Self analysis
Posted at 6:25 PM, December 2, 2008 to Online pool
I played a decent amount of pool this weekend, getting some good, quality practice in. I also played a couple of 9 ball sets with a friend of mine. He’s probably a slightly better shotmaker than me, but I have better strategy and positioning. I’d trust him to make a bank over me any day though, especially a long one. The first day, we ran out of time so it ended up 3-3 or 4-3, I can’t remember. The next two days I won 9-3 each time. One of my weaknesses is believing I can make a shot that I more than likely will not. For example: a table length shot shooting off the rail. I’ve made them a few times, but I miss them way more often. Regardless, I tend to go for the shot, which means I probably sell out more often than I win, so it probably makes more sense to try to play as much of a safety as I can.
I also played some straight pool with another guy who pointed out a couple of things to me. I need to lean in more when I use the bridge to get a better stroke action. I got killed 50-16 in the game and was missing pretty much everything.
In league, I took another 5-4 race to hill-hill. I was up 3-1 and my opponent won the next two to take the hill. Then I buckled down and focused more on every shot with a determination not to lose and was able to take the next two games. There was a dramatic difference in my game after that and it carried over afterwards when I played some of my teammates for fun. I had one mental breakdown when I was playing a strategic foul. I had cleared my stripes and was thinking just to pocket his 2 ball so I could play a future safety on that side of the 8, but I didn’t respect the shot and over hit it getting the cue ball to break up the 8 and 3 leaving him with an easy ball-in-hand run out.
Now that I think about it, I could have tried to shoot a safety by caroming off the 8 into the 3 and hopefully with just enough speed not to scratch. I guess I’ll leave that for another day.
New website
Posted at 9:40 PM, October 25, 2008 to Online pool
In an effort to make my website easier to navigate and more interactive, I changed around some of the pages so all the tutorials and videos can be accessed from the Shot Index page. Each video and tutorial page has a rating and a comment section for people to tell me what they think of the shot or ask questions if they’re having problems with it. Check it out and let me know what you think.
8 Ball League
Posted at 1:12 AM, October 1, 2008 to Online pool
So I started playing in an 8 ball league again. My first match was last night. I won 5-2 in a 5-4 race, so it wasn’t that bad, but I gave away one of the games when I scratched on my last ball and he only had the 8 left. My play wasn’t particularly solid but I out-thought the guy. My most audacious play of the evening was going for a 2 rail kick for one of my balls hanging in the corner pocket. I ended up a little long, hitting the short rail and wasn’t able to make contact. My worst play was probably breaking up a cluster of the 8 ball and one of his balls when I only had the 8 left. He had 3 left and ran out. I should’ve just taken an intentional foul, maybe trying to tie up his other balls. So maybe I should’ve been able to blank the guy if I played a little smarter.
The first time, again
Posted at 5:35 AM, September 26, 2008 to Online pool
I got some practice in yesterday for the first time since the Comet. I also tried a few ideas for new masse shots, but they don’t seem too promising. We’ll see if I can get them going though.
I pretty much just started practicing for the World Championships. There’s a couple tough shots that I know I’m going to need to work on. One of them is a speed shot and then there’s a couple long distance jumps. I’m holding off practicing the playoff shots though, so I might be in trouble if I actually shoot well :^)
Press
Posted at 8:20 PM, September 19, 2008 to Online pool
Check out the article that my school paper did on me. The picture’s pretty cool too. I apologize for the lack of recent content, but I suffered a concussion last weekend and am still having some dizziness and headaches associated with it. But I was fine for the photo shoot for the article!