Which skill was hardest for you to develop?

midnightpulp

midnightpulp

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hi all.

As I said in some of my other threads, I'm returning to the game after an 8/9 year layoff. I've started consistently practicing, mainly working on getting my stroke back.

My stroke feels good. Tight and coordinated. I feel my aiming is also solid, arguably better than ever since I intellectualize it better. I've been playing the 5 ball ghost on and off, and have beaten it one set, race to 7, out of about 10 sets. I've played a few racks of 9 ball, and running 9 balls (something that used to be routine) seems the equivalent of climbling Mt. Everest with two broken legs. My biggest issue is speed control. The "feel" just hasn't returned as quickly as my aim and stroke.

That said, I'm wondering what was your biggest hurdle to becoming a good player.

Also, if you have any good speed control drills, fire away.
 
speed control

I struggle mightily with speed control after a long layoff too. I ran across a ratty old nine footer like I used to play on and my control was much better. I got on some seven footers from the mid-eighties like I used to gamble on a good bit and it was like I was having a flashback, everything was working.

Part of your problem is the layoff but I suspect part of it is the same as mine, I rarely if ever played on tables this fast before. I seem to need to shoot ridiculously softly and I often overrun shape.

Hu

midnightpulp said:
Hi all.

As I said in some of my other threads, I'm returning to the game after an 8/9 year layoff. I've started consistently practicing, mainly working on getting my stroke back.

My stroke feels good. Tight and coordinated. I feel my aiming is also solid, arguably better than ever since I intellectualize it better. I've been playing the 5 ball ghost on and off, and have beaten it one set, race to 7, out of about 10 sets. I've played a few racks of 9 ball, and running 9 balls (something that used to be routine) seems the equivalent of climbling Mt. Everest with two broken legs. My biggest issue is speed control. The "feel" just hasn't returned as quickly as my aim and stroke.

That said, I'm wondering what was your biggest hurdle to becoming a good player.

Also, if you have any good speed control drills, fire away.
Click to expand...
 
midnightpulp said:
Hi all.

As I said in some of my other threads, I'm returning to the game after an 8/9 year layoff. I've started consistently practicing, mainly working on getting my stroke back.

My stroke feels good. Tight and coordinated. I feel my aiming is also solid, arguably better than ever since I intellectualize it better. I've been playing the 5 ball ghost on and off, and have beaten it one set, race to 7, out of about 10 sets. I've played a few racks of 9 ball, and running 9 balls (something that used to be routine) seems the equivalent of climbling Mt. Everest with two broken legs. My biggest issue is speed control. The "feel" just hasn't returned as quickly as my aim and stroke.

That said, I'm wondering what was your biggest hurdle to becoming a good player.

Also, if you have any good speed control drills, fire away.
Click to expand...
By far concentration was the hardest for me to learn and the hardest to maintain.

-td
 
15 Year Layoff

I took a fifteen year layoff and had all of the problems mentioned in the previous threads. I went out and bought a 7 foot table put Simonis 760 cloth and some new rubber on it to help with my speed control problems. Now I adjust to conditions very fast when I'm out and about playing. I like to use draw shot drills and force follow drills for speed control it helps me get a feel for things. The mental part of the game has been hardest part for me to get back. As I got older my life became a bit more complicated. It is harder to clear some of these things from my mind to get in the right frame of mind to play my best. Glad to see more players coming back to the game, good luck.

Larry
 
Focus and concentration........maintaining it on all shots.....even the "easy" ones........:)

Russ.....
 
I grew up in the days of two shot roll out 9 ball. Switching over to one foul, the hardest thing for me to learn was to learn to kick safe. I still struggle with it to this day.

Stones
 
Interestingly I was just thinking about this tonight. Well almost the same thing.

I was trying to figure out what aspect I was good at and what was holding me back.

Ball pocketing was the answer. I have watched players develop and it seems like most are all good or better than good shot makers and then develop into players.

Your question was what made me a good player. Well I dont consider myself that good but I used to believe that I made it tough on my opponnet by not taking chances and controlling the table.
I wonder now if I should have focused more on ball making and took my lumps with the misses.

Its much tougher to become proficient at making the shots then it is to learn the games finer points. Also the finer points dont do much good if it gets you BIH and you cant get out.
 
midnightpulp said:
Hi all.

As I said in some of my other threads, I'm returning to the game after an 8/9 year layoff. I've started consistently practicing, mainly working on getting my stroke back.

My stroke feels good. Tight and coordinated. I feel my aiming is also solid, arguably better than ever since I intellectualize it better. I've been playing the 5 ball ghost on and off, and have beaten it one set, race to 7, out of about 10 sets. I've played a few racks of 9 ball, and running 9 balls (something that used to be routine) seems the equivalent of climbling Mt. Everest with two broken legs. My biggest issue is speed control. The "feel" just hasn't returned as quickly as my aim and stroke.

That said, I'm wondering what was your biggest hurdle to becoming a good player.

Also, if you have any good speed control drills, fire away.
Click to expand...

I like this draw drill. It's very demanding and once you get the first four balls in a groove on position you know your draw is tuned up on speed.

CueTable Help




As far as the hardest for me to develop it would have to be pocketing balls consistently. I hold my standards for that skill pretty high. Speed would be a close second...
 
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for me, its not to go in (scratch) after going onto the second rail then into the third or into a pocket, with the qball after potting the object ...:cool:
 
With regard to speed control.....The first US Open I went to with my teacher I was having a hard time adjusting to the fast speed and slide of the new cloth. He told me to try to play shape to get almost straight in.... with less angle I had more control being able to see the pocket and angle. Secondly, and the biggest help was to play 2 or 3 rail shape instead of 1 rail. This REALLY helped because I could let my stroke out and not get into that shortstroke bunting the ball thing I can get on slippery equipment.

Gerry
 
midnightpulp said:
That said, I'm wondering what was your biggest hurdle to becoming a good player.

QUOTE]

For my first two years I looked at the cue ball last. It was most difficult to switch to looking at the object ball last.

And today even, my biggest hurdle is to train myself to have a good focus on the object ball. Rhythm and practice helps me overcome this though, and the pause at the backswing.
Click to expand...
 
It's all about speed control and pin point position...then comes the other 10 % of the game. Johnnyt
 
For me the hardest was learning to avoid english when it wasn't necessary.
The second hardest part was learning not to trick myself with lies and wishful thinking.

I developed a bad habit of twirling every single shot in with low outside, whether I needed to or not. It got so bad, if I had a long straight shot that I needed to stop, I would hit with low left, trying to get the cb to draw drag to a stop... and simultaneously curve a little into the shot (and it would barely have the speed to reach the pocket a lot).

So after over 10 years of shooting, I had about 8 years worth of experience with outside and 2 year's worth with center and inside. I'm still catching up and suffering from it. But they don't feel foreign to me anymore and my game's improved a lot.

...
The lies and wishful thinking part basically boils down to doing whatever work is necessary to get the cue ball from point A to point B, even if it's a shot you hate or a method you don't want to use. If you've got to pound the ball with force, then do it, don't settle for getting no movement or being stuck on a rail. If the angle is just too shallow and force isn't doing to work, then don't talk yourself into smashing the ball and jumping it off the table. If you are dead straight and on the rail and there's no realistic hope of getting across the table, bite the bullet and go rail first or bank or do whatever it takes, don't just add more sidespin and hope for the best. If the highest percentage play is to leave yourself a thinnish cut and just try hard to make it, then do that. You get the picture.
 
Seeing through the object ball has been my biggest struggle after not playing for a while... I also struggle seeing any tangent lines until I have played at least 3-4 times in a 2 week span...
 
For me the hardest thing is to lose. I hate it. I mean really hate it. It can ruin your whole game.

Thankfully I tend not to do it too often, though still far more than I'd like!
 
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