Late Night Pool and Bar Boxes

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.