The Great Experiment Begins

chefjeff said:
Jay,

One other thing I do that you might try is when you chalk your cue, do it the opposite handed, too.

Yes, this is a key point. When I began experimenting with opposite hand play, I immediately recognized the importance of chalking in the same manner. I have continued the practice since.
Click to expand...
 
Pulling or Arm Wrestling

This might be a bit off topic but when there is a fellow named Ron Bath (arguably the strongest right handed puller on the planet) also competed lefty and defeated some of the best natural southpaw pullers. I found this to be very impressive. He learned to develop both strength and technique from the left.
 
Danny Harriman said:
This might be a bit off topic but when there is a fellow named Ron Bath (arguably the strongest right handed puller on the planet) also competed lefty and defeated some of the best natural southpaw pullers. I found this to be very impressive. He learned to develop both strength and technique from the left.
Click to expand...

Thanks Danny. What is a Puller?
 
jay helfert said:
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 :eek:
Click to expand...

Jay, Keith posted to you in a Christmas thread, but it got buried, so I did a copy-and-paste to put it in this thread, which is probably where it belongs anyway. :)

Just a little Christmas tip to my friend Toupee. I've been reading that you're trying to play left-handed. I turned it around when I couldn't get no games right-handed, as you know.

The key thing to playing opposited-handed, starting out, instead of trying to grip the cuestick with your bridge hand and your fingers, lighten up on both grips. That means loosen them and shoot balls accordingly. Next, what you want to try to do is to develop the strength in both your fingers and your grip hand, but do it gradually. The hardest shots to make are the longer straight-ins with the object ball say about 4 feet away and you got to hit them perfect, but you can't do that until you gather the strength. Also, bend your knees a little bit more than usual.

Practice with shorter shots straight in, then a little off angle. It's easier to make the shots with a little off angle, because you can follow the ball a lot, but if you can get to where you can start drawing it, with a little bit of finesse, then you're in business.

So remember bend your knees a little more, loosen the grips on both the bridge hand and the hand where you hold the cue, gradually tighten them up as you go, and you'll soon have, hopefully, the tightness you need to make these shots successfully.

Merry Christmas, Jay, and Happy New Year. Hopefully, the pool wars will crank up in 2014. Your friend, Keith.
 
JAM said:
Jay, Keith posted to you in a Christmas thread, but it got buried, so I did a copy-and-paste to put it in this thread, which is probably where it belongs anyway. :)

Just a little Christmas tip to my friend Toupee. I've been reading that you're trying to play left-handed. I turned it around when I couldn't get no games right-handed, as you know.

The key thing to playing opposited-handed, starting out, instead of trying to grip the cuestick with your bridge hand and your fingers, lighten up on both grips. That means loosen them and shoot balls accordingly. Next, what you want to try to do is to develop the strength in both your fingers and your grip hand, but do it gradually. The hardest shots to make are the longer straight-ins with the object ball say about 4 feet away and you got to hit them perfect, but you can't do that until you gather the strength. Also, bend your knees a little bit more than usual.

Practice with shorter shots straight in, then a little off angle. It's easier to make the shots with a little off angle, because you can follow the ball a lot, but if you can get to where you can start drawing it, with a little bit of finesse, then you're in business.

So remember bend your knees a little more, loosen the grips on both the bridge hand and the hand where you hold the cue, gradually tighten them up as you go, and you'll soon have, hopefully, the tightness you need to make these shots successfully.

Merry Christmas, Jay, and Happy New Year. Hopefully, the pool wars will crank up in 2014. Your friend, Keith.
Click to expand...

Wow this is great! Thank you Keithly and Merry Christmas to you and Jen. I really hope I see you again buddy. You are still the single most exciting pool player I ever knew. You, Louie and Ronnie had more color than anyone playing today. Only Alex is in your class, and he's still a few balls behind you.

There is an interesting thread on here now about becoming a good player and what it takes. Practice alone won't get it. Someone could play a million years and never reach your level. Keith, you were a notch above the world! I never saw a better player under pressure than you. You thrived on it!

Thanks for all the years of excitement you brought to the game!

P.S. If we had gone to the Philippines when you were in your 20's they would have made you the Pope!
 
Last edited:
Playing off handed is difficult to the older player. Supposedly, writing off handed stimulates the brain so it would make sense that playing pool off handed would too. Two old buddies of mine, Hawaiian Jay and Hawaiian Brian were on the road together. Jay played left handed pool pretty fair. During a match where Jay was dogging it bad, Brian made him shoot the nine ball left handed………. He stopped dogging the cash away and took off a pretty good score. There were some good switch hitters back in the day, Keith, Billy Johnson, Boston Shorty, Little Al Romero, Lassiter and Mosconi. I'm sure there's many more.
 
lefty

sjb said:
Well, Danny, not that I couldn't be mistaken, but I have a pretty vivid memory of this. It was a number of years ago at Side Pockets in Blue Springs, on one of the middle tables on the second row from the front. It was during the playoffs in our straight pool league. There was a semi match going on, and I was waiting to play in the final match.

You asked if I wanted to play some to warm up, and I said "yes, but three conditions . . . while you're shooting, you have to tell me what you're thinking. While I'm shooting, you have to tell me what I should be thinking. And you have to play left-handed."

I broke, then you made a ball, nudged the stack open, and I swear I racked the balls at least seven more times before you were done running balls. I could be wrong, but I remember telling people "glad I'm getting warmed up." I thought, "if I didn't know Danny was right handed, I'd never guess, watching this."

I even remember very specifically a shot you made during one rack. You explained that you were sending the cueball two rails to come around and bump a ball in the middle of the table a few inches uptable, so it could serve as a potential break ball in the side pocket if nothing else better materialized. You executed it perfectly.

That shot made me realize the difference between how world-class straight pool players think and execute, as compared to hacks like me. Thank goodness the league was handicapped, or none of us would have had a chance (well, maybe Gene Albrecht, if he was having a good day, and you had the flu).

Anyway, right or wrong, I'm not full of it. That's how I remember it.

Hope you're well. It was a real pleasure to play with you for a while on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

Actually he is not full of it at all, I did have a huge run there in K.C. but he just forgot that I shot about 4 or five shots right handed as they required a bit more power. Steve is a good dude and not full of it. I have a little advantage in that I have practiced a great deal southpaw and I am not totally right handed, I bat, golf, and swing an axe lefty, not sure if I could make the switch over as well as Cecil (God rest his soul) but if I had to I think I could run a hundred someday left handed if the table was not too difficult. Again Steve is not full of it and he is a student of the game. When I played on the ten foot table last year at DCC I did not need the bridge when attempting the break shot from the right side of the table(close to the rack), this is where I noticed other players using the rake and I feel fairly confident left handed. Still not a bad run that day and again I did run over a hundred lefty WITH the exception of 4 or 5 shots.
 
Last edited:
I used to play pretty good left handed but now don't seem to be able to find that stroke. I can still make simpler shots but any distance and I've had it. I started playing at the recreation center on Great Lakes Navy base when I was about 19. Needed to make a few bucks so I did a little light hustling. Started shooting there left handed and was always afraid to switch hands afterward. Those fellows might not have taken too kindly to what I had done (even though they did have a chance with me shooting lefty).

Jay, we are old dogs - it's harder for us.
 
Can't believe I overlooked this thread for so long!

I first had my mind opened to the possibilities of playing opposite handed by my first little league coach. He had played baseball in the military leagues during and after WWII. The base commanders did wager on the games and the play was at a semi-pro level. He pitched with either hand at that level. He trained me as a catcher and I got to see first hand. The left was different from the right but neither was better.

My first attempts at playing pool left handed came after I had been shooting right handed approximately 10 years. I had become skilled enough that it was no contest with the local bar players, so I started shooting left handed to make it a challenge against the weaker players. The hardest thing to get was the loop bridge with the right hand. My first emphasis was to get the basics sound. I had been watching and admiring Cole Dickson's game so tried to emulate his stance and stroke. It took about 2 years to get my left to equal ground with the right.

I was working manufacturing furniture at the time and was spraying lacquer. I started spraying with my left hand, first just the sealer coat and then with practice the finish coat. I also was running a pin router that I had to feed the ends of wood styles into. I found a way to set up so I was able to take a pool stance and feed the pieces first right handed then while placing that one on the outfeed side I picked up the next piece and feed it left handed. Alternating back and forth I worked like this for hours, making that router sing. Didn't do much for my hearing but it sure improved my basic pool stance and stroke with both hands.

I found that my left handed game was more flowing/intuitive and creative while the right hand was linear and methodical. I could hit bank shots and combinations better left handed than right. My left handed shooting is more feel and the right more measured.

I got to the point that I was not aware of which hand the cue was in. Whatever side of the table I was on dictated the hand I used. If it made no difference the cue stayed in the hand it was in. I found that my ambidexterity could put doubts in my opponents minds as I was doing something they could not do.

I posted a clip of my shots in the Spokane Open this year to the ask the Instructor forum. (Critique my pressure match) At the 7:25 mark I have ball in hand after the break with a straight forward run out. The score is 8 to 2 Grady and the commentators are a little ho hum about the match and telling pool stories. When I get to the 7 ball (at the 9:00 mark) it is a natural left handed shot. The commentary at that point cracks me up still.
Commentator 1: "He went opposite handed here, huh?
Commentator 2: "He did......I think."
Commentator 1: "Or did he?"
Commentator 3: "Yeah, I think he did."
Commentator 1: "Is he a leftie?"
Commentator 2: "He is a leftie."
Commentator 1: "No, no."
Commentator 3: "No."
Commentator 1: "Couldn't tell though."
Commentator 2: "The way he stroked that ball though..."
Commentator 3: "Yea, it looked a little funny."
Commentator 2: "How about that?!"

Here is a link to the video.http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/a540/grampa1951/Billiards%20related/MyhighlightsatSpokaneOpen_zps9338d868.mp4
 
Last edited:
I have many fond memories of Atlanta back in the mid 80s...there was a TON of action!

eddie0776 said:
Mean Dean ha ha thats one name for him! Yes Eugene was another good player. Dean is the uncle of a good friend of mine.
Click to expand...

Dean has staked many players against me through those "Atlanta years"......they may be some of the few "losers" he's booked. It's funny why I stated calling him "Mean Dean", he's a character for sure..... I'll tell that story one of these days.

Another guy that used to gamble really high around that area was Jacky Mann.....we used to give him the 7/8/9 and the Break on the "Bar Rag" and bet it up HIGH!!! Earl Strickland beat him out of many, many, thousands giving him that game and maybe the "6" too.

I have many fond memories of Atlanta back in the mid 80s...there was a TON of action!!!
 
Okay, day five in the books. I took a break for a few days over the holidays, but my mind was still on this experiment. I took Keith's good advice and used a lighter grip on the cue, both with my bridge and my grip hand. That helped a lot. I also tried chalking left handed, not as easy as you might think to learn that simple process. I even started taking the balls out of the ball box with my left hand. :wink:

So where am I five days into this process. I'm still poking balls, but a lot more accurately now. Anything longer than half the table is a little out of my range, but on the other hand, anything inside half a table is within my range. I can now make most shots that are inside this range and some shots that are longer. I still don't have any real semblance of a stroke, but I am getting more comfortable shooting this way. I feel encouraged because I see progress, slow though it is.

Remember I'm only five 30 minute days into this. Why 30 minutes only? Because this is the philosophy I espoused to countless younger players over the years, so why not take my own advice. Let me see where I'm at after ten or twenty days of this. It still feels like work to me and it isn't really enjoyable. But I intend to stick with it and see what happens.

P.S. CJ please forgive me if I derail your thread for a moment. :eek:
 
Last edited:
Jay, once you have become fairly adept shooting southpaw... try switching hands in the bathroom, in particular with the toilet paper. :grin:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top