Here is your chance to praise or curse [as the case may be] whomever taught you to play this wonderful infuriating game. I think all of us in this forum would love to hear stories of our teachers and I'm sure that those same teachers could use some praise.
I'm gonna throw most of my thanks to Little Joe V. and to all the guys that shoot better than me at home. I'm still learning. Thanks Don:thumbup2::thumbup2:
I started playing pool young, and really loved to play the game. I always had the ability to shoot difficult shots, although I had no idea what I was doing other than it felt natural to do things the way I was doing them. Then in my teens I started going to local Pool Halls in St. Louis, at first I went to Afton Billiards in South St.Louis, and later I started going to Cue and Cushion in Woodson. I was still kinda a banger but, I had obvious natural ability when it came to shot making, and one day while hitting balls at Afton Billiards a Guy walked up to me and started giving me some pointers. Over the next year when ever I ran into to Louie he would walk up and see how my game was progressing, and with his help it had improved a great deal. Louie had taught me some secrets of aiming that I have never seen in an instructional video or a book. With Louie's help in no time I could cut a ball down the rail at warp speed, if I could see a ball I knew I could make.
Being young I thought I was invincible, so I was making shots that most people wouldn't shoot because of the real difficulty involved in shooting them. I could also make very very thin cuts the length of table using maximum inside or outside English without giving it a great deal of thought, at this point in my life I achieved dead stroke for short period's on any given day. I could run 40 to 80 balls playing straight pool on a regular basis, I could break and run racks playing push out 9 ball or 1 - 15 8 ball. After a while I started playing in tournaments. During this time I also use to go to Cue and Cushion and this is where I was introduced to 3-Cushion Billiards and One Pocket these games taught me a great deal about position using 4, 5, and 6 rails along with carom shots and banks.
When I reached 21 years old I was deadly playing pool on a bar box, since my main game was played on 9 ft tables, during those days I never had to pay for a drink playing bar pool. I would also go and sweat Louie's action throughout the St. Louis area and man no body could make shots like Louie. Louie continued to help me with my game throughout the 1970's until I left St. Louis in 1979 when I joined the US Army, when ever he was in town. I followed Louie's action as much as possible second hand while I was serving in Germany, and then in Georgia where I lost complete touch with Louie and pool in the Mid -1980's. This was when I meet and married my wife and had a duaghter. From around 1985 until around 2001 I really never had any time to play pool, but the spark was still alive in my heart. When I retired from the US Army in 2003, I made the decision to open my own Pool Hall ( Full Splice Billiards), and I have started playing again. Well I can say this, pool is not like riding a bike, but my game is coming back strong, I will be 49 years old in September and now when I am playing I feel like that teenager again. So I suspect it is only a matter time before I am BACK, I think if Louie was alive today he would be proud to see what his encouragement and help has achieved!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and by the way, the gentleman who I referred to as Louie, was the Great St. Louis Louie Roberts, and I personally do not think that I could have lucked into finding a better Teacher. It really tore me up when I heard Louie died in the early 1990's, he really was a great guy that also became a friend and he died far too young, I still miss him!!!!!!:frown:
Take Care
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) not knowing who he was and he started telling me "don't change a thing...you have the best fundamentals I have ever seen , ...and within 2 years you'll be able to beat anyone in this city..." I remember thinking to myself at the time yeah right what bs
