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u/CreeDorofl · 4 pointsr/billiards

tl;dr: I think you can improve a lot just with more knowledge. I reached APA7 pretty fast, despite a shitty stroke and bad habits, by just absorbing a ton of books, videos, and websites. I had to work on execution and fixing those habits to reach APA9 speed. At no point did I ever become any kind of serious tournament or money player, it's very possible to improve without doing those things, despite what "they" say. But there's a limit to how far you can go on knowledge only, you WILL need to practice and spend hours at the table, and you will need to enter pressure situations if you want to perform well in tournaments, league, etc.

--------------------------

● Playing better players is a bit overrated - you don't just magically absorb someone's skills by playing against them. I'm not saying it's bad, but find people that are willing to teach and answer questions... don't just hit balls with someone and be their rackboy.

If you figure watching the better player shoot will help you learn, then you can double your learning by just watching 2 better players shoot against each other.

There's a lot to be said for shooting people who are very close to your level, or just a hair better. You both learn together, and (hopefully) talk things over and figure stuff out. And you both feel like you can win, which is important. It makes things more competitive. A lot of people improve simply because their ego can't tolerate losing to 'that one guy'.

● People will also tell you that you need to just enter a bunch of tournaments, or gamble. That's only half-correct. Tournaments train one specific skill - handling pressure. They don't teach you stuff like advanced cueball control, or how to compensate for english, or how to aim a kick shot. You don't get those skills just because you paid your $20 and now you need them to win.

● So how do you get better? Well, there are two areas where everyone could stand to improve - knowledge and execution.

Of these two things, knowledge is much easier to get. You can get it from the internet, books, or by watching and talking to those local pros. It's free/cheap, and takes very little effort... there's no reason you can't max out your knowledge ASAP.

The trick is to make sure you get correct knowledge, because the pool world is unfortunately full of bad info. I wanna recommend some books which I know are good, because the info is easily tested and confirmed, and that's exactly what I did in a lot of cases.

Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards - comprehensive explanation of all sorts of useful concepts, explanations of how the balls will react on certain shots, and why, and how to take advantage of it... lots of specific shots to master... safety and runout strategy... pretty much everything you could need.

The 99 Critical Shots - If you want specific shots to practice, and a lot of the same useful info, but much shorter and cheaper... this is for you. As a 6 you maybe know most of this, but I bet you don't know all of it, and you can get a copy for $1.50.

If you feel like reading is for losers, you can learn off websites too -

Everything on Dr. Dave's website and videos is outstanding. Tested and proven both on paper, on video, and in the real world. http://billiards.colostate.edu/pool_tutorial.html ...see also http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads.html ...and http://billiards.colostate.edu/pool_secrets_gems.html .

Or, just watch his videos - it's great to actually see the info put into action: https://www.youtube.com/user/DrDaveBilliards

These tips I think are just about right for someone around your speed - https://www.reddit.com/r/billiards/comments/6oo5e7/tip_compilation_various_tips_kicking_systems/

--------------

As far as execution goes, you do need to spend hours on the table. But before doing anything else, you want to first make sure you have good fundamentals and a normal, textbook stroke. I can't say it strongly enough:

IF YOU DON'T FIX YOUR BAD HABITS NOW THEY WILL FUCK YOU LATER.

I had several that I needed to unlearn, and they still screw up my game to this day. I wish I could go back in time and learn how to stroke straight, not spin the cue ball all the time, and develop a correct stance. Don't be me, get your bad habits and stance issues under control now. Everything after that will come much easier. Don't hesitate to pay for a lesson from a pro instructor to have them go over your stroke and fix any problems they see. If you don't wanna spend money, you can video yourself and try to evaluate it, or upload it here and we'll give you some feedback.

Other key things that helped me learn how to execute better:

● Get out of your comfort zone and try new things. Don't just stick to the shots you know, try new shots. That doesn't mean try 2-rail banks every time you step to the table, I mean try "new" shots that you know you need to master, but haven't yet.

For example, maybe you suck at jumping and this situation comes up where you're hooked on the 5. You might be tempted to just kick it, but you KNOW any pro player will jump this ball and make it. So suck it up and try the jump, even though you suck at it. You need that practice. Don't chicken out and kick just because you're scared of missing and losing.

Whatever shots you hate and you're tempted to avoid, make yourself do them. Hate shooting the CB off the rail with heavy inside spin? Of course you do, we all do. But there will be times when you have to do it, so when the situation comes up, don't avoid it.

● Practice while you play. When you shoot with friends for fun, don't just stick to the safe comfortable stuff because you're worried about losing. You gotta make self-improvement a higher priority than winning every rack. If you miss and lose, so what? It doesn't cost you anything.

You might think "I don't need to try that spin shot right now, I'll just hit 50 of them when I go practice on sunday afternoon". Don't kid yourself... most people don't have the discipline to do that. They either don't practice at all, or do it for a few weeks and then lose interest, or they forget about that spin shot they said they'd practice. Even if you DO practice religiously, you will probably spend far more hours playing than practicing. Don't let those hours be wasted by refusing to learn new skills.

● If you do drills, do them with a specific purpose. Don't ever just hit balls without a goal. You're too advanced for that to help you much. Work on a specific shot... rail cuts, thin cuts, long straight shots, position drills, banks, whatever. And keep track of your results, so you know if you're improving or not. For example, don't just bank 50 balls and say "ok I practiced banks". Keep track (you can use your phone) of how many you made out of 50. Is it more than you made last week? Or 5 weeks ago? If not, why not?

● If you miss a ball, set it up and shoot it again, and don't just shoot it until you make it once. Shoot it until you make it several times in a row.

● Always be paying attention to your fundamentals. Even if they're already pretty good, bad habits can creep in if you don't pay attention.

● Be careful of laziness and wishful thinking. I explain more on that here: https://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=2429822&postcount=16

● For the jump specifically from 6 to 7, I'd say mastery of inside english and uncommon position routes is crucial. You gotta get good at moving the cue ball along the safest path. Good pool is identifying 10 potential fuckups and identifying the solution that should prevent at least 9 of them. That sometimes means moving the cue ball with funky english or more force than you're comfortable with.

Here are some example shots that hopefully show what I mean. Some may disagree with the routes or say "I'd do this instead" or "you could totally do the other route here" or whatever... that's fine, focus on the theory more than on whether everyone agrees which route is best.

https://pad.chalkysticks.com/97d8d.png

https://pad.chalkysticks.com/6d4f3.png

https://pad.chalkysticks.com/1bee7.png

https://pad.chalkysticks.com/2a00b.png

...ok, this thing is long enough. If you made it this far, I guarantee you'll be a 7 in less than 24 hours, or your money back :)

u/doublestop · 1 pointr/billiards

I'm pretty fond of The 99 Critical Shots in Pool. It goes into some basics and a ton of shot situations with explanation. It's a great resource, imo, for nearly all levels of play.

For the mental game, I'm a huge fan of Pleasures of Small Motions. It's a deep dive into the mental game and talks about concentration vs focus and helps the reader with some mental exercises. Jury is out in this sub whether it's all that valuable, though I have found it to be a great help to my game. IMO, even at an early stage this book could be useful. Frustration can be a big problem for a beginner trying to get comfortable with the game and having some insight to the mental side can be a benefit.

Welcome to pool! I hope you enjoy playing and fall in love with it like we all have. :)

u/a-r-c · 13 pointsr/billiards

99 Critical Shots is overrated and one of the worst books for a beginner in 2018. Before you jump down my throat, remember that being old and popular doesn't make something good.

It was a good book in 1977.

I'll let Bob Jewett point out the issues (page 13). He's much more generous than I am—I honestly don't think 99CS worth reading considering the wealth of other excellent material that's available.

Better books would be Illustrated Principles, Byrne's Standard, and Byrne's Complete Book of Pool Shots. Even PYBP or Science of Pocket Billiards would be better.

99CS is outdated and surviving largely on nostalgia, and personally there is not a single piece of information in the book that I didn't learn better from somewhere else.

Actually it gives some 100% incorrect information at least once, regarding rail shots. I literally had a guy defending it by saying "well beginners won't understand the complicated truth so the (incorrect) rule of thumb is fine." Right then is when I realized that some fools will defend the book because they think they should, rather than on its merits.

Don't be that guy.

Rant: Over

PoSM is easily the best book ever written on the mental game.

Kinda funny, the best and the worst right next to each other.

u/Gunslingermomo · 1 pointr/billiards

Go get Dr. Dave's The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards. That's almost all you need to know.


The book will explain the need to get the basics first. After reading the first chapter on getting your form right, you'll need to spend a good amount of time, 50-100 hours, just getting a feel for shooting balls and getting your intuition for the physics. Then read the rest while practicing to understand the deeper parts of the game. You need both practice and theory to be good at the game. I know dozens of players who practice all the time but have never read a book on it, their game would improve immensely if they traded a few hours practicing for reading. But you can read all the books and watch all the videos ever made and without practice you'll still suck.


Compete and learn from other players. Like gotwired said, having a mentor will help a lot.


Lastly, once you get comfortable shooting balls in, you need to focus on cue ball placement to set up for your next shot. When I'm practicing I usually stick to a very simple game that helps with ball placement: place 4 balls randomly on the table, take ball in hand with the cue ball (meaning put it in the most advantageous spot to start off), and try to make all the balls on the table in order from lowest to highest. Making 4 balls in a row is an achievable goal but you are forced to plan out exactly how to hit the cue to set up for the next couple shots. This habit is crucial to getting good at the game.

u/TreuloseTomate · 3 pointsr/billiards
  1. If you really want to expand your straight pool knowledge, i recommend the book Play Your Best Straight Pool by Phil Capelle.

  2. Ralph Eckert has made a good video on 14/1 break shots, but it's in german. He usually also makes an english version for most of his lessons, but I can't find it for this one. The main point is that you should look where the cueball is going to hit the rack and, more importantly, which part of which ball it's going to hit. If the cueball sticks to the rack a lot it's because the cueball hit the ball in the rack fully. To prevent this you can either play a proper draw shot to get the cueball away from the rack, or force-follow through the rack. It really depends on the situation.

    Always look where the cueball is going to hit the rack/cluster and try to predict what's going to happen. Don't blindly wack the balls and expect to get lucky.
u/framk · 2 pointsr/billiards

Here's the book if anybody is interested in buying it or checking out the shots in question. They appear on pages 76 and 77 and you can view them by clicking on the image of the book on the left.

As for shot 33, It's easy if you can gauge whether or not the ball is deep enough in the pocket. Personally, I wouldn't shoot what's portrayed in the diagram. It just feels like the ball would pop off the rail. The condition of the rails might play a role, too, but I'm pretty inexperienced so hopefully someone can give me some insight, too.

Shot 34 on the other hand! It never occurred to me to rely on a slight masse to make this shot. I'm guessing low left is more effective in this situation than high or just regular left.

u/sniggihs · 1 pointr/billiards

I would highly recommend reading the book Pleasures of Small Motions. This is an amazing book that teaches you how to find your true skill level and get past any mental barriers. Youll improve quickly! Keep playing and have fun doing it!

u/Merigould · 3 pointsr/billiards

Check out the works from Robert Byrne, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrne_(author), if you would enjoy reading and watching instructional materials about pool. I don't know if there's anyone on the planet who knows more about the game than he does.

Here would be my recommendations:

Byrne's Standard Video of Pool Volumes 1, 2 and 5. (3 and 4 are trick shot videos so they're not that important). The only issue is that only 5 is on DVD. 1 and 2 are on VHS and you'll need to grab them used off Amazon or Ebay.

If you want to read I would suggest Byrne's New Standard of Pool and Billiards

These are the materials that helped me, hopefully they can help you too. Good luck!

u/el0rg · 2 pointsr/billiards

This book will give you insight into all kinds of things it would normally take years of experience to figure out on your own.

There's a few pretty awesome YouTube channels out there that have some awesome instructional videos, here's a couple of my favorites:

forcefollow

FargoBilliards

u/Derpin_Around · 2 pointsr/billiards

I would recommend you to watch people play snooker/9 ball/8 ball to get a very good knowledge on billiards. Also, look at snooker player's stance to get a sense of what a proper form looks like.

For books, I recommend The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards and Play Your Best Pool. These books will give you the best knowledge on how and why things happen in billiards, such as the spin both balls receive after contact. They also give you the thought process behind pros so you'll gain a lot by supplementing these books with watching professionals. If you're looking for a practice book, Practicing Pool can provide a simple set up of practice. I was a bit disappointed by the book but it can definitely show you how to start practicing.

u/mkglass · 1 pointr/billiards

I will have to concur with the posts here. I cut my teeth on Robert Byrne's books. The 99 Critical Shots in Pool is a great book as well.

If you are looking for a book on One-Pocket, then Winning One-Pocket...As Taught by the Game's Greatest Players is the way to go. However, good luck on getting your hands on a copy.

u/unoriginalsin · 1 pointr/billiards

Mentally, the hill game is the toughest one to win. It's really the only one that matters though. Just like the shot you're currently shooting, it doesn't matter how you've performed the rest of the night you've got to win this game right now. You have to learn to let go of the past and play in the present moment. Shoot every shot as though it is your last, because in this game it may well be.

Have you read Bob Fancher's book yet?

u/Wheat_For_Ore · 1 pointr/billiards

Read this book. It's honestly the best pool book I've ever read. I have applied the lessons learned in this book to other sports as well.

u/seijio · 1 pointr/billiards

Dr. Dave can help you get better!

Also, a fantastic book is The 99 Critical Shots in Pool. Worth the money to buy a real book and not the digital version.

u/jbpsign · 1 pointr/billiards

Very cool. It's a very thin cellophane material with the outline of a triangle or diamond. Holes in the outer edge hold the outside balls in a constant state of pushing against the inside balls. Absolute perfect racks and you don't scuff your nice new cloth by sliding a traditional rack back and forth.

Magic Ball Rack 8, 9, and 10 Ball Combo Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CP8QFDQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_203NDbF3VEKKQ

u/hyay · 0 pointsr/billiards

I was in your shoes 25 years ago, and picked up Byrne's standard book of pool and billiards, and it was excellent. I have given copies out over the years to friends who wanted to learn. I still own a copy myself. Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0156005549?pc_redir=1411030730&robot_redir=1

u/icetray · 1 pointr/billiards

Consider reading the below while watching. Great for beginners, but anyone would learn a lot from it, and it will really help you understand what you're watching for.

http://www.amazon.com/Byrnes-Standard-Book-Pool-Billiards/dp/0156005549/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344037432&sr=1-1&keywords=byrne+billiards

u/Tkriger · 1 pointr/billiards

Looks very nice, I will be building one eventually.

For now I am just using this on the cue ball after each session:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007LERQU0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I figure if I clean all the balls once a week they won't get too dirty.

u/cty_hntr · 3 pointsr/billiards

Banking with the Beard comes in both book and video. Freddy 'the Beard' Bentivenga, a Hall of Fame bank player started publishing about 10 years before his death.

Here is a link
https://www.amazon.com/Banking-Beard-Secrets-Master-Banker/dp/0976622815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527094544&sr=8-1&keywords=banking+with+the+beard

I suggest you stick with your intuition. Keep it as your base, and add aiming systems to augment, if they work for you. Use aiming systems to double-check when it doesn't look right to your eye, or you need a little help. For me, the mirror system helps on some shots. Half the time I can kick or bank my way out of a safety.

u/EtDM · 2 pointsr/billiards

I second this, especially if you find you're rushing your later shots.

Stand up, chalk up, and take a trip around the table. Look at the way everything's laid out, and give yourself a chance to relax before you shoot. Unless you're taking a really long time between each shot, nobody should give you any grief.

If you're looking for some great reads about this, check out Zen in the Art of Archery and The Inner Game of Tennis. I've also heard good things about the Pleasures of Small Motions, but I've yet to read it myself.

u/snerz · 1 pointr/billiards

I recently got a couple of these for doing that - https://www.amazon.com/Shot-Pad-notes-Pocket-Billiards/dp/0615257097

Easy enough to make your own and print it though. Especially since they put a fairly high-res image of the page on amazon.

u/poopio · 1 pointr/billiards

>this weird coating

Yes, it's called soap.

I use this stuff - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aramith-Billiard-Pool-Cleaner-Polish/dp/B007LERQU0

Out of interest, has anybody ever tried making a ball cleaner out of a rock tumbler or vibrating bowl like this: https://www.sandblasters.co.uk/250mm-vibratory-tumbler-parts-cleaner--polisher-20kg-capacity-model-10-sp-b-79-p.asp

I've already been down the orbital polisher in a bucket route and one of the idiotic bar staff at my local club burned it out after a few weeks

u/VenusBlue · 3 pointsr/billiards

This book helped me tremendously. It's not over-complicated and teaches you pretty much everything you need to know. I'm not a pro, but it seriously boosted my game. http://www.amazon.com/Byrnes-Standard-Book-Pool-Billiards/dp/0156005549

u/tynick · 2 pointsr/billiards

Actually it looks like Players does make some in your price range.

Players C-960 Classic Crimson Birds-Eye Maple with Triple Silver Rings Cue, 19-Ounce https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00140FYOW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_mHctDbVMMVM97

u/outrunu · 1 pointr/billiards

https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Pool-Master-Mental-Game/dp/0964920417

There also seem to be some PDF download sites that I won't link to.

u/andrefivethousand · 1 pointr/billiards

What about Pleasure of Small Motions? Book specifically on the mental game of pool.

u/maksa · 2 pointsr/billiards

https://www.amazon.com/Pleasures-Small-Motions-Mastering-Billiards/dp/1585745391

Recommended to me by a guy who kicked my ass twice, both times it was 12:1.