It's been awhile

I always have the tendency to start blogs and then they die off. Well, I've resurrected this one. I've been quite busy with full time work right out of college. I ended up quitting the corporate world (for now) and going back to school (sort of). So when I'm not programming, I'm playing pool.

In the last year I've really ramped up my playing. I've been lucky enough to join a billiards clubs where I can practice many hours. Although I don't practice every day, as I would like, I feel my game has really progressed in the last year. The club has also allowed me to learn 3-cushion, which has helped my position and creative with a cue. I've been playing in a high level 8 ball league, which has been good experience. I'll be playing with a very strong team this winter season.

I've realized a minor flaw in my fundamentals that tends to creep back over time. This one drives me nuts. After reading my previous posts I realized I've probably been struggling with it all along. It came together for me while watching the 2004 world 9-ball Pagulayan Vs Chang. The commentators were ripping on Chang's stroke for being unorthodox. He has a very short, stabbing stroke thats looks pretty terrible. He also grips a bit up towards the center of the cue. This forces him to have a very short stroke to be effective. If he follows through fully, most likely his elbow would need to drop a lot in order to keep it on line.

I love to grip toward the balance point of the cue. I love the light feeling it gives me. Unfortunately, the same issues arise, as with Chang. To make this work I need to accelerate a lot to keep the cue on line. A lot of the times, especially harder shots, I follow through like I'm suppose to. But if I don't drop my elbow and wrist perfectly, something had to give, and my cue would go off to one side, usually the left via my wrist. This led to inconsistency because I was not able to consistently accelerate the cue along that line. Chang deals with this by just shorting the whole stroke, which reduces the error.

The solution...grip farther back on the cue so that contact happens around 90 degress. Now I'm actually swinging the cues weight, which does the work for me. My contact point is consistent. My cue goes straight through the ball without elbow drop. Even if I do veer off (some great players do a little), its after I hit the cueball. For now I've put on a rubber band to remind me not to grip toward the balance point too much.

swing

When my stance, grip, and head position is correct, my hit is very precise. Most of the time when I miss the object ball, it goes to the right of my intended line. This is because my old habits have the shaft under my nose, which makes my right eye looks across my target line. This makes it seem like I'm hitting straight, but I'm actually aiming the cue ball a little to the left. I should spend most of my time just hitting balls now to ingrain the correct stance and to eliminate my old habits. Another image that really helped me (borrowed from Phil Cappelle's Practicing Pool) was the feeling that my cue was just rocking back and forth on my bridge hand. Combining that with a firm grip with my thumb and first finger really gave me a lot of feel for the hit on the cueball. My 8 foot straight in shots are probably up in the 70-80% range now. I'd like to get to above 90%.

minor fixes

Things to check on when feeling off...my right eye was misaligned like i use to do, which threw my aiming way off.

1. Grip pressure is fairly firm and consistent
2. Right eye over the shaft
3. Not too much weight on the bridge hand
4. Keep cue off to my right side to make room for follow through
   

stance changes

I'm trying to change my stance because I put a lot of weight on my bridge hand right now, and it's making my shoulder sore after playing a while. I want to achieve the following with my new stance...

1. Stability and balance (even pressure between feet, not much weight on bridge hand)
   
2. Ability to get my head low
3. relaxed and natural as possible
4. allows my cue to stroke in line with my right eye
5. enough room for the cue to follow through for power shots
   

night at jimmys

After playing for about four hours, I watched Jimmy Wetch and Shane Van Boening play 8-ball. Shane is so smooth. I'd love to be as fluid and relaxed as him. They both spent quite a bit of time planning and executing each shot. The slow pace suprised me a bit...maybe I should spent a bit more time planning and visualizing every shot.

the first year

I've been playing pool now for almost a year. I've improved so much since last summer, but its daunting to look up at what I still need to climb. When I look down at a table, I know what needs to be done in most situations. What's frustrating right now is that my knowledge far exceeds my execution skills. My stroke and fundementals are in fairly good shape...but hours of practicing english, speed and positions shots is needed. I'm starting summer M8 league in a couple of weeks and that should give me a nice variety of competition.

The main purpose of this blog will be to record my thoughts and experiences as I learn and play pool. Also, I'd like to record any tips or changes that I've tried or implemented. This should help me review and do check ups on the changes I've made down the road.