All these years I've been espousing the advantages of being able to play opposite handed, particularly to younger players. My typical spiel is for them to practice 30 minutes a day and they will learn quickly, much faster than they did with their natural hand. Best of all they will be better pool players for it. This I truly believed to be true, evidenced by great switch hitters like Buddy Hall, Mike Sigel and Keith McCready.
Well, I'm here to tell you that it's all just a theory of mine, I'm a big hypocrite! I can't play opposite handed and never could. Back in the day when I was gambling, we used to be able to stipulate prior to starting a match, "get up on the table," meaning you didn't have to keep one foot on the floor. That way I never had to switch hands, just crawl up on the table and shoot. Even great players like Boston Shorty (who was only 5'2") would make this stipulation before a big money game, and he was virtually unbeatable with this rule in effect.
So I've decided to test my own theory. I will practice 30 minutes a day left handed (not every day, but every day that I practice), and see how I do after one month of this. Today is day two in this experiment, and let me tell you it's like learning how to play pool all over again. From scratch! I'm starting to remember all the agony of learning how to play this game all those years ago. The endless days and nights just hitting balls, trying to figure things out. I was no natural at pool, it took me a good year just to be able to make balls with regularity. Two more years to learn how to control the cue ball and develop a stroke. And I'm talking three years of pool all day every day. I was definitely addicted back then!
So yesterday on my first day I felt helpless! I was miscuing, missing hangers and generally being totally inept. I was a rank beginner all over again. In a way it was cool to harken back to my youth and all of my inadequacies then. Here I was starting over at pool after five decades. I literally couldn't make a ball, mainly because I had zero stroke. The cue felt awkward and uncomfortable, just like you see with people who are brand new to the game. It was one of the longest 30 minutes of my life. UGH, I was terrible. I made a few short shots and began to hit a few more balls, simply out of concentration (and frustration).
Today was day two, and lo and behold, I could make a ball here and there. I found that a very short little push stroke was beginning to work for me. At least I could guide the cue in somewhat the right direction. I actually began to make a lot of short shots, like maybe two diamonds from the pocket with the cue ball close to the object ball. I had improved minimally. But not all that much. I still had no chance on any shot longer than half table and zero chance of stretching for a ball. And even on short shots, I was just as likely to miss as make it. But I was making some of them and miscuing far less. There was some improvement after only two days, so for that I was encouraged. I'll keep you posted how this goes. Lefty Jay
