Why Not Share Your Secrets?

Secrets? who has secrets?

Sharing how you developed your skills is not a secret, it is just sharing.

I watched better players play, noted shots and what the cue ball did and practiced the shot with all types of speed and english until I discovered that I needed a constistant stroke.

This is no secret.

There are tons of videos, books, instructors and magic wands to be bought, secrets are a myth.

Perfect practice and competition under pressure are the two most important ingridents to playing well. This is no secret.

There is no fast way to learn how to play pool and continue to improve.
 
the funky stroke shots

Andrew Manning said:
I feel what Bob Jewett said bears restating: there are two kinds of "secrets" in pool: secrets that aren't secret at all, and secrets that are false. Many "secrets" even fit into both categories.

I'm a B player with a solid understanding of the physics of pool, and I play frequently with one or two A players who don't understand the physics. One day, I got to be close enough friends with one of these A players, that while I was shooting he decided to show me another, "secret" way to execute a certain top-spin shot with extreme inside english, that I had just failed to execute correctly. He said the shot was too difficult shooting it conventionally, but he had found a special stroke, through hours of practice, where he could stroke hard with low right, but the twist in his wrist would reverse the english and consistently execute the shot.

So I watched him, and he did line up with low right, and he did this funky stroke where he twisted his wrist, and sure enough, he got the 3-rail shape I had been trying to get with high left. I told him he didn't hit the ball with low right (because I knew that the wrist-twist couldn't possibly do what he was claiming it did), and set the shot up again, using a striped ball as the CB. He successfully executed it again, and I showed him his chalk mark, and made my point.

"Secrets" don't have to be true to work for the people who think they "know" them. The ones that are true are readily available if you just study the game.

-Andrew
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I once had a bunch of them learned from other folks as dumb as I was or learned the hard way by fighting a shot enough. They pocketed balls but they were going around your elbow to get from your forefinger to your thumb. I still have one funky stroke shot, makes awkward angle banks like magic when the balls are fairly close together. I'd tell everyone about it but it's a secret! :thumbup:

Hu
 
What some posters may have missed or chose to ignore is that the OP said he didn't see the need to give secrets to a loud mouthed, drunken, obnoxious idiot. I would have done exactly what the OP did. I cannot tolerate nasty stupid drunks.. Having a few cocktails and being drunk are two different things, but once a person is really drunk forget about it, they are completely useless at that point...
 
CocoboloCowboy said:
Correct! Would Bill Gates share the Secrets of Microsoft with the World?
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You mean the secrets he stole from Zerox labs? The Zerox labs in the early seventies were the forefront of many of today's technologies. When gates was trying to hook up with IBM for an operating system, he stole from Zerox. You snooze you lose.
 
Secrets are being hidden from me right now. I can feel it in my bones. I'm headed to the pool room to find out who's keeping it from me.

Buffalo Billiards handicapped one pocket tournament, here i come.
 
Terry...I think you will find that the most effective teachers freely share information with anyone who wishes to learn...whether they are being paid or not.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

ottersbro said:
why would you not share your pool secrets with others?
I understand if your an instructor and make a living doing this great sport, but for those who do not plan on being a paid teacher why not share your tips with others, it would make for better competition, make the game more fun, it certainly would help to bring more players into the our sport.
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There are many mean people with bad values and low self esteem. If you give these types any knowledge, they will use it to bully, intimidate, and demean others.

I agree that you should carefully choose who you share anything with.
 
I share anything with anyone, sometimes without prompting (after seeing them miss a shot they'd make if they knew the 'trick' to it).

But it does get old when they don't really listen and are too scared to go outside of their comfort zone once in a while. I spent 15-20 minutes explaining why the wing ball goes in on a 9b break and how to read the rack to make it happen, which I credit to Joe Tucker's awesome videos. The 'student' at our next playing session goes on to break from dead center without glancing at the rack first.

Still, I've seen others who are willing to learn and even willing to extrapolate new info from what I've shared. I can't imagine any reason that'd compel me to stop sharing with anyone.
 
The old school guys would never tell you anything. The only way was for you to gamble with them and pay for the knowledge. At least, this is the way it was when I was growing up. Kinda like the fisherman, "Where did you catch those nice fish"? Reply "In the water".
Things have changed a lot, and I personally think for the better. With that said, I still run into players that seem to fall into two distinct areas. Player A is not willing to listen or learn. He/she is hard headed. Their play takes a long time to get to the next level. They will argue with you till the cows come home on the correct shot/strategy. Player B is just the opposite. He/she is willing to listen and learn from someone that is obviously at a much higher skill level. Their skill increases very rapidly.
Example: The table is tough, but ball in hand makes it an easy run out. There is a very simple safe staring you in the face which would almost certainly result in ball in hand.
Player A sees the safe, but decides he can run out. He is trying to show everyone he has the ability to "get out". He ends up in a tough spot (which is no surprise to anyone as most would have opted for the safe) and misses. He loses the game. He makes excuses and complains about the speed or rail or some other nonsense. You ask him after the loss why he didn't play the safe and usually the answer was "I was sure I could get out" or some totally off the wall excuse which makes you groan.
Player B sees the safe, plays it, gets ball in hand, and wins the game easily. Even when he loses, player B almost always plays the correct shot/strategy, it is just a failure in execution that prevents him from winning. He lost because he didn't execute, not because he played the shot/table incorrectly.
You can take a horse (pool player) to the watering hole, but you can't make em drink. You can show em the secrets all day long, but if they won't listen, what can you do?
 
onepocketron said:
The old school guys would never tell you anything. The only way was for you to gamble with them and pay for the knowledge. At least, this is the way it was when I was growing up. Kinda like the fisherman, "Where did you catch those nice fish"? Reply "In the water".
Things have changed a lot, and I personally think for the better. With that said, I still run into players that seem to fall into two distinct areas. Player A is not willing to listen or learn. He/she is hard headed. Their play takes a long time to get to the next level. They will argue with you till the cows come home on the correct shot/strategy. Player B is just the opposite. He/she is willing to listen and learn from someone that is obviously at a much higher skill level. Their skill increases very rapidly.
Example: The table is tough, but ball in hand makes it an easy run out. There is a very simple safe staring you in the face which would almost certainly result in ball in hand.
Player A sees the safe, but decides he can run out. He is trying to show everyone he has the ability to "get out". He ends up in a tough spot (which is no surprise to anyone as most would have opted for the safe) and misses. He loses the game. He makes excuses and complains about the speed or rail or some other nonsense. You ask him after the loss why he didn't play the safe and usually the answer was "I was sure I could get out" or some totally off the wall excuse which makes you groan.
Player B sees the safe, plays it, gets ball in hand, and wins the game easily. Even when he loses, player B almost always plays the correct shot/strategy, it is just a failure in execution that prevents him from winning. He lost because he didn't execute, not because he played the shot/table incorrectly.
You can take a horse (pool player) to the watering hole, but you can't make em drink. You can show em the secrets all day long, but if they won't listen, what can you do?
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Good post I think.
About the fish,If you want to catch them tomorrow... don't tell where you caught them today.haha John B.
 
JBKY said:
Good post I think.
About the fish,If you want to catch them tomorrow... don't tell where you caught them today.haha John B.
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Nope. Just change your lure. HulaPopper today, JitterBug tomorrow. :D

-Sean
 
kybill9 said:
I do share my secrets. As a matter of fact my book, GO FROM A WINNING POSITION IN ONE POCKET TO LOSING WITH ONE SHOT, is now in it's seventh printing.:smile::smile::smile::smile:
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Lol , You should change up the title for sales to , Winning, Winning, Winning .....Dead Lost. It's also how I play chess!
 
Bob Jewett said:
The funny things about those hoarded "secrets":

They aren't secrets, usually. Most of what people think of as secrets are there in the open if you know where to look. The "secret" of backhand english was in print over 170 years ago. Most pool players don't read about pool.

Many of the "secrets" are crap. Well, maybe that's a little harsh, but often "secrets" are not quite right or overlook important details or will lead the player down dead ends. If you are the recipient of a "secret" you need to make sure it is actually useful in your game and you should start to think about problems with and extensions to the "secret".
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Unless you know everything about everything in pool then there are secrets. They might be out there in print or they might not be but untill you find out it will be a secret to you.
 
Neil said:
There was a guy in the pool room last week that I overhead talking about him and an A player trying an iside english shot for 45 min. While they would occasionally get it to come close to working like they wanted, neither could do it consistently.

I had in the past worked with this same guy for a couple hours showing him how to kick at balls. (I was to technical for him.:rolleyes:) I asked him to set the shot up, and then asked him what he was trying to do with it. He explained it, and I took his cue and did it on the first try. I tried to explain to him how to do it, and he immediately said I got lucky with it. So..... I walked away and left him still not knowing how to do it. Some people are just so full of themselves that they refuse to learn.
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This reminded me of a story. I was in a room a couple weeks back. There was this guy that looked familiar but I just couldn't quite remember him. I watched him break and I saw the cue ball go flying off the table and right then I remembered him. I said to the guy sitting next to me, "that guy has been flying the cue ball off the table on his break for 10 years!". His response was "Nope. It's more like 20.".

Some people just never learn.
 
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