theory or practice?
- Thread starter Solartje
- Start date
Good point. However I think we should make a distinction between theory and mechanics.Cornerman said:
Proper mechanics, or fundamentals, are subjective. A stroke that is conventional or textbook may be regarded as having proper mechanics. However, who says one way is "proper" and another way not? It's subjective. Ultimately the only thing that would make a stroke "proper" is if the stroke results in exactly what you intend. McCready and Bustamante are examples of players who do not have textbook mechanics, but who is to question their fundamentals based on their results?
However, theory is a separate category. To me, theory in the game of pool relates to the knowledge of physics, geometry, and mathematics that helps you obtain a better understanding of all that's going on on the pool table. Since theory is science-based, it is not subjective like stroke mechanics, but absolute (of course given the theory is correct). Geometry tells you the idealized location of the ghost ball and what point on the rail to aim for a bank shot. Physics tells you the amount of squirt depends on your shaft and the amount of swerve depends on the properties of the felt.
Just an aside. Knowledge of theory is definitely helpful, but not totally essential to becoming successful in pool. You can reach the same conclusions and understanding with intuition and memory. Good intuition is a talent that few possess; many pros have an extraordinary degree of intuition. Memory can take a lot of time to experience every type of shot and remember each outcome (you also must have a good memory). If you don't have great intuition (or memory) and you want to be good before you're a grandparent, then the knowledge of theory is more essential.
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Cornerman said:
These are two extreme examples. I think both are exceptions based on extreme talent, and an awful lot of practice. Look at the fundamentals of the top two WPBA players...pure textbook...and they do quite well.
I think we aren't talking about the small percentage of top professional players. Walk into any pool room on league night, and you will know the sixes and sevens from the twos and threes just by watching them shoot for 2 minutes. The majority of the better players combine skill, knowledge, practice and sound fundamentals. The rest just get beat.
Steve
to try and get back on topic.. no offense intended
When you gain new knowledge, you will almost always start out playing worse. There is a reason for this. The reason is the war between your rational knowledge and your experience. Because so few people truly have acurate knowledge, your memory and intuition will often conflict with that knowledge because memory of made shots are pretty close to perfect and knowledge, especially for the learning player, is far from perfect.
I say pretty close because if certain types of improper form are used the memory will be wrong. This is important, if you rely solely on intuition from butt loads of practice you will stagnate at a certain point and then you will have bad habits that you have to get rid of.
It is these bad habits that cause you to play worse when you gain new knowledge.
For instance, if you are capable of using side spin solely using intuitive judgment from experience and then learn BHE to adjust, your game will likely be off unless you also have an aiming system like ghost ball or others that give you a true aimline. Your experience for these shots will tell you to aim for the adjusted aimline that you are used to using, while your knowledge is telling you that your aimline needs to be as though there were no need to adjust manually. When you stroke through the ball you may try to adjust wrong or at the last minute deviate to do what your experience tells you you should do.
This is where inconsistency comes in, the war between experience and knowledge.
So if you don't have an aiming system that is true, in this case you will be off UNTIL you learn an aiming system that gives you true CP to CP line.
So the answer is this, if you truly want to get better you have to combine knowledge with practice, but you have to be willing to continually gain additional ACCURATE knowledge, and unfortunately there is a lot of knowledge out there that is inaccurate. If you don't and you try to get better solely by practicing and gaining new experience, you will stagnate at a certain level and not be able to get any better. It is only in the acquisition of new accurate knowledge combined with good practice of those concepts and visualisation that you can achieve your true potential.
And in all liklihood because of the level of knowledge achievable, you will never know your true potential, but you will continue to improve as long as your body and eyesight and brain hold up.
I hope this was a helpful answer to your question....
When you gain new knowledge, you will almost always start out playing worse. There is a reason for this. The reason is the war between your rational knowledge and your experience. Because so few people truly have acurate knowledge, your memory and intuition will often conflict with that knowledge because memory of made shots are pretty close to perfect and knowledge, especially for the learning player, is far from perfect.
I say pretty close because if certain types of improper form are used the memory will be wrong. This is important, if you rely solely on intuition from butt loads of practice you will stagnate at a certain point and then you will have bad habits that you have to get rid of.
It is these bad habits that cause you to play worse when you gain new knowledge.
For instance, if you are capable of using side spin solely using intuitive judgment from experience and then learn BHE to adjust, your game will likely be off unless you also have an aiming system like ghost ball or others that give you a true aimline. Your experience for these shots will tell you to aim for the adjusted aimline that you are used to using, while your knowledge is telling you that your aimline needs to be as though there were no need to adjust manually. When you stroke through the ball you may try to adjust wrong or at the last minute deviate to do what your experience tells you you should do.
This is where inconsistency comes in, the war between experience and knowledge.
So if you don't have an aiming system that is true, in this case you will be off UNTIL you learn an aiming system that gives you true CP to CP line.
So the answer is this, if you truly want to get better you have to combine knowledge with practice, but you have to be willing to continually gain additional ACCURATE knowledge, and unfortunately there is a lot of knowledge out there that is inaccurate. If you don't and you try to get better solely by practicing and gaining new experience, you will stagnate at a certain level and not be able to get any better. It is only in the acquisition of new accurate knowledge combined with good practice of those concepts and visualisation that you can achieve your true potential.
And in all liklihood because of the level of knowledge achievable, you will never know your true potential, but you will continue to improve as long as your body and eyesight and brain hold up.
I hope this was a helpful answer to your question....
Exactly right! Even though progress seems, so slow, that we don't even notice it. On my worst day, these days, I could spot the me of five years ago, the orange crush, and take down the cheese all day long! Remember, the true test of a player, is not how good his best game is, but how good his worst game is. When you can beat all the locals, on a bad day, you are getting close to being an "A" player.Billy_Bob said:
Tracy <~~~Has a hard time hanging with the top local player, when on his best game. I have a long ways to go.
I hope you all, are going to give me considersble weight at the DCC. 