One's attitude is usually vastly improved when the balls are splitting
the pockets and the CB behaves as though you have it on a string :-)
Dean, my suggestion to you is start easy. Your next practice session,
try just spreading the balls out -- no clusters; nothing on the rail;
no congestion. Then take CB in hand and try and execute simple
positional plays. But here's the thing: if the play doesn't come out
the way you expected it to, don't accept the result just because you
have some kind of another shot. Put them back, set it up again, and
figure out why it didn't go the way you expected (this is key), and then
work on making it come out the way you want (this is important too).
It's a matter of breaking things down into readily identifiable shots:
following a straight-in shot; drawing a straight back; one rail position
with draw, follow, center; shooting off a rail with draw; shooting off a
rail with follow; shooting over a ball with draw/follow, and so on.
By the way, just as a general comment, one of the biggest clues that
will reveal one is not setting up correctly is that on every shot, you
have to use english. The right starting point is that the shot should
appear to your peepers that center ball will do the trick. If you're
spinning everything in, you need to change your PSR. Not saying that's
you, just a general comment.
Lou Figueroa
Quote:
>> It's not mental.
>> There was a time I might have said that too, but believe me, really
>> and truly, it's not mental.
>> It is inconsistency in stroke delivery. And, I will say one other
>> thing that I think is crucial (which I say with a caveat -- this
>> only applies to players who are not "naturals." IOW, the 95% of us
>> that have to work at this :-)
>> Besides stroke delivery (which also means a consistent PSR) it is
>> developing individual techniques, for a wide variety of shots, that
>> compliment your shooting mechanics. What I am learning is that there
>> are, however many shots, that require a bit of tailoring in how you
>> handle them. You can't use the exact same technique on every shot.
>> If you unlock this, your ability to execute goes way up, your
>> consistency improves, and your runs get longer.
>> In one respect, you are right: it takes mental discipline to research
>> all this, remember it, and apply it.
> It's because I'm having trouble applying it that I think my problems are
> more in my head at the moment.
> There's no doubt I need to improve many parts of my game, and 14.1, as
> John pointed out ("In 14.1, there is often considerable congestion
> making position windows much tighter, a big rack area full of clustered
> balls that must be chipped away at and broken out bit by bit, etc. It
> takes a large amount of skill and knowledge to handle all of that.") My
> own attempts at 14.1 have improved my ability to predict cue ball path
> and speed, and therefore my ability to break out clusters. They have
> also shown me just how miserable my precision game is, so that's half my
> personal journey mapped out.
> But, perhaps because of the above, I get into a completely wrong
> attitude when practicing 14.1. To begin with, I don't particularly like
> practicing, but I do force myself to do it sometimes. When practicing
> by playing 14.1 I seem to get myself in a bad mood, beating up on
> myself. The PSR is an early casualty, followed by potting accuracy,
> then cue ball control goes completely AWOL. That's why I think, for me
> at least, my attitude needs to improve for my game to improve much. Or,
> maybe try a bar box, if there were any around here.
>> The other night at dinner, I was explaining to my wife some of my
>> latest machinations and discoveries (a dinner knife as pool cue is
>> often a critical visual aid in these expositions :-) and after I was
>> done she said, "I don't know how you remember all that. I mean, how
>> do you keep it all straight?!" And it just came out: It's actually
>> pretty easy, if you're willing to concentrate and immerse yourself in
>> it for whatever amount of time you're willing to give it. I guess I'd
>> say, it's like learning a language. At first you can barely ask for a
>> beer and where the bathroom is. But if you stick with it, you become
>> conversationally fluent and after awhile you're blabbering on with the
>> natives, without a thought of vocabulary, tenses, and genders.
> That's insightful, and instinctively I know it's right. Sometimes the
> best way to learn a language, in my experience and once I've got to a
> certain point, is to not try to understand, just listen, and I find I'm
> understanding more than I was before.
>> Lou Figueroa
> Grasshopper Dean