One pocket has been recongnized by many as the best of the pool games for various reasons. It is a great gambling game and involves skills from different disciplines such as banking, kicking, safety play, creative shots and shot making as well. For me and many who have taken the time to learn the game it is by far the most interesting. As a gambling game it is easy to hide one's speed and barely beat your opponent if they lack all of the experience that is necessary to play the game.

While I have never been a great player, I have had the honor to give some of the top players fits on occasion, especially in tournaments and small money matches with the right spot. A working man has trouble achieving the highest honors in pool but I won't make excuses for that. It is what I chose to do. Pool is a wonderful hobby that I take very seriously and I enjoy it immensely at least when I can see semi-positive results from my efforts.

All that being said, I have come to a personal conclusion and it may not be one that most agree with but I think that if you choose to play one pocket as your game of choice, you will never be a very good nine ball player and vice versa. I have seen many good nine ball players get beat in one pocket by players who couldn't run three racks of nine ball if their life depended on it. I have always tried to play different disciplines with a modest amount of skill. After years of attempts to play the best one pocket I am capable of I have become convinced that this attempt to play the best one pocket has come at a cost. The cost comes in the form of poor nine ball play. I have on occasion played fairly decent nine ball but for the most part have always failed to play up to what I THINK is my ability in nine ball. I believe that my ability to play one pocket, inhibits my ability to play nine ball so for a period of three months I plan to discontinue playing one pocket and will make attempts to play only nine ball and straight pool to see if I can achieve better results with my nine ball game. If my nine ball game was even close to my one pocket game, I wouldn't attempt to discontinue playing one pocket because I truly love the game. As an amateur player, while I may lack the consistency of the pros I still can be competitive at one pocket but I cannot say the same thing about nine ball and so I plan to do this experiment.

I have witnessed many pool players who's game is nine ball and when they switch to playing one pocket, their nine ball game suffers immensely. For one pocket players when they attempt to become nine ball players they revert back to being one pocket players. The stroke that it takes to play one pocket and the skills that it takes to play one pocket are different from each other. For amateurs, I think one pocket is a better game because if you learn the moves and safety play you can compete even if you are not constantly in stroke. With nine ball, you have to not only develop and maintain a different type of stroke, you must have a different mentality about the game.

You can name many players who have played one pocket well and most of them cannot play nine ball at the same level. It is the curse of one pocket. I hope that in three months I will be able to increase my level of play at nine ball to the point where I can be comfortable with that game and continue playing both games. At this point in time, I am disgusted with my speed at nine ball and am almost ready to quit the game altogether. It is really disgusting to play 50% worse at one game over another. Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot and see if I can discover any new Epiphanies.

Any advice will be appreciated. I'm open to all suggestions from the bangers to the best players on AZ.

Thanks,
JoeyA
Click to expand...
Man, what's worse is to play about eight games of one pocket and break even. Then.... the opponent wants to play some nineball. Your mind has trouble switching gears from "rolling'em up," to "running out."
 
There are many top players who are really great at one-pocket and rotation games. Efren and Bustamante, while I can't say anything about their 14.1 ability, are at or near the absolute top level of the game in one-pocket, 9-ball, 10-ball, and 8-ball. I haven't heard much about Pagulayan's 8-ball game, but he's right at the top of one-pocket, 8-ball, and 9-ball. Gabe Owen is a really excellent 9-ball player and one-pocket player. Larry Nevel is great at both of those as well.

I would say that what separates these guys from people who only play one or the other is that they are true students of one-pocket, but they spend a lot of time and effort focusing on their execution abilities in pocketing shots and moving the cue ball. In one-pocket, so much of the game does not involve pocketing a ball and moving the CB, that these areas lose sharpness if you don't dedicate yourself to practicing other games where you're doing that on every shot. Outmoving the other player is key, but if you focus on moves, you lose the ability to hit the OB in an extremely precise direction and get the CB around the table, because when you're "moving", you're usually not doing both these things on a shot. And you can go a lot of consecutive shots without needing to put an OB square on target and put the CB on a dime.

I don't think there's any reason you can't be simultaneously great at one-pocket and 9-ball, you just need to practice both. I think all the pros do this, and that's a big part of what makes them pros; the ability to keep all the facets of their game at a high standard simultaneously.

-Andrew
 
Very interesting thread JoeyA. imo 1P has helped my nineball game. In particular, I have alot more confidence in banks, my safety game has improved and I use different different ways to play position than i normally did in nineball. For safeties, in particular I definitely have developed better kick safeties, like for example that one 1p shot where you kick below a ball thats near a rail and stick whitey while driving the object ball downtable. Turning balls over with cut banks is another 1p move that comes in handy.

I could go on and on with all the things in 1p that I believe have helped my nineball game. Honestly too, I am terrible at 1p, my 1p speed is significantly below my nineball speed, so it often makes me wonder how much more I could improve my nineball game if I spent the time to learn more 1p.

JoeyA, I think you feel like your nineball game is worse than your 1p game because you have been focused on playing 1p mostly. Its much easier to get a game playing 1hole than nineball imo. Like you said, its a great gambling game and the real reason I even began learning 1p was that I wanted to match up more in the pool room. Then I learned that the game was a wonderful, intricate and cerebral game that calls upon all the players to execute shots from all disciplines of pool. I really love the game now and regret being pigheaded about the game when I was younger. I use to always think and say that only old farts played that game.

If you match up more at nineball and gamble more at the game, your stroke will lengthen out and you will certainly hit alot less balls pocket speed JoeyA. All that 1p you've been playing has had an impact on fundamentals I bet too, just like Ironman posted earlier in this thread. The fundamentals you learned about pool do not call for you to gently lag a ball long rail so that it barely drops. Or focus on the cueball when you shoot. Or shorten your stroke up and thin a ball gently while loading whitey up with some inside to go gently one rail at a weird angle to sit against balls in the center of the table. Many skills shots in 1p run against the grain of the very nature of rotation type pool puts alot more emphasis on shotmaking, moving the cue ball around more, firing balls etc.

Im not sure if I could call it the curse of 1p. To me it sounds like you have learned to play jamup 1p and your just rusty at nineball. At the end of the day you pursued the game that you got the better enjoyment out of your session of pool, so is it really a curse?
 
JoeyA said:
One pocket has been recongnized by many as the best of the pool games for various reasons. It is a great gambling game and involves skills from different disciplines such as banking, kicking, safety play, creative shots and shot making as well. For me and many who have taken the time to learn the game it is by far the most interesting. As a gambling game it is easy to hide one's speed and barely beat your opponent if they lack all of the experience that is necessary to play the game.

While I have never been a great player, I have had the honor to give some of the top players fits on occasion, especially in tournaments and small money matches with the right spot. A working man has trouble achieving the highest honors in pool but I won't make excuses for that. It is what I chose to do. Pool is a wonderful hobby that I take very seriously and I enjoy it immensely at least when I can see semi-positive results from my efforts.

All that being said, I have come to a personal conclusion and it may not be one that most agree with but I think that if you choose to play one pocket as your game of choice, you will never be a very good nine ball player and vice versa. I have seen many good nine ball players get beat in one pocket by players who couldn't run three racks of nine ball if their life depended on it. I have always tried to play different disciplines with a modest amount of skill. After years of attempts to play the best one pocket I am capable of I have become convinced that this attempt to play the best one pocket has come at a cost. The cost comes in the form of poor nine ball play. I have on occasion played fairly decent nine ball but for the most part have always failed to play up to what I THINK is my ability in nine ball. I believe that my ability to play one pocket, inhibits my ability to play nine ball so for a period of three months I plan to discontinue playing one pocket and will make attempts to play only nine ball and straight pool to see if I can achieve better results with my nine ball game. If my nine ball game was even close to my one pocket game, I wouldn't attempt to discontinue playing one pocket because I truly love the game. As an amateur player, while I may lack the consistency of the pros I still can be competitive at one pocket but I cannot say the same thing about nine ball and so I plan to do this experiment.

I have witnessed many pool players who's game is nine ball and when they switch to playing one pocket, their nine ball game suffers immensely. For one pocket players when they attempt to become nine ball players they revert back to being one pocket players. The stroke that it takes to play one pocket and the skills that it takes to play one pocket are different from each other. For amateurs, I think one pocket is a better game because if you learn the moves and safety play you can compete even if you are not constantly in stroke. With nine ball, you have to not only develop and maintain a different type of stroke, you must have a different mentality about the game.

You can name many players who have played one pocket well and most of them cannot play nine ball at the same level. It is the curse of one pocket. I hope that in three months I will be able to increase my level of play at nine ball to the point where I can be comfortable with that game and continue playing both games. At this point in time, I am disgusted with my speed at nine ball and am almost ready to quit the game altogether. It is really disgusting to play 50% worse at one game over another. Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot and see if I can discover any new Epiphanies.

Any advice will be appreciated. I'm open to all suggestions from the bangers to the best players on AZ.

Thanks,
JoeyA
Click to expand...

Tell that to Efren.

nuff said.
 
I started off playing exclusively 9ball for a few years, then I wanted a top player to teach me and the only way was if I played 14.1 only! After bichin a while I gave in and learned to run balls with good patterns. This took maybe 2 years til I was running 40's/50's daily and a few 100's sprinkled in. Granted when no one was looking I was keeping my 9ball game sharp by practicing rotation.

THEN about a year n half ago I moved back home to PA and started my 1P carreer. A good friend of mine bashed on me til I stole EVERY move he had...except bankng, he still has me there. We play very different 1P, he is more reserved because he learned a lot from Allen H. I play with my nose wide open shooting at everything and pressuring the other guy....without selling out mostly ;)

My point?...going from 9ball<<<shot making...to 14.1<<<patterns to run balls....to 1P<<<<EVERYTHING your game has!...has been the perfect progression imo. Then after learning 1P and going back to 9ball?...it's a joke, runouts are easy cause you can shoot in all the holes!...not to mention the BIGGEST thing 1P teaches you....a good cueball! If you don't know what that means start playing more 1P. :D
 
supergreenman said:
Tell that to Efren.

nuff said.
Click to expand...
Negative...the ability to play both games at a superior level is what makes him so incredible. Efren...and others like him....would be exceptions...not the rule.

JoeyA has a very good point IMO. Yes, some skills in 1p are very useful to learn to round out your 9b game, but the mindset and style of play does have a negative effect on your 9b game...IMO of course.
 
JoeyA said:
All that being said, I have come to a personal conclusion and it may not be one that most agree with but I think that if you choose to play one pocket as your game of choice, you will never be a very good nine ball player and vice versa.

[...]

With nine ball, you have to not only develop and maintain a different type of stroke, you must have a different mentality about the game.

[...]

Any advice will be appreciated. I'm open to all suggestions from the bangers to the best players on AZ.
Click to expand...
You hit the nail on the head when you used the word "maintain." When you switch games, you aren't maintaining your 9-ball skills. Of course they will decline.

The problem is, since the vast majority of us are not pros, and never will be, we don't have the time to dedicate to "maintaining" two games. We have to pick a single game to focus on. For me, I show up on my one day a week (Saturday) and play 1H. So I'll shoot 5 hours of 1H a week, or about 20 hours a month. And I might shoot 9-ball for 2 hours in 2 months.

Also, one other serious downside is concentration. In 1H, you will seldom be called on to run 8 and out. So there is a lot of shoot 1 or 2 balls and punt. Then go sit down. Sip your drink. Smoke a cigarette. And then go back to the table and shoot another safe. Then go sit down. Etc, etc. This is a cycle of brief periods of concentration. Conversely, in 9-ball, you are frequently called on (i.e., virtually every game) to shoot many shots in a row. If you haven't been "maintaining" your concentration, your mind might end up wandering about 4 balls into a run, and you miss. Not because your shooting skills are rusty, but because your brain is ready to sit down.

Well, that's how it is for me anyway ;)

-td
 
My "opinion" is that one pocket can improve your over all playing ability because you have to learn cue ball control, banks, safeties, caroms, position play, patience, strategy......BUT i do know this for a fact that if you are a avid nineball player and begin to play one pocket it is a physical law that the less you play of nineball the worse your game gets, so if you can devote the same amount of time to nine ball as before I do not believe your game will suffer at all, probably will improve if you are able to transfer all that you are learning from one pocket to nineball, patience, strategy, cue ball control, postion, banking ect...

It is very obvious to those who play one pocket that switching gears takes a little while sometimes because you are not letting your stroke out continously in onepocket, it may come out here and there, more often than not you are bunting balls around, i think this is the only thing that effects your nineball game, along with less time spent on nine ball with your NEW FOUND hobby of one pocket..... My suggestion is to give them both some luving equally.......try and spend no less time with nineball than before.... thats is what I do............
 
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