New videos
Posted at 9:33 PM, January 29, 2009 to Online pool
So I got the shots I mentioned previously up. Check them out:
http://www.trickshottim.com/trick-shot-index.php
The new shots are the top 3 on the first page: Just Showing Off Extreme, Cleereman’s Carom, and Double Jump.
“New” shots
Posted at 7:21 PM, January 25, 2009 to Online pool
I got some table time last week and worked on some new shots. One was given to me by a fan of mine, Nik Cleereman. I had played around with it off and on for a few weeks, but finally got around to trying to get it down. I’m calling it Cleereman’s Carom. I haven’t published the video yet, but I’ll post a link when I get that done.
Also, I stumbled across a couple old videos that never made their way on to my website. One was a double jump shot where I make the cue ball jump over one row of blocking balls and then bounce over a second row. Instead of posting the old one, I decided to re-film this. The other shot is an extreme version of the Just Showing Off shot. I’d rather not re-film this one, but I have to prep a tutorial and stuff for it, so it might be a while before this one gets online. You’ll love it though when it does.
New cloth
Posted at 6:52 AM, January 9, 2009 to Online pool
The dorm I usually play at on campus just got new cloth put down on their table. It’s still low quality, so it’s a little fuzzy and plays slow. At least they got rid of the small seam between a couple of the slate pieces. I practiced some of the draw shots last night and it went ok. For some reason, I tended to miscue quite a bit and ended up jumping the cue ball everywhere.
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.
Shot practice
Posted at 6:27 AM, November 19, 2008 to Online pool
On Sunday, I spent some time focusing on a few shots from the APTSA program. One was a simple trick/fancy and follow shot. Another was a draw shot that Gordon Hedges asked me about. And the third was a stroke shot that Andy Segal made against me at the Comet Classic. This third shot seemed to be problematic for a lot of players though, and I’m still having a rough time of it. The cue ball is within a chalks distance of an object ball, and you have to get the cue ball to jump enough so it caroms off the object ball and over a cue stick. What’s more, the cue ball also has to have enough spin on it to take it down the table rather than just relying on the carom. Here’s my best diagram of it from Cuetable. There’s a bit more involved with it, but this is the gist.