The distant rumblings and ramblings of a pool nut.

[boogieman]

The train is at the station. Now boarding for pool town. Remember to check your baggage at the door. The game's on, stretch your legs and relax for a bit. You've earned it after carrying those bags over the platform. Fair warning, different play styles may get nothing from this soliloquy. I encourage you to speak your own.

---

The harder I play, the more I try to improve, the more I burn good into my game, the more frustrated I become. Am I worse than last month? Where are the rewards of the toil? The more I stray to odd teachings, the more knowledge is learned. Careful now, don't get lost in the obscure! Where is the forest? Away from me you annoying trees! Magic pill, where are you? Oh, you've already been consumed?!

In this moment I am at my best, I am holding the cue loosely. So loosely. L o o s e. Marinate on that word for a few more seconds... l o o s e ... Loose so it might slip in my fingers on a shot. "BAD! YOU MUST CONTROL!" screams the inner monologue (never mind all results were perfection, BEGONE evidence!). Let my cue feel the mass of cueball, not my hand. The cue is encircled by my thumb, but not squeezed by my thumb. The cue rests on my second set of finger "flats." One, two, three, or four flats? Sure, feel it, not think it. I feel as if I'm rolling a robin's egg around in my hand without dropping it. The only thing holding the egg from certain concrete doom is my hand's back and forth movement and gravity (let that cue slide a bit until it's jussst right). DISASTER will strike the egg at any moment! What the hell head?! Piss off! Does the egg fall? It doesn't. I'm rocking the egg gently to sleep. Don't worry little egg, you're safe with me! Just snuggle up softly to a comfortable spot and dream a dream that only eggs can dream. When I hold the cue loosely, I hear "ping." Ping, pat, pat ping! How sweet a resonation to the ear.

Must I grip tightly now? To ping, I must punch if I wish the sound. Control. Finesse. I see the beautiful white sphere gently float to perfect shape? Ohh, that was pretty! Finesse and control are shot with strength and determination at times, though just as often not. A time and season for everything. Listen closely... pat, pat, ping! ping! ping! Pats are susurration, strategy. Bide my time. It's not time. Pat. Not yet. Pat. Hmm... pat. It's time!!! Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping! Huh? Where did the balls go? Was that a two pack? When did that happen? I guess I'm not worse than before! All this feeling and hearing and I forgot to play pool! Ah there's the forest. That magic pill? Phooey. Well, I guess the set is over, time to shake hands.

---

Now I'm playing good, I've caught a gear! I look to see what part of the pocket for OB. *blink There you go OB, your new home! I now get down on the shot, eyes to the OB. Not "aiming," not locking in pinpoints, ticks, fractions, reflections, refractions, divisions, deductions or reductions. Phooey. Be clear mind. Feel. Feel that sweet resonance. Those sweet vibrations. Remember the pocket you looked at 10 seconds ago? Oh dang, I forgot about that thing! No need to look, it's not moved. Put the ball there okay? Ping! Clunk thunk. Rumble. Clack.

---

Happy pings and clacks my friends.

 

[HawaiianEye]

LSD is bad for your game.

 

[straightline]

Also diminishing returns is real. Dun mean no returns.

 

[evergruven]

LSD is bad for your game.

hey it worked for doc ellis..

 

[boogieman]

LSD is bad for your game.

Apparently so is lack of sleep and stone cold sobriety.

 

[JazzyJeff87]

I have played serious pool on mushrooms. It is intense. It took me just a little bit to get settled in the first time I tried it but once I was...it was on. Great play as I was living in the zone.

Only advised for home play

Cool thinks in the OP. I focus on looooose grip too. 4 times now in my pool playing career I have lost my cue completely out of my hand during a shot. My grip was just too relaxed. I believe I made every shot though.

It’s jarring when you’re so relaxed and just going round the table and then you hit a shot and the cue comes out of your hand and then see-saws on the rail and you’re trying to stop it from hitting balls or your face or the ground lol.

 

[Dan_B]

ah,
I thought it perfectly reasonable,
to have a rail car (home) moved about from pool town to pool town,
what's unreasonable there's no livable rail car parks with a pool hall,
imagen that!?


... a covid shot with a touch of opium or, LSD or, mescaline

...oh' I dbl'd checked, I thought something didn't fit,
rail car widths are 9' 6, so,
we're talking about a destination fully vaccinated,
correct?

 

[boogieman]

ah,
I thought it perfectly reasonable,
to have a rail car (home) moved about from pool town to pool town,
what's unreasonable there's no livable rail car parks with a pool hall,
imagen that!?


... a covid shot with a touch of opium or, LSD or, mescaline

...oh' I dbl'd checked, I thought something didn't fit,
rail car widths are 9' 6, so,
we're talking about a destination fully vaccinated,
correct?

Nah, welcome to my brain and inner dialog. Be happy you’re not a permanent resident! I don’t dare to do drugs, who knows how badly that would end up. Sober for me. At least when I get at the table it’s easier to focus. If it wasn’t I’d never make a ball! Also writing while almost at the point of sleep deprivation is a bit fun.

 

[boogieman]

To play your best game, you have to learn to be a dick. To experience pool at it's highest level you can't play "social." I don't mean unsportsmanlike conduct. I mean get playing that real "dirty pool." Leave them hooked. Get ball in hand. Leave them nothing but dead ends. Make them bank and kick. If they jump play tight enough it isn't an option. Tempt them with that sellout shot. Get them to that decision point. A lower level player might fall apart. A better player might decide it's time to focus and play their best game. Snap their inner Efren to attention!!! If you are enough of a "dick," you just might see their best game, making you play your best game to win. It's easy to get lazy when you can be. Train to not be lazy. Make it so you have no option but peak performance. Try to NEVER lose a game. Skunk them if possible. Some people are motivated to play their best game with a wager. You can get the best game out of a person who doesn't wager, but sometimes you have to coax it out of them. No better way than to make them earn every peek at the resemblance of a shot. A built in bonus is you can pull out a devastating safety at any time, because you actually used them instead of getting lazy. Don't get lazy, work on every shot being a 2-way with plenty of backup/safety valve shots available. Keep sharp and keep laziness at bay.

Pat pat pat. The win is possible, take it! It's ping time.

 

[Willowbrook Wolfy]

LSD is bad for your game.

Actually I’ll play anyone at banks on acid. Last time(a long time ago) I had 4 screens in my vision. Let’s just say straight shots were waay off but I think I ran a whole table banking. It was nuts watching the ball travel through the different screens. It was only once though. I swear!

 

[Black-Balled]

LSD is bad for your game.

I've witnessed otherwise
And was quite surprised.

 

[HawaiianEye]

I've witnessed otherwise
And was quite surprised.

LOL.

Is it hard to make balls when they are crawling around the table like bugs?

Is it kind of like skeet shooting?

 

[Black-Balled]

LOL.

Is it hard to make balls when they are crawling around the table like bugs?

Is it kind of like skeet shooting?

Hellifiknow!

 

[Willowbrook Wolfy]

Now remember boogie. The only thing finite is the end result. The possibilities to get there are endless.

 

[JB Cases]

The train is at the station. Now boarding for pool town. Remember to check your baggage at the door. The game's on, stretch your legs and relax for a bit. You've earned it after carrying those bags over the platform. Fair warning, different play styles may get nothing from this soliloquy. I encourage you to speak your own.

---

The harder I play, the more I try to improve, the more I burn good into my game, the more frustrated I become. Am I worse than last month? Where are the rewards of the toil? The more I stray to odd teachings, the more knowledge is learned. Careful now, don't get lost in the obscure! Where is the forest? Away from me you annoying trees! Magic pill, where are you? Oh, you've already been consumed?!

In this moment I am at my best, I am holding the cue loosely. So loosely. L o o s e. Marinate on that word for a few more seconds... l o o s e ... Loose so it might slip in my fingers on a shot. "BAD! YOU MUST CONTROL!" screams the inner monologue (never mind all results were perfection, BEGONE evidence!). Let my cue feel the mass of cueball, not my hand. The cue is encircled by my thumb, but not squeezed by my thumb. The cue rests on my second set of finger "flats." One, two, three, or four flats? Sure, feel it, not think it. I feel as if I'm rolling a robin's egg around in my hand without dropping it. The only thing holding the egg from certain concrete doom is my hand's back and forth movement and gravity (let that cue slide a bit until it's jussst right). DISASTER will strike the egg at any moment! What the hell head?! Piss off! Does the egg fall? It doesn't. I'm rocking the egg gently to sleep. Don't worry little egg, you're safe with me! Just snuggle up softly to a comfortable spot and dream a dream that only eggs can dream. When I hold the cue loosely, I hear "ping." Ping, pat, pat ping! How sweet a resonation to the ear.

Must I grip tightly now? To ping, I must punch if I wish the sound. Control. Finesse. I see the beautiful white sphere gently float to perfect shape? Ohh, that was pretty! Finesse and control are shot with strength and determination at times, though just as often not. A time and season for everything. Listen closely... pat, pat, ping! ping! ping! Pats are susurration, strategy. Bide my time. It's not time. Pat. Not yet. Pat. Hmm... pat. It's time!!! Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping! Huh? Where did the balls go? Was that a two pack? When did that happen? I guess I'm not worse than before! All this feeling and hearing and I forgot to play pool! Ah there's the forest. That magic pill? Phooey. Well, I guess the set is over, time to shake hands.

---

Now I'm playing good, I've caught a gear! I look to see what part of the pocket for OB. *blink There you go OB, your new home! I now get down on the shot, eyes to the OB. Not "aiming," not locking in pinpoints, ticks, fractions, reflections, refractions, divisions, deductions or reductions. Phooey. Be clear mind. Feel. Feel that sweet resonance. Those sweet vibrations. Remember the pocket you looked at 10 seconds ago? Oh dang, I forgot about that thing! No need to look, it's not moved. Put the ball there okay? Ping! Clunk thunk. Rumble. Clack.

---

Happy pings and clacks my friends.

I understood and feel everything you said. This sport is a cruel mistress. She gives the highest pleasure and delivers the harshest blows in the space between breaks, over and over.

 

[boogieman]

If the cue feels right in my hand, chances are my shoulder is stationary. Try nestling your cue in your hand. Move your fingers a bit, like the slight of hand trick weaving quarters in between your fingers. Do you feel it? Your shoulder is still. Now try moving your shoulder or putting it in the wrong place? The cue no longer feels the feel you're looking for in your fingers, does it?

Correctly moving my wrist feels one way. If my shoulder is moving, how hard is it for my wrist to do the right thing? People joke about how walking and chewing bubble gum is hard... they've never tried to get their wrist pool-moving while flopping their shoulder about have they?

I'll never poke when I should have stroked again if I just make sure to feel that feel of a stationary shoulder through the cue encircled by my fingers.

 

[boogieman]

Everyone knows the "clock face" analogy. When using a jump cue, the "clock face" is perpendicular to your cue. In other words it rotates/re-orients as you change elevations. So what? Where does it relate to pool, other than in that "circus trick shot?" EVERYWHERE of course!

We talk about aiming while standing. Sure, that's a given. As we stand the clock face is aligned with our vision. For a taller player, it's re-oriented farther up on the cue ball, similar to how it would be on a jump shot. For a shorter player, it's lower. Height doesn't matter. The key is to understand the absolute middle of the clock face (we'll call it clock face center - CFC). You know the part where the clock hands originate from? Yes, there. Get the CFC so it goes into the pocket/target zone. Stand so the OB is between you and the pocket. Just see it. Lock this into your vision, let your body see it, feel it, let it become part of your spacial awareness. (Careful, no thinking now, that's disaster. We're beyond the thinking portion of the game, let your body do it's thing.) As you get into stance, the "clock face" shifts directly, vertically, downward until the CFC is at the equator of the ball. If your fundamentals are solidly grooved you will notice the shifting CFC has pathed in a vertical line/vector from it's previous position. You don't care about or focus on the line, but what we're attempting is a centered, smooth motion. Changing nothing in your perception in any direction other than vertical.

If you're doing center ball only, stroke it. It goes. If you understand throw caused by side spin, feel free to apply it as much or as little as you want to get shape and vary the CB path. CFC is your absolute baseline. Your calibration. You will recognize it on every shot, even if you groove it into subconscious muscle memory. Recognizing it and shifting it only in the vertical vector should be grooved in as much as your stance, bridge, and stroke fundamentals. You can't have one without the other. We're not looking for wobbly here, we're looking for smooth vertical movement only (with your eyes/head) where they relate to the CFC.

Let me reiterate. If you apply this to every shot, EVERY shot is CALIBRATED with no THINKING involved. Call it what you will but it works. Get your head out of the physical part of the game and start winning.

It's not my intention to step on any toes, but there are two problems with complicated aiming systems, or almost any aiming systems. The view from standing changes as you get down on the table. If you don't smoothly move CFC in a vertical only vector, you introduce all sorts of optical illusions. You start trying to guess too thick, too thin, does it look right? Should I adjust? Should I re-chalk? Optical illusions is the first issue. The second is the "head thinking" that is initiated by the optical illusion that is a direct result of the shifting CFC not moving vertically. Can you aim a jump shot with your chin on the bed cloth? Nope. Neither can your aim while up transfer to the aim being down on the shot if you don't shift CFC in a strictly vertical vector. While you're down on the shot, CFC is at (or as close as your body type/bridging situation allows) to the true equator of the ball. Now you have a true baseline to learn how balls behave. Go forth and groove it.

 

[chefjeff]

...The view from standing changes as you get down on the table. If you don't smoothly move CFC in a vertical only vector, you introduce all sorts of optical illusions...===boogieman

I fixed that problem by looking at the tip re cueball, as I bend over lower. I do not look at the object ball as I bend. I already did that and have set up to my aiming plane by then. No need to look at ob; your post shows there is a need to look at the cb when bending.

For me, anyway...maybe for you?


Jeff Livingston

 

[boogieman]

I fixed that problem by looking at the tip re cueball, as I bend over lower. I do not look at the object ball as I bend. I already did that and have set up to my aiming plane by then. No need to look at ob; your post shows there is a need to look at the cb when bending.

For me, anyway...maybe for you?


Jeff Livingston

Different strokes for different folks. There's more than one way to skin a cat here, the important thing is that you're keeping the motion in the vertical vector and eliminating optical illusions. I think having a focal point, be it on the OB or at the CB as you change elevations is the important thing. If you don't have a focal point all sorts of stuff can happen.

 

[boogieman]

The Finger Flute:
I hope to have the platform and mechanical delivery system in the larger muscle groups, nailed. Exactly the same every time. This facilitating the entry to The Zone. On delivery of the cue. Putting the ring finger in charge comes from Barry Stark. That is my latest ah hah moment. That however is just one component. All fingers are capable. Waiting for the ring finger is part of my natural pause. After almost 50 years, my index finger doesn't like giving up the presidency. All fingers are allowed input after the ring finger. Slight little pressure s can be applied that change every so slightly the result. In the Zone it's all done subconsciously (for me).

Thank you so much for this! I've felt like my backhand has been causing me more trouble than usual lately. I've been paying attention to the ring finger and all I can say is WOW! If you're addressing the CB correctly, the ring finger definitely has something to it. It even works on elevated shots and jump shots. I don't think it's the finger that does anything, but if you're holding the cue correctly it is the part that has the "feel" of the cue. If it feels the same, no matter what elevation, that breeds consistency.

Another thought from tonight's session: If you want to play good, you HAVE to be 110% sure of what you're seeing. There is no rush, take your time and make sure it's perfect before you even think about starting your practice swings. The OB must go to an exact place if you want to play your best. You can get lazy and yes you can still make balls, but if you want to get "lucky" you better damn well be 110% sure of your aim. Pool is too exacting to go far with "close enough."