You sure can learn a lot watching others play

Willowbrook Wolfy

Willowbrook Wolfy

Going pro
Any thoughts? How often do you watch pool just to watch and how often do you watch pool to learn.? Or how often do you learn new things by watching others play? Long response? I’ll read it!😂😂😉
…….posting mine below so you can skip it if you want to.
 
When I watch people play I have a tendency to watch their mistakes and learn shots off of them rather than learning shots from what they make. Pretty sure Efren said something about learning from peoples misses at some point in time. Could be that I have always stubborn in that I don’t want to learn from others because I’ve always been a firm believer in the fact that everyone has their own pool identity and you should have your own. We aren’t robots, so not everyone will shoot the same. And I don’t want to essentially “steal” from them without them offering up the shot. But if they miss I’m not stealing anything. I just run on a weird anomaly when it comes to pool. I came up at the end of the “pay your dues” era.

Except last night. Last night I realized you can learn a lot watching people play. My stubbornness had prevented me from seeing it. Or maybe it was that I’d never had it so easy to see it. Idk. I was playing with 3 fellas and I had noticed previously 2 of them shot a little odd in my mind. Like against the grain instead of with it. So last night I had the best sample set you could ask for-all 3 of these guys played that way.

I learned a lot of shots last night. Most players will opt to go two or 3 rails on the shots that were being made, these guys were all going 1 over and over with some high spin. It was a great night of pool education for me and even caused me to sit around an hour or two just admiring their skill sets and learning a few things. I’ll continue shooting with the grain but what I learned last night will very well come in handy from time to time.
 
Willowbrook Wolfy said:
Any thoughts? How often do you watch pool just to watch and how often do you watch pool to learn.? Or how often do you learn new things by watching others play? Long response? I’ll read it!😂😂😉
…….posting mine below so you can skip it if you want to.
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Its how i learned. No vids/streams when i started. Got to see Buddy play a lot when i first started. In fact i bought first good cue from him. He would always answer my stupid questions.
 
Coming up in a different time a lot of things were different like the follow shots you watched the guys using. All of us who were playing fifty years ago remember "Draw for show, follow for dough" I suspect. Follow is often the better shot even now.

Watching the best in the world play the most common error I see is in shot selection. People getting in trouble with a shot when there was a lower risk shot available. An example, In two games in one match Shane went around the table and hit traffic when the one rail follow shot was available and would have brought him into zero traffic. He lost both of those games, I don't remember about the match.

While I don't claim to know it all, I do know pretty much what my skills will allow. Watching very old video of Willie Mosconi, I had to change my ideas of what was possible. No recording of that video, from the early sixties at a guess, that I have seen. Still, he made me invest 2000-3000 hours in cue ball control before I decided I was as good as I was going to get in that area.

A couple decades later Efren bumped my idea of what was possible again. Too radical of a different contrast in style for me to really want to learn from watching or trying to copy Efren. Too, I had went from 60-80 hours a week on a pool table to maybe 25 or so a month. The train had left the station for me.

We can watch and learn but then we have to have the desire to implement what we have seen or it matters little.

Hu
 
gregcantrall said:
OK, I admit it. I like to watch. In '85 I got to watch Efren at the Sands in Reno. I was so amazed by what he did and took every opportunity to watch with no thought to emulate, just in awe.
Now I watch Ronnie O'Sullivan in awe but do try to emulate.
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Greg, I had to laugh at your first two sentences. Read Biloxi Boy's post directly above yours to understand!

Hu
 
Sounds silly, but the most benefit I personally get is being able to watch how consistent their shot routine is and how soft they stroke the balls. I will never have their level of talent or shot making abilities, but I can certainly commit to a consistent routine and stroke shots only as hard as is necessary.
 
irspow said:
Sounds silly, but the most benefit I personally get is being able to watch how consistent their shot routine is and how soft they stroke the balls. I will never have their level of talent or shot making abilities, but I can certainly commit to a consistent routine and stroke shots only as hard as is necessary.
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Shooting too hard is an issue that probably 90% of pool players share. Just getting rid of that is huge. While you are working on that your preshot routine will improve without paying it much mind.

Hu
 
I've watched countless hours of Buddy Hall and Mike Sigel playing. I especially have studied Mike Sigels pattern play in straight pool. I marvel of the beautiful way Buddy Hall makes the game look so easy.

I've also studied many other players, and tried countless techniques.

In the end, your style is your own. I shoot very differently to both Sigel and Hall, obviously worse, lol. I tried copying all of Sigels patterns in my straight pool, though, and I think it helps. Keeping the game clinical, simple and intuitive. However I play much differently in all other cue games.

I like cutting off the table. I use draw and inside when others follow or use outside. I follow when others draw. I shoot trickshots like jumps and banks, even masses. And I practise them more than most people. I like to take people by surprise. I shoot pool shots in snooker and snooker shots in pool. Always try to keep them guessing, make them nervous and paranoid. If you can't scare them, you can at least make them smile. In long matches especially I try to go for a tough shot in the beginning. If I make it, it's a very powerful signal to my opponent. If I miss it, he may think I'm an idiot, so it has a good chance of working to my advantage, either way. I don't think I've heard anyone advocate that strategy.
 
I learned all i know about one pocket watching Efren(and Billy commentating) and Pagulayan play.
Also watched a ton on world best 3-cushion where Blomdahl is commentator and learned maybe even more than ever!
 
Best way to learn by watching is to watch in person.
Watching over the internet doesn't give you the entire story. You'll almost never see the stroke that made that shot happen.
You'll see the tip hit the ball or the ball fall in the hole. Nearly never how it was accomplished.

The cameramen/producers are absolutely terrible. They don't know squat about the game.
Why do I say that?? Because they refuse to let us see what's happening. They focus on the tip from the side, and close in on a ball dropping in the hole. WTH is that going to teach anyone. Except never play Archer, Reyes, Rempe, Filler, Shane, .....................

I think the camera work is disgustingly ignorant of the game.

To the OP. Find the very best player you can in your area and just watch. Don't have to emulate them. Just watch. His hands, his feet, stroke, and of course, results.

I'm assuming you've only been trying for a year or 2.
If that's not the case, disregard everything I've said.
 
3kushn said:
Best way to learn by watching is to watch in person.
Watching over the internet doesn't give you the entire story. You'll almost never see the stroke that made that shot happen.
You'll see the tip hit the ball or the ball fall in the hole. Nearly never how it was accomplished.

The cameramen/producers are absolutely terrible. They don't know squat about the game.
Why do I say that?? Because they refuse to let us see what's happening. They focus on the tip from the side, and close in on a ball dropping in the hole. WTH is that going to teach anyone. Except never play Archer, Reyes, Rempe, Filler, Shane, .....................

I think the camera work is disgustingly ignorant of the game.

To the OP. Find the very best player you can in your area and just watch. Don't have to emulate them. Just watch. His hands, his feet, stroke, and of course, results.

I'm assuming you've only been trying for a year or 2.
If that's not the case, disregard everything I've said.
Click to expand...
Excellent comment about the cameramen. We never get so see the stroke.

I find that in learning from the pro's ... select what you would do for a particular shot and see if they do something different. I learn more from my mistakes than from theirs.
 
Tennesseejoe said:
Excellent comment about the cameramen. We never get so see the stroke.

I find that in learning from the pro's ... select what you would do for a particular shot and see if they do something different. I learn more from my mistakes than from theirs.
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Yes, shot selection can be learned from video. That's really important.
Sure wish I could see the whole thing. When the taping isn't a Hollywood Production and only has one camera you occasionally get the whole thing.
 
I think learning to play pool by watching professionals on a TV set is a lot like watching Olympic figure skating, and then trying to repeat what you saw ;-)
 
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