TWO!! Successfully Completed IPAT 9-Ball Layouts

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.

It'll Get Worse Before It Gets Better

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.)

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

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)

Zen Pool and the Karen Corr Rail Drill

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

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

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

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!!!

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!

Stroke Drill

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.

Back in the Saddle

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.

Articles, Help and Advice

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.

Speed Pool

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.

Long Match (20-8)

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:

Weekend Pool (Banks + Practice)

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!

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

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:

Practice Drills

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.