Anyone who says that pool players don’t have to be in good physical condition hasn’t really played much pool. If you know a scofflaw, challenge that person to 100 shots, within one hour. If they’re not in good physical condition, they’ll be huffing, puffing and dripping sweat. The Green Game is a lot more physically demanding that it appears. Continue reading
Unless you have our own home table, finding a table for pool practicing is one of the problems you face in your goal of becoming a better pool player. It often takes more time to get your stuff together and drive back and forth to your local playing environment (pool hall, senior center, lodge) than actually spend time with practicing pool shots and setups. A dedicated practice trip will take 20-30 minutes to get there for a practice time of a half hour, and then the trip back. BTW, playing with friends is NOT practicing, so get that idea out of your head. Practice is practice. Use your playing friends to demonstrate your new skills. Continue reading
An advanced 10 Ball player will find this information to be moderately helpful. If you are an intermediate player, this advice will improve your win-loss record by about 10% to 20%. Continue reading
The term “bad shooting habits” takes in a lot of territory. It could fall into one of the body, i.e., feet position, butt (yours) position, head position, arm & elbow, etc. It could be due to your cue handling, i.e., bridge hand position/length, butt (cue) grip, etc. It could be a shortcoming in your stroke, such as jerky movement, follow-through failure, speed control, or unintended cue ball spin. Or, it might be a problem based on your mental abilities, such as layout analysis, shot selection, unwanted consequences, etc. Continue reading
First of all, let’s properly describe the term “sharking”. To people who lose, their first complaint (and justification for losing) was that they were sharked. Let’s set aside that notion immediately – you were not sharked when losing against someone of superior skill. You just didn’t have enough shooting competence, plain and simple. Continue reading
Random House Dictionary definitions:
gamesmanship – 1. the use of methods, esp. in a sports contest, that are dubious or seemingly improper but not strictly illegal. 2. the technique or practice of manipulating people or events so as to gain an advantage or outwit one’s opponents or competitors.
shark – 1. (v) to obtain by trickery. 2. (n) a person regarded as ruthless.
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If you watch players compete, there is one habit that the winners consistently have in common. Those are the shooters who always stop after a shot and appear to be momentarily frozen in time. What they are really doing is going over their shot, comparing the new table layout with what they were attempting to achieve. These are the players that learn from their mistakes. Continue reading
It is surprising, but the vast majority of pool players have never taken any kind of lesson from a qualified pool instructor – not even a basic check on their fundamentals. They will spend hundreds (even thousands) of dollars on a cool cue stick. They aren’t willing to spend $20, $50, or $100 for lessons that will improve their game for the rest of their lives. They are perfectly happy to go on for years and years (and years) believing they are just too intelligent to need an instructor. Continue reading
When your shooting game goes off into failure-land and your shooting results begin to significantly deviate from your intentions, something has gotten out of kilter – usually your fundamentals. The problem is – how long does it take before you notice that something is wrong and take corrective action? Generally, by the time you do wake up, the game count is tough. You might recover – but the struggle to win becomes a low probability proposition. Continue reading
Many players need to have some handy excuses after missing a pool shot. Of course, your opponents don’t care – they’re just happy you screwed up and let them come to the table. For railbirds, player excuses for a missed pool shot can be quite entertaining. As an audience, they always appreciate the more outrageous explanations for screwing up. Continue reading
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