Videotaping yourself playing to find flaws

gunzby

gunzby

My light saber is LD
Silver Member
I finally decided to do this to find flaws that I just couldn't think of while I practiced. I went and bought a semi-cheap webcam to hook up to my laptop while I practiced.

My first fear of course was sending my CB flying through the screen of my laptop, but I decided it was worth the risk. My second fear was that I was going to play so terribly that the entire thing would be a flaw in itself.

Before I even got home to "review the tape" I had a hunch on my misses. I finally noticed (without the tape) that on all the shots I made I had a strict fundamental pre-shot routine: chalk up, chalk down, cue staged 2 inches in front of CB, right foot forward...stepping into the shot, slowly get down on ball, long to short practice strokes until I felt I was straight and shoot. I just needed the video to confirm it.

On all the shots I made I took stock of my set up, stance, bridge, bridge length, type of shot and how many strokes I took before shooting. I compared the same to the shots I missed. My hunch was proven. On the shots I missed I either entirely skipped a process in my pre-shot routine or did it in the wrong order.

Sorry this was long, but I wanted to go into detail in case it would help anyone else.
 
You actually made me realize that I have never noticed whether or not I even have a pre-shot routine. That's something to figure out tomorrow, I suppose.
 
gunzby...You've learned something very important! That, in order to create something consistent, you have to BUILD it (by paying close attention to exactly what you're doing, and in what order). Then you have to TRAIN yourself to do the "process" (by talking to yourself OUT LOUD). After a few days of that, now you practice what you just spent a few days training yourself to do. While you practice this way (for a couple of weeks, every day), you "think" the words to your process...the same way as you said them out loud, the week before. The next step is to go out and try out your new process under pressure...not saying anything, not thinking anything...but doing the process, as a habit. If you do this, you will develop an accurate, repeatable stroke, very quickly.:thumbup:

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

gunzby said:
I finally decided to do this to find flaws that I just couldn't think of while I practiced. I went and bought a semi-cheap webcam to hook up to my laptop while I practiced.

My first fear of course was sending my CB flying through the screen of my laptop, but I decided it was worth the risk. My second fear was that I was going to play so terribly that the entire thing would be a flaw in itself.

Before I even got home to "review the tape" I had a hunch on my misses. I finally noticed (without the tape) that on all the shots I made I had a strict fundamental pre-shot routine: chalk up, chalk down, cue staged 2 inches in front of CB, right foot forward...stepping into the shot, slowly get down on ball, long to short practice strokes until I felt I was straight and shoot. I just needed the video to confirm it.

On all the shots I made I took stock of my set up, stance, bridge, bridge length, type of shot and how many strokes I took before shooting. I compared the same to the shots I missed. My hunch was proven. On the shots I missed I either entirely skipped a process in my pre-shot routine or did it in the wrong order.

Sorry this was long, but I wanted to go into detail in case it would help anyone else.
Click to expand...
 
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Scott Lee said:
gunzby...You've learned something very important! That, in order to create something consistent, you have to BUILD it (by paying close attention to exactly what you're doing, and in what order). Then you have to TRAIN yourself to do the "process" (by talking to yourself OUT LOUD). After a few days of that, now you practice what you just spent a fews training yourself to do. While you practice this way (for a couple of weeks, every day), you "think" the words to your process...the same way as you said them out loud, the week before. The next step is to go out and try out your new process under pressure...not saying anything, not thinking anything...but doing the process, as a habit. If you do this, you will develop an accurate, repeatable stroke, very quickly.:thumbup:

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

That's my plan :)
It's been a very difficult process because I'm picking it back up and while I know it's not true my memory says I just walk up haphazardly, shoot and make em all without any routine.

An example I can give of this is when I was in amateur wrestling. The coaches made you do 25 pushups every time you stepped onto the mat and you weren't in stance. I became so used to it that every meet I was in I would walk onto the mat like that while the other guy just walked up normal.
 
monkeywithagun said:
You actually made me realize that I have never noticed whether or not I even have a pre-shot routine. That's something to figure out tomorrow, I suppose.
Click to expand...

I have a firm belief that a solid, repeatable pre-shot routine is the key to "the zone".
 
gunzby said:
. The coaches made you do 25 pushups every time you stepped onto the mat and you weren't in stance. I became so used to it that every meet I was in I would walk onto the mat like that while the other guy just walked up normal.
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I thought you were going to tell us that every time you walked onto the mat you did 25 push-ups before you got into your stance! :grin-square:

Steve
 
Remember, there are three seperate pre-shot routines. Like Scott says, write them down and talk them back to yourself.....SPF=randyg
 
My wife took snap shots of me playing. I was coming off years of playing three cushin. Of course I was pissed she was snapping pictures. Best thing that ever happened to my game. My head was way to high. I brought my head down right on my shaft and my game took off.
 
I've been playing with my camera for the last month or so. In snap shot mode, I've been using it to check consistency in my position. I would set the table top tripod to point at a pocket with a view that includes target ball, and then take a picture after the shot. Using the preview mode of my camera (which displays up to 9 shots at a time), I can check my final cueball position.


tom mcgonagle said:
My wife took snap shots of me playing. I was coming off years of playing three cushin. Of course I was pissed she was snapping pictures. Best thing that ever happened to my game. My head was way to high. I brought my head down right on my shaft and my game took off.
Click to expand...
 
monkeywithagun said:
Sounds logical. I'm up for making even the slightest improvement where possible, so I'll mess with this for a while and see what I come up with.
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Your goal is to build a step by step precise process to use so that when you shoot you are in the best possible position to make a shot. I don't think you can do this without help. At the least you need one or two lessons in order to find out what steps in the process you need to work on.

How you gunna develop a process if you don't know the steps? It's the foundation for EVERYTHING. You MUST get help to do it right. If you get professional help you'll cut years off the learning process.

I got help because I played a little as a teenager and took the game up in earnest at age 55. I had no time to waste practicing the wrong stuff.

Get help and discover the bad habits you have and discover the correct methods to use.
 
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