I have been playing for a little over 3 years now. When I first started playing I picked it up very easily and continued to improve up until a few months ago. I have seemed to "plateau" so to speak. I play in an APA league on Mondays and a BCA league on Tuesdays. I am an APA 7 in 8 ball and an 8 in 9 ball, but I don't really compare to the other higher level players. I would feel more comfortable as a 6. Anyway, I was just wanting a little input on what some of you did that took your game to the next level. Thanks in advance.
What did you do to take your game to the next level?
- Thread starter Dusrsan12
- Start date
I had Scott Lee teach me the PSF stroke. I feel I'm a much better player/shooter.
http://www.poolknowledge.com
http://www.poolknowledge.com
Took a lesson and competed more where I encountered players better than me, some much better.
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I don't know what the pros teach in the US, but in VN, a top pro tells me he only teaches those who commit 2 years, learn from the basic up, erase all other thing you have had.
some learned from him and I must say they play much better, but practice from Zero? I am not a fan of that method, it's like inject the teacher's mind/style into another body that may or may not take it.
for me, I mainly changed my aiming and pre-shot routine in the last 6months, try to replicate all the good key points and I can say I am much more comfortable now.
some learned from him and I must say they play much better, but practice from Zero? I am not a fan of that method, it's like inject the teacher's mind/style into another body that may or may not take it.
for me, I mainly changed my aiming and pre-shot routine in the last 6months, try to replicate all the good key points and I can say I am much more comfortable now.
I spent several years playing a world class player quite often.I learned a lot and raised my game considerably.
I came back to pool about 2 years ago after a 20 year hiatus. I was young and dangerous with a cue at my best back then and it came back very slow. After about a year and a half I could start to move the shiny white ball around to where it made sense again and pocket balls consistently.
What really changed my game to the point where I have seriously moved past my previous long passed greatness is the introduction of playing and practicing ONE POCKET. It forces you to consider all things under the sun and in the box... and consider quickly you must. Ball speed, banks, cuts, english, and I had to grow another brain just to handle the requirements of defense. One Pocket is the teacher for me and so many others. Of course, I have excellent teachers in the form of lifetime hardcore billiard fanatics that play serious pool and do not care if you can keep up or not.
"How'd you do that?" I asked (once)
"Look young feller, I give you permission to start paying attention from here on in. You got my word on it." Said the evil summummabish that tortured me daily for the past year. I do better with him and others now.
If you do not have access to really awesome players like I do, just seek knowledge and mix it up with the best you can find. Pay attention and you will either grow or die. Throughout my comeback I have absolutely made a point out of SOLO practice. However much I can manage until someone comes in and needs a game from me. Practicing solo allows me to gather experience where I want to get it.... its like shopping for knowledge with a no-limit credit card. All you gotta do it want it and do it.
Recently its all started to coalesce at long last. I guess I am kinda lucky since some people spend years and years and never see any progress. Maybe they just do not want it. I am very pleased with how things are falling into place. Im no Thorsten Hohman or SVB, But woe be tithe if I get a clean shot line... I will likely run out in a couple minutes.
Solo practice
One Pocket
Mean old men
My secrets to success.
Regards,
Lesh
What really changed my game to the point where I have seriously moved past my previous long passed greatness is the introduction of playing and practicing ONE POCKET. It forces you to consider all things under the sun and in the box... and consider quickly you must. Ball speed, banks, cuts, english, and I had to grow another brain just to handle the requirements of defense. One Pocket is the teacher for me and so many others. Of course, I have excellent teachers in the form of lifetime hardcore billiard fanatics that play serious pool and do not care if you can keep up or not.
"How'd you do that?" I asked (once)
"Look young feller, I give you permission to start paying attention from here on in. You got my word on it." Said the evil summummabish that tortured me daily for the past year. I do better with him and others now.
If you do not have access to really awesome players like I do, just seek knowledge and mix it up with the best you can find. Pay attention and you will either grow or die. Throughout my comeback I have absolutely made a point out of SOLO practice. However much I can manage until someone comes in and needs a game from me. Practicing solo allows me to gather experience where I want to get it.... its like shopping for knowledge with a no-limit credit card. All you gotta do it want it and do it.
Recently its all started to coalesce at long last. I guess I am kinda lucky since some people spend years and years and never see any progress. Maybe they just do not want it. I am very pleased with how things are falling into place. Im no Thorsten Hohman or SVB, But woe be tithe if I get a clean shot line... I will likely run out in a couple minutes.
Solo practice
One Pocket
Mean old men
My secrets to success.
Regards,
Lesh
Misspent youth. Watched a lot of the top guys in the early 80s play, and all the roadies that would come through. My first "mentor" so to speak was a road player in the 60s and 70s. He would play anybody, but nothing for free. When he gauged how serious you were about learning, he would show you a tidbit here and there. But he always did it in a way where you learned by figuring it out yourself instead of him spoon feeding.
Chuck
Chuck
90% solo practice, 8% play and 2% goofing around.
Stick to it for a couple of years, and you will become the guy that everybody watches at your local room.
There is no magic formula or shortcuts. Forget about aiming systems and all that junk, if not already now, then soon you should be able to tell if you will pocket the ball or not - before you even stroke it.
When I started to play in Shanghai (1 year ago) a bought 8 hours of instruction from Fu Jianbo.
"Teach me how to play pool" I told him...
He assed my current level during a few racks of 8 Ball...."STOP" he said.
I am now undergoing an almost religious regime of 800 straight shots (200 in each corner) every single day of the week - as warm-up for a 2 hour session, followed by 2-3 hours of actual play.
I only work 4 hours a day
It works....it works VERY well actually.
Stick to it for a couple of years, and you will become the guy that everybody watches at your local room.
There is no magic formula or shortcuts. Forget about aiming systems and all that junk, if not already now, then soon you should be able to tell if you will pocket the ball or not - before you even stroke it.
When I started to play in Shanghai (1 year ago) a bought 8 hours of instruction from Fu Jianbo.
"Teach me how to play pool" I told him...
He assed my current level during a few racks of 8 Ball...."STOP" he said.
I am now undergoing an almost religious regime of 800 straight shots (200 in each corner) every single day of the week - as warm-up for a 2 hour session, followed by 2-3 hours of actual play.
I only work 4 hours a day
It works....it works VERY well actually.
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Combination of a lot of things;
1. As Chuck said above, a misspent youth, I literally grew up in a pool hall, spending up to 4-8 hours a day 6-7 days a week playing.
2. Playing stiff competition, while you need to spend some time playing alone to work on things I spent most of my time playing better players for a lot of years.
3. Gambling, while some will frown on this nothing will harden you like playing better players for your hard earned $. It will also combined with #2 above teach you to be able to honestly appraise your speed & others speed & therefore how to match up, either you'll learn or go bust a lot. 4. Developing a solid regular pre shot routine, learning to evaluate the table during this routine & make your decisions, then most importantly that moment of disconnect where the evaluations stop, you shut off your conscious mind and get down on the ball & allow your subconscious & muscle memory to execute what you've envisioned during your pre shot routine.
5. Lastly & what I feel is most important & can be worked on away from the table, your mental game. Learning to truly envision what it is you desire to execute. The part of your brain that will get your body to execute shots & position play is driven by pictures in your mind, not by words. Picturing the shot being executed, seeing yourself staying down on the ball with a proper follow through on your stroke, the ball being pocketed and the cue ball moving in line for your next shot. I find this to be the most crucial element. If you don't "see it" or envision it, it doesn't happen. I find this to be the most neglected part of most people's games. Developing this is also what helps you shut everything else out, the rail birds, the $, the pressure that people don't realize doesn't really exist anywhere but in their own minds & they actually put on themselves, the only place fear & pressure exists is in your mind & feeling it or not feeling it is a choice YOU make. Once you've put in a certain amount of time and developed solid fundamentals this mental aspect is the factor that will bring a quantum leap in your game.
Why am I the Colonel? Because I always get the chicken
1. As Chuck said above, a misspent youth, I literally grew up in a pool hall, spending up to 4-8 hours a day 6-7 days a week playing.
2. Playing stiff competition, while you need to spend some time playing alone to work on things I spent most of my time playing better players for a lot of years.
3. Gambling, while some will frown on this nothing will harden you like playing better players for your hard earned $. It will also combined with #2 above teach you to be able to honestly appraise your speed & others speed & therefore how to match up, either you'll learn or go bust a lot. 4. Developing a solid regular pre shot routine, learning to evaluate the table during this routine & make your decisions, then most importantly that moment of disconnect where the evaluations stop, you shut off your conscious mind and get down on the ball & allow your subconscious & muscle memory to execute what you've envisioned during your pre shot routine.
5. Lastly & what I feel is most important & can be worked on away from the table, your mental game. Learning to truly envision what it is you desire to execute. The part of your brain that will get your body to execute shots & position play is driven by pictures in your mind, not by words. Picturing the shot being executed, seeing yourself staying down on the ball with a proper follow through on your stroke, the ball being pocketed and the cue ball moving in line for your next shot. I find this to be the most crucial element. If you don't "see it" or envision it, it doesn't happen. I find this to be the most neglected part of most people's games. Developing this is also what helps you shut everything else out, the rail birds, the $, the pressure that people don't realize doesn't really exist anywhere but in their own minds & they actually put on themselves, the only place fear & pressure exists is in your mind & feeling it or not feeling it is a choice YOU make. Once you've put in a certain amount of time and developed solid fundamentals this mental aspect is the factor that will bring a quantum leap in your game.
Why am I the Colonel? Because I always get the chicken
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It is hard to move to next level without owning a table at home. You need to discover pocketing balls, and why you miss at your own pace, and get more practice time, that will increase your confidence level coupled with playing matches and comparing the two. Eventually, your matches play becomes as easy as practice and pressure disappears, almost.
Playing one pocket like another poster suggested is good, but only when you master 9 or 10 ball game, otherwise your stroke for 9 or 10 ball game will die, 8 ball, is different you have many choices of shots. My advise practice 9 or 10 ball until you are perfect.
Well, there is no substitute for proficiency, you gotta be able to play well to win, but there is also a huge mental side to the win.
You have to be comfortable in a given situation and that only comes from experience, IMO.
I would say probably the 2 single
biggest things the top guys do that separates them from the rest of us humans is that they make the medium-tuff shots 100% of the time and when they turn the table ofer it is usually done on their own terms.
You have to be comfortable in a given situation and that only comes from experience, IMO.
I would say probably the 2 single
biggest things the top guys do that separates them from the rest of us humans is that they make the medium-tuff shots 100% of the time and when they turn the table ofer it is usually done on their own terms.
Jerry Forsyth
Well-known member
I took a three-day course from Randy Goettlicher in Dallas. I had been playing for thirty years and he taught me ore in three days than I had learned in all those years previously just matching up.
Randy does not teach voodoo. His classes are logical and ordered. And the results are rapid.
Randy does not teach voodoo. His classes are logical and ordered. And the results are rapid.
Learned to play one pocket from some fairly strong players in the New Orleans area.
Everything changed when a golfer from Florida (who played decent one pocket) had come over to stay in the area for a months. He and I played 2-3 days a week for hours. The last day I saw him, he told me I played well, but if I fixed the wacky butterfly stroke I had, I would get much better. Well, the butterfly stroke is gone and I do play much better! At least, I think I do... lol
Everything changed when a golfer from Florida (who played decent one pocket) had come over to stay in the area for a months. He and I played 2-3 days a week for hours. The last day I saw him, he told me I played well, but if I fixed the wacky butterfly stroke I had, I would get much better. Well, the butterfly stroke is gone and I do play much better! At least, I think I do... lol
strategy
I was fortunate enough to be sort of a natural at pool (not so much with my first love, bowling), so I began with decent fundamentals.
I learned a lot by sneaking into pool halls to watch the big boys.
But the biggest single jump forward for me was realizing half a century ago that playing defense is not "dirty pool"!
I was fortunate enough to be sort of a natural at pool (not so much with my first love, bowling), so I began with decent fundamentals.
I learned a lot by sneaking into pool halls to watch the big boys.
But the biggest single jump forward for me was realizing half a century ago that playing defense is not "dirty pool"!
Worked on my stroke for consistency. Try to use tangent lines with less side spin. Use to play way to much english. Edge of cue before, more one tip now. Paid attention to better players. If I saw a shot I wasn't sure I could do. I would set it up until I could. Which helped me learn different ways to apply english. Also learned to add safeties to my game when I had a low percentage shot.