To Be a Better Player

[LibraryFool77]

Altered States, now that’s my crisis.

 

[LibraryFool77]

Any opinion on Aaron blasting Faucci?

 

[LibraryFool77]

I don’t care what the mods say about most of you guys. Your alright an have a sense of humor!

 

[Mensabum]

That negative self talk comes from thinking while down on the shot, once you get in your stance your ONLY thought should be moving your cue straight in the direction of the shot, don't even think about speed of stroke, your body already knows what to do, you have to allow it to, one of the things that clicked with me from the book was this....
You do thousands of things everyday you don't think of that require great skill and accuracy, you probably woke up this morning, got out of bed, walked to the bathroom, opened the door, turned on the light without a single thought, you didn't calculate how much pressure it would take to open the door or turn on the light, let alone the balance required to walk, how did you do it? You've done it thousands of times, you've done it so many times the subconscious part of your brain already knows how to do that, much like walking and talking, the problem comes when the conscious part of the brain tries to take over what the subconscious part of the brain already knows what to do, like thinking when I was down on the shot, for most people including me it takes a lot to learn to "let go" we are taught to think things through, when it comes to performing precise physical tasks, first calculate with your conscious brain and then free your subconscious brain to do what it does best.

Very well articulated!!!

 

[LibraryFool77]

Very well articulated!!!

Is that one in the stink, one in the pink? Mensabum. that’s articulated through and through!

 

[Mensabum]

Juggling was one of the things I never mastered. A pistol shooter with a few world championships was testing a theory about learning and had always wanted to learn to juggle. He tried to juggle for a timed twenty minutes a day, thought about it a lot more. In three days he could juggle!

Hu

Took me a couple of months to find the juggling 'Stroke'.
Wish a had a dollar for every ball I dropped!!
I'ma slow learner.

 

[Mensabum]

Some people do something for thirty years and are masters. Some people do something thirty years and have one year of experience repeated twenty-nine times!

Hu

School of hard knocks right there!!

 

[straightline]

Sounds more like an Altered State.

First encounter with sudafed I managed to grind out a few bucks playing 5 dollar 9 ball.. Head cold meets opportunity. Definitely an unnatural state. Pseudoephedrine is banned substance at the Olympics too.

 

[gregcantrall]

Well "Back in The Day", wink8. I encountered a few players that were using chemicals. Since I had experienced experiments, I knew that I could outlast them. Well that was my goal. As they could make any shot on the table. It was difficult to put handcuffs on 'em.
The fact that they needed the helper, just gave me strength er uh confidence that I was stronger in the long run. My love for baseball was forgone my senior year in high-school. I ran track that year as I had received a Congress ional appointment to USAFA. 7250 feet above sea level. My mile best time flirted with the 5 minutes marker. Never broke it until I faced a rabbit that ran a mid 4 minute mile. I only got second but a personal goal was accomplished with a 4:58.
So yeah my favorite was $50 sets that we broke even but his trips to the nose candy probably cost him a hundred. Oh well.
I knew when to walk away that night as the get my money back or stuck a hundred came down to hill/hill.
Yhat was in the days when I carried a full clip of a thousand. Just in case a fellow wanted to get frisky. As a bar box banger I could read the game quickly.
My best tournament pay was 900 for 2 days.
My best bar box score was 1100 to 1250.
3 hours, .maybe.....
3 ball for 50.

 

[gregcantrall]

At USAFA I ran a 2 mile at 10,000 feet at least. I finished 24th out of 50 of out America's finest.

 

[ShootingArts]

At USAFA I ran a 2 mile at 10,000 feet at least. I finished 24th out of 50 of out America's finest.

A few times sandbaggers tried to persuade me to join in. I might play games gambling when I figured everybody was but as a competitor I wanted to run with the big dogs. Not anything to brag about to be the best of the little yippers.

I hadn't considered myself one of the elite, just close to them. Then a young man came up to me one day and asked, "How do you guys do it?" I started to say I wasn't one of the elite but then I realized I was in the upper edge of the elite and just answered the question.

Some people interest me. They have elite skills but lack something mental or emotional to win. They come in third through tenth like clockwork but something keeps them from winning. I talked to a man that had been competing about forty weeks a year, had been competing like this for eighteen years. He had never won a match! I tried to clarify, not a major match? No, from weekly events to the world stage, he had never won a match! Like people playing up to their expectations, some do whatever it takes to play down to their expectations!

As a general rule I never speak negatively about myself. At worst I say something neutral like Fat Albert before cosby was disgraced. "Hey, hey, hey, I am here to play!" If there is even a remote chance I say "I'm in it to win it." The path to be a better player starts between the ears, and it starts with determination.

Hu

 

[july9x]

I am going to tell you something you may not ever hear from an instructor or learn from a book. You play your best pool in a semi conscious state. When your analytical mind is on standby. We used to calll that "in stroke," when you no longer had to ponder over the next shot. You were playing on automatic pilot. None of that walking around and pointing your cue. Just letting yourself play pool, free and easy. All that thinking does is slow you down. See the shot and shoot! Your first instinct is always the best. Think long, think wrong! The only time you slow down is when you must stop and think about a kick shot, jump or safety.

Watch the Filipinos sometime. I love AJ Manas. They don't waste any time clearing the table. They don't worry about the perfect angle or pefect anything. They just do their job, which is getting the balls off the table.

Get out of your head and into your game, and you'll do better!

You are right, about 1 thing, as long as you keep making balls, nothing else matters. The problem is that, APA is the only tournament and league that counts how many balls you made, the more the better. The rest cares about the end result, aka the money ball.

Name 1 tournament AJ Manas has won that 5 people can remember, none, he ain't gonna win any tournaments anytime soon until he slows down and surveys more.

Everyone ain't Tony Drago in late 90s early 2000s.
Even Josh Filler has slowed down and he surveys.
Everyone has 30 seconds per shot, make it counts.

Your "high" feeling when you feel you can't miss, only happens once in every other month.
Your fundamentals are there with you at all time.
My families are always there for me. Hoses and Batches come and gone.
I stick with what I have with me all the time

 

[wlycdgr]

Mmmhmmm
Just shoot, baby

 

[Coos Cues]

Most of today's matches are unwatchable to me.

I like gunslinger pool...fast and loose.

I refuse to watch a live match. I need the arrow button to click forward 5 seconds as many times as needed. Even then it get's tedious.

Match room has in my opinion recognized the problem and moved toward solving it in a huge leap with the shootout format. These matches are watchable live as you understand how long they will take to crown a winner. Kudos to them!

 

[ShootingArts]

You are right, about 1 thing, as long as you keep making balls, nothing else matters. The problem is that, APA is the only tournament and league that counts how many balls you made, the more the better. The rest cares about the end result, aka the money ball.

Name 1 tournament AJ Manas has won that 5 people can remember, none, he ain't gonna win any tournaments anytime soon until he slows down and surveys more.

Everyone ain't Tony Drago in late 90s early 2000s.
Even Josh Filler has slowed down and he surveys.
Everyone has 30 seconds per shot, make it counts.

Your "high" feeling when you feel you can't miss, only happens once in every other month.
Your fundamentals are there with you at all time.
My families are always there for me. Hoses and Batches come and gone.
I stick with what I have with me all the time

Straight pool and one pocket both count balls, no money ball except whichever you shoot last. Not sure what you mean by your last line, we all work with what we have but you seem like you might be ignoring your best days. There are a handful of times in your life, maybe more for some, when magic is in the air. Fire at five rails and it falls like a hanger. I enjoy those days to the fullest.

The local bar had an elite few players, a group I hadn't been admitted to at fifteen. Then I had a shot that involved a 3/4 table kick into a carom with the money ball about a foot from the side pocket angling into it. The man I was playing was a recently retired pro boxer so I went over to where he was talking and explained the shot, verifying it was legal. We were friendly but not friends and I wasn't looking for a fight with William over a few dollars! Never forgot that shot, it was the one I made my bones with. After that I was accepted as a player, not a banger. I have learned if I see a shot falling before I shoot it almost always will. If I can't visualize it falling I am probably whistling Dixie!

Hu

 

[july9x]

Straight pool and one pocket both count balls, no money ball except whichever you shoot last. Not sure what you mean by your last line, we all work with what we have but you seem like you might be ignoring your best days. There are a handful of times in your life, maybe more for some, when magic is in the air. Fire at five rails and it falls like a hanger. I enjoy those days to the fullest.

The local bar had an elite few players, a group I hadn't been admitted to at fifteen. Then I had a shot that involved a 3/4 table kick into a carom with the money ball about a foot from the side pocket angling into it. The man I was playing was a recently retired pro boxer so I went over to where he was talking and explained the shot, verifying it was legal. We were friendly but not friends and I wasn't looking for a fight with William over a few dollars! Never forgot that shot, it was the one I made my bones with. After that I was accepted as a player, not a banger. I have learned if I see a shot falling before I shoot it almost always will. If I can't visualize it falling I am probably whistling Dixie!

Hu

I feel you, had those moments before.
I can visualize running out the table 100% of time, always, but only can execute it maybe 1 or 2 every 100 (9-ball) games. Guess my Fargo!