What Made Your Game Go From Good to Great?

How to position the eyes..............

Mikey Town said:
There are many excellent, accomplished players on this forum... I am definitely not one of them!

I have played other sports at a high level, though. A lot of the time all it takes is one tip, trick, thought or drill... then something clicks, and you feel like you step up a couple levels in a short amount of time. Your game has suddenly gone from good to great.

What was that something for you? To all of the better players out there: What was the main thing (as simple or complex as it may have been) that made your game go from good to great?

Many of us could benefit by seeing what has worked for others in the past and trying to apply it to our own game. I've gotten some great stories and one-liners out of people when asking them this question too :D


Mike
Click to expand...

At first I aimed by accident like most players but I was just a good player at best. It limited my ability alot as it does many other players.

Once I understood how to keep the dominant eye in the correct position the rest was history.

I started making alot of money and went around beating the players that I couldn't beat before.

If you have the eyes in the right position in the preshot routine your body will follow putting everything where it needs to be. Once you have this mastered you can work on the other aspects of the game and it all seems to work out better.

For me this was it.
 
Mikey Town said:
There are many excellent, accomplished players on this forum... I am definitely not one of them!

I have played other sports at a high level, though. A lot of the time all it takes is one tip, trick, thought or drill... then something clicks, and you feel like you step up a couple levels in a short amount of time. Your game has suddenly gone from good to great.

What was that something for you? To all of the better players out there: What was the main thing (as simple or complex as it may have been) that made your game go from good to great?

Many of us could benefit by seeing what has worked for others in the past and trying to apply it to our own game. I've gotten some great stories and one-liners out of people when asking them this question too :D


Mike
Click to expand...

I was about the best player in my town, (big fish in a small pond). Then I started going on a regular basis to another town about 15 miles away with a real nice action room. Soon it was an everyday thing and I almost never returned to my old hangouts. In like a year I was way beyond I had ever imagined I would ever play. It is like osmosis when you get around those guys, you just pick it up. You are getting better and you don't even know it. This room by the way had world class players. Later when I would on occasions visit any on my old hangouts I could not believe how bad the players actually played I used to look up to. You just can't really progress around weak players or playing in a vacuum in your basement. You have to be around good players.
 
one stroke said:
I think playing better players is the best way to improve the mental part of the game but as far as to go from a good to a great player u dont see that a whole lot with players that have played a long time ,

At the end of the day every one has a cap limit otherwise we would all play like ER



9
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From years of being around pool and owning a room I have watched zillions of hours of players play. I have long been of the opinion that almost every player is a better player then they think they are. The game is just not that hard, "really". Some players are naturals but most any player can become a very good player if they so desire.
 
I'm not a great player by anyone's imagination. But following helped me to go from horrible to good.

1. Less moving parts. By concentrating on keeping my body still & let my arm do the work, my shot-making improved. All these years, the slight head movements, lunging at shots, pushing with my legs at hard shots were killing me.

2. Never bail out on a shot. In the past I had a tendency to "give up" on tough shots. Instead, I now visualize the shot going in & just concentrate on the speed & spin. I found it very interesting that my "hand & eye coordination" tends to adjust to the correct shot angle sub-consciously. I suppose this is like a basketball player throwing up a off-balanced shot, & his hand-&-eye coordination taking over while off-balanced.

3. Thought process. Think about the spin, speed, deflection & run-out BEFORE you get down on a shot. It's not as easy as it sounds. Too many times I approach a tough shot just trying to make the shot, only to scratch or leave bad position for next shot. Or, I forget to compensate for the deflection based on speed & spin. You can think & execute a correct speed & position on every shot, hard or easy. You don't have to be a good player to achieve these objectives, you just have to THINK about it.

I thought those three things, for me, did wonders for my game. I went from a low B to borderline A at times.
 
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improvement

Most players think they have a good stroke. The truth is most do not and they don't know what they don't know. I was in that boat for years. A pure stroke is virtually effortless when executed properly. When I finally mastered the stroke, everything else fell into place. A pure stroke delivers the cue ball accurately if you are aligned properly. Do a few drills to test if you are stroking the shot properly....you may be surprised how bad your stroke really is.
 
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Mikey Town said:
There are many excellent, accomplished players on this forum... I am definitely not one of them!

I have played other sports at a high level, though. A lot of the time all it takes is one tip, trick, thought or drill... then something clicks, and you feel like you step up a couple levels in a short amount of time. Your game has suddenly gone from good to great.

What was that something for you? To all of the better players out there: What was the main thing (as simple or complex as it may have been) that made your game go from good to great?

Many of us could benefit by seeing what has worked for others in the past and trying to apply it to our own game. I've gotten some great stories and one-liners out of people when asking them this question too :D


Mike
Click to expand...

When I started using this aiming system

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q4jEPmHFa8
 
In replying to this thread, by no means am I making any claim that I'm a 'great' player. But after several years of playing on a plateau with little to no noticeable improvement, two things I did that really bumped my game up have always stuck with me.
The first one was disciplining myself to settle for a longer (maybe more difficult shot) on the correct side of the ball, than to force the position to get an easier shot however possibly straight on or even on the wrong site of a ball. CONCLUSION: Trusting my shot making abilities suddenly allowed me to be confident enough to take the longer and slightly more difficult shot that would give me natural shape without having to fight the table.
Number two would be a more mental approach, and this refers to my 9 ball game more than anything. I'm sure you've already heard of 'thinking 3 balls ahead' when youre planning a run right? Well, I used to do 3 ball drills by tossing 3 balls out on the table, and running them with ball in hand. It's pretty easy to consistently run 3 balls with a pretty high rate of sucess. Especially if you're really planning the 3 ball run by making sure you end up on the correct side of the 2nd ball in the run. Once you get into this frame of mind, divide your 9 balls in a game of 9 ball into three 3 ball runs, and it almost gives you the impression that there are fewer balls on the table. Run 3 balls............................repeat process twice.................and you're out.
dave
 
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