A Journey Into Billiards

Johnny Is Moving

2010-03-26T09:16:00.001-05:00

Two things of note today:

1) Blogger has finally decided to make things easy and added the ability to use templates to pretty-fy yourself.

2) It doesn't matter to me because I'm moving!!

My new blog is http://www.johnny101.com

All of my existing entries (aside from this one) have been moved to the new site. The new site has a much cleaner look and feel, but with all of the same features. So, please, update your bookmarks/feeds/etc.

More Tournaments

2010-03-20T15:08:00.000-05:00

I'm always be looking for ways to improve my game and one of those ways is to put myself in pressure situations. Lately, when I've been feeling good, I've had the idea to play people for some small amount of money just to add a little bit of pressure - but that, strangely enough, hasn't really panned out too well. Meaning, I can't find opponents that are comparable to my level. They're either far above me or considerably below. As such, I'm looking for tournaments, small local events primarily. There are a few weekly events available, but I'm leery of them. Mainly because they're all on barboxes, and I don't play as well on them as I do on the 9fts.

Well, I've decided that I must put those equipment limitations away otherwise I'll never get any training. There's only the hope of a random 9ft open tournament twice a year and I want to do more than that, so I must adapt my playing appropriately. If I'm to be a good all-around player as I want to become, I must be able to adapt to the table - both in size, speed and reflections.

I'm not sure that I'll make the weekly tournament for this week since I'm currently pretty sick right now, but next week there is a very big tournament. A Midwest 9-ball Tour stop happening at The Break, over in Cahokia, IL. I'll be attending probably as a spectator since I'm not sure I feel prepared to take on some of the big names that will show up. I'd like to go tonight, if only to watch, but I know that I'll end up staying there all night and I just don't feel good enough, physically, to do that. I would love to get out of the house though. heh

In the meantime, I'm going back to watching the Diamond 10-Ball Championships happening at the Super Billiards Expo down in Valley Forge right now!

[Pool Synergy] Pool and the Mainstream

2010-03-15T08:00:00.002-05:00

This month's issue of Pool Synergy is brought to you by Alison Fischer of NYCGrind. Click the logo above to view the complete list of this month's articles.

The topic of discussion for this edition is "Pool and the Mainstream". My own interpretation of this topic yields many thoughts, but I'm going to focus on how the public views pool and what the pool world can do to help itself.

Think about your city, how many places can you find a pool table? You might not even realize it, but it's probable that you could drive no more than 5 minutes and find a table. Pool tables are in nearly every bar in every town. I bet you all knew someone in highschool who had a pool table at their house. In the rich part of town, I bet most people with a big house had a pool room, complete with walls covered in pool posters and accessories. Big company executives sometimes have pool tables in their offices, on their yachts, in their beach houses. Pool is everywhere, but it is nonexistent in the mainstream sports world. How can this be?

I think it all boils down to how the general public is entertained; especially in the United States. Think of the two biggest sports in the US: Football and Baseball. Why are they so popular? Honestly, think about it for a minute. The action comes in very small spurts. Most plays are over in a matter of few seconds. How does this keep millions of people entertained for hours at a time? Some say it's the anticipation of a big event; a 50 yard touchdown run, a 3-run homer, etc. Basketball is a non-stop action sport, as is hockey. Yet, people seem to prefer baseball to basketball; football to hockey. Why? It could be because the rules for hockey and basketball and somewhat more complicated than baseball and football - to the average viewer.

It follows then that the more complicated a game is, the less entertaining it is to the general public. I don't really want to believe that. I want to believe that the general public is educated and perfectly capable of understanding what's going on while watching a masters game of Chess or Go. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

People like to watch what they know - not what they have to learn to watch.

In addition to this, is the celebration that happens during an event. A home run is very exciting when surrounded by 40,000 screaming fans, absolutely - and anyone can share in that enjoyment, regardless of skill level or understanding. They know it was a good hit because it easy to determine based on what they can see: the distance the ball traveled. The same follows for any "spectator sport" of this nature. When the outcome of a play is easily determined by simple observation, people like it.

I think this is why sports like golf and even bowling are as popular as they are: it's easy to determine the outcome by visual means. "That ball is very close to the hole now, must have been a good shot." "All of the pins are down, good throw."

Pool doesn't have this luxury. To someone who doesn't play pool, a great positional shot means nothing. All they see is someone making a series of "easy" shots with no understanding how they ended up with those easy shots. To be able to enjoy watching pool, the viewer must already know how the game is played and what's involved in making those shots.

This is something of a catch-22 for the sport of pool. In order to gain new audiences, they must make it available to the masses.

Fortunately for us, the foundation for this mass expose is already being laid. There are literally hundreds of free online web-streams showcasing pool around the world being shown on the internet almost daily. With each new stream, comes new games, new commentators, new characters for the public to follow. Some of them are serious, some are mellow, others are lighthearted, and a select few are just downright funny.

My hope is that sooner, rather than later, someone from the big networks will see one of the larger streams and realize that the public actually likes pool. Once they stop and realize this, they'll be more eager to be the first ones to market it, nationally, globally even.

ESPN is currently the only channel that regularly shows pool on tv. The organizers of the WPBA were clever enough to make an arrangement with them for this privilege. I sincerely hope that other professional pool organizations (WPA, BCA,etc) follow in their path. Bringing men's pool to tv would in the least, more than double the number of events to cover - thereby doubling the number of advertising spaces; which should make it easier to sell to other broadcasting networks at some future date. Once the networks start making money, the leagues can start getting more sponsors - which will lead to the players earning more - which could make the dream of being a professional pool player for a young player something far more tangible than it is today.

I really think that the next generation of pool players are going to change the pool world - and even more importantly - the entire public opinion of pool. The level of players currently found in the pro-am and junior leagues is outstanding and, hopefully, once the public gets wind of this new crop of talent they'll want more of it.

TWO!! Successfully Completed IPAT 9-Ball Layouts

2010-03-09T09:44:00.000-06:00

So, as I've mentioned in earlier posts that I often run a number of drills during my practice time. Several of them are 9-ball layouts, and some of those are part of the IPAT (International Playing Ability Test). Typically when I run those drills I don't hold myself to a particularly high standard - meaning that if I miss a ball, I keep shooting just to see if I can get back in line. But I had never successfully ran the entire table without fouling or missing before. Yesterday, I was determined to do it.

I started shooting/warming up with 10-balls tossed out, I did that for a while until I felt decently in focus. Then I started with this layout:

As far as layouts go, this is what most would consider "fairly easy" - but given the trouble it's caused me over the last few months, I wouldn't call it that. Yesterday, however, I really felt confident that I can and would run this table successfully. I almost always made it to the 6 before really getting out of line and having to start over for one reason or another, and it was frustrating to be sure, but I kept at it. Took several deep breaths before each re-rack and started again, keeping in mind the mistakes from the last run. Not letting them scare me, but using them to let me know what I did wrong and how I fix it this time.

It took me 9 failed attempts, but on the 10th, I did it. I ran it. I can't say perfectly because I got a little thin on the 9 ball, but I made the shot. I made all 9 shots, sequentially and with relatively decent position! I finished it and wanted to let out of a giant YEAH!!! but no one would've understood, so I gave myself a small fist-pump and went to write down my stats.

You can see a video of how this layout is ran here, courtesy of ForceFollow

After I gathered myself from my happy place, I decided to move on to the next drill instead of ruining this one by trying it again. I picked up this layout from my binder and arranged it on the table:

Now this one is a bit tougher in my opinion - although on my 3rd attempt I ran to the nine and got a little cocky with it and super-stroked it, which much to my extreme dismay, left the 9 jarred in the pocket. That only game me more drive to finish it because I came so close that time. Unfortunately, it took me 15 attempts, but I successfully completed that one too!! And again, I wanted to give a big HELL YEAH, but again opted for the quiet celebration.

I went on to the next layout:

But this one eluded me. You'd think getting from the 3 to the 4 would be simple, and it should be, but since I always got too long on the 3, I ended up with bad position on the 4 to make an easy transition to the 5. I once made it to the 7, but played it too cautiously and jawed the ball. I went on from there as if I had made it and ran the last two easily enough - but this will be the next drill on my plate for sure.

The Ultimate Pool Challenge Game

2010-03-08T09:29:00.000-06:00

After reading Samm Diep's review of the Ultimate Pool Challenge Game, I decided that I needed to get it. So, I just ordered it. With any luck, it'll be here by the end of the week and I'll have some new things to do over the weekend. Anyone that enjoys new tricks and is looking for a fun way to challenge themselves and their friends should really check this out. You can see a PDF containing 5 sample cards here.

If anyone does get it, please make sure you buy it by clicking through the PoolDawg links on any of your favorite player's websites to help them out as well. For example:

Help Samm Diep. (click the link she provides in the article to purchase)
Help Liz Ford. (just click the PoolDawg banner to enter the site then buy what you need)
Help Sara Rousey. (just click the PoolDawg banner to enter the site then buy what you need)

More Kicking

2010-03-05T21:13:00.000-06:00

I just have a few minutes, but I've been meaning to post this since Tuesday... After my 8-ball league, I played a teammate some cheap 9-ball sets... it turned out to be a great time. My 2 personal "super shot of the match" moments are below:

These were a bar-table with the usual questionably-reliable rails/cloth.

He played safe on me, and after a long while of looking around for various options and really not trusting the 1-rail kick with english (to avoid the side-pocket), I opted to go 3 rails at it. It worked and I got a rewarded even. :)

A few games later I ended up nearly dead straight on the 7-ball. Earlier in the night I hit a power-draw shot in this situation and actually overran position, so I was hesitant to do it again. Instead, I cheated the pocket a bit and loaded it up inside-force-follow to back down-table.

I am REALLY liking my new stroking skills - as well as my new diamond systems. :)

Got Stroke?

2010-03-01T12:41:00.000-06:00

So, last Friday night I went back to The Break and met up with Gene for some good practicing. It wasn't an outstanding night by any means, but late in the morning he noticed some things I was doing wrong with my stroke. So, after a lot of explaining and re-explaining and demonstrations, I think I finally got it. :)

I found the basics of a proper stroke a while ago and describe it in this post (towards the bottom) but was never able to really put any power into it. It was almost always a finesse type of stroke. I did see my accuracy improve greatly though and have been trying to work on making every shot this way, but I still had some issues maintaining it. Well again thanks to Gene, I was able to work out some timing kinks in my stroke and can now put some real power into it.

After we worked out the issues, we just shot a variety of power stroke shots, including these:

It was really amazing to see that cue ball dance around the table, knowing that it was *ME* that was doing it. I was almost giddy shooting these things.

I gotta say, I absolutely LOVED the amazing difference in the sound of my cue - it has such a distinct *PING* to it when it's stroked.

I really can't wait to get back on a table and continue shooting these shots - along with the others from the last time we had a learning session.

I feel like the roadblock I mentioned in this post has finally been overcome. I had a strong feeling I was on the verge of a new breakthrough, and I think this could be it.

Now, only the last of my very serious areas of concern remain: speed control. Just lagging up and down a table is fine, but I have to be able to quickly and knowledgeably adjust speed based on my perceptions of the table-speed, the cut angle and the english I'm using. I think now with my new skills and the existing drills I have, I can seriously work on this last, largely misunderstood, area.

I think I'm in prime shape to prepare myself for the tournaments coming up later this year. :)

Now I can finally get this shirt:

3-Rail Kicks: The Short Rail System

2010-02-22T09:49:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in my last entry, Saturday night I learned 2 different 3-rail kicking systems. The first one, which I'll refer to as the "Short-Rail-System" (SRS), is depicted below.

The system is based on 3 simple paths: Along the target short rail: near diamond, middle diamond, far diamond. To get to these three points, you aim for a relative set of three points along the starting short rail. As the cue ball moves up and down the long rail, you adjust the contact point of the starting short rail accordingly. It's much like a slide-rule actually. I'm leaving out the specific details because it's not my system to teach; although I'm sure it exists by other various names, the person who taught it to me claims it's his in design, so I won't spoil the info if he wishes to publish it.

I will say that when hit properly and with a bit of table luck, it's 98% accurate, and as such while I was learning this system, I was given this challenge. Hit the 5 going 3-rails. I recognized that this was a 2-way shot: Aim to hit it thin, chance to make it - if not, the CB will probably go elsewhere. I took my time, lined up, made the distance adjustments and hit the shot. I made the 5 on my first attempt.

(Here's a jpg of the diagram for those shockwave-challenged viewers)

I also learned the basics of the diamond system and the clock system. The clock system is something I'm really excited about - specific to my game by way of safety-plays. :) Now, when I play the safety dance game I'll have 2 systems to exercise, not just educated guesses. :)

I have to admit though, with my mathematical enthusiasm, I'm a little disappointed in myself for not devising on my own some of these patterns. I knew that existed, I could see them - but I never took the time to study them to put them in order. I will rectify this when I notice the next thing.

Late Night Pool

2010-02-21T16:07:00.000-06:00

So, last night I headed over to The Break for the first time. I got there around 10ish and around 11:30 Gene arrived and we played until about 6 in the morning. :) It was a good time - and very informative. He showed me a couple of 2 and 3 rail kicking/banking system - as well as a 3-cushion system that will be extremely useful for playing safeties regular pool.

I would share them, but I don't have them down 100% just yet and I don't want to describe them incorrectly.

Now, I'm going to watch the WPBA Regional Tour live stream and relax for a while.

It'll Get Worse Before It Gets Better

2010-02-19T15:26:00.000-06:00

At least, that's what I'm hoping right now. My game has been on the low-end of terrible for the last couple of weeks. I think it's because I've finally settled in on a comfortable stance and am focusing more on position than making the ball. This is just as wrong as focusing on making the ball and not thinking about position. The only good part about all of this is that when I miss, it usually rattles, but I nearly always get position. So, I'm close - very close to getting both aspects.

It's very, very frustrating though.

I've also discovered a new flaw: my line of sight isn't always where my cue is going. I haven't been able to pinpoint the exact types of shots when this happens, but it's only a select few. Having the cueball frozen on the rail with the object more than half a table away is one such example.

I think what is happening is that I'm focusing too much on the cueball during my final stroke. I constantly watch my stick during a few of the warm-up strokes to make sure I'm straight (as I'm not always due to my new stance) - and then once I am, I go back to my object ball's contact point. I think I'm losing sight of the spot while I'm straightening myself out. I have to rebuild my muscle-memory in my stroking arm.

As such, I'm now incorporating this practice technique into my warmup routine:

I've also been working a few new drills this week:

The Long Shot Off-The-Rail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsGFc0puuBI

A 9-ball situational drill:

Liz Ford's Single Shot Drills. (which are deceptively difficult, in my opinion.)

[Pool Synergy] Your Favorite Pool Player

2010-02-15T10:07:00.001-06:00

I don't have a personal entry this month, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go read all the excellent articles in this month's issue of Pool Synergy!

Strategic Differences

2010-02-10T11:16:00.000-06:00

I had my second league night last night and it went much better - meaning I wasn't asked to dumb it down any. Even so, I still only went 1-1. Oh well, it was a good night.

I noticed something about my own strategic process last night.

I had this layout last night: (or very close to it, based on memory)

It was my shot and I had ball in hand. As I was looking around the table, I thought I'd start with position A, sink the 3, then the 6, and either play safe with a breakout, or possibly breakout the 5/7 on the 6. But before I could even set the CB down, a senior member comes over and says to play position B - shoot the 4 off the 12, breaking out the 2, while drawing back for the 3 and starting my original plan there.

I understand that breaking out clusters is very important - I also understand that this was not a rack I was going to run-out on, so I didn't want to free up my opponent's ball - but I don't think I would've ever saw that shot. I always try to break out clusters through caroming with the cue ball off a shot. It's risky, I know - but I'd rather be at the table with a risky shot, than miss because I was trying to carom/break-out with the object ball.

I've spotted another big difference: playing a safety by sinking your opponent's ball. I can't remember the exact situation, but the most suggested move was to carom off my ball to make the opponents, leaving him totally snookered with nothing to shoot at. I would never intentionally make the opponent's ball. "There has to be another way to get safe." is what my brain says.

Maybe it's a league thing? Maybe it's an 8-ball thing? I don't know for sure, but it's interesting to learn the little tricks.

Aquatic Billiards

2010-02-10T09:56:00.002-06:00

This just found it's way onto my browser, and now I must present to you all, just in case you haven't seen it:

Straight Pool High Run

2010-02-04T14:39:00.000-06:00

Since I have nothing good to say about pool today, I'll just post here for historical reasons that I have a new "high" run in straight pool. Now, we weren't playing 14.1 - so it doesn't really count, but full-rack straight pool isn't a totally different animal.

Anyway, last week after some terrible 9-ball, we decided to play straight pool just for fun. I broke the rack and started shooting. I tried to chip away at rows of balls in such a way to continue, making sure that if I got out of line, there was an alternate ball to bring me back. Before I knew it there was only 5 balls left on the table, so then I focused on position and ran the last 5. Racked, broke, made a ball and kept on shooting. Unfortunately, I got a little too excited and missed a fairly easy shot to end my high run at a lowly 20. But... it's better than before, so I'm happy with it.

New Game Experience: 3-Cushion

2010-02-03T16:23:00.000-06:00

Today at the pool hall, there was no one there. I watched some guys play 3-cushion (English Billiards) for a while, and then realized they had left the balls on the other 3C table. So... I took it upon myself to give this game a try. I've always enjoyed watching people play and it's such a "puzzle-solving" type of game. I really like it - in theory.

I shot around on the table for about an hour - but was able to make about 10 points. That's not good, in case you were wondering because I probably shot close to 50 shots. So, 20% completion is not good. However, allow me to toot my own horn, I'm quite happy with it considering I've never so much as hit a ball on a 3C table before.

For those of you that don't know what 3-Cushion is, it's simple: Using either the white or yellow ball as your "cue ball", you must make the cue ball hit at least 3 rails (cushions) before contacting both balls. Traditionally, the shot is played by hitting one of the balls, traveling 3 (or more) rails then contacting the 3rd ball. The table is 10 by 5 feet in size so some of the usual angles I'd be used to are different. Also, the balls are about 15-20% bigger than a standard pool balls; which means they are heavier. However, getting a ball to travel 5 rails after contact is a little easier. This particular table is not heated, there is a heated 3C table which makes the balls travel quite a bit faster, so getting 6+ rails is entirely possible, although rarely necessary.

I am seriously considering taking a few lessons from the local instructor on 3-Cushion. I can sit there and hit balls all day and try and learn some of the patterns on my own; which I do really enjoy doing - but I think it would be of great help to have someone to guide my learning. It's very affordable too, so this is much more likely to happen than taking him up on the 9-ball tutoring he initially offered.

Wherein the protangonist ponders the morality of league play

2010-02-03T10:58:00.000-06:00

So, as my previous entry states, I joined a league. Now, one of the many reasons I've avoided joining a league was the variety of stories involving sandbagging. Well, to make a really long [and familiar to anyone who's ever played in a league] story short, this came up on my first night in a league.

Since I'm new to the league, I started at a "non-rated 4" - which means that each week my rating will go up and down based on my performance of the previous week. My team has two 7's, a 6, and three 5's - then me. They're wanting me to stay around a 4. I should be a 5 for sure, based on watching the other 5's play and how I played against them while waiting for my own matches.

Even if I was only a 4, I wouldn't mind so much because I can still play - and play to win. Apparently, the majority of this season, I need to try and stay around a 4. That means losing more than winning. Now, if I'm playing other 7's and whatnot, losing will probably come naturally; but in the case of last night - a bunch of 2's - losing is hard to do.

I joined the league to play - and play well. Not play badly so that I/we can do well in the finals. What does it matter if we're all high-ranked? okay, okay, so there's a limit on the number of 'good' players you put out there for each round, but we have two 7's, so just about any combination of players works for each round. I just fail to see how 'staying under' benefits anyone.

I made it clear, from the first time they talked to me that I wasn't comfortable with dogging things on purpose - so being asked "do everything you can to lose" doesn't sit real well with me. The guy said this was a very, very rare situation - having such a bad team of opponents. So... we'll see how it goes.

I said I'd come back next week, but if I'm asked to play down every match, I'm walking.

Where's a BCA league when ya need one? C'mon St. Louis isn't that damn small, we need a real league here. The APA is riddled with the same bullshit.

And for the record, I won both of my matches last night. I even tried to leave easy runs, easy shots, hell I even found ways to foul - but you can't depend on a 2 to make any shot. *sigh*

I've joined a league!

2010-02-02T15:09:00.000-06:00

So, long story short, a guy approached me over the weekend asking if I'd be interested in joining his league team. They need a 7th and he's noticed me playing over the last few months and thought he should ask. After a bunch of internal debating, I've decided to go ahead and do it - but not without making a list of pros/cons:

Pros:

Meeting new people.
Playing new people.
Learning how to deal with pressure.
Learning different patterns.
I'm playing with 3 other 5s, a 6 and 2 7's. I'll start as an "unrated 4" and be adjusted from there.
Nearly all the tournaments in this town are on bar-boxes, so getting used to this should mean I could make some progress towards getting into the money zone.

Cons:

It's 8-ball.
It's on bar-boxes
It's on Tuesday nights
It's a single-game per person format, no "sets" in between players. A break'n'run might be the only thing I see during my game.
It might mess with my 9-ball game on the 9 footers I'm trying to get into on Monday nights.

All of the pros I mention fall under the goals I listed a few weeks ago, so... while it might not be an idea solution, it is the best currently on the table. So... for the next 14 weeks (starting tonight) I'll be an 8-ball bar-box player on tuesdays.

I went to the hall last night to try the game. and a) twice as many balls on b) a table that's considerably smaller makes for a really cramped looking layout after the break.

They don't seem to keep score or track info like they do in the APA, but I will be tracking my own progress, for sure. I finally printed off a nice new stat-track sheet, made a bunch of copies and put them in a binder for easy carrying.

If anyone is interested, this is Missouri 8-Ball I'm talking about. This is not part of the APA.

If your friends don't dance then they're no friends of mine.

2010-01-27T15:56:00.000-06:00

Okay, okay, not really. Sorry.

Today two good things happened at the pool hall. 1) I got to hit with a Samsara cue 2) I came up with a new little game for myself.

1) After talking with the hall for a minute, he said he did have two Samsara BarCues left from the original lot of about 15. So, I hit with one for a while. Now, the joint was wood-wood with a piloted hole and it didn't meet flush, which I thought was strange. The tip was very soft and probably the reason for why the "ping" was so deadened sounding. I could barely hear the thing. House-cues are louder than this thing. The shaft it came with wasn't to my liking at all. I guess that's a "straight" taper - but it reminded me more of a 3-cushion shaft than a pool shaft. Although it didn't deflect any more than my current cue, it didn't deflect much less than mine either, and for $500 I want something a little straighter. So... while I really like the design of the Samsara cues, I won't be putting out any money for one of them. I'll stick to their break-tips though. Now, I just want to hit with a Schon and compare it to the Carolina, and I'll be ready to make a decision.

2) I was hitting some shots from Byrnes Book of 350 Shots wherein he demonstrated a good safety shot that required "stun-through" action on the cue ball. So, I started working on that shot. Then I started working on other safety shots. Then, I came up with this safety dance: Throw all 9 (or 10) balls on the table, and then toss out the CB. Shoot the balls in rotation - but each shot you are trying to get a strong safety out of it. Freeze the CB and/or hide the OB. Each time you get at least 65% of the OB blocked, take it off the table (unless it's a really easy kick to MAKE - like if you block the shot, but the OB is in the jaws, that doesn't count). Go through the rack that way and see how many shots it takes to get through.

So, you have a goal, you have a score, which means this is a measurable skill drill. Yay! You could make it more interesting by making a rule on the number of rails used or only half-ball hits or only thinning the OB, etc. Lots of ways to play safe; which is why I'm calling this in my practice log the "Safety Dance". (hence the title of this entry)

Caroline vs Samsara

2010-01-26T15:57:00.000-06:00

So, I've been toying with the idea of getting a new cue. I like my Lucasi, but I'm for sure going to replace the shaft. Well, for the cost of a new shaft plus a little more I can get a new cue - and if I go custom, I can get a damn nice cue.

Today I hit with a Carolina Custom sneaky pete and while I don't like the look of a sneaky pete, the cue hit pretty darn well. The standard shaft had less deflection than my current Lucasi too. The butt felt good and solid and the ping was very audible - it sounded like a real cue. They even have one in the wood colors I want: Cocobolo. :)

Now, Samsara Custom has a line of what they call "BarCue"; meaning they aren't decked out in elephant ivory and hand-laid inlays, etc. Which is just fine for me, I don't care about that stuff, and honestly, I hate the idea of paying for it. They, too, have a Cocobolo cue in this for around the price I was hoping to stay under/around.

Tomorrow, if I remember, I'll ask about them because I'm pretty sure there's a Samsara custom in one of the cases. They have a unique design pattern on their true customs which I remember seeing on an end-cap the other day. Their designs are actually some of my favorite, as far as curb-appeal goes, but I can't spend the $2,000-4,000 for one of those.

Has anyone reading this ever played with either?

Easy Trickshot Video

2010-01-25T10:12:00.000-06:00

Here's a short crappy vid of me shooting a 4-in-1 trickshot. Not the usual 4-in-a-row that most people start with though; this one is a little more challenging. But since I like to think I have a decent draw stroke, this is a lot of fun.

Pool + Geek + Practice = New Web App?

2010-01-21T15:20:00.000-06:00

So, I'm a programmer by day and as such, I like tracking things... like progress. I also like writing utilities to do it for me. I've long read that keeping a practice log is a great way to measure long-term progress, and I've been trying to do that diligently, some weeks moreso than others, but still, I have a notebook with stats being tracked.

Well, rather than trying to flip through the pages to see how I've done, I decided to build a little web-app where I can enter each rack and the stats for it. Then later I can run reports on average number of shots per rack, racks per match, balls missed, high run, etc. This part is done already, I just need to enter the info from the notebook and start analysis.

Today I'm adding a second part specific to drills: which drill, how many attempts, how many shots to get through it, and was it completed properly.

All of this would make playing a lot easier if I had someone else to count shots and whatnot, I keep losing count when I really focus on the game; but if I keep count, then I lose focus. *sigh*

Breaking the 1-pocket barrier

2010-01-19T14:50:00.000-06:00

So, something interesting happened this past weekend. We were at the poolhall, it was late in the evening, and I wasn't shooting too well. I was playing Josh, who's about my speed so it's usually a good game, and after a while, he asked if I wanted to play some 1-pocket. Well, I haven't ever played. Not once. I've watched it from afar quite a few times and I tried to watch a match or two on youtube, but it's hard to dedicate that much time to the game. I've turned down lots of offers at my usual place because I'm on a limited time-line there and this game takes a while. So, it's late, it's Josh and I say, "Eh, why not?"

So... we play it even, first to 8-balls. The first game, was a real learning experience - as you can expect I lost... badly. Something like 8-2 (fouled a few times, but oh well). The 2nd game went a little better. I started seeing the smallest hint of patterns and defensive moves. I still lost, but it was closer, I think 8-6. The 3rd game, was much better. I learned very quickly that unless it's a dead ball, don't try it if you don't need to. I also learned very quickly that leaving your partner with absolutely nothing is almost more fun than making a ball for yourself. I took my time with most shots, evaluated the percentages, and calculated the leave if I missed. As a result, I owned that game. I won 8-2!

Offensively, I made some good cross-bank shots and got pretty good shape for the next ball. Defensively, I nearly always left my opponent behind the stack, or frozen to another ball. Whenever he got a ball close to the pocket, I kicked it away, even if it meant passing up a chance to make a ball in my pocket.

Overall, it was more fun than I expected it to be; but I won't be switching schools just yet. ;)

[Pool Synergy] The Merger of Pool and Business

2010-01-15T09:00:00.030-06:00

I am happy to introduce guest author: Steve Jennings.

Steve is a BCA Advanced Certified Instructor and this month he's a guest author for the topic: What training, experience or activity outside of the pool world can be employed to improve one's pool game?

As a lifelong poolplayer, and a professional billiards instructor, I have often found myself taking things I learn in my day to day life, and applying them to my pool game. Over the years, I have come to understand that pool is just a microcosm of life. Many of life’s lessons can be directly applied to one’s pool game. Sometimes, they are the obvious little rules of life that fit neatly into a 4 ½ by 9 foot rectangle. We have all heard the old saying that “Practice makes Perfect”. And while that is a good philosophy, it’s not quite accurate. “Perfect Practice makes Perfect” is more appropriate. We know that we must practice in order to improve, but our best improvement can only come if we are practicing the right things the right way. Or how about “Knowledge is Power”? That would seem to say that the more we know, the better we will become. But knowledge is only power when application is included. We must take whatever knowledge we gain and then apply it to our game in order to gain any benefit. With that in mind, anytime I learn something valuable, I try to find a way to apply it to my pool game.

Several years ago, I worked for a very well known and well respected large corporation. When I decided to move into management with them, I began an intensive 3 month training program. During that training, I was fortunate enough to get to learn from the CEO and founder of the company. This man had a way of breaking things down to their simplest form. And in one meeting, he made a simple 7-word statement that really stuck with me. He said “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Throughout my career in the business world, I found this to be true on nearly every level. A good manager has to be able to measure the results of every activity in order to control those activities for which he is responsible.

So what does that have to do with pool? Quite simply, we are the “managers” of our personal development, and we are the one who must manage what happens when we are at the pool table. And if we are to be good managers, we must find ways to actually measure every aspect of our pool game. I can’t tell you how to do this, but I can tell you how I do it.

There are three things we control on every pools shot. Those things are Angle, Speed, and Spin. (There is a 3 letter acronym that makes that very easy to remember!)

To measure your angle, we have basic geometry to lets us measure cut angles for different shots. I use a system that takes 6 different angles that, with some flexibility, will cover most all of the shots that come up on the table. So when I look at a shot, I need to decide which angle is the closest to what I am facing. If it’s a number 3 shot, I know where to aim to make it.

In pool school, we also teach a scale to measure speed. Speed on a pool table is not measured in miles per hour, but rather in the distance the ball will travel with a specific stroke speed. I use a scale ranging from 1 to 8 to measure different speeds. My number 1 speed is a simple lag shot, while a number 8 would be the speed I would use for my break shot. For reference, each number higher would cause the ball to travel about 2 diamonds beyond the distance for the previous number.

As for spin, we simply measure that by the amount of tip offset from a center ball hit. I measure a tip of spin by the area of the cue tip that actually makes contact with the cue ball. If you look at the chalk mark left on the cue ball, you will have a good idea of what I’m talking about. If you look at some of the training balls on the market, they are marked to show those increments. In any case, using this method will allow you to apply up to 4 or 5 tips off center and still make good solid contact with the cue ball. Those simple measurements will allow you to develop control of the amount of spin, and what kind of spin, you are applying on every shot.

Measuring the results of your practice time is just as important as anything you do in your quest to improve your game. About once a week, I take a few minutes to measure my performance. I put 10 balls out on the table and give myself ball in hand and start shooting. If I miss a shot, I take that ball off the table and continue until the table is clear. I do this 5 times, and then write down in a log book what my percentage made was for that week. This way, I can easily see if my shooting percentage is improving, staying level, or even falling off. This helps me plan for my practice sessions for the next week.

These are just 4 ways that I have found to take some very sound business advice, and use it to help my pool game. How many more can you think of?

For more interesting stories and articles on this month's topic, click here to read the index!

Shafts Shafts Shafts!! ARGH!

2010-01-14T11:31:00.000-06:00

Oi. So, it's come to my attention that I have the ability to pick up a new shaft in the next couple of weeks. Now the big problem: WHICH ONE!?!

I've already discussed the Predator Z2 and the OB-2 cue to death, but I'm still undecided. Add to that, the off-chance of picking up a 1st gen Z for a lot less money and I'm really confused. Rumor has it the 1st gens are potentially better made because the manufacturer kept all the wood pieces together to make the shaft. The 2nd gen is a random assortment of pieces to make the shaft. Does it matter? I don't know.

On top of all of that is the choice of whether or not I actually want to force myself into a thin shaft lifestyle. I will, of course, always have my original shaft (now with new Talisman tip) and if I really find that playing with such a thin shaft simply isn't for me, well, then I can sell it and pick up an OB-1 or 314.

[Geek Mode]
The OB-1 is an awesome name... Obi-Wan Kenobe.
314 is equally awesome: Pi
[/Geek Mode]

I will have the opportunity to hit with both shafts, but neither of them will be attached to my own cue, so how much of what I like about the hit is the cue and how much is the shaft/tip? Lastly - how much will I adjust to the shaft versus trying to force the shaft to my liking?

New Tip: Talisman

2010-01-11T15:27:00.000-06:00

I just dropped off my shaft to get a new tip. I'm trying a Talisman tip, suggested by a discussion on tips with a pretty knowledgeable guy at C&C. If I don't like it, I can always switch it out. I mean, it's $20, not free, but still, it's not like changing shafts. Should be ready by Wednesday, but I'm not sure I'll get back there until Friday. I really can't wait to try it though.

In other news, I did the break, take BIH, and see if I can run out for practice today. I never did all 9 in a row, but generally I only missed once, or hooked myself after making the shot so I shot it again. The layout is below:

And the CT layout:

Strangely enough, the 2 balls that gave me the most trouble was the 1B, getting behind the 2 back to where the CB was originally. The other was the 3B, either I'd make it and get behind the 8, or I'd miss. It was pretty frustrating actually. But, I played through this rack about 12 times and I like this layout because it has some difficult position shots, some using top, others draw and some with a bit of english. I will remember this layout in the future.

It's Good To Have Goals

2010-01-11T10:01:00.000-06:00

So, taking inspiration from this blog and this blog I'm going to form and post my goals for this year - and [current] the end-of-the-road goal.

My end-all goal, as of now, is to be able to win a local tournament. This will not happen this year, but it's where I'm aiming for now. Start small. I haven't picked out a tournament to win because there really aren't any tournaments in this area - at least none that are played on the 9' tables.

One of my goals this year is to improve my ranking from 4 to 6, on the scale my local hall uses, which is "Missouri 8-Ball" league rankings, if I remember correctly. The scale goes from 2 through 9. 2 being an absolute beginner, no position play, poor mechanics; 9 being an A or AA player - likely to run several racks in a row. In my first tournament (fail), they gave me a rating of 4. They were considering giving me a 5, I think because of how interested I am and how often I ask questions and seek information; I'm glad they only gave me a 4 though - it was the right call. I feel like I should be a 4 or 5 now. I feel like I have improved over the last 2 months and I hope to be able to show that somehow.

I don't know what's really expected of a 6-rated player - but I do know they are expected to be able to run a rack with a good layout, play good position, have good knowledge of safety play. I feel like I have that ability - on a really good day. I know the ability is there, I've done it - but it's not consistent; and that's what separates the top players from the others.

Another goal is that I want to seek out other good players in the area and play with them, learn from them and hopefully help each other with practice; be it drills or position play or safety play or just general stroke training. I have a pretty strong feeling that if I had a solid practice partner, things would progress a little quicker. I like playing Morris cuz he's a pretty good player, but I dont think he seeks out information and he never practices - always plays other people. That's good practice too, but sometimes you just need time to work on a shot.

My last goal is that I want to work towards running a rack successfully at least once a week. I play often enough, albeit in small amounts, that I think this is feasible. I'm learning new patterns all the time, it seems, and there's no reason I can't run 7-9 balls, provided the layout is decent. The key to doing this, in my opinion, is entirely based upon speed control and the subtleties of english. Speed control moreso than english, I think. I have to be able to reliably get the cueball 2, 1.5, 1, 1/2, 1/4 table-length after contact - and depending on the fullness of the contact adjust to account for the loss of speed. Every table is different, but there are general guidelines. On a slow table what is 1 table length might be 1.25 on a fast table so while I'd overrun it, it should be simple enough to account for the difference after only a few shots.

First 10-Ball Break'n'Run!!!

2010-01-10T14:38:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty busy this afternoon with post-processing photos, but I just wanted to post about something that happened at the pool hall last night.

First off, let me remind you that I recently changed everything about my pool playing. On Friday, I played and was seriously contemplating going back because it was just murderous. I realized now that I was too focused on my body and didn't really focus on the shot. And that's fine - I expected to get worse before I got better, but it's tough to accept that sometimes. Friday night, we went to the pool hall and I played a little better.

Last night we went back to the pool hall and had a little bit of time to warm up before our game partners arrived. Apparently, it was just what I needed. After everyone was warmed up, we racked up a 10-ball rack and I broke. Got a good spread, made a ball on the break but the 1 was nearly married to the 3. Good for me it was wired to the corner pocket. After some consideration, I took the shot and sank the 3, leaving a longer than I wanted shot on the 1. The 2 was sitting good after that. I took a lot of time lining up for the 1, but I made it and stopped the cue ball. After that, things get a little hazy in my memory as to where each ball was because we played for the next 7 hours. heh.

The major point of this entry though is that first rack... I ran the entire rack! I got a few rolls and had to make a few difficult shots, but I used my stroke when I needed to, and I played smarter position than I have in a while. I'm learning (strangely enough) just how useful center-ball is. I'm seeing the tangent lines easier and I getting better at controlling my speed. Although I came up short on the 10 and left myself with a pretty thin cut, I still rattled it in. I could not believe it. I still can't believe it! I WISH I had the video camera with me. I meant to bring it, but in a rush decision to get there on time I just forgot to grab it.

The rest of the night we played teams and/or ring games, which, in my opinion, are a sure-fire way NOT to get in-stroke, so no other game was as impressive. Although I played pretty well all night, winning more games than losing, I also missed a lot of shots I shouldn't have.

Still, I had a great time, and again, thanks to Gene and Gary for showing me even more tricks and sharing their knowledge with me.

This is one of my goals for this year - I want run a rack at least once a week.

The Changeling

2010-01-08T12:34:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in in this post, I saw that my elbow wasn't in line with my wrist/cue by videotaping myself playing. Last weekend, I talked with another player about stroke and what some of my problems were. He made a few suggestions and I finally got a chance to really give them a try yesterday.

I spent about 6 hours in the poolhall yesterday working on: 1) New Stance 2) New Bridge Hand 3) New Grip. 4) New Stroke

I don't have any video, unfortunately, but I think this will work - but I'm also open to further advice from people. I'll try to get some still-shots this weekend though.

Stance.

Legs

[Old] I straightened my right leg and lock the knee (or close to it), feet about shoulder-width apart, nearly in-line with the cue.
[New] Bend both knees, turn hips ~45 degrees to cue line, lean a bit further, but still remain comfortable.

Shoulder

[Old] Let it loose, which let my elbow fall away from my body (hanging over/outside the cue-line)
[New] Try to keep it loose, but ensure elbow is above cue-line. It's a physical "tucking" feeling - and I'm not sure if I should be actively holding it there. However, my body is more in line now.

Bridge

[Old] I nearly always played with a closed bridge mostly because that's just how I had always done it. I used an open bridge once in a while, but even for soft shots, I'd use closed. It just felt more "sure". When I did use an open bridge, I just layed my hand on the table and twisted it a bit to keep the fleshy part of the thumb/index finger away from the cue.
[New] After watching so many matches recently and noticing how often people use open bridges, and to to help ensure I was doing what I wanted with the cue, I decided to play all day with an open bridge. Not just any open bridge though - I wanted to see how I liked the "tuck 2nd and 3rd fingers under palm" open bridge. Turns out... I like it a lot! It's more stable, it offers great flexibility and it's more comfortable. :)

Grip (this is going to be hard to explain with visuals)

[Old] I had developed a loose grip, and on my backswing, my 3rd and 4th finger would open up completely - essentially I was holding the cue with the inside of my thumb and index finger. Even my thumb would open up and point down. The cue was actually being held by the bulk of my thumb between the web and the knuckle.
[New] After a number of different trials, I decided on still using my thumb and index finger - but now I don't angle my wrist so much to open up the fingers on the backswing. Also, my thumb stays wrapped and is just touching the top of the index finger - just to hold the cue. It's a very loose grip

Stroke (again, this is going to very hard to explain)

[Old] Because of how I held the cue before, both with the closed the bridge and the squeezing of the cue with my grip-hand, I never noticed the subtleties of non-stroke action. It turns out that even before when I thought I was throwing the cue forward, I was still gripping it at impact, but I never noticed because of the closed bridge. When you do that with an open bridge, the tip comes up in the air.
[New] Now with this new grip, I have to train myself that when I'm ready to hit the ball, I don't need to squeeze it to pull the cue along it's path. It's going to take some work, but it's coming along. I pull back on the final draw, pause and bring my wrist forward, attached to the cue and then let the cue come forward a bit more to be caught by my palm on the follow-through. Things to note: a) the sound! The sound of a stroked shot is distinct - and no matter what cue, it seems, one can always hear a stroke. b) the action! I'm finally getting that pause on top-english before the cue ball takes off down the line. See the example below for a visual aid.

Overall, it was a frustrating day because I did miss a lot of balls - but I think it was an excellent day just as well because I really got a chance to work out some serious kinks in my technique.

Here's an example of what used to happen when I tried to shoot this:

Now here's what happens with my new stroke:

As you can see - it's a lot simpler, and more reliable. Not to mention if I have to deal with traffic, there's much less to contend with. I am a happy, happy pool shooter. Well, I will be if I can get my accuracy back with all of these changes employed.

Great Safety Battle

2010-01-05T14:41:00.000-06:00

This is one of the best safety battles I have ever seen. It's during the 2nd rack of the match - and it is impressive.

The World Pool Masters = Alex Pagulayan vs Raj Hundal

Predator Z2 and/or Schon?

2010-01-04T10:52:00.001-06:00

I've recently just had a small 10 day vacation from work and during those days I only played pool a few times. The most recent day was just Saturday evening. As it turned out, it was a very good night to go.

Although we didn't get our usual table, I was able to meet another player and get a number of excellent tips regarding break styles and stroke-tips in general. In my opinion, the most important part of the night was being able to try a new cue and a new shaft.

Gene is a serious student of the game, as he confessed to me: when he's not playing, he's watching pool - if he's not watching, he's thinking about pool. He plays every day, anywhere from 4-7 hours, at a number of halls, playing a number of games, including 9-ball, 10-ball, 14.1, one-pocket, snooker and 3-cushion. He had a variety of cues in his case, but was playing with his Schon attached to a Predator Z2 shaft. He let me hit a few balls with it, after a brief discussion on how harder tips are most likely to further exposure stroking flaws (a pure stroke is required to apply best english).

First off, the Predator Z2 is a 11.75mm diameter shaft - a full mm thinner than my traditional shaft; which I have to say is a HUGE difference. At first it looked odd, but after just a few hits, I immediately saw the benefit: PRECISE application of english. If you're used to thinking in terms of applying spin in a multiple of tip-widths, a smaller tip will expand your range. With my current shaft, I generally think in terms of 1, 1.5 and 2 tips for 'a bit', 'average' and 'extreme' amounts of english; using that shaft, I can more exactly apply anywhere (on the half-tip scale) from 0 to 3 tips of english anywhere in the 4 quadrants of the ball. I also noticed a pretty sizable decrease in deflection.

Now, I had been thinking about trying an OB-1 shaft somehow, but after seeing the benefits of the thinner shaft, I might be looking for an OB-2 shaft. As it turns out Gene has one; but he doesn't like the tip on it, so he's getting rid of it. He likes the harder tips; for me, so far, I like the soft/medium tips - but am more open to a harder tip now than before. I hope to run into him again and if so, I will ask to try his OB-2 shaft. I expect I will, since we frequently compete for 'the good table' at the weekend pool hall.

Now, here's the real question: Can I justify spending more on a new shaft (considerably more) than I paid for the entire cue? A new Z2 shaft that will fit my cue (uni-loc joint) is $300. Thanks to a deal I got on my cue, I paid right around half of that for my Lucasi E-7. OTOH, the OB-2 shaft that fits my cue is almost $70 cheaper, according to their respective websites.

Also, I had been wanting to try out the Schon cues as a great next step for me. The problem is that I'm not sure *why* I want to upgrade, other than I like buying things. I would suggest to myself that getting a shaft is a) cheaper and b) a better choice because it's applicable to the next cue. However, since almost no "serious" cue maker uses the Uni-Loc joint, any shaft I buy will have to stay with the Lucasi. Which, does mean that when it's time to sell it, I can get more for the combo. *sigh* The other thing is, I really, really like the look of this cue. It's silly, but I do. And I can't possibly justify spending $1400 on a cue made from elephant ivory - then having to put another $300 shaft on it. I have no dreams of touring and I don't have the cash-flow for such frivolities, so... I think I've talked myself into just a new shaft this year.

Although, if something comes through the local hall that has a nice dark/smokey look to it that hits like a Southwest, I might seriously consider working something out. heh.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-25T12:03:00.002-06:00

Just a quick post to say Merry Christmas to everyone. If, by chance, you don't celebrate christmas, then have a good vacation day. :)

Videotape Yourself For Analysis

2009-12-23T13:21:00.000-06:00

Monday night XY and I hit up the pool hall, this time with my old video camera in tow. We've been talking about videoing ourselves for a while to see what our strokes actually look like from a distance and whatnot. I set it up in a corner and just left it there. We played for about 2.5 hours with it running. Although neither of us really played well, it was still informative to go back and watch it.

Upon first viewing and after getting past the horror that is watching yourself, it became pretty informative. It turns out, that despite my sincerest efforts my elbow is not perpendicular to the cue, it's about 5-10 degrees further away from my body then the butt-end of the cue is. Although my stroke is pretty dang straight, I do want to fix this. I wonder if this is the cause for those slight errors I continually make, when everything else looks and feels right.

I was nice to get a couple really nice shots on tape though. This one which I have never tried before. I didn't feel confident going the other ways to get on the 9 and this idea just came to me when I was looking at it. I'm actually quite surprised I got it all the way around, but was very happy to watch my plan unfold. I'm not 100% on the exact positions shown here, but this is the general idea. My draw stroke is pretty strong and because the balls were so close I didn't have to worry too much about deflections on the cue causing a problem.

A few racks later, after a long safety battle and a few missed attempts, I found myself at the table with this layout. Again, relying on my strong draw skills, I got down, lined up and fired. The cue ball took a hard right-turn and went right into the 9. The right-english helped throw the 9 into the pocket and I was very happy. :)

At some point, I will video myself doing some drills and whatnot just for archival/reference sake - and at some further point in the future, I'll get one of those "Dazzle" things that will let me transfer the vids to the computer so I can upload them.

The first rack of the night was the most entertaining. My first "Golden Break" in over 3 weeks, and it's on video. lol

I tried to study my break form as well, I'm getting good action on the balls and when I hit it properly the cueball is generally in the center-ish part of the table. Too often though, I hit it with bottom and it comes flying back towards the corner pocket. Doesn't scratch, but doesn't leave much of a shot either. I'll continue to watch the tape and look for more little details to either fix or continue to work on.

I will absolutely continue to video myself - and I think I will ask XY to hold the camera and move around the table to show all the angles of my stance and stroke to see everything that's going on.

For anyone that's reading this - do you do this and what has been your experience with it? Find it helpful? Harmful? Embarrassing?

Overconfidence is bad, m'kay? (and disrepsectful) (Dale)

2009-12-21T11:54:00.000-06:00

I learned another valuable lesson this weekend: Having confidence is good. Having too much confidence is bad.

I had a rescheduled "match" to play my brother-in-law Friday night. We've never really played before - outside of one night on a bar box in a bar with some strange characters hanging around. We got there around 8 and he was there warming up and getting used to the size of the 9fts again. We shot a few warmup balls then started it off. To make it interesting we decided to play for the cost of the time. So, I said lets do best of 3 sets, races to 7.

The first set I won 7-1. Then we switched over to our usual table, it's tighter pockets, but out of the way of the rest of teenagers and bangers throwing balls all over the room. The 2nd set started off in my favor, winning the next 2 racks. All the while, I'm goofing around with XY and other regulars and noticing that I'm taking more risky shots when it's my turn at the table. Before I know it, he's up 4-5 on me. Then 4-6, then 4-7 and he wins the 2nd set.

Now it's down to the last set. The last few racks really went his way, getting great rolls and leaving me terrible when he missed. The last set started off rough for me. I was down 0-3 before I realized what the problem was: I wasn't really thinking about the game. I was joking around with other people, watching the game, but wasn't really in the game. I finally got on the board when it was 1-5. Then, I got a few rolls, and he dogged the 9 a few times, giving me 4-5. I was almost on a roll, then he get a rack, 4-6. I managed to gain my focus back and get it back to 6-6. hill-hill.

All 3 hours of pool game down to one rack, and I had the break. Unfortunately, I broke dry and left him a shot on the 1. Luckily, the 3 was buried and he broke it out, and missed. I got the table on the 3 and ran up to the 8. Now, the 8 is on the left long rail about 1/2 diamond from the pocket. The 9 is on the right long rail around the 1st diamond just opposite the 8. My shot on the 7 left me around the 2nd diamond nearly straight in on the 8. It should've been 2 easy shots, but I was so worried about position, I tried to add too much top/right english and threw the 8 in the corner rail instead of the pocket.

I was seriously disappointed with my performance. In retrospect, I never thought I'd have to play a 3rd set, and certainly not go hill-hill. I understand people get rolls and others don't and I'm fine with that, but honestly I never should have let it get that far. I thought about the mistakes I made all night and into the next day.

I did two major things wrong: 1) I didn't stay in the game because I assumed I would win regardless. 2) I disrespected my opponent by not taking him seriously. As such, I deserved to lose and am glad I did.

So, Dale - if/when you read this: Good job! Thank you for the lesson in manners and I apologize for the disrespect.

So Much Pool To Watch!

2009-12-17T11:18:00.000-06:00

So, I posted the other day how I've been watching the Mosconi Cup on youtube all week, last night I tried it on my PS3 and found that it works there too; albeit a little more pixelated on the bigger screen. This morning, I find out that Simonis is providing a LIVE and FREE video stream for the Touring Stone Classic starting today, for the next 4 days!! If anyone is interested, you can find it here: Touring Stone Stream (via AzBilliards.com)

My First Break and Run!!!!!

2009-12-16T15:41:00.000-06:00

Today's big pool story is that I finally - FINALLY - completed a break'n'run!! I've never done it; not in practice, not in a game. The most I've ever done is ran 2-9. Today... I did it! With a bit of luck, I will totally admit.

I wish I could remember the layout, but it one of my first games and I played many today. I broke, make the 8. The 1 was blocked by 2 other balls all along the long rail. I had intended on shooting the 1 off to the other side, leaving the cue behind the wall - but I hit it too hard and somehow the 7 at the end of the string dropped into the corner. The 1 carom'd off another ball to push it up towards the side pocket on the other side. From there, I ran out - with some pretty good position play. I overran a few, underran a few, but nothing was so bad that I really killed myself. When I shot the 6 and got a little long on the 9, I thought: "How many balls is this now?" Then immediately pushed that thought from my mind and focused on the 9. After it sank, I thought a bit more... Then asked my opponent, "Did I just run those?" He said, "Not the whole table." in a tone that was akin talking to a kid who was trying to gain appreciation. But then I thought about it. I don't remember missing anything, and I only had to run 7 balls to get out and I don't remember him at the table at all. I HAD to have to run out. I just know it. I KNOW IT. I let it go and decided to move on, but I know I did. I remember moving from the 4 to the 5, I know I sank the 6 cuz it dropped me on the 9. The 3 is only ball I can't exactly remember - but the table was open and he's not the kind of guy that would leave it with all those balls.

The next rack, I broke dry and he ran out; which kinda killed my high, but oh well. Now that I know I can do it, and have done it... I will definitely try to do it more often. Of course, that's always the plan - but I know that I'm not quite to the point where I can predictably get position for all balls. I still need a little luck here and there; and I'm perfectly okay with that.

The Mosconi Cup

2009-12-15T10:55:00.000-06:00

I have been watching matches from the Mosconi Cup whenever I get a chance. I hadn't really put too much effort into researching this event, but since it was flooding the forums all last week, I decided to go ahead and check it out. WOW!! I can't believe I was so nonchalant about it before. I had previously thought it was another "Masters" type of tournament, and in a way it is - but it's much more competitive; and with varying formats that really keep you glued to the tube.

Most notably, I have discovered Dennis Hatch - a name I've also seen flooding the forums in the past months in relation to this event. How I haven't seen any matches of his before this, I don't know - but he is quickly becoming my favorite male player. He is so energetic, supportive, and holy cow what a shot maker!

I also watched a few doubles matches and those looking extra stressful. Basically, whatever shot you make, where you leave the cueball is where your partner has to shoot. So, instead of it being trading off innings (like I had assumed) you're actually trading off shots. So, if you mess up position, you have just screwed your partner. Normally, you would just have to deal with it and you'd be okay with that - this makes you far more responsible. It's really quite something I'm not sure I could handle right now. haha

If you want to check it out, hit up snookeram's stream on youtube! If you like watching some incredible pool being played, you won't be disappointed in these!!

Pool Synergy: Push The Ball

2009-12-13T09:00:00.002-06:00

This month's issue of Pool Synergy is all about "Billiard Tales". Specifically those [sometimes] little conversations that spark growth and education.

I've been playing pool on and off since I was a teenager and whenever I got the chance I always tried to work on my game, or what I thought my game consisted of in retrospect. It wasn't until I had the misfortune of having my cue stolen, along with the rest of my truck earlier this year, and was forced to buy a new stick did I really start to pursue pool as a student. It was a coincidental time I suppose, I had just recently discovered a new pool hall - one for adults and serious players as opposed to the theme-based bar with obnoxious colored felt I had previously frequented. I was in need of a new cue and I decided that along with a new cue, should come new knowledge.

I started off doing what I usually do with new topics of interest: scour the internet for information. And boy did I find it. I found loads of it. But trying to wade through all of it was not an easy task. Just trying to filter out the noise from the content in the popular forums was a challenge; but a worthy one nonetheless. After a few months of watching videos, reading articles, blogs, forums and even picking up a 'how-to' dvd, I thought I had a pretty good idea on what constituted a good stroke - and I worked avidly at building that stroke. So when I found myself continuing to miss otherwise easy shots I chalked it up to my eyes playing tricks on me or being off balance in my stance or any other thing that wasn't directly related to the stroke I had been building.

As any pool player can tell you, follow-through is just as important as the backswing portion of a stroke. In addition to many other aspects of the game, I concentrated on my follow-through, making sure the tip was, as Jerry Briesath states "4 to 6 inches beyond the cue ball". Yet, I was still missing shots I should make, I wasn't getting the action on the cue ball I expected, english wasn't being applied or backspin died out before hitting the object ball. I was at a loss and started to wonder if perhaps the cue or tip was my barrier. "Look how far my tip passed the resting point and how hard I hit it - it shouldn't be possible for the cue ball to just stop! It's supposed to come back at least 8 inches with that much draw." became something of my personal mantra for a while.

I struggled with issues like that for another month, every day at the same pool hall with just about all the same people around. I asked for advice, help, tips from anyone that would give them, and I listened to other players talk amongst themselves to try and pick up on something, anything that would alleviate this ailment in my stroke.

One day I was working on some rudimentary angle drills trying to get various positions from them when at some point I just became frustrated and stared at the table a while. As it happened, on the touch-screen game a few feet away was one of the local instructors that will sometimes hang out between lessons. I finally decided to ask him for help. My initial question was about how to aim for the particular shot on the table, and while that was helpful and I had many other questions, I also didn't want to push my luck, since I wasn't paying for his time. It seemed fortune favored me that day because after watching me try out his suggestion and seeing my continued frustration shot after shot, he walked over and said, "You're hitting the cue ball; don't do that. Push the ball."

I stopped and focused on that phrase for a few moments. "Push the ball?.... hrmmm ... Push.. the... ball!!!!" Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head. It was my biggest "EUREKA!" moment since I started learning. I had to try this, so I set up the shot, got down and focused on "pushing" the ball, instead of hitting the ball. The speed was the same as it had been before, the aim was the same - but this time, everything worked. The object ball dropped and I got the cue ball back to the other side of the table, right where I wanted it. I was ecstatic! Everything that people had told me, everything I had read in various forms and most notably Jerry's definition of a stroke involving "throwing the cue through the cue ball" finally made sense. Everything made sense. It was as if I was finally at peace with my stroke. I no longer had to force the stroke because I was no longer focusing on the hit, my contact point with my cue wasn't exactly on the cue ball - instead it was past the cue ball. I started to envision the entire stroke mentally, seeing the cue push through the cue ball. I spent the rest of the day pushing the cue ball all over the table with tremendous success. I left that day almost giddy.

Now I'm positive that I had heard or been told or read that phrase months earlier, but it didn't make sense then. My guess is that I wasn't in tune enough with my stroke at the time for it register. Whatever the cause, that day it hit home like a bomb. From that very day forward, my pocketing percentage went way up; and whenever I feel like things aren't going well, I fall back onto that phrase. "Push the ball." It's the quickest way for me to get back in stroke and keep me there.

The conversation wherein I learned how to stroke took no more than 5 minutes and had I not been open to critique it might still elude me. If there's a moral to this story, it's this: You will never know when the final piece of the puzzle will fall in your lap. Always be open to learning. Knowledge is whimsical and you can not predict its serendipitous nature.

For more great articles and stories from this month's issue, visit http://www.pooltipjar.com/2009/12/poolsynergy-volume-ii/

Zen Pool and the Karen Corr Rail Drill

2009-12-09T11:21:00.000-06:00

I finally got a chance to sit down and finish Zen Pool over the weekend. I wish I would've picked this book up a few months ago. In an earlier post I mentioned the video "How to play pool right" which is where I first learned about deflection; and while that was a big help, it would've been even better to have more of a diagram to study rather than a video. This is only one reason I would have wanted this book earlier.

The book starts off with a strong sequence of articles/chapters talking about the mental aspect of the game: how to spot when you are 'in the zone' and ways to push yourself there. All those sections were beneficial to me. The author talks about needing to trust your stroke and how hard it is to get to that point. How it's important when you're not playing well to fall back on your fundamentals to get through the tough times. However, his talk about fundamentals were vague - stance, stroke etc - were almost glossed over. He did mention other resources for more in-depth review of those specifics, but I was personally hoping for more pool-related information (so I wouldn't have to go through multiple titles at once). I could have also foregone the recaps of matches he watched which seemed almost like filler material to get the book to the required number of pages for print. They are good examples (stories) of what he's talking about - but they seemed a bit out of place; breaking the flow of information. It's just my opinion though.

The book, I think, is a good book - especially for beginners and intermediates, but honestly anyone above intermediate probably won't get too much out of it - unless they have no mental game (which is unlikely as they've progressed to that stage somehow). Still, I would recommend it for just about anyone, it's very affordable and even if you already know everything, it's an entertaining read. I'm sorry Max, but I don't think it will awaken the master within by itself - but it will help nudge the master in the right direction.

The Karen Corr drill I posted about the other day... I got to try it yesterday - almost all variations posted among those 6 videos. Surprisingly, it didn't seem quite as hard as I thought it would be. However - I also took advantage of the leniency given by the video. Still - it was not easy and it did shine a spotlight on the deflection issue. IMO, this is the best way to learn your own cue's deflection rates. I learned more about how my cue deflects with different distances and speeds yesterday than I have for the 6 month's I've owned this stick. I strongly recommend doing this.

How To Do a Rail Workout in Pocket Billiards on Howcast

If you can't ride the rail past the side pocket then when you get position off the the 3rd ball, just shoot the last three in the other corner - it allows to try deflection on the other side of the ball - theoretically the same - but a good exercise nonetheless.

Side note: the wind chill is 5(f) today - and overnight it'll drop to below zero. Guess I'll have to start wrapping my cue case in a blanket to walk across the parking lot.

A note for myself

2009-12-07T15:51:00.000-06:00

Try this drill someday when you are feeling really good... otherwise, anger, frustration and disappointment will win:

http://www.howcast.com/videos/3070-How-To-Do-a-Rail-Workout-in-Pocket-Billiards

A Bit of Practice - The L Drill

2009-12-07T10:30:00.000-06:00

This weekend was pretty low-key. I was supposed to have a friendly match with my brother in law, but he had his wisdom teeth removed earlier in the week and wasn't feeling up to playing; which I completely understand. So, I went to the hall anyway and decided to do some work.

I warmed up with my new "usual" warmup exercise (see the Warm Up Drill video in a previous post), a few times around the table. Then AJ asked if I cared to shoot a few games - sure. So we played a while, then it got busy and he went to help at the counter. Amongst all of the games, somewhere I found myself out of line and was jawing every other ball. So, during this break, I did a stop-shot drill at varying distances along the long rail. After that, I tried the "L" drill for the first time:

I did the drill on each corner. Well, lets just say I worked through each ball in the drill on each corner. I was unable to successfully run the balls in order without missing, all 9 in a row - but I never expected me to do that anyway. My position play is decent - meaning I know where I want the CB to go, and generally how to get it there - but my speed control is lacking and I tend to overrun position. When I try to combat that, I underrun by a significant amount. Of course, the 2nd time I shoot the shot, I'm usually able to get it just about right. Having the first shot as a guide is great - and I do learn from it - but it's very frustrating to so consistently come up short or long on a shot - and so rarely exactly on the spot.

I think I found this drill to be easier than the 9 balls down the center of the table drill. Maybe because I was only working with one pocket? Or Maybe because getting position up the center line is easier for shorter distances? I do know this ... by the time I was rounding the corner of the "L" my position was around the 1st diamond past the side-pocket (too far away). This happened nearly every time I tried this drill. Which inevitably led me, in an attempt to correct this, to come short on the last 2 balls. It's strange, even the 4th time through the drill, I still managed to make the same mistakes - even while thinking that I can correct them. *shrug*

My "shot of the night" was actually 2 shots back to back. The situation: 9-ball game, opponent has left me half-hooked for the 5 ball. I know I can hit this ball with a slight masse around the blocker - I think maybe if I'm lucky I'll make it, but I'll definitely hit it. Well... I made it! But, then the ball creeps on over to hide behind the 9 ball - hooking me for the 6. It's essentially the same shot, so I line up, jack up, and pull the trigger ... and to my amazement, and those watching, I make that one as well!! Here's the layout:

I quickly threw this layout together, and the 9 might not be in the exact spot. It was only a half-ball (at most) blocker.

I spent the rest of the night playing one of the employees, making some good shots - working on safety plays rather than attacking all the time. It was a good time.

2-rail Position Drill

2009-12-04T16:38:00.000-06:00

I tried this today:

Wow - that's quite a bit more difficult than I expected. Of course, I realize now that I set it up incorrectly. I had the OB at the 1x2 diamond spot - and it's supposed to be on the 1x1. But, I knew today wouldn't be that great - just aren't feeling it today. However, I will definitely be trying this again, and soon. I also did my usual drills, warmup, angle and 9 down the center.

Tomorrow I have a matchup with my brother in law - it should be a good time. I expect to play well into the night. And I'm actually excited about that.

A Milestone!!!

2009-12-02T15:48:00.000-06:00

I've posted here before about my usual lunch partner, Morris and how whenever we play he wins. And how it's been a goal of mine to win a day's overall score on a day when he's shooting well. As it happens, today was that day!

The last two days I've gone at lunch, I've done drills 90% of the time. Specifically these:

Now, I've never successfully completely any of those in the manner in which they are supposed to be done (ie: without missing or fouling) - but each week I try them, I get a little closer. In addition to this, I've been reading that book Zen Pool mentioned the other week. This week, I have found my pocketing skills have increased by a big margin from such a simple tip from that book: Focus on the exact spot on the object ball you want the cueball to contact. This seems almost automatic, but for some reason, I wasn't focusing on a spot, rather an area. After employing this spot-based aiming system, I'm pocking most of my shots dead center pocket.

So, back today. I had planning on running through another drill I haven't yet tried, but shortly after I got there, Morris showed up. So we started playing. He gave me first break and as luck would have it - I sank the 9 on the snap. Heh. Next rack, I broke dry, and he combo'd the 9 off the 1. It looked like it was going to be an exciting day, and it was. After about 6 racks, he said "Lets race to 5, put some pressure on ya." So we cleared the wire and away we went.

The first set, I went up 3-0, but then blew position towards the end of the rack and gave him the table on the 7. Then it was a back and forth through the racks with him coming out on top and I lost 5-3. The 2nd set was all me. Literally. Now, I didn't run any racks, but I hardly missed; I also got lucky a few times, but still, I ran off with that set and won 5-0!! The 2nd set, I went up 2-0 (meaning I had won 7 in a row!) and he made a comeback bringing to 3-4, then he goofed and scratched and I won the last 2 racks to win the day 3 sets to 2; total score: 13-9.

I have to say, the shot of whole day was this one. The cue ball was about an inch and half off the rail and in dead straight line with the 8 into the corner pocket. I thought about using force-follow to hopefully bounce offline and come back up off the short rail, but the chance that I would follow the 8 into the pocket prevented me. So, I lined up the shot straight on, jacked up the back of the cue and added just a hair of right and power-stroked it. I kept my head down to ensure good follow-through (as best as is available in that position). I heard the 8B drop and then looked up, to my surprise I saw the cue ball slowly creeping across the table towards the center - giving a fairly easy shot on the 9.

Overall, I shot today the way I know I can shoot - and I'm very happy with myself. Previously I would get little glimpses of this, for 2 or 3 balls then that's it. Today I would consistently run 5 or 6 balls with a decent spread. Now, if only I can keep this level of focus and stroke - I'm looking for the next improvement already!

Bar Box Rant

2009-12-02T10:19:00.000-06:00

I posted the other day about entering a tournament over the holiday break. I also said I'd post my rant about bar tables... well, here it is.

Now, as a precursor, it's entirely possible that my experiences are not the normal experiences. I realize that there are levels of quality in all things and I recognize that my particular location isn't exactly high-up on the scale. However, some things are unforgettable/unforgivable.

I have never seen balls as nicked up, filthy, dented as the balls that were on these tables. The tables were the standard 7ft coin-operated tables; but they clearly were assembled as quickly as possible as there is no way they were tested for accuracy or balance. The foot rail make a clink/thud sound when you tried to bank off it; something both my opponent and myself commented on. The rail was dead. It wasn't the only one, but it was the worst.

A little background - I play on 9fts with relatively fast cloth on a regular basis, so making the switch to these 7 foot tables gave me a number of problems - but couple that with what I discovered about this particular table and it cost me at least one game.

Like I said, I had been having speed control issues and this was no exception. I'm not very confident with this shot, so I hit it perhaps a bit too hard, but I also know that I don't scratch, even hitting the 3rd rail, it's close, but it's not a scratch. The line I drew here is close, but not 100% accurate, it started curving just beyond the 1st diamond heading towards the long rail and it just barely toppled into the pocket. The insult to injury of this shot was that I had just completed my longest run out of the day; and needed that rack to get back into the match. So, instead of being down 4-3, this scratch put me at 5-2.

I played on a number of a tables that day and all of them were similar in levels of filth and damage. Maybe it's just how bar tables are - especially considering they're coin operated and that location is notorious of loads of teenagers. But, when the 9ft tables are kept clean, well clothed and the balls are kept behind the counter and in good condition, it's that much harder to accept such poor conditions. I mean, I couldn't get a tight rack to save my life, no amount of ball spinning or tapping was holding these things in place; which is why I suppose so many people smash the rack like the Hulk - which damages the balls - downward spiral much?

Anyway, I've made it clear that I do not like those tables anyway - and I've made it especially clear that I will not for almost any reason, play in another tournament held on those tables. If that hall wants to have another tournament, have it on the 8 9ft tables you have, not the 16 bar tables, and I'll be happy to play in that.

It's precisely things like this which keep me from entering a league - I refuse to play on such low quality equipment. This is a hobby and I won't force myself to play on anything I don't want to play on. And no. I don't think I'm being unreasonable.

Stroke Drill

2009-11-30T15:43:00.003-06:00

My end drill for the day. Shoot through the gates without touching the other balls. Slow, medium and hard speeds.

Strange how my cam phone shortens the apparent length of the table. The cue ball is on the foot spot and the 2 balls up top are on surrounding the headspot. This is a 9ft table. heh. The table immediately behind this one is a 7ft bar box, the table behind that is another 9ft though.

Last Minute Tournament

2009-11-30T10:53:00.000-06:00

So, yesterday was a big 9-ball tournament out at Ride The Rail on Telegraph. Initially only XY was going to enter as she played for free (being a girl and also a C player). It was $10 for me, with a chance to win $500. Yeah, that didn't so much happen. It was on bar-tables, not my favorite. I'll save that complaint for the end of the entry:

It was scheduled to start at 5pm with a max number of 64 players. I'm not sure how many they had, but I dont think it was 64. Anyway, the previous day's tournament was running late in the 2nd half ($1K 1st prize) so we didn't get started until almost 6. In the first round draw I ended up drawing this kid Justin who we knew from Sportcenter. I won the round 7-4. I'm glad to have started off with that win - and for some reason even moreso that I played someone I sorta knew. It took the nerves down a bit - although he claimed to be a C player, and he was not. C players don't get position like he was getting 50% of the time. *shrug*

The 2nd round guy was this guy Keith, and he was a pretty decent player. I would definitely like to play him again. I got some rolls, but he got more of them unfortunately. I really lost it when in the 6th game I ran the last 6 balls playing pretty decent position - but also having to deal with some pretty thin cuts that I would've missed on a large table - finally getting to the 9, making another thin cut, then not being used to the table-size/speed the cue ball went two rails towards the side pocket, then the table took it and it curved 4 inches on a slow-roll straight into the jaws. If I had won that, like I was supposed to, I believe I would've gotten all my confidence back; as it was, I got scared of the weird rolls, dead-rails and unpredictable speed of the chewed up cue ball. He won his hill match with, get this, a carom off the 6 to bank the 9 - to combo the 8 and have the 9 follow. Then he tells me he meant to do that. Sure. Okay - you might have seen that - but if you could've done that at any time, you wouldn't have hung the 9 2 rounds ago, nor would you have scratched those three times. Anyway - I go down 3-7 (I gotta check my log to be sure, but I'm pretty sure).

So, now I'm on the loser's side of the bracket and I draw this guy Bobby. What he's doing on the loser's side, I have no idea - he was good. Real good. Better than me. He made some mistakes, and for the most part, I capitalized on all of them, but he was more consistent and had an excellent feel for the table, speed-wise. He was also part of the top 16 of the previous day's tournament; which I didn't think they let those guys play in this one. oh well. It was a pretty good match - considering the skill differences. I made some good shots, a great carom off the 5 to the 9, if I don't say so myself. But, in the end, he took the last two racks in a row to win 7-4.

XY (my stepdaughter) had a rough time, her first round was against a pretty good player - who was also being kinda rude to her (they played on the table next to us). She lost 7-0. Then on her next match, she drew a guy, a little younger, and started off down 0-3; but then game back to tie it up 5-5. Unfortunately, she scratched on the 9 the next rack, given 6-5 and he wins the next rack, so she went out with 2 sets. But, she was happy to have played - but equally as frustrated with the bar tables. heh.

I'll post my bar table rant in a separate entry, I want to spread this around actually.

2009-11-29T16:31:00.001-06:00

Guess im gonna enter the tournament today. Bar tables, race to 9 on the winners. 7 on the losers. Top four win cash. Here goes nothing. :)

Late Night Pool and Bar Boxes

2009-11-23T12:59:00.000-06:00

Friday night, XY went to the hall with some friends while I played my new Assassin's Creed 2 game for a while. Her friends left early, so I went on up there to play a while and give her a ride home. I don't recall doing anything spectacular that night - aside from being pretty consistent and winning games. No fantastic shots or run-outs unfortunately. I've discovered something though... I'm being quite a bit more consistent with the number of balls I can run; which isn't enough, but it's a start.

A number of times I'd get to the table on the 6 and run out with few problems. If I get there on the 7, it's almost a locked in win. However, when I break, I rarely run more than 5 balls. So, it seems that something is preventing me from going any further. Either I start thinking about how I could be out if I'm careful (thereby distracting my head from the current shot) or I get more and more out of line, forcing harder and harder shots. I think it's a bit of both. I know the latter holds true, I know that for sure - and I used to catch myself focusing on the rest of the rack while on the 3 or 4 ball and have mostly corrected myself of that habit. One ball at a time - with eyes on the next 2.

That's how I'm playing right now. And for the most part, that's fine - but it's also shown me that I don't have as clear of an idea where the CB will be traveling as I had previously thought; causing me to get out of the line. I have a decent shot making ability, so for the most part it doesn't kill me - but it does make me frustrated; which does affect my shot making. So... some more things I need to work on, obviously.

Last night, XY suggested we hit up the bar-boxes so she can practice for her tournament next weekend. I still haven't decided if I'm playing in it - but I'm thinking not. It's interesting playing on those tables, like it's almost difficult to take them seriously - to really get down and shoot a serious shot on them. At first I was shooting wildly because, lets face it, everywhere is close to the next ball on that thing. I never did get a break'n'run - but I did run 1-9 on a practice rack while XY was at the jukebox. Thank the makers for those giant pockets though - cuz a few of those shots would have never gone on a 9ft table. haha I was a bit disappointed in myself though because I didn't break'n'run out on that thing - as easy as it is to sink balls, I still managed to hide myself playing position - which is a bit more forgivable, imo, because I'm used to sending the CB 15 feet, not 8 for 2-rails position. *shrug* Next Saturday we'll be back there playing a good long time, as the tournament is Sunday.

Back in the Saddle

2009-11-20T16:25:00.000-06:00

So, last night XY and I went back to the pool hall. It was the first time I've played since Monday. Okay, 3.5 whole days, but still.... it felt like a long time. We did some warmup racks and then she wanted to do some drills, so... we did. Nothing too serious, mostly rail drills and draw/stroke drills. It was nice playing again - and surprisingly, I played pretty well.

Today's adventure was nice as well. My usual hall, C&C, was dead empty, so I went to the double-shim'd table (tight pockets) and shot some position drills for a while. A little while later this other regular, Todd, came in and we played a few racks. He's a very good player and regularly beats Morris so I was curious to see how this would turn out. We didn't have a lot of time to play and he was experimenting with some different stroke techniques, so we ended up with a 3-3 score before I had to go. It should've been 5-1 or 4-2 though - as he jawed the 9 once and then the 8 another rack.

Afterwards, we talked about strokes and whatnot - he gets awesome CB action, i mean, awesome - but his stroke is non-existent. He stabs the ball; which just befuddles me how he's able to get such good action. However, he definitely inflated my brain a bit with comments about my stroke and mentioning watching me play from time to time. I missed easy balls, but I think it was because I was overconfident on them. In general, I'm feeling pretty confident about a lot more shots than I used to - but there are still some that I need to make sure to check more than once. I really believe that in not too long a time, I will be able to run some racks, provided the break is decent. As it is now, I can't seem to run more than 6 consistently - each one gets just a tiny bit more out of line and by the 7th ball, I've completely gotten out of line and either hit it way too hard or way too soft - if I make it at all, the 8th ball is near impossible.

I hope to get some quality pool time over the thanksgiving break, but we'll see how that goes. I'm also an avid gamer and will be picking up Assassin's Creed 2 on the way home today (I preordered it) and I expect that is going to occupy some hours. heh.

Thank you Samm!

2009-11-17T15:23:00.000-06:00

Just a quick shout-out to my first and only follower; Samm Diep. Be sure to check out her many sites, including The Tip Jar where gives advice and updates on her own pro-am progress and writes for Pool Synergy which I posted about yesterday. :)

My 3-Rail Bank Shot

2009-11-17T14:44:00.000-06:00

Last night, XY surprised me by taking me to the pool hall on her dime; which was definitely a nice surprise. Overall, the night was less than stellar, but at one point, myself and Josh, another local, were playing and when got down to the 9-ball he tried a 3-rail bank that just missed. So, we kept trying to either kick or bank the 9 at least 3 rails. After one of his attempts, he left me nearly straight in the corner along the bottom short rail. I thought about it for a bit then shot this:

I was ecstatic! I wonder if I could do it again if I had to? haha... not on the first try i'm sure. On the other hand, i don't have to make it again - i just did. I'll be keeping that shot in mind if/when I ever play a Banks game.

Articles, Help and Advice

2009-11-16T15:07:00.000-06:00

Some things have come up which are going to prevent me from playing pool this week - at all it seems. This is quite annoying after last week's seemingly unending hours of play. However, I think/hope this will be a good thing.

I bought 2 books last week: Byrne's Complete Book of Pool Shots and Zen Pool. I'm hoping/expecting that between these two titles, I can gain both information and confidence in both the physical and mental aspect of the game.

Byrne's book appears to be a nice collection of how-to and what-if shots for nearly all types of situations/positions. The next time I go to practice seriously, I'll be taking this book along with me. I hope to work through all the situations/position/chapters eventually - but for now I'm just starting small and choosing a few that caught my eye as I flipped through it.

Zen Pool is more of a 'what to do, how to prepare *mentally*' kind of book. I expect to read these throughout this week and am looking forward to putting my new skills into action. This will take considerably more time and effort, I expect. But I'm looking forward to bringing my game to the next level. This means I'm going to have to spend more time doing drills to hammer out the mechanics, further train my body and allow my subconscious to handle those high-pressure shots.

Lastly, I just added a new link on my sidebar to www.poolstudent.com (AKA Pool Synergy). I just found this site, and already I am favoriting the URL. Here are a few articles I particularly enjoyed reading today:
Play Pool Without Fear, How to Practice, How to Practice Part 2 and finally one that I find drives me up the wall more than just about any other topic: Learn to Win Under Pressure (why we choke and how to avoid it).

That's all I have for today - but it's plenty of information for you to browse through.

Lots of Pool Yesterday (jumps and tricks)

2009-11-13T09:59:00.000-06:00

So, first up, the WBPA Tour Championships are being streamed live; and I watched some of that. Then I went to the pool hall where I played a lot of pool (too long actually). Then later in the evening, XY suggested we go play since she was wanting to go, so we did. Instead just being there the 3 hours I had originally said, we were there 5 hours. I played reasonably well and hit balls with confidence, I'm learning to control my speed better when I have to put a lot of english on the ball. Especially when I need to use low-right/left and draw back across the table 2 rails. I'm gaining a lot of confidence in that shot specifically actually. Which is very nice. The same with a lot of the cut shots I had so many problems with before. I'm getting pretty happy with my playing. Still don't run more than 5 balls consistently though. Have to work on that.

I finally made a pretty good jump-shot yesterday too. Here the curved line represents the jumping action:

I did learn a trickshot last night though. I found an archive of layouts on cuetable.com and this was the only the one I could remember enough of to figure it out. It's fun, for sure, and I make it every time. :)

Today is more live streaming. :)

Happy Friday the 13th!!

The 'Color of Money' and Other Trick Shots

2009-11-10T11:04:00.003-06:00

In a previous post, I talked about making the "Color of Money" shots. Well, here they are in diagram mode (plus a few others I like and have made)

The first one is the traditional shot, named as such during artistic pool competitions. The 2nd page is just something that caught my eye during the movie.

The 3rd is one that I just learned last weekend; although I'm not 100% sure on the placement. This seems a bit too simple and I'm betting the "real" shot is a smaller angle.

The 4th and 5th shots are ones that I've been shooting for a couple of years on and off. The 4th shot is a higher success rate for me than the 5th - but regardless, I've shot the both, made them both. They are fun and pretty easy to do with some practice.

Eye of the Tiger - Stop It

2009-11-09T15:16:00.000-06:00

Why is damn near every trick-shot video on youtube accompanied by Eye of the Tiger? Seriously - you aren't fighting some incredible david v goliath battle with your own pool table.

do.not.want.

2009-11-07T23:57:00.001-06:00

Doing "fun" drills with Xy. in other news, we watched the color of money and Ive made both trick shots tonight. :)

Trickshot from Poolhall Junkies

2009-11-06T11:50:00.000-06:00

Amongst our fooling around, AJ set up this shot... which is one, thankfully, I have practiced a lot over the years:

I made it my 2nd attempt after readjusting his position. The OB must be on the diamond in order to get enough 'umph' on it from the CB's angle into the opposite rail so that it lines up on the pocket when the CB comes back.

Speed Pool

2009-11-06T11:17:00.000-06:00

Last night XY got me to go the pool hall after I had intentionally left my stick at home so I wouldn't go during lunch. I felt I just needed a break. But, I went ahead and gave it a try anyway. Although I was feeling quite exhausted for some reason most of the day, I still played decently. It a pretty low-key night, nothing was too serious and I even got a chance to run a drill, so to speak. She was taking a break and suggested I run the 9-ball position drill, but i really hate that one, so I did this one instead:

Which, i can't say i've ever done start to finish before. I even got out of line a few times and was able to go 3 rails to get back in position for the next shot. That's a definite improvement over my last attempt from just a few weeks ago. So... that made me feel good.

After another few games, it was getting late and things were getting silly. Then XY said she wanted to see how fast she could clear the table. So, we broke out the stopwatch on my phone heh. The initial goal was 2 minutes. She got close a few times, but never made the 2 minute mark. AJ made it in 1:57. Then I made it in 1:21. he tried again and got 1:32, then I tried again and got 0:57. It's all about the break. :) If you get a good break, it's all gravy from there. No one beat that time last night.

As silly as it seemed at the time - I really think that little game was pretty helpful. I didn't have time to mull over each shot and plan everything out to the letter. I had just enough time to get down, shoot and hope the CB goes to that area for the next ball. It really took a lot of the mental anguish over shots out of the game and just let me body take over. It's almost like a reset. I'm planning on what to do as I'm walking around the table then I get down and pull the trigger.

It's by no means a way to play - but it is, I think, something I will keep in mind for those days when nothing is working. I should run a few racks like that to shut off the brain and let my muscle memory free.

Tournament: Fail

2009-11-05T10:55:00.000-06:00

So, the tournament was yesterday and I have to say that entire day couldn't have gone much worse. First off, I slept poorly and not nearly long enough. I had to get up 2 hours earlier than usual, but that was only a problem because I slept so bad. I got to work nice and early though, did some internet stuff then left for lunch. I stopped by to hang out with MX for lunch then went to the pool hall around 2pm - the tournament was at 7:30. I know my cycles enough to know that I going to start hot, get really cold - then really angry - then finally nice and calm. How long this takes is entirely variant, but I wanted to make sure I gave myself plenty of time to work through these. The afternoon started with me playing Morris as soon as I got there; which was fine I suppose. But man, I was off. Really off, nearly from the get go. I only ran more than 2 balls a few times, which is just ridiculous - most of the time I was still getting position, but I just couldn't ever seem to make the first shot. oh well. At 6, he left and I had a protein bar and sat and waited. I thought about continuing to shoot, but I also knew that I was getting tired, so I decided to wait it out. I'm still sure that was the good choice.

Anyway, the tournament begins and I draw player number 13. At first I thought it was going to be a good omen (given my affinity for friday 13ths). My first round was against Juliana - a 6. I was a 4. We flipped a coin (instead of lagging, my choice) for the first break and I won. I broke, made a ball, but left myself a long back-cut bank on the 1B - a shot I make probably 85% of the time - but not this time. She ran to the 6 and rattled it in the jaws. I ran the last of the balls - which included making a tight bank on the 9B. I broke again and didn't get anything. She made the 1B and then played safe on the 2B. We had a bit a safety battle for about 2 or 3 shots till I left her a window and she ran to the 7, then played safe again. It wasn't the greatest safe because the 7 was right in front of the side pocket, but the CB was hidden behind the 9B downtable. My options were to jump or kick. Since I hadn't made a successful jump all day, I decided to kick. I missed the ball entirely. It doesn't matter that I was really close, the fact is I fouled. She ran the rest. The 3rd rack she broke and didn't make anything, but I, again, didn't have anything but a long rail bank. I thought, surely I'll make it this time... nope. She ran 5 balls and left me safe, a good safe. I kicked, scratched. She ran out. The 4th rack was pretty similar, she broke made the 1 and 2, but missed the 3 leaving it a half-diamond on the long rail, however, again, leaving me hooked behind the 5B (position on the 4 though) near the opposite side pocket. Here I actually made a great masse shot and got around the 5 and the CB caught at just the right time and curved right into the 3 nudging it just enough to pocket it in the corner. I thought THIS was the shot that was going to bring me back into the game. I make the 4, but the 5 hangs in the jaws. She runs out. The next rack, somewhere along the lines I missed a kick entirely again and in my frustration I tapped the CB with my stick while it was still rollling (though in no danger of hitting another ball - it was still a really bad move). She somewhat condescendingly reminded me that that was entirely not allowed - which I knew, but was just too damn frustrated to care. It was embarrassing though, and it was just one more thing. Oh, the rack before then, when she won her 3rd game, we noticed that there were 2 chips on my wire - there should've only been 1 though. She asked me about it and I said I only moved one, then she asked how I thought that could've happened. I said I have no idea, I'm pretty sure I cleared off the wire and I'm pretty sure I only moved one. She said she didn't remember me winning a 2nd game, and I agreed and said that I have not. So we fixed that without any issue. That was embarrassing as well. All of that coupled with my poor playing really threw me off. Anyway, during the 6th game, she somehow missed the 9 and left me damn near straight in. I jumped up to the table and looked at it. I got down and then realized I was too excited, so I stood up, took a deep breath and looked at it again. I got down, shot it and because the CB ever touched the 9B, I felt my arm swing and I knew I had missed it. Jesus f'n christ how did I do that? 2 racks later, I think, she again missed a tough cut on the 9 but left the CB and 9B frozen in a weird angle near the first diamond, pointing into the 1/2diamong area on the long rail. I thought it would maybe cross-corner, so I hit it pretty good, the 9B moved to the 1st diamond on the short rail and the cue went zipping into the upper corner pocket. It's now 5-1 and she's breaking again. She runs to the 4 and misses, but it doesn't matter cuz I miss it, and she gets out. That's all she wrote.

Overall, it was terrible. All I wanted to do was play well, but I barely got any time on the table. I HATE winner-breaks tournaments for that reason. Whenever I did get there, I'm basically coming in cold and totally out of stroke - and I'm almost always left with a really difficult shot. Alternating breaks would at least give each player a fair chance at staying at the table.

I played like a 2 and today I'm feeling beaten down about it. I feel like Kevin Costner in Tin Cup after she shoots an 83 on the first day of the Open tournament. Don Johnson asks him how he shot an 83 and he Kevin says "i missed an 3 foot putt for an 82." I missed a near straight in shot on the 9 for at least a 6-2 score.

On the table next to us was this older man, who was a 4, playing this real hoosier of a guy, ranked 2. He barely knew any of the rules of 9-ball, and at one time asked if jumping was legal, and as we said yes he got down and scooped the CB into the air before we could even stop him. Afterwards we said that was an illegal shot, you have to hit down on the CB to jump it. He didn't quite understand how that works; which is fine - it's a weird concept at first. He ended winning 2 games and the older gentle was noticeably annoyed. I know that Julianna was set to play him (Melvin) next. Btw, Melvin had his wife (who's name I didn't get) and his son, Bubba, (seriously) with him.

Back to my game - I could come with up a number of excuses - lack of sleep, lack of practice, we played on the old one-pocket table, which I never play on... ever, was too nervous, nervous about playing a girl, nervous about playing a 6, nervous about playing someone that remembered me from 2003/4 when I used to go to chesterfield billiards, just plain nerves. But the bottom line is, I played horribly - and no matter what the excuse, there's no excuse for missing some of the shots I missed. There just isn't. I should be able to make some of those while so drunk I'm seeing triple.

I didn't even bring my stick today. I'm going to take today off - it'll be tough because I really want to get back on the table, but I'm feeling pretty down still. Even though I got a good night's sleep (finally it seems) last night, I'm just not up for shooting poorly again.

There's another tournament at the end of the month, it's much larger than this one - but it's on bar boxes - and it's quarters. XY is determined to play in it - she gets in free. I would have to pay $10. I might do it. Not sure yet. There's also a Banks tournament at C&C coming up, $20 fee/$5 greens and it's double-elimination. I might do that one, we'll see. I do love banking balls. It's not handicapped though - race to 3 on the winner's and 2 on the loser's sides.

Today's the Big Day!

2009-11-04T11:37:00.002-06:00

So. last night I ended up going to the hall with XY. We stayed a little longer than I had hoped, but everyone wanted their turn to try one of the drills I was practicing. We got home around 11:30, but then I sat on the couch to relax a minute ... then fell asleep. I woke up at 3am to some retarded infomercial. I staggered on up to bed, only to be awakened 3 short hours later. *sigh* this is not the good night's rest I had hoped for. I'm taking off work this afternoon so I can get some practice in - but I think I'll go home and freshen up a bit before coming back out to the hall.

I've already drew up my tournament notebook which looks something like this:

R	R+	!	/`	~	x	w/l

R is rack number
R+ is longest run in rack
! is balls made
/` is balls missed
~ is safeties
x is scratches
w/l is obviously win loss

I also have little superscript notes for shots that indicate banks, kicks, combos, caroms, jumps and safety escapes. I think I've covered all the data I want, so... as long as I'm diligent about recording the info, it should be fine. I've been doing this by hand the last two really big matchups I've had and it's not too difficult if I do it after each shot. I only use hash marks, so I don't have to keep track of the exact balls I made.

I'm also in the process of writing a little app that will allow me to enter this information into a database so I can start doing trend analysis on my game. The idea is that I will send a txt msg to a specific email account after each game with this info and the app will read that email and store that in the database. Then I can just run reports at my leisure. Of course, i'm still working on the reading email from code thing - I have to convert someone's C# to VB to have it integrated with the rest of my website (secured and hidden from public view, of course).

Oh well. I'm actually glad I started doing this today because it's kept my brain from worrying too much about the match later this evening. I wish I had started the coding earlier this morning though, I would've like to at least have the email reading thing done before the tournament.

Longer Match (24-16)

2009-11-03T15:49:00.000-06:00

Today's lunch started just about as soon as I entered the place. Morris was there and said he'd be ready in a few games. While I had planned on practicing on the new one-pocket table, practicing in a game is probably better for me right now. So, off we went. I can't possibly try and recap all the action, but I know that I was first to 4 games; which means if this had been in the tournament, I would've won. Overall, I'm very pleased with my playing today - save a few shots of course. I totally miscued the only jump attempt, which really pissed me off since I specifically practiced that shot/distance sunday night. I made some good kicks/escapes from safe - but I never really shot a good safety; got lucky a few times, but oh well. I combo'd the 9 a few times as well. I dont think i'll play tonight - just relax and make sure to get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day. I'm excited, but also nervous. *eee*

Venom Trickshots - WTF?!

2009-11-03T11:28:00.001-06:00

This is just... wow. I mean okay, it's a video production, with I'm sure lots and lots of hours of outtakes - but just that some of these shots were ever made... I really wonder what the future of artistic pool holds. :)

Bring on the Tournament!

2009-11-02T15:48:00.000-06:00

It's official. I'm playing in the tournament on Wednesday. The organizer said I was a 4, and it'll be adjusted as I play. I expected him to assign me a 5, but I'm guessing that lately they've caught glimpses of my bad hours. Which is fine for me. I have some more confidence that I'll make it past the first round. :)

Today started off poorly. My brain was all over the place and I wasn't feeling my stroke. During a cool-off period Morris came over so we started playing. I actually did pretty well today. We played a lot of games and I'd have to check my notebook to see the final score, but based on memory, I think it was something like 13-10 him. I had some good runs and made some good shots - got some bad rolls and scratched a bit more often then I wanted. I also got lucky a few times with 2 kick shots, but I'll take it. There were at least three games where he scratched making the 7 and he gave me the game because the 8 laid perfectly for the 9. I appreciated his confidence. :) I was making those cut shots that was been the bane of my existence lately; although I still dogged a few too many shots - and once I missed my BIH shot to get position - and didn't get that either. That's just embarrassing. I suppose that's why I'm only a 4 though. *sigh* Wednesday is going to be a tough day. Gonna need to figure out a way to eat something around 5 - something that's not gonna weigh me down. I'm thinking protein shake, but we'll see.

The Up and Down Skill Level Pattern?

2009-11-02T11:10:00.000-06:00

Friday, I again, was playing fairly decently, then got a match with this guy who I'm not sure I'd ever seen before. He asked if I played for time or anything, I said nope, just fun. Good thing too. I won the first two racks, but then the hour of shit-horse play struck me in the face. and I lost the next 8 matches. Then I won one and proceeded to miss, yet again, another relatively simple shot in the next rack. I'm not sure I won another game. He went to go play one-pocket with some other guys eventually, but the finally tally was something like 13-3. It was mostly light-hearted and at one point he did mention that he knows I can shoot, i'm just off. Which is true - it comes in waves. Good for 2 hours, suck for 2 hours, good for 2 hours, suck for 2 hours. I just hate it that it always seems to happen when I get a match. It's my biggest reason for not signing up for the tournament in 2 days yet. I suppose I should just to get the experience and maybe get some sort of ranking, but... I don't feel confident that I'd make it past the first round; and all that's all I want to do. Not get eliminated the first game.

Anyway, friday night, xy and I went to the hall again and nearly closed it down. The same pattern of start good, suck then end decent appeared. I'm more able to identify what's happening now, but making the adjustment - and keeping it there is still quite difficult. oh well. it's all practice, right? My accuracy is going up though. on a decently spread table i'm averaging 4-6 balls now i think. I have to get to my practice log to make sure.

Transition From Practice to Play - Fail

2009-10-29T15:17:00.000-05:00

Today's adventure started out wonderfully actually. I was taking my time, locking my chin, compensating for throw, getting good position, making good shots during my practices. I did this for at least an hour. Was feeling pretty good for the upcoming match with Morris. Then he got wrapped up into another match and I ended up playing Clarence. He doesn't really like 9-ball at all and will usually only play one-pocket. His brother was playing Morris and Ralph was taken up with someone else. I had asked him earlier if he wanted to play banks, but he declined. Then later he comes over and says ok, lets play some 9-ball. he breaks, nothing goes in and the CB and 1B are basically an easy shot. I miss - as if I hadn't just made that shot 27 times in the hours. The 2nd game I thought I had him though. Same story, he broke, pushed out on the 1. I ran the 1 through the 6, missed the 7, but got a lucky roll and got safe. He missed the 7 and left me a shot. I made the 7 and 8 and left myself with a not-too-easy-but-not-too-hard shot on the 9, again, another shot I'd been making most of the day, and just totally dogged it. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. I didn't win a single game because I failed to get position on the 8 or 9 most of the time. Too worried about over shooting it, left me way short usually. He finally left to go play with Ralph and I had to get some food or start throwing a fit. I stopped counting at 6-0, but I'd guess it went to 9 at least.

There's no way I can enter a tournament if that is how I'm going to play when it matters.

My Longest Run Out

2009-10-29T09:31:00.000-05:00

While this isn't necessarily all that impressive, it is, as best I can recall, my longest run-out.

I broke, scratched, nothing fell. My opponent makes the 1B, scratches. I get the table back like this:

Progress through the 8 pages to see what I did. I was so excited by the time I got to the 9-ball I had to take an extra few seconds to gather myself. My next goal is to run an entire rack. During practice, I always take ball in hand after the break if I don't have a shot on the 1B, and I think this has helped, because I was able to study the layout of the table and I chose to start with the 2 in the corner, mostly because it had no other place to go, but more importantly because it meant that the 2, 3, 4 and 5 at least should be mine. Once I got there, I played it basically one ball at a time, make the shot the first, then add position. It worked out pretty well.

Yesterday was a damn good day overall. I bought a glove and wasn't sure how I'd like it. I'm still not sure, but it's nice having a pretty smooth sliding action consistently now. I also went back to doing chin-lock practice - and in doing so, I've upped my accuracy back to where it should be. I also think this is why I'm making more cut-shots than I have the last 2 weeks. Considering being sick the last 3 days, yesterday's combined total of nearly 7 hours of pool really went pretty decently. :)

Back on the table

2009-10-28T10:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been sick the last 2 days and stayed home from work to try and knock it out as fast as possible. That also means that I haven't shot this week yet. Which is probably for the best. As frustrated as I was getting the last week or 2, a break is probably just what I needed. I guess we'll see. However, I'm not 100% over my illness, but at least my head is clear - thinking anyway. Still some sinus blockage, but mostly my chest is congested now.

The US Open was last week and BCN has videos uploaded already. :) So, right now I'm watching Johnny Archer (The Scorpion) play Mika Immonen (The Iceman). I already know who wins, but it's fun to watch the matches.

My tournament is a week from today, and I'm still not sure if I'm entering. I really should just for the experience. I've seen a few blogs talk about how practice is nice, but the only way to really prove anything is in competition. Which is entirely true of course. One of them says the problem with a lot of tournament and their relatively low-entrance numbers is because people only enter if they feel they can win - otherwise, they're just giving up the entrance fee. I know I wont win, and I don't expect to make it past the 2nd round - but I want to be confident that I will make it to the 2nd round at least. That would be enough for me, I think. The 3rd would be ideal, but I'm not pushing my luck. I have to decide how I'm going to play. I tend to be pretty aggressive in my playing - going for low-percentage shots because I like them as opposed to playing smart and playing safe. I always feel like a jerk when I play safe, but I know it's part of the game. The other thing is that the guy I usually play with never plays safe either, so... *shrug* that's his style I guess.

Regardless, I'm curious to see how today's playing will turn out.

Don't Eat the Cue Ball

2009-10-26T08:47:00.001-05:00

Nothing too exciting relating to pool this weekend. Friday, the fiance and I hit up a haunted house, which was fun - then afterwards I went to a pool hall for a few hours. Didn't realize how exhausted I was until Saturday when I tried to remember how I played and it was mostly a fog.

Saturday, after seeing my tweet about Paranormal Activity, my sister called and said her and her hubby were wanting to hang out and maybe play some pool, so we hit up this little bar with a table upstairs. Long story short, around 2:30am one of the really drunk (and/or high on something) bikers came up to play a game and kept stomping around the room, running in place, kicking the jukebox - and at one, picked up the cue ball, stuffed it in his mouth then spit it out on the floor. WTF?! hahaha - we left shortly after.

Sunday, XY and I watched the semifinals and finals of the WPBA tournament at the SkyUte casino on ESPN. Congrats to Ga Young Kim! As much as I really like Jeanette Lee, I have to wonder what happened during her match with Kelly Fisher... she didn't seem herself at all - but I suppose having just given birth is a pretty good excuse. :)

I'm home sick today - with what is probably the flu that XY had last week. I thought I would escape it, but apparently not. :/ I see a lot of xbox and playstation in my future.

The anger, the fury and the frustration

2009-10-23T15:17:00.000-05:00

I don't understand it. I really don't. I mean, I'm practically "studying" the game nowadays and I think i'm getting worse by the week. I played decent once this week. once. the other 4 days have left me wanting to throw the cue across the room and walk out. or cry. maybe both. Pockets spitting balls out (when it bounces back and forth between to the corners of a pocket then gets kicked out), poor stroke, no action, no position, missing 1 or 2 out of every 3 shots... i can't take it. I just can't. I'm too competitive or something, but I can only miss for so long before I just become furious. at which point i sit down, smoke a full cigarette and cool off. but when the very first shot upon my return is more of the same shit, i can't stay cool after that. i'm not even talking about doing drills - which makes everything worse. just regular play.

Read on for a laundry list of things that are broken and an example of what's going on.

i started a log of each rack and how many shots it took to run the rack. the "best" was 12, the worst was 18. There's only 9 fucking balls on the table. I finally started taking ball in hand after the break just so i wouldn't have to deal with a shitty shot. the first game was the best, and i was mostly happy. while 75% accuracy isn't excellent, it's decent enough to pass my own standard right now - but it just went downhill from there. I even made some balls on the break was still taking 13+ shots.

I have completely lost my stroke - it doesn't feel the same as it did two weeks ago, and it's not the same throughout the day either. As soon as I try and trust it i hit the object ball on the wrong side or miss-cue. I can't think about throw, english, spin transfer, back-swing, follow-through, power-control and aiming all at once. it's just too much. something should be "native", "auto", whatever.

I'm sure it's something to do with thinking about it too much, but if i don't think and just pocket balls, then i'm not doing it on purpose - i'm just getting lucky with fair-to-good ideas. but i'm not IN control of my game - and i absolutely should be.

when i do drills, i'm not learning anything - except that i have ZERO consistency. i could shoot the same 20 times and make it 10, but still not be able to determine what it was i did differently between the times i made it and missed. i can't monitor myself visually - and even with a video camera it wouldn't help cuz it's just one angle. the thing that kills me is that i tend to miss the same way - every time, so that should mean i could fix it, right? well... it doesn't. at least, not on my own.

There's a pro-coach in town actually (Mark Wilson) - but christ, he's $300 a day. literally. I mean, I wanna get better, but that's a luxury I can not afford. There's another guy local to the hall that gives lessons, but I dont think he can give stroke lessons. he might, i dunno - i've only ever seen him give shot advice. he's got a really good stroke though, so ... maybe? i dunno. he's a lot more affordable though, $25/hr - but, like i said, he's not a pro coach.

speaking of pros - there was a teenage girl there today getting a session from Mark, apparently she won the BCA juniors tournament - or at least placed in it. Rachel something or other. Her parents were there, etc... they drove 12 hours for this lesson. good for them, good for her. i would love to just ask him to take a look at my stroke and fix it. hell, i could pay him for an hour or something, this is driving me absolutely insane.

Long Match (20-8)

2009-10-22T11:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was day #2 playing reasonably well. I started off just playing the ghost, as they say. Then Morris showed up and we started playing. I was making some good shots, getting good position, but still... missing some pretty basic cut/rail shots. I used to be really good at those rail shots, but that's something I've lost entirely now. I did make some good masse hits/escapes though. Anyway, missing easy shots caused the match to be a disaster - on the scoreboard. i didn't track the number of balls made, which I should have, because I think we were about even, however, the final score was 20-8. I lost.

Today there are 2 drills I want to run. One is rail shots, the other is a positional shot:

AWESOME Trick Shots on a MINI table!

2009-10-20T16:37:00.002-05:00

this is just sickening...

awesomely sickening! haha

Back to normal!

2009-10-20T15:44:00.000-05:00

So, since last Friday, I've been playing terribly. My stroke has never once felt right, I'm not getting good action on the ball - and I'm missing everything. Use to be, I could blame it on throw - but not so much anymore. Everything is just "off". Well, today I tried something to get it back. I played considerably slower than usual. I didn't do any drills at all. I just shot. First I tossed the balls on the table (all 15) and basically played a loose game of 8-ball against myself. I did that twice. Then I played 2 rounds of straight pool, reshooting those I missed and/or lost position. Then I played 9-ball the rest of the day. I broke, and took ball in hand to get started if I didn't have a shot on the 1b. I made some really good shots, including one rail rider past the side pocket even. :) I also missed some shots that I shouldn't have. I made some good combos, not so good banks, and one jump shot even. The jump shot was even a cut shot! It was a short jump and I only need to get over half a ball, but I jumped, and made the ball - extra lucky was I got position on the next ball.

Overall the day was good. The best part of the day was when I realized I was trying to stab the ball. I had lost my follow-through. As soon as I made a mental effort to "push the ball", my accuracy went up 15-20%. Things, I think are good again. If I play well the rest of this week, I'm buying my spot in the tournament in 2 weeks.

Rating System

2009-10-19T12:22:00.001-05:00

I just found a rating system that is pretty nice. And I have to say, honestly, I think I'm a B-/C+.

Reaching the B- level player level is perhaps the biggest hurdle, as a good number of players peak at the C+ level. B- players are quite capable of running racks of 8-ball or 9-ball, but they lack consistency.

A B C D Rating Explained

(edited)
After the way I've been playing the last few days, I feel like a D player. I can't seem to make anything beyond the 2nd ball. I almost always get position - but what good is that if I miss the first ball. I seriously want to just destroy things.

Weekend Pool (Banks + Practice)

2009-10-19T11:18:00.000-05:00

Friday, XY and I went to the pool hall again. It was an otherwise uninteresting evening par for the course I'd say. With one exception. I played my first game of "Banks" ever. Bonus: I won my first game of Banks ever.

Bank Pool: Racked like 9-ball, broken. If you make a ball on the break, keep shooting, but spot it when your turn is over. The object of the game is successfully call and make *cleanly* 5 bank shots. No kicks, no combos. Pure and simple bank shots. If you scratch, you lose a point and a ball is spotted. If you make a ball without banking it, it's spotted and your turn is over. If you bank a ball by caroming off another ball it's spotted and your turn is over. Scratch is ball in hand behind on the headstring, no other fouls. Must call the ball, the pocket and the number of rails.

I really enjoyed this game. A lot. Lucky for me, I have long made it a practice method to play what i call "bck" - Bank, Kick, Combo. I made a few really nice cross-side shots and a few standard shots. I will definitely be playing this more in the future.

Sunday, MX has business up in north county, so I had her drop me at C&C while she worked. The biggest lesson I learned was that I should NOT run advanced drills to warm up. I failed - every attempt - and I was infuriated with my playing, which only set the stage for 2 more hours of extreme frustration. I could have played through it and gotten into stroke, but her work was finished and I had to go. I must find a way to keep anger out of my game. I'm okay with missing, I'm not okay with missing the same shot 12 times in a row.

I really need to find a playing partner - I never get as angry when playing with someone else.

Damn the 1-Pocket Tables!

2009-10-15T15:18:00.000-05:00

So, Cue & Cushion (my usual hall, link in the sidebar), recovered one of their tables yesterday, but they also turned it into a one-pocket table. This is really annoying. Well, I mean that it's annoying because the difference is the pocket openings are smaller than "standard" pockets. By about an inch I'd guess. Technically, the pocket is 4.5 inches wide - 2 ball widths - but its really amazing how much smaller they play. Standard pockets, best I can figure are about 5.5 inches? It's 2 and a half balls wide, these pockets are just 2 balls. Balls are 2.25 inches in diameter, so...

The good thing is if you can get good on that table, most other tables are a breeze. The bad thing is running drills and practices become THAT much more annoying. I wasn't able to complete a single drill with any relative flow. Having to shoot the same shot 5-9 times and still not getting position is really quite frustrating.

As far as playing on new cloth goes, I'm not entirely sure I noticed *that* much of a difference - outside of the color and lack of chalk on my hands.

I'm sure I'll play on it again, but man it's annoying. In the end, I had to revert back to how I play on a snooker table - very very softly. A snooker table's pockets are a mere 1.25 balls wide, so there ZERO room for error there.

Rail Drill

2009-10-15T10:29:00.001-05:00

This is the drill I worked on most of the day yesterday:

Start with the ball near the center and run the balls in order without hitting any other ball. I did not complete this drill without having to start over. I know that I can't, but I did make sure that I reshot any ball where I either missed or hit another ball or didn't get position. This took a long time to do, but these are the shots I need the most practice with.

I'll be practicing this drill pretty much every day, along with a few others I picked up of ForceFollow's website I mentioned yesterday.

Here's the progression through the balls with intended/expected position:

Quick Update (Drill Videos + NO Pain)

2009-10-14T17:07:00.000-05:00

I found Force Follow's website today and WOW is there some good info out there! I've been watching his drill videos most of the afternoon. I tried a few of my own today and it went reasonably well. When I get more time I'll build a CueTable diagram of what I was doing.

Secondly, after reading all the suggestions online yesterday about my shoulder pain, I tried to really focus on what I was doing with my left arm - and today NO PAIN! So, key things to remember: Don't lean on the bridge arm with weight if at all possible. Do NOT push yourself up off the table with the bridge arm still extended. When considering a shot, do NOT lean on bridge arm while the elbow is locked. DO put the bridge elbow down on the table as often as possible. Take a note of your weight distribution, try shifting your weight between legs and your arm to see how it feels. I played for 2 hours today and my shoulder didn't hurt at all. :)

3-Cushion Magic

2009-10-14T11:11:00.000-05:00

I found Mike Massey's Blog and on there this video:

If you want to see some magic, watch it. It's only 8 minutes and it's incredible. :)

Shoulder Pain

2009-10-13T16:14:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned previously that my shoulder has been hurting when I start playing. Today, it started and never quit. I had a feeling it was due to the rotator cup and/or the amount of weight i put on it during and after a shot. Well, I did some searching around it seems I was right - or pretty close to it. Now, I'm not foolish enough to grab a diagnosis from some internet forum; but I do think the symptoms are so similar that the suggestions given, which have worked for the original poster, are definitely worth a try.

The Path to the Tournament

2009-10-12T15:38:00.000-05:00

Today's pool hall adventure was something pretty awesome. I get there and the parking lot is near full. I walk in and most of the tables are taken; and the people I'd usually play with are busy. So, I grab a tray of balls and find a table. I haven't even put my stick together when Kevin (an instructor who hangs out there and to whom I've talked only a handful of times before) asks if I'd like to play some 9-ball. Of course I accept! I'm also strangely nervous, but trying to keep it in check. We only got to play 2 games, which he, of course, won - because his student had just arrived for the day. But it was interesting to watch him move around the table. Then Morris showed up and we played the remainder of the day.

Now, I didn't make any fantastic shots, per se, but I did make three back-cut bank shots - one all the way down the table - and mostly got position. Unfortunately, whenever I miss, most of the time I'd be in position for the next ball - which often meant he was snookered behind some other ball. So: Point for getting position - Negative point for missing the shot. This constant having to fight out thing really got under Morris' skin and I think it threw his game off. Either he's miss the object ball, or scratch - sometimes both. The table seemed to have only 2 speeds: too slow and too fast. Getting distance-based position was a real trick, one that neither of us actually got a good grip on all day. Normally, Morris can cut balls with very impressive accuracy, but today for some reason, he was off - to me, it seemed as if he wasn't accounting for throw, or was just simply out of stroke. Regardless, he let me back to the table frequently and I was lucky enough to only 3 balls to clear to run out. Today was my day to win, it seemed. He, again, commented on my game, which is indeed pretty awesome.

Just before leaving, I heard someone mention a 9-ball tournament next month - now that caught my ear pretty strongly. I will be entering this tournament. It's November 4th, single elimination. I have discovered a few other key elements to my game I really need to work on - most immediately the thin cuts. I've gotten better, but they're still a gamble for me. I also need to retrain my eye because every time I see a less-than-half-ball hit, I immediately think "bank" - I need to start thinking "cut". More often than not, a cut shot will offer more positional opportunities than a bank shot will.

I plan on spending a lot of time shooting the next three weeks and really try and work out some issues. I have no delusions of winning the tournament, but I really don't want to go out the first round.

Weekend Adventure

2009-10-12T10:59:00.000-05:00

Saturday night XY and I headed out to the pool hall around 8pm. We played a few hours then the locals came over and we played doubles - then we played Ring 10-Ball. Personally, I found that to be incredibly annoying. Yes, lots of people can play, but it takes for-freaking-ever; meaning I can never get in-stroke. I sit for 12 minutes between each shot/rack, then when I get to the table, I'm left with some ridiculous safe to fight my way out, so I only get one, maybe 2 shots at most. I actually got a 2nd rack of balls and shot by myself on the next table to try and get myself 'warmed up' for the next shot. Also, call me crazy, but if I'm paying to play, I want to play - nonstop; not with a bunch of other people. They all pay to play as well, which I don't understand why they deal with it. Of course, at least one of them works there so I'd imagine they play for free.

Aside from that, we had a good time. The hours flew by, literally, and before we knew it - it was 4am. So, we headed home, exhausted, hungry and a little slaphappy.

Bullet has been bitten

2009-10-09T15:42:00.000-05:00

So, today I went to the hall, as usual, with every intention on buying a break cue. As luck would have it, the sales guy was on the phone when I entered, so I just grabbed some balls and went to shoot around for a bit. Then Morris's game ended with someone else so he and I got together. I haven't played him in a while and with my own perception of my game improving I was curious to see how I'd do. Normally when we play, lets say we play 9 racks, I might win 2. So... it's kind of a goal for me to break even at least. Not surprising, coming on cold like that, he took the first 2 racks - finally my turn to break. But wait! I don't have a cue. *sigh* So I hurry on over to the counter and ask Chris for one of the cues I tried the other day; he tells me he got some others in today if I wanted to look at those as well. I found a 19oz jump/break version of one of the ones I had been thinking about previously anyway. So, I grabbed it, chalked it and broke and excellent break. The day went on and we went back forth with tough shots and barely missed shots. Overall, I think I won 5, but I know he won at least 9. So... better? Maybe. oh! I even got to try jumping a ball! :) I know he didn't approve, but it wasn't very far away. I said I had to try the cue to it's fullest potential and he said he needs to go move his car. HA! I said not to worry, I probably won't make it over the blocking ball. It turns out that I did, and had I lined it up a little better I would've banked that 1-ball right in the corner. *sigh* I'm pretty happy with just getting over the damn ball!

The best part of the day, in my opinion, was him complimenting me on the improvement of my game. That was pretty cool. :)

I made three kick shots, one of them on the 9 even. Well, technically, I made 5, but when the CB is dead straight along the rail into the OB sitting in the pocket and coming slightly off the rail first doesn't really mean "kick" to me. But, technically, it is. I also made a pretty nice masse shot - and the biggest example of applying some of the knowledge I picked up came when I a straight, full ball only view of the 1 ball just off the rail. I was basically surrounding by balls that prevented me from hitting the OB off-center to make it. So, I lined up to hit the ball straight on, but with slow-medium speed and using hard right english. The slow speed combined with the spin "threw" the ball straight down the rail into the pocket. I could've also shot a masse into it, but the distance was longer that I have been able to control thus far.

Overall it was a pretty good day! Except I noticed my left shoulder hurt quite a bit on my first shots of the day - hrmm. Pool injuries are waiting in my future I think. :(

5-Rail Kick Shot

2009-10-09T11:10:00.000-05:00

I mentioned earlier that the other day I talked to a guy who gives lessons at C&C. We were kinda joking around and he said, if you finding yourself like this in an 8-ball situation, in this instance, I say go for it:

Then he shot this:

Now, I'm assuming that was his cue position and the path is just a rough guess based on my memory. He missed the first try, but he made it the 2nd attempt. I just stood there and laughed - someone across the hall called out "Who is that guy?!" (another regular, joining in on the fun)

I did not try it as I know I don't have the stroke to transfer the required english and power to the ball. But, rest assured, I will try this someday. :)

Putting in the hours

2009-10-09T10:55:00.000-05:00

All told, I played pool for nearly 6 hours yesterday. Just under 2 at lunch, then just over 4 after work with XY. It was a good time. I played reasonably well last night. I'm kinda kicking myself though because there was one rack where I broke pretty well, made a ball and everything was open. I even saw the pattern to run the whole thing - the entire rack, I knew where I wanted to be, and how to get there for each shot. Unfortunately, I was too worried about getting from the 1 to 2 and didn't draw it enough (opposed to too much) which threw off the angle to the 3 - but it didn't matter since I missed the 2 anyway. ugh Oh well. I'm just happy I saw the entire rack's pattern. I made some damn good shots - but also missed some pretty standard ones. :( The good news is that I'm getting better at adjusting my angles for throw coupled with left or right english. I'm moving around the table better, and with more consistency too.

The funny thing is that I was *this* close to buying a jump/break cue yesterday but wanted to wait until today (payday) to get it - then last night I found myself wanting that jump cue THREE times! It wouldn't have mattered - I *might* have it, but I wouldn't possibly have made it, or been able to get safe - but I need to try those kinds of shots to see how they work and how I work.

As for the break cue - I'm still not sure what I'm getting. The AZ Forums haven't been too much help - suggesting other brands and not even commenting at all on the three options I listed. *sigh* I guess I'll just play with them again and pick one to get it over with. It's not like I'm going on tour with this thing anyway.

Found: Early Stage of the Mental Game

2009-10-08T15:31:00.000-05:00

So... I'm very much one of those people who are affected by the weather. When it's sunny out, I'm always in a good mood. When it's rainy, cloudy and otherwise ugly out, I'm usually a little grumpy. It also affects my gaming - both on the console and the pool table. Today, it's a monsoon here, all day. I kind of expected to play like absolute ass today, and for a moment thought about not even going to the pool hall, but I did anyway.

The day started off pretty nice, as usual - at the table cold I shoot pretty well for some reason. This kind of 'auto-pilot' is actually called "Dead Stroke". Which is nice insofar as getting my confidence up, but it also means I'm not necessarily doing what I want because I know what I want to do it and meant to do it. It's part luck and mostly "feel". Anyway, a few games of straight pool later the dead stroke is gone now I'm working at it. And failing. Always close, but never "on". It's very frustrating to shoot the same shot 7 times only to miss it every time - the same way - every time. e.v.e.r.y.t.i.m.e. The "good" news about that is I'm consistent in my inaccuracy which means it's a mechanics thing which means it can be fixed. However, at that point I'm usually so pissed off that I can't really focus on the minor adjustment needed. Today, I took a lot of breaks between games, had a smoke, drank some water, etc and it helped tremendously to keep me calm. Of course, this isn't news, but it helped keep my head on the table and continue to control my speed and stroke instead of hammering the balls just because i'm pissed at them. So... part 1, staying focused.

Something I was not expecting today was to see the hall pretty full of people - lots of people. Loud people - well, louder than usual but nothing like a teen-hang out. Avoiding distractions was easier than usual. part 2: staying focused.

The end result of all this was that, for the most part, I was making good decisions on shots, and making good shots. I developed a feel for the table early on (a table i've played on once before a few months ago) and used that to my advantage. I think my stroke has improved in it's accuracy since someone said to me (something I know i've heard before but didn't quite understand) "push through the ball, don't hit it" just 2 days ago. I feel more confident and trusting of my stroke, which is a huge benefit since I don't have to try and adjust for it.

Whenever I missed a shot, I shot it again. Sometimes even when I made the shot, but didn't get the position I wanted, I shot it again. Sometimes I shot the same shot multiple times with different english to try and get position more than one way. I think my method of practice is improving and I think my head game has improved. It's strange to think that has mostly happened in this last week, but, it's been a pretty good week.

We'll see what next week brings. I'm buying a jump/break cue tomorrow, still not entirely sure which one yet - but likely one of those three I mentioned earlier.

Virtual 9-Ball

2009-10-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

That diagramming tool has a random break generator! So, click it and tried to read the rack. Once I got a rack that was pretty open, I tried to outline the entire thing.

Here's how I would want to play out this entire rack:

Now, I wonder if I could actually do it? Doubtful, but I think I will try this sometime.

An application using side english

2009-10-07T16:30:00.000-05:00

Using the previous layout, lets go ahead and add some english to the shot. Specifically to win a game 9-ball.

Look at this:

A) is the first shot. Shoot the cue-ball with low-medium speed with good left english and it should travel the path outlined, leaving an excellent shot on the 9 ball. (B)

Lets say the 8 was a little closer to the rail and the pocket, while the cue ball was also a little more in-line. Then you would have this scenario:

There are 2 ways to shoot this. The first and somewhat less difficult is to go three rails around the table using medium/medium high power (depending on your stroke and the speed of the table) and tip and a half right english. The 2nd way to shoot it is to use low left english and draw it across the table then let the english bring back across diagonally for position. You can see this on the 2nd page of this diagram. I found this to be a more difficult shot, and opted to go around the table instead.

My own experience with Throw

2009-10-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

I've discovered a severe weakness in my game. Thin cuts. I'm pretty sure the issue comes down to throw. Allow me to show you with the new fancy tool:

There are three pages to this. The first is how I would normally look at this shot. The second page is the result of shooting that shot. The third is how I should shoot that shot.

The reason is because at that angle, just when the cue ball (CB) strikes the object ball (OB), it actually pushes the OB a little bit before deflecting off in the direction of the pocket. So, you have to account for this by cutting the shot a little bit thinner than you think you have to.

All of this is without using any side-english. When you had side-spin into the mix you now have to compensate for both deflection AND throw. It's possible to undo the throw effect by using opposite english, but that's not always an option if you have to play for position on the next ball.

This is what I worked on and think I have a better understanding of now. Tomorrow will let me know for sure - but after I worked on that for a while, my last two games of 9-ball were much more productive.

Pool Diagram Tool!

2009-10-07T11:17:00.003-05:00

I just found this tool: CueTable.com

It's extremely bad ass. So... instead of trying to paint the shot in GIMP or something, I can just post this:

This is just a test post, but it shows the intended path of the cue-ball to play position from the 1 to the 2. This done by hitting the cueball left of center during the 1-ball shot.

Break Cues

2009-10-06T11:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday while at the hall I decided to try a few jump/break cues. These three were what I tried:

Nick Varner NV23-5JB
Cuetec Jump/Break Cue - CT-99296
Action ACT56

The Nick Varner has a phenolic tip; which gives a harder hit but is harder to control.
The Cuetec has a fiberglass shaft which is warp resistant, leather tip and softer ferule.
The Action cue is traditional maple with an extra hard leather tip, but with what appears to be a carbon fiber ferule.

I can't seem to decide at all. I mean, I liked each of them almost equally. The Cuetec is the same same shaft width as my playing cue, whereas the others are 1mm wider. The Cuetec has a very flat tip, the action has a nickel-radius tip, as did the NV. I really don't do any jumping, but then again, I've never had the opportunity to try. Yesterday was, in fact, the first time I've ever *properly* jumped a ball. All three seemed to give similar results, but I think the Cuetec gave me the best results jumping. The NV seemed a bit harder to control - which makes sense due to the tip. The Action cue seemed almost identical to the Cuetec, aside from the butt-width.

The reality is that I will be able to adjust any of these equally as well in time, so I'm not sure there's any real way for me to decide. I'm just wondering if there's any one which I should absolutely avoid?

9-Ball The Movie

2009-10-05T11:31:00.000-05:00

I just ran across this on the APA website:

The Black Widow herself stars in this up and coming film about, apparently, the underworld of 9-ball. Think: The Color of Money, but for the WPBA. I will be watching out for this release. Perhaps not in theatres, but... I will see this.

Weekend 9-Ball

2009-10-05T10:46:00.000-05:00

Saturday evening XY (codename for step-daughter) suggested we go play pool. She hasn't played in a while - and doesn't get to play all that often, so of course we head on out to the closest pool hall. It's really not a fancy place at all, but they have decent-ish tables. It's always flooded withe a bunch of kids yelling and screaming and whatnot, but it's still pool - and generally affordable. I learned a few things that night.

I used to think that music was a nice addition to playing; generally because the place I go during the week is always pretty silent and I welcome the random song the jukebox puts on. However, if one doesn't like the music playing, it can become quite grading very quickly. Couple that with a table of older boys who think it's appropriate hit every ball has hard as they can and you have a recipe for my being extremely annoyed. Now, the topper to finish all of that is the fact that I'm shooting terribly.

Normally, it's not an issue when we go there, but for some reason, that night, all those things added up and after the 2nd hour I was really getting frustrated/angry. XY had said she was done, but I was determined to play a decent rack so I kept shooting for a bit. Shortly thereafter one of the locals asked if we wanted to play doubles... we accepted. Then after that we played a series of singles + winners. Then another local got in on the action. The first two, AJ and Carly then finally Josh. AJ, honestly, isn't necessarily all that great of a shot - but could be with practice. Carly has really good form and could be deadly when she's "on". Josh is the best of the three, in my opinion. Personally, I think we're evenly matched - but that's his hall, his tight-pocket table and I was fortunate to get as many turns at the table as I did. I got lucky a few times and got back to the table in two racks to run out after a slight miss on his part.

All told we spent just about 4 hours in the hall and although I lost the match to XY, I won every match against the locals. It was a lot of fun and I'll be less hesitant to return there in the future having met a few others there.

Things I learned:

It apparently takes me 2 hours in that environment to get my head and stroke in the game.
It's important for me, personally, to play through the frustration period - this is similar to another hobby of mine (not important, but now glaringly obvious).
When good player miss a shot, they leave a shot for the next player; conversely, when not-as-good players miss, they leave nothing for their opponent.
Don't overthink the shot. I have good instincts, trust them - this includes backing off a shot if it doesn't feel right; but also includes going for a shot when I feel it. If I stay down on a shot for more than 5 seconds, get up and reconsider - obviously it doesn't feel good.
I'm getting my timing better on the break: I think it might be time for me to look into getting a break-cue. I'm getting good action on the balls, good spread and somewhat decent position afterwards. Now, if I can just get a reliable and consistent cue to accompany me...

Side note: I made the 9 on the break... twice! :)

As an interesting coincidence, I caught the quarter-finals WPBA 9-ball Open on ESPN Sunday afternoon (why they didn't finish the tournament is beyond me, but it was really annoying!). I saw Monica Webb play Greta (forgot her last name) and lose. :/ She missed a 6 ball that was a pretty thin slice, but not beyond her ability at all. That let Greta back on the table with a 5-5 score, race to 7. Greta finished that rack then broke and ran out to win the set. The interesting part of all that is the commentators mentioned that a lot of the people are now wearing earplugs to drown out the noise of the audience and any other tables in action. I won't be doing that any time soon, but I can understand, now, how important it is to avoid other distractions.

Practice Drills

2009-10-02T15:05:00.001-05:00

I did some searching around for practice drills and found a number of videos with some good ideas. Then I found the one below which encompasses all the drills I found. :) I only got a chance to try the first drill mentioned today - but it was a real pain. It was at the end of the day and I hadn't been shooting too well anyway. *sigh* I will be trying these over the next week and see how it goes.

Simple Masse/Curve Shot

2009-10-01T16:30:00.001-05:00

The last week or two I've been finding myself in semi-snookered positions (meaning there's a blocking ball between the cue call and the object ball). Luckily, I found some videos which address what I'm calling a simple masse, others call it a curve shot. However, none of those videos gave detailed instructions on exactly where to aim to get around or what kind of return you would get. I've basically just been 'winging it' - with fairly pleasing results.

I was, just now, browsing around the apaleagues channel on youtube and found this:

This is a perfect example of what I've been working on/with lately. I still haven't been able to get extreme masse action yet - meaning a hard curve with speed and/or power. Playing mostly slow to medium these days though.

The Break

2009-09-30T16:41:00.000-05:00

As it turned out, I did not get a chance to practice anything new today. One of my pool buddies was there, so we played some 9-ball. I lost count exactly, but I think the final score was something like 9-4 in his favor. This is pretty typical. He's just a bit more consistent, and he can slice those balls into places that make my head spin. Definitely a weak point in my game.

However, just before I left, I watched this video on How to Break and thought I'd give it a try. This is more about body movement and getting good power behind your stroke. The few times I got to break, I tried that technique - with varying results. This is, of course, expected - but it's promising, I think. I'm in the market for a break-cue now anyway, so before dropping cash on a specific cue, I should learn how to break properly. I know I have some defects in my break stroke, but if I can work out a decent form, I can start to focus on controlling the cue ball after the break.

Frozen Balls + Throw

2009-09-30T11:23:00.002-05:00

As I was double-checking the few new links I added, I saw this video:

I actually haven't seen that done before, so... I'll be trying that today. :)

Previously, I had ran across several videos that explain and demonstrate throw (as involved in bank-shots), like the one below, which proved very helpful in my game.

I've made a lot more bank shots in the previous few weeks because of that video. I have known for some time about how the speed of the bank shot affects the angle off the rail - especially when coupled with the angle going into the rail - but I couldn't quite figure out why some of them were either banking far off or hardly at all ... Throw was my answer.

Getting Some Help

2009-09-29T15:44:00.001-05:00

I mentioned earlier that I've been really trying to get a bit more serious about my playing. As such I've been on the lookout for training tools. Here's what I've picked up so far:

How to Play Pool Right - was a video suggested to me by the guy at C&C (Cue & Cushion in the links list) when I asked him about training materials. It's a pretty informative video - if you can get past the 1985 video production quality. I picked up a few fundamental things I had not known before - and things to watch out for, like squeezing the cue and it's tell-tale signs. Also the pendulum position for your grip. I figured there was a special spot, but I didn't know what it was. The video also gives some basic training guides to ensure your stroke is accurate. Honestly, I need to work on those things - but given that I only have an hour or so a day to practice, it's hard to forgo gameplay with such limited time available. In the advanced section he explains and demonstrates the effects of deflection (often called squirt). It added a whole new level of complexity to the game. All this time I just thought I was aiming wrong. In a way, I was - but now I can at least say that my ideas were correct; but my execution was missing a key component - compensation for deflection.

About a month ago, I picked up a Jim Tempe Training Ball. And while it has been helpful in spotting flaws in my stroke (any clean cue-ball would do this, I suppose), it's difficult to play with because you have to "reset" the target after each shot and that takes away from the pre-shot routine.

Last week, I bought a Pro Cup Measle Ball. It was, at first, a little distracting having those extra dots on the ball when trying to set my aim-spot. But it didn't take long at all to get around that. Now I can see, more visually, the spin I've put on the ball. Before this, I had to wait to see how the ball reacted to a cushion before I could tell if I hit the ball center or not. It's much easier now to tell when I've make a mistake. It's also much more fun to watch it spin around the table - from a childish point of view. hehe

The last few weeks I've been scouring through YouTube to try and find some good practice exercises and have found a few. So, it's nice to have variety in practice, but I'm wondering what else is out there.

Players I Like

2009-09-29T13:36:00.002-05:00

Everyone has their inspirational figures in whatever they do. In pool mine are (in no particular order):
(keep in mind that the only tournaments I saw on tv were WPBA 9-ball championships and trick-shot champs)

Jeanette Lee The Black Widow. She is fun to watch, a deadly shot and seems to be willing to help out others with the game.

Mike Massey Trick-Shot champ for a whole lotta years. I've never really seen him play any standard pool, but looking at his achievements on that site says I wasn't watching pool when he was winning every title around. He makes an interesting cameo in the movie Pool Hall Junkies.

Allison Fisher Again, discovered by sunday afternoons ESPN WPBA tournaments. Extremely solid player - and she is friendly on tour. A friend of mine got to play her and she was so very nice.

Monica Webb I like her because she reminds me of me sometimes. She has the shots, the ability, but she falters from time to time. Although she did finally win the WPBA 9-ball championship, congrats to her.

Most recently, thanks to BilliardClub.Net's youtube channel, I've been able to learn some of the male players of the game. Of course:

Efren "Bata" Reyes - Just amazing. Simple, solid and ridiculously good.

Tony "The Tornado" Drago - I really like this guy because, again, he reminds me of me. Not in his flaws, but in his style. He plays very quickly, almost as if from the gut - but his brain just works quickly. I've found that the longer I look at the shot, the more likely I am to miss it. When I play at my "natural" speed, it's quite a bit faster and I tend to be quite a bit more successful in both shot-making and position.

I feel I have to mention this next one because it was by chance that I stumbled across her blog - which solidified by decision to buy a measle ball - and also to create this blog.

Liz Ford A fairly new (2005) pro player who I would like to watch progress. So far, her blog has been entertaining and informative. Thanks Liz!

Who do you like?

Intro and Background

2009-09-29T11:03:00.000-05:00

I've decided to use this blog as a space for me to keep track of little tricks, lessons, tips and experiences involved with my newest hobby of pool.

I've been playing randomly for years. I had a table at home when I was in highschool, but after that only played whenever a bar had one available. (Frequently you could find me at the table at Rocket Bar [RIP] or at Hi-Pointe [RIP].)

It seems as though my job search would lead me to more pool. In 2001 I took a job in Chesterfield, which inevitably led me to Chesterfield Billiards about a year later. It was a fantastic place. They had seven 9ft tables and 12 7ft bar tables. The place was well kept, clean and the food was pretty decent as a bonus. I played mostly during my lunch hour which was a limited exposure, but still valuable. It was there I learned the true meaning of "a lot of green". The cue-ball loved to sit on the rail it seemed. It was also there where I purchased my first cue; based almost entirely on the look and only a little bit on the weight and performance. However, it was a valuable learning experience. Having my own cue meant I was able to play with a consistent tool. I abandoned the vice of hand powder for a shaft-slicker and I learned the value of tip maintenance. I played there quite a lot and often after work for a few hours. Sadly the hall closed and I had to move on.

As luck would have it, another job switch in 2004 placed me close to another venue. So, between 2004 and 2007 I played at least three times a week at The Pink Galleon. It was nearby, almost always empty, and it served food. I practiced several things during those hours, trying to solidify my game. I tried to ensure my form was the same each time - first and foremost. Secondly, I tried to learn how to use english properly. There was another player there frequently, I believe his name was Sascha [he was Russian], and we used to play whenever possible. He was very consistent and was an excellent source of tips and tricks. He continued to school me on the table though; and all the while telling me I had to get over to this other pool hall with nicer tables, but an excellent staff and selection of products. I never managed to get there.

I switched jobs in 2007 which moved me away from the galleon. I spent the first year at my new job reading during lunch and didn't get to play too often. Then one day I decided to see if there were any pool halls near my work. As it turns out, there was: Cue & Cushion. This is a full service pool center. They sell everything related to the game and are a family owned place. I started going there once in a while to check it out. It's a very serious place - not for the kids. Groups of older men playing one-pocket with some serious attitudes towards it. Specific tables reserved for one-pocket play only as well as two 3-cushion tables and a snooker table. Most tables are 8ft, but there are two bar tables, complete with the annoying under-table tunnel system for the balls to follow after being pocketed. After some hindsight, I realized this was the place Sascha was telling me to frequent for services and playing.

I've been visiting that hall at least three times a week now for the better part of 6 months and in that time I've learned an awful lot. I've purchased two cues and a number of other accessory items from them. To be fair, one cue was purchased for my step-daughter who is also very fond of pool. We'll get to that later. I bought a new cue to replace one that was stolen (along with my truck a few months back) and now I play with a Lucasi E7. A big thanks goes out to Chris who works during the day there for helping me, answering all of my inane questions and giving me a pretty good deal to boot!

Over the years I would catch 9-ball and trick-shot tournaments on ESPN sunday afternoons and I couldn't turn them off. I would study, as best I could, their form, their choice of english and watch in amazement their position play. Of course, the next day I would go to a hall and try those same trick shots. Sometimes it worked, usually it didn't. Of course, I didn't know anything about deflection or throw back then, so I could never understand the shots that required that knowledge - not surprisingly.

I've become somewhat absorbed by pool lately. I watch pool videos online when I can, I search for other pool players' blogs, I watch other players at the hall, I listen to the instructors when they're giving lessons.

Generally these days I primarily play straight pool when alone to practice my position control - but also play 9-ball with a few other regulars from time to time. I'm trying, again, to build a correct form which is throwing my game off quite a lot. In addition to that hurdle, I'm also trying to be more precise with my english and speed control. All together it makes for quite a frustrating hour sometimes. Other days, everything comes together and I'm always happy and surprised when I get lovely position.

I expect that if I could ask 10 pros what the biggest key to the game is they would say: consistency. It's that item I lack. I have the shots and I have the processing power, but my stroke isn't consistent enough to do what I want it to, yet.

So far all of my work has been self-powered. I have no delusions of being able to tour playing pool, but I would be very happy to play (and place) in some local tournaments. Until I'm confident in my game, I will abstain from them and continue to work on my fundamentals.

I would love to meet other players to play with some time - people who are close to my skill level (which I can't identify because I'm not APA rated - no league involvement) who are friendly, but competitive and open to the sharing and exchanging of information.