Your one thing

Steve Lipsky

Steve Lipsky

On quest for perfect 14.1
Silver Member
Hey folks,

I've been thinking a lot about my errors. It's just too easy to get stale, and unless you make a commitment to being accountable to yourself, your game will stagnate.

Well, maybe we can all improve by learning from each other's mistakes.

I don't know if it's my biggest mistake, but it's a big one and it's something I've become very aware of over the last year or so. I find I'm leaving lone balls in the shaded area (below) too long. It's frustrating because these balls LOOK like they should be helpful in jams. The reality is that they rarely end up working in this manner, and all too often, become really problematic.

The yellow shaded area is the part of the table where I simply leave balls too long because I feel they're not that bad and I can pick them up somewhere along the way. The red shaded area is the part where I'm actually leaving balls here because they really look like they will become valuable balls at some point. This is maddening... they just don't work as well as I want them to, and I end up with really disjointed end patterns because of it (flip to page 2 of the diagram to see how the nice 1-2-6 has to all of a sudden incorporate the out-of-place 11).

CueTable Help



Anyway, hope this helps some people out there, and maybe just the act of writing it down might eventually help me.

What are some of your errors? (If possible, please limit them, in this thread, to very concrete situations. In other words, this is not the place for "I lose focus in the middle of the rack.")

Thanks, looking forward to some interesting stuff...

- Steve
 
Steve, I don't play at your level, but I have fallen into the same trap on many occassions. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
 
Steve Lipsky said:
Hey folks,

I've been thinking a lot about my errors. It's just too easy to get stale, and unless you make a commitment to being accountable to yourself, your game will stagnate.

Well, maybe we can all improve by learning from each other's mistakes.

I don't know if it's my biggest mistake, but it's a big one and it's something I've become very aware of over the last year or so. I find I'm leaving lone balls in the shaded area (below) too long. It's frustrating because these balls LOOK like they should be helpful in jams. The reality is that they rarely end up working in this manner, and all too often, become really problematic.

The yellow shaded area is the part of the table where I simply leave balls too long because I feel they're not that bad and I can pick them up somewhere along the way. The red shaded area is the part where I'm actually leaving balls here because they really look like they will become valuable balls at some point. This is maddening... they just don't work as well as I want them to, and I end up with really disjointed end patterns because of it (flip to page 2 of the diagram to see how the nice 1-2-6 has to all of a sudden incorporate the out-of-place 11).

CueTable Help



Anyway, hope this helps some people out there, and maybe just the act of writing it down might eventually help me.

What are some of your errors? (If possible, please limit them, in this thread, to very concrete situations. In other words, this is not the place for "I lose focus in the middle of the rack.")

Thanks, looking forward to some interesting stuff...

- Steve
Click to expand...


I have two. First is not dealing with what I call, "The Triangle of Death" early enough. TTD would be any three balls in close proximity to each other, like this:

CueTable Help



They sit there, looking all innocent and all, but if left too long on the table, will eventually end your run, one way or the other.

The second one is not getting rid of balls in the nether regions of the table. You know, those areas of the table that are not close to the rail, and not mid-table either. I don't know how to do the shaded areas on the Wei, but these balls are all in the nether region:

CueTable Help



Anywhos, those are two that I have to always watch for.

Lou Figueroa
 
One (of many) problems for me is not knowing whether to use follow or draw when going into a cluster. Do I want to hit the cluster and draw back out, or follow through to the other side.
Andy <---a 50% chance of getting it right give me a 100% chance to get it wrong!
 

CueTable Help



These two balls tend to sucker me into thinking that they are no big problem or might be a potential position ball but in reality, I find I need to get rid of them as soon as possible.


Eric
 
Nice thread!

My biggest mistake by far is the seemingly simple ability to focus on a shot at hand when the outcome of the cueball or other balls is in question.

This is even the explicit reason that I began playing straight pool about 4 years ago. I found that my 9-ball mistakes often occur when unsure of the cue ball position when it was going to have to contact another ball after the shot. Doesn't happen but once every few racks in 9 ball. So I took up straight pool because this situation comes up every couple of minutes.

And here I am 4 years later still missing very easy shots every 3 or 4 racks in straight pool while focusing on a cue ball outcome with other object balls! Ugh!

Andy
 
Steve do you know Neptune Joe Frady ? I played a ton of pool with him years ago.
The only thing i have to say about 14.1 is something an old time NJ player named Sam "One Poke" Fauver said.

"Get the balls off the rails early because they are the hardest to play position from and get the balls up table cleared as soon as possible and make it a 1/2 table game"
 
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