Cue Tips: Look for a better game in your pocket
We must (I hope) be getting closer by now, to a more normal pool-playing schedule. The number of people vaccinated continues to grow, and some older players, now vaccinated, have returned to playing pool with other players that are also vaccinated. There has been a flurry of activity.
One such instance happened at Little Valley last week. The Mail Lady was out and about and stopped by, thinking to find some serious competition at pool. Instead, it was much less about the serious pool game, but rather about goofing off and kidding each other. Everyone just enjoyed being together and catching up, as well as getting some muchneeded ribbing to bring out the smiles all around. When “Purple Rain” won the match nobody was surprised, and oddly, everyone remained kinda happy, even.
It was great seeing friends after being hunkered down for so long, and now, just maybe, everyone is beginning to laugh again.
Nearly everyone has access to a camera nowadays, so if you wonder why your improvement is slightly slower than you would wish, your phone camera may have the answer to your wonder. Usually, when you are spending enough time on the pool table without much improvement, it is almost always about a problem with the fundamentals of shooting.
You may have watched players raise or whip their cue around trying to influence the speed or direction of a played ball, it never ever helps. It doesn’t help even when you move your entire body around or yell for the ball to do something, it just doesn’t help. We may know this, but it doesn’t stop us from trying to change the direction after the shot by jumping or leaning.
Check yourself out, set up your camera to watch from directly behind you, and watch your rear hand on your cue stick. Is it gripped lightly, but firmly? When you play the cue ball into an object ball is your stroke straight, did you twist your elbow out or twist in? If you are moving the rear of the cue in anything but a straight line, you are affecting the cue ball spin. Use a straight stroke without mimicking a chicken wing flap.
One way to find if your backhand is located along the cue length properly is to try this: Move your cue tip forward to nearly touching the cue ball. Hold the tip there with your bridge hand and slide your rear hand forward or back along your cue stick until it is pointing straight down. That is another way of preventing unwanted spin on the cue ball, rear grip hand too far forward or too far rearward will affect where you strike the cue ball. Then set up your camera straight on facing you from a pocket you will play to.
Does it show you lifting your head before the ball drops? That is the most common mistake players, even good players, make all of the time. Unnecessary head movement affects your accuracy more than most errors. Are you in a straight
line with your chin over the cue stick? There you are! With pictures to prove it! You are standing straight keeping your head down while stroking straight and smooth, without moving, you look simply marvelous.
If your stroke is true and straight, your eyes see clearly, but your win percentage is still not what you think it should be, there is one sure way to improve it. Make a list of your most difficult shots, then shoot them 20 or 30 times a day for a few weeks, you are almost guaranteed to have an improvement.
Keep track of your progress in making them, which will keep you going, just by seeing how much you have improved already.
CUE TIP >> Pool is a strategy game, for example, sometimes it may not help you to put a ball down, it may benefit you more by playing it to a different place on the table, especially in 9-ball. When someone you are playing has missed, but only has the 8-ball left, while you still have four balls on the table, you may want to keep all of your balls on the table and try to get a ball in hand instead. If you know that you can easily run those four balls then go for it. You can’t win unless you make all of the balls, but the timing of when you make those balls and where you make them can affect the outcome of a game the same as good shooting can.
It is just good to remember that there are many more strategies than simply putting the balls into a pocket to win a game of 8-ball. Contact me at mcbohanon@gmail.com.