IMPORTANT
LESSON FORM GERDA: To play great pool, many will say
that you must "practice practice practice." It is not so simple
though because you must know what you practice and why to practice
it. Practice itself will not improve your game much. Instead, a
combination of study and practice will
do the job, about 100% of each! Basically, strong knowledge of the
basics of mechanics and strategy will lead you in your practice.
The techniques I will show you here are "basics," to which you should
always return when you are in a slump. A proper
setup at the table will ensure consistency. There are many great
players who choose not to use the setup I am going to show you for
whatever reasons they may have. I will say this, however you choose
to setup it is more important to be consistent than to setup in
a classical stance. Keep in mind
that this technique is simply a starting point for you, and in time
you will develope your own unique setup, or not. I like to have
my head directly over the cue with my chin almost touching the cue.
Notice the cue is in line with my chin, nose, between the eyes,
and the top of my elbow. If the elbow is directly over the cue,
it means that the cue will go straight, whereas if you have a slight
pitch from your elbow, either way, the cue may travel in a curved
line. Of course this can be overcome with lots of practice, but
my strategy is simply eliminate it so I can focus on other things.
As
far as the bridge is considered, it should be stable but relaxed.
Many will tell you that your stance
must be one way or another. At this point you should try to discover
a stance that will allow you to confortably deliver the setup
you see in the picture at left. Each of us are different in size
and shape and no single stance works for everyone. Your stroke
should be unobstructed by your body, and you should be well balanced.
Everything else at this point is subtlety that will do nothing
for your game. If you have a difficult time doing any of this,
I suggest attending our pool school.
Learning
how to aim is vital
if you want to play pool well. Without a good technique for aiming,
you may never learn to make balls with consistency. At this point,
always hit the cue ball in the middle of the ball, between both
left and right, and top and bottom. Remember that you are looking
at the ball from above, so what looks like the middle of the ball
to you might be different than where it really is. Have a friend
or coach check out whether or not you are striking the ball in
the middle.
I
like to use a method for aiming called the ghost ball technique.
Before looking at the picture below, try to visualize this method.
When two balls come together, the object ball will go in the direction
of the line created by the two balls' centers. If you are trying
to make a ball in a certain pocket, draw a line from the middle
of the pocket through the center of the object ball and beyond.
Now imagine that your cue ball occupies a space that allows its
center to be in line with that imaginary line you just created.
What happens is this- no matter where your cue ball is, there
is really only one place for the cue ball to go to make the shot.
Now look at the image for the illustration.
The purpose here is to make the eight ball in the corner pocket.
I have placed the one ball in front of the eight ball to illustate
the ghost ball. Notice the balls' centers line up with the center
of the pocket. Pretend that the 12, 13, and 14 balls are cue balls.
No matter where they lay on the table, each ball needs to occupy
the space of the one ball in order to make the eight ball in that
corner pocket. The concept is simple really. There are subtleties
that I will cover later, but for now, work on this technique and
see if it works for you.
Please
check back here soon for some additional lessons on follow and
draw, aiming while using english, and some advanced information
on cue ball deviation.
I
hope that this helps to improve your game,
Gerda
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