Simplifying "The Game of 4000 Shots" - the Inside Way.
I understand the game of 4000 shots, believe me, when I came back from not playing for several years I tried that game. It was a blessing in disguise because the game was so difficult that I worked fanatically on my fundamentals and as a result they're better than before.
When I came out of retirement, my first tournament was the US OPEN and even though I finished 9th (with wins over Earl Stickland and several top professionals), the game was still not "natural" and I think I was trying to play the "4000 shot game" and it made me not want to play....so I lost interest and did the nightclub business for another couple of years.
This time I got this burning desire to play again, and to figure out once and for all what the heck I used to do that seperated me and gave me the confidence to play Efren, Earl, Johnny, Sigel, Varner, Mizerak, Rempe, etc and actually come out on top (even though they all did certain things better than I did).
I knew when I was playing my best I thought of two things: Touch Of Inside and Accelerate!!! This seemed like it was too easy and I had been doing this, however, I just couldn't get myself to do it every time (some of you already know that feeling).
Then one day it "clicked" and I understood that the Touch Of Inside was indeed a system of play. Not the "4000 ball system," but a system where I could play a consistent shot speed, shot angle, and cue ball target and it would align perfectly to the geometry of the pool table.
Not just because the table was two perfect squares and a rectangle, and many triangles.....the reason TOI works is because of the perfection of the cue ball and object balls. It works because of the spheres and when you cue the ball to the inside it opens up the Game and it starts to tell me the shot, not "one" of the 4000, just one shot, the TOI shot.
The Touch of Inside changed the Game for me - I don't have to think anymore because the table tells me the TOI Shot and I don't have 4000 choices. I used to think more choices were better, now I know that it's more important to have "better choices," not "more choices."
I understand the game of 4000 shots, believe me, when I came back from not playing for several years I tried that game. It was a blessing in disguise because the game was so difficult that I worked fanatically on my fundamentals and as a result they're better than before.
When I came out of retirement, my first tournament was the US OPEN and even though I finished 9th (with wins over Earl Stickland and several top professionals), the game was still not "natural" and I think I was trying to play the "4000 shot game" and it made me not want to play....so I lost interest and did the nightclub business for another couple of years.
This time I got this burning desire to play again, and to figure out once and for all what the heck I used to do that seperated me and gave me the confidence to play Efren, Earl, Johnny, Sigel, Varner, Mizerak, Rempe, etc and actually come out on top (even though they all did certain things better than I did).
I knew when I was playing my best I thought of two things: Touch Of Inside and Accelerate!!! This seemed like it was too easy and I had been doing this, however, I just couldn't get myself to do it every time (some of you already know that feeling).
Then one day it "clicked" and I understood that the Touch Of Inside was indeed a system of play. Not the "4000 ball system," but a system where I could play a consistent shot speed, shot angle, and cue ball target and it would align perfectly to the geometry of the pool table.
Not just because the table was two perfect squares and a rectangle, and many triangles.....the reason TOI works is because of the perfection of the cue ball and object balls. It works because of the spheres and when you cue the ball to the inside it opens up the Game and it starts to tell me the shot, not "one" of the 4000, just one shot, the TOI shot.
The Touch of Inside changed the Game for me - I don't have to think anymore because the table tells me the TOI Shot and I don't have 4000 choices. I used to think more choices were better, now I know that it's more important to have "better choices," not "more choices."
