Why do we miss balls?

Interesting. For me, I have noticed when a shot looks "wrong" and I go with it anyway, I usually miss. Maybe there is a lot of muscle memory going on. Dr. Dave might be kind enough to chime in? Of course, even if I line up right, I can spin the ball a little off and the object ball throws too far. I could go on, lol.

That's one aspect that makes this game so great. It is much more than just hit one ball into another. When the game looks easy, that's usually due to the person you are watching!
 
The number one problem is moving off of the shot line as you get down. You may even move off of the line and recover just as you hit the table. None the less, you are re-sighting the shot. Your subconscious picks up on this, but you don't. After working on it for several months, my game shot up quite a bit.

And since I'm familiar with it, I see the pros do it and miss badly. All of them do it. Steering the cue is pretty common when they do. I saw MD do it a half dozen times with Earl. He recovered with a quick spasm, but still missed several balls.

Just my observation, of course.

Best,
Mike
 
Mikjary said:
The number one problem is moving off of the shot line as you get down. You may even move off of the line and recover just as you hit the table. None the less, you are re-sighting the shot. Your subconscious picks up on this, but you don't. After working on it for several months, my game shot up quite a bit.

And since I'm familiar with it, I see the pros do it and miss badly. All of them do it. Steering the cue is pretty common when they do. I saw MD do it a half dozen times with Earl. He recovered with a quick spasm, but still missed several balls.

Just my observation, of course.

Best,
Mike
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Hi Mike,

I've found what you say to be true more so in my game now than when I was younger.

As I mentioned in another thread, I never really made much of a real focused effort in getting down so precisely on the line. But instead after getting down very close to the line I would fine tune it to what I perceived as the line. I've done quite well with this.

I think when I was younger I could stroke fine from a slightly off position but as of late after a herniated disc in my back & some weight gain perhaps not so much.

SO... I am focusing more on getting down more precisely & it has helped. The odd thing is that now when I get down I sometimes doubt the line. I have been trying to trust it & have just shot it as is but have had poor results when doing so. Personally I think my attempting to make the change has confused my subconscious. From this experience I can relate more to how it is recommended to get up & start over if one is trying to get down precisely on the line.

At my age, I think I am going to have to find a compromise of some sort.

Anyway, that is just my personal experience that I think the later part agrees with what you're saying.

Best to Ya',
Rick
 
I was consintrating on my leave for the next shot , and there was NO Pocket where the object ball went . Happens to Often .
 
Myself like everyone else that misses an easy shot just say we didn't focus, which is true, but I heard Scott Frost say something about a easy miss that has stuck in my mind. He said the player did not give the shoot the respect it deserved. That every shoot deserves the same amount of respect, be it a hard shot or a easy shot and when you don't give a easy shot respect you increase the chance of missing the shot. Since I heard that I don't miss easy shots.---Smitty
 
99%

99% of the time, the reason you miss a shot that you've made a million times is .......
Lapse in concentration. Why else would you miss?
 
Scott Lee said:
What he said...only it's like this: There are only two ways to miss a shot...line up poorly (alignment), or stroke poorly! Some people do both! :eek: A good instructor focuses on fixing stroke errors first, and for many people alignment errors are greatly reduced, or even eliminated altogether! :grin:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
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Exactly. I'd like to add that it is typically much easier to adjust for poor aim than to adjust a poor stroke. Think about it like shooting a gun - it is easy to calibrate a gun that shoots in the same spot, but it is very difficult to hit accurately with a gun that is inconsistent.

Unfortunately, so many things can demolish a stroke, including but not limited to: extraneous movements, lack of concentration, bad cueing habits, not enough practice/warmup, bad rhythm, etc.

A personal favorite technique of mine is to video yourself shooting well and video yourself shooting poor and look at the difference. You might learn something about your game!
 
Every one misses balls even pros do :-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0EEw9At1LE

Just pocketing balls is not enough for an overall development as a good pool player, there are lot of other things that goes into it.
And there are many reasons why people miss shots, you as a player need to find yours and work on to decrease your margin of error.
 
Making balls isn't my main problem. It's getting that damn white ball to go where I want it too. I wouldn't miss as much I'm thinking.
 
The reality is....

The reality is that many people miss for many different reasons...

The reasons that people miss are often linked to the level of their knowledge, the level of their practice routines and the amount of pressure based experience they have.

There are different reasons that deficiencies in one or more of those areas lead to that lead to misses.

The worst part about trying to figure out why you're missing is that the things you're doing when you miss don't ALWAYS cause you to miss.

They may cause you to miss shape by five inches one time and they may cause you to miss pocketing a ball by half a diamond another time...

Getting down to brass tacks, and as has been stated, you miss because you don't hit the ball where and how you're supposed to...

Knowing just that though is about as useless as an asshole on your elbow.

The main actual causes for missing are; looking away from your point of focus as you pull the trigger, failing to follow through, trying to steer the ball, and not having knowledge of the various affects that choices and stroke inconsistencies have on the shot.

There are many steps you can take to correct these problems.

The main thing you should do is figure out what level you are at and learn for and master THAT level.

If you can't make every straight in shot you shoot, you shouldn't be learning how to use side spin and throw and reverse bank english etc...

Hell, you shouldn't even be trying to make cut shots at that point.

If you master each stage, it gives you the best chance of success as you gain in knowledge and ability.

Once you gain knowledge AND ability, then the truly hard part comes in. Learning how to apply the knowledge and ability under pressure and figuring out what you're doing differently when you miss, or rather what you're doing differently from the times you miss and the times you NEVER miss.

Once you figure that out you can work on consciously focusing on the correct things to never miss.

Jaden
 
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Straightpool_99 said:
3. Rushing. When in the flow of running balls it is easy to sort of glide sideways into the next shot instead of stepping in. This works fine for a couple of shots usually, but slight errors tends to compound especially in straight pool and may cause a miss. It is a tricky thing because in order to run a lot of balls in straight pool you need flow and the pace usually speeds up because of it. This effect can both give you higher runs and can also kill high runs.

...

5. Moving during the shot. Same reasons as 1.

6. Major adjustments to aim while down on the ball. Rookie mistake commonly made by even great players. Often because of rushing.
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These are the big ones for me, I think. Failing to properly step into the shot, moving on the shot (a really bad habit has crept into my game recently, where I am raising my head slightly on the shot) and trying to adjust too much whilst down on the ball instead of standing up and resetting. Honestly, I think they all come back to rushing for me, or not playing deliberately.

Chuck Fields said:
This is AZ Billiards mister...... The real reasons go like this...

1. Didnt purchase the correct DVD
2. Bought the right one but are too stupid to figure it out or understand it
3. Havent driven around in a van looking to snap off bar tournaments for long enough
4. Dont have an extention on your cue
5. Dont have a fancy enough cue OR your cue only hits half a ton
6. Dont have the right tip on your cue
7. Your case doesnt have a gps shot selector built into it along with exotic skins
8. Your shoes are wrong for the game. As is your entire wardrobe.
9. Wrong chalk
10. You have all the "right" equipment and instruction, but havent put in the magic number of hours for everything to come together right.

Youre welcome
Chuck

Ps, everybody misses, the real reasons vary depending on the person and the shot.
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lol, +1.
 
Harold Smith said:
Myself like everyone else that misses an easy shot just say we didn't focus, which is true, but I heard Scott Frost say something about a easy miss that has stuck in my mind. He said the player did not give the shoot the respect it deserved. That every shoot deserves the same amount of respect, be it a hard shot or a easy shot and when you don't give a easy shot respect you increase the chance of missing the shot. Since I heard that I don't miss easy shots.---Smitty
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It goes hand in hand, after navigating a few difficult shots successfully a very easy shot presents itself & you don't focus as intently on it as you did the more difficult ones thereby not giving the shot the respect it was due. All shots should be given the same amount of deliberation & focus to eradicate the problem, it also helps you keep your rhythm to address each shot exactly the same be it difficult or easy.
 
Lots of great reasons here. For me, I have noticed one large differentiator between days that I play well and days that I play poorly. And that is... Staying down on my shot vs. Jumping up. Days that i jump up I miss more often.
 
Straightpool_99 said:
I have been thinking about this a lot. I am sure everyone can relate to the sour feeling of missing a ball that should not have been missed at one time or another, especially when the pressure is on. Sometimes you miss when you are in the flow of things just playing on autopilot (which is typical in a straight pool run). I have come up with some explanations which I feel are the most important ones:

1. Tunnel vision/loss of focus. Under pressure trying to maintain focus and remaining calm seems to take up a lot of the energy and focus that would be used for analysis and psr in more normal situations. We fail to see more viable options and skip portions of the pre shot routine.

2. Tensing up: Under heavy pressure certain aspects of touch are lost due to tensing up of joints and muscles. Stiffness in the biceps forearm muscles seems to limit the free pendulum movement and throws the elbow into the shot. This is further accentuated by tensing up of the hand, which amplifies the effects of the unwanted movement in the elbow. This is may be the main enemy that I am fighting right now.

3. Rushing. When in the flow of running balls it is easy to sort of glide sideways into the next shot instead of stepping in. This works fine for a couple of shots usually, but slight errors tends to compound especially in straight pool and may cause a miss. It is a tricky thing because in order to run a lot of balls in straight pool you need flow and the pace usually speeds up because of it. This effect can both give you higher runs and can also kill high runs.

4. Rushing part two: By rushing into the shot we fail to observe the angle properly while standing up, thereby misjudging it.

5. Moving during the shot. Same reasons as 1.

6. Major adjustments to aim while down on the ball. Rookie mistake commonly made by even great players. Often because of rushing.

7. Having generally unsound fundamentals. At one point in a players development this may be the main cause of misses.

8. Equipment. Having a sticky shaft, bad tip, hasty chalking etc. Again, rushing seems to be the cause.

Do you agree with my list? What do you think would be the greatest method(s) to combat these problems?
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95% of the reasons are your stroke (backswing/forward swing just before pause and when you pull the trigger; (before is more critical than after).

5% reserved for shaft elevation, aim for when shooting with english or softshots, stun squirt, squrve not accounted for.

Aim misses usually miss the pocket by less than 0.5" whereas stroke miss and/or combined with aim could be up to 1/2 a diamond off depending on separation.
 
Straightpool_99 said:
I have been thinking about this a lot. I am sure everyone can relate to the sour feeling of missing a ball that should not have been missed at one time or another, especially when the pressure is on. Sometimes you miss when you are in the flow of things just playing on autopilot (which is typical in a straight pool run). I have come up with some explanations which I feel are the most important ones:

1. Tunnel vision/loss of focus. Under pressure trying to maintain focus and remaining calm seems to take up a lot of the energy and focus that would be used for analysis and psr in more normal situations. We fail to see more viable options and skip portions of the pre shot routine.

2. Tensing up: Under heavy pressure certain aspects of touch are lost due to tensing up of joints and muscles. Stiffness in the biceps forearm muscles seems to limit the free pendulum movement and throws the elbow into the shot. This is further accentuated by tensing up of the hand, which amplifies the effects of the unwanted movement in the elbow. This is may be the main enemy that I am fighting right now.

3. Rushing. When in the flow of running balls it is easy to sort of glide sideways into the next shot instead of stepping in. This works fine for a couple of shots usually, but slight errors tends to compound especially in straight pool and may cause a miss. It is a tricky thing because in order to run a lot of balls in straight pool you need flow and the pace usually speeds up because of it. This effect can both give you higher runs and can also kill high runs.

4. Rushing part two: By rushing into the shot we fail to observe the angle properly while standing up, thereby misjudging it.

5. Moving during the shot. Same reasons as 1.

6. Major adjustments to aim while down on the ball. Rookie mistake commonly made by even great players. Often because of rushing.

7. Having generally unsound fundamentals. At one point in a players development this may be the main cause of misses.

8. Equipment. Having a sticky shaft, bad tip, hasty chalking etc. Again, rushing seems to be the cause.

Do you agree with my list? What do you think would be the greatest method(s) to combat these problems?
Click to expand...


After a few years that I don't regret spending on aiming and alignment, I was still missing longer shots no matter what I knew. The reason I was missing balls was my grip. I can hold the cue between my thumb and index finger without them touching and make everything at any length but I credit the systems for the knowledge and accuracy
 
tommylucky said:
99% of the time, the reason you miss a shot that you've made a million times is .......
Lapse in concentration. Why else would you miss?
Click to expand...

Tom on a serious note, a beginner to advance player in pool stay down trying to find the exact aim and concentrate heavily and end up missing! where as a pro and high level players find out, once i go down correct and have great stroke, no need for concentration. Sure for extremely long and large angle shots you do need a little. But stroke is the main reason for easy medium hard to easy shots, we are under estimating our eyes ability, the healthy ones are like laser all the time and can aim to within the tolerance of the pocket with ease. In snooker it is a bit different due to tricky pocket style.
 
The biggest reason I've seen people miss is poor fundamentals. Poor fundamentals lead to poor alignment, moving or swaying when down which leads to a wonky stroke and unintentional side spin. Another reason that seems to be common is sighting issues. The ability to sight a shot whilst standing and whilst down is for me, the most important part to pocketing a ball.
 
If you hit the correct amount of the ball.....

pogmothoin said:
Making balls isn't my main problem. It's getting that damn white ball to go where I want it too. I wouldn't miss as much I'm thinking.
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The white one will go where it should.

On many shots you can make the ball by hitting a little more or a little less especially when your closer to the pocket.

Having the dominant eye in the most dominant position will greatly enhance your ability to see the shot correctly therefor allowing the great white one to get to the correct destination.
 
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