whats next?

Solartje

Solartje

the Brunswick BUG bit me
Silver Member
hiya all,

ill try to give a short resume, so everyone can follow and help me to find some answers. Ive played 3dcussion, french billiard and snooker on recreational level for 10 years. i used to play 2-4h/week. i then stoped for a year or two, and started pool this summer. i was a B+ player in potting ability, and a C in positional play, and a D in consistency when i stopped snooker.

i spend alot of time reading, watching instructional dvd's, reading here.

now my first pool seasons is almost over, and i think i am finally a B player on the 3 area's i discribed above. i can break/run (8 and 9b) around 10-20% of my games, and in straightpool i consistenly do breaks of 10+ balls in every match. nothing godly, but well after only 1 year of pool i thinks thats more then ok.

what ive done.

- videotaped my stroke ALOT, and get rid of my hooked shoulder movement wich always placed right englisch. i couldnt roll a ball straight from one endcussion to another and back to the tip of my cue. I now got a perfect straight stroke.

- Add a preshotroutine. I searched for things when im in the zone, and i searched for my weeknesses and based my preshotroutine on that.

- trained my 9ball breaks, 8ball breaks, 14-1 breaks, started reading racks.

- i play ALOT slower (the sentence: i just KNOW u are hitting the balls to hard) shook me up.

- i use cussion, banks, kicks alot more. they have become a part of my shotselection alot more often.

- i learned to potting angles for speed, englisch , etc etc . and i learned about the famous trow, contact trow and deflection (that REALLY helped me explain why i always missed certain shots.)

- im concentrating on PAterns now, being a old snooker player, i only though 3 balls max ahaid. now i dont shoot before i found a patern to run out.

all these things, have made me play very bad for months, but its finally paying off. i have finally made it from a C player to a B player. (in my opinion)


now the question.:
whats next to put on my list to improve and maybe/hopfully get to A level in a year or 2-3.

- safetyplay is something i think will be part of my program.
- maybe i should start rereading colin's post about BHE or is this still to early? that stuff is chinese for me
- really no idea on what to do next. i do play ranking events , open's, national championships but its more for the match-experience then to win it. I know i have to learn how to walk before i can run, so i really want to concentrate on LEARNING in the first months/years untill winning tournaments become a goal.
- maybe print of all the pro drills i have found over the months and start doing them?
- maybe buy a new cue... (even if i think this wont really make me a A player).

plz help silly solly to set up tasks for me to do for after the summerbreak!! :o


i dont got the chance of having poolschools in my country or there isnt any coatch i can afford or that lives close enough, so i have to make up my own training and be my own coatch. SO id like to hear from better players, what my focus points should be? maybe i should continu to train the things i did this year, for some years untill its 100% pure natural, or should i start investing into other specific things as i see my game is back to its original level and higher after some time of inconsistency because of my bad fundamentals.


ill be rewarding rep pts for the person who can give me the best list of things i should start training now.:cool:
 
Of the things you list, I'd give the greatest weight to becoming a good defesnvie player and strategist. I believe the ability to beat others to the shot is one of the biggest differences between the A and B players.
 
Hi Solly,
I'll be re-writing / diagramming / videoing some instructions for BHE soon. Hopefully it will be easier to follow :D
Colin
 
Solartje said:
now the question.:
whats next to put on my list to improve and maybe/hopfully get to A level in a year or 2-3.

- safetyplay is something i think will be part of my program.
- maybe i should start rereading colin's post about BHE or is this still to early? that stuff is chinese for me
- really no idea on what to do next. i do play ranking events , open's, national championships but its more for the match-experience then to win it. I know i have to learn how to walk before i can run, so i really want to concentrate on LEARNING in the first months/years untill winning tournaments become a goal.
- maybe print of all the pro drills i have found over the months and start doing them?
- maybe buy a new cue... (even if i think this wont really make me a A player).

plz help silly solly to set up tasks for me to do for after the summerbreak!! :o
Click to expand...

You've already done the first step, setting goals to obtain. That shows you accually want to improve.

Knowing where you're at, I'd say continue working on your foundations. I.E. your stance, stroke, alignment. If you don't have those first three down pat, you'll only confuse yourself when trying new techniques.

Do the drills of your choosing. When you do those drills on a foreign table, it'll help you get confidence.

Keep a pace of learning that works for you. Don't burn yourself out with information overload. Keep it fun, learning is so much easier that way.

There's a point where you need to turn fun into focus, and still be cordial.

Of what I know of ya, I'd say you're at that level.

Safety play, and setting up drills go hand in hand. Just depends on if your working on a weakness, or building confidence reading table speed.

Keep up the good work Sol :)
 
On that problem about not having schools and/or money for good trainer is one possible answer. Try to arrange that you can play with someone from top 20 regulary; for example twice a month and take that much time that you have time to talk about your game afterwards. In a long run that will help. That way it's not gonna be expensive and you'll learn something during those games.
 
Ronoh said:
You've already done the first step, setting goals to obtain. That shows you accually want to improve. Defenetly. i made for myself the transition off pool from a hobbie to a sport.

Knowing where you're at, I'd say continue working on your foundations. I.E. your stance, stroke, alignment. If you don't have those first three down pat, you'll only confuse yourself when trying new techniques.
Yep, ill probably will focus on them till a after the summerbreak. This gives me a good 3-4 months to really become 1 with them.

Do the drills of your choosing. When you do those drills on a foreign table, it'll help you get confidence. (mm good idea actually. so u mean its best to practice on different tables? mmm nice one added it to my goal list
Keep a pace of learning that works for you. Don't burn yourself out with information overload. Keep it fun, learning is so much easier that way. toally agree, in pool its not good to learn TO much TO fast. I had a burnout some time ago, as 1/ new basics werent working (had to adjust my feeling of the angles totally), i was thinking SO much , i could write a book about what i thought before a shot. took a month break and worked perfect.

There's a point where you need to turn fun into focus, and still be cordial.

Of what I know of ya, I'd say you're at that level. :rolleyes:

Safety play, and setting up drills go hand in hand. Just depends on if your working on a weakness, or building confidence reading table speed. i think i want to build my weeknesses. knowing you HAVE a weakness is worse then not being exelent but average i think. Ive been training inside english shots alot more lately for this reason. but i think my main focus after the summerbreak will be safety. I played 14-1 last night national rankings, and i had this shot. Cb frozen 10cm from side corner, pack on its place and a breakball in between the rack. should have just rolled a safety but as i know i suck in safety's and my oponent would get me into more trouble i just went for the shot. Lucky my longpot was there to back me up and made a 17 break. BUT my choice was wrong. so weekness is really something u want to BAN as soon ass posible.
Keep up the good work Sol :) i will
Click to expand...

SJM, i think u are very right. actually when i played recreational snooker my strongest part apart from longtpots was my safety. I dont have this in pool. In my first months i even lost SO many matches just because i played snooker-safety's (ie: u dont need to touch a rail) this small difference really makes me a beginner in safety's. id like to have my 2 weapons back in pool: longshots and safety. I think these 2 give a fatal combination.. but this might be personal

6pack man :) im really not sure if i want to understand it. like someone posted in another post, all these uber physics make my head hurt. BUT like always ill read it !!! and then get a 6pack to try to forget it again because i didnt get it :) but who knows

Pete; thats what i had planned now, and i found several who where ready to do it, BUT i live in brussels, and there is NO poolhall here (or at least something u can call it) 0 9ft tables in brussels, never seen a simonis 860, biggest hall is my karaoke barr with 5 * 8ft tables (they have 10 huiscue's, 1 chalk, BADLY broken balls) and i dont think there is a player in brussels who even is a B player, (hence why there are no poolclubs either. no pro's = no club). SO to go to these players i have to travel a long way by train and bus. Its worth it, might be able to do it later when i got the $ to buy a car, but currently its not a option, and i train alone in a karaoke barr. And AZB and scott are what i consider my SUPER coathes. This forum has made me from a Ballbanger into a respected B player. Thx alot for that. cant thank you all enough.

ps enjoy the reps :)
 
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