as most of you posters know, i had the opportunity on December 26, 1998/99/00/01/02 to have Tom "Dr. Cue" Rossman down to my place to instruct me. i picked this hobby up back in the summer of 1998, and wanted to do things right. since Tom was the only BCA Certified Instructor in the southern part of Indiana i turned to him for help and he was most gracious towards me.
thinking back on it, i would say there are probably two (2) main bits of advice/tips/lessons he taught me that really helped my game. they are as follows:
1) When practicing, do it progressively. i told him i was struggling with a certain shot, and he said basically to set up a shorter version of the shot, shoot it, then move back 4"-6" and shoot, then back another 4"-6" and shoot, then back again, etc, etc. this method of "Progressive Practice" was new to me at the time, and i still do it today.
2) Practice half-table shots mostly. i had a tendency to want to always practice the longer version of a shot, instead of the "Half-Table" version of the shot, which comes up more during a rack than a long shot. as a matter of fact, the first rack of 9-Ball i ever ran was shortly after practicing half-table shots quite a bit.
just thought i would post this, in case anyone would be interested in reading. sure wish i could talk Tom into coming down around the holidays every year, he's a genuinely good guy. as Steve Orner from Orner Billiards in Indy told me once about Tom - "People Like Rossman Are What The Sport Is All About!"
regards,
DCP
thinking back on it, i would say there are probably two (2) main bits of advice/tips/lessons he taught me that really helped my game. they are as follows:
1) When practicing, do it progressively. i told him i was struggling with a certain shot, and he said basically to set up a shorter version of the shot, shoot it, then move back 4"-6" and shoot, then back another 4"-6" and shoot, then back again, etc, etc. this method of "Progressive Practice" was new to me at the time, and i still do it today.
2) Practice half-table shots mostly. i had a tendency to want to always practice the longer version of a shot, instead of the "Half-Table" version of the shot, which comes up more during a rack than a long shot. as a matter of fact, the first rack of 9-Ball i ever ran was shortly after practicing half-table shots quite a bit.
just thought i would post this, in case anyone would be interested in reading. sure wish i could talk Tom into coming down around the holidays every year, he's a genuinely good guy. as Steve Orner from Orner Billiards in Indy told me once about Tom - "People Like Rossman Are What The Sport Is All About!"
regards,
DCP