How do I become a pool shark?

Caesar_Bojangle

I'm absolute crap when it comes to playing pool and snooker, I can hit the ball but it always seems to marginally miss the pocket, and if it does happen to go in its due to a stroke of good fortune.

I just can't handle it anymore. Whenever I play, I only ever win if my adversary is equally as crap as myself. I'm sick of being humiliated at the pool table. What am I doing wrong? What advice can you offer?

StickyMcGinty

unfortunatly, this is one sport u can't use performance enhancing drugs for...

hit the ball gently all the time, put the bridge of your hand that holds the cue close to the ball, and have 1 pint to calm you if your nervous!!

works for me

Repli

Go to DIT and play it every college day for a year and youll become good :P Persistence is the key here -

DapperGent

With pool it's really all about getting the basics right which will give you an opportunity to improve.

You need to have a bridge that is both good and that doesn't cramp your fingers and feels comfortable. You'll really have to get someone to show you a good bridge and then get comfortable with it, changing your finger positions but not losing the good bridge. Essentially if your bridge is crap you're fucked, you'll never have proper control and lining up shots will be hit or miss.

You need to have a good stance, get down as low over the table as possible so that any distorition of your perspective due to height is minimised. This makes it easier to draw the lines in your head that connect the white to the object ball to the pocket. Getting stuck behind a ball or on a cushion is hard not simply because you have to hit the top of the ball but because you have to alter your perspective.

Basically develop a bridge and stance and stick with them even if they start to feel uncomfortable, you'll only improve over time if you can bring something identical to the table everytime you play. Thats your bridge and stance.

Think about the physics of the table. It's fairly simple stuff but keep it in your mind, you're looking to get the white to impact the object ball at a point joined by a straight line to the pocket you're going for. Go over to the ball you want to pot. Pick the right spot on it. Aim for it. The angle the white hits a cushion at is essentially the exact opposite of the angle it will come away. Unless you use side.

Don't use side. Not when you're crap. Hit the white in the centre all the time, just keep trying to draw the straight lines with it, the most important thing is to be able to consitantly pot easy shots. Once you can do this start dicking around. Start with topspin, stun and backspin (top, just below middle depending on shot strength and bottom) get comfortable with them before you move on to putting left or right hand side on the ball. Putting side on is only really a help when you know the angles of the table already, you're kinda just looking for bit extra it's fuck all good if you have no idea where the white is going to end up in the first place.

Don't blast your shots. Only hit the ball hard for a reason, in pool you really seldom have a reason for hitting the ball hard. If I'm playing someone who's smashing every shot, I know they're crap, there's no other explanation. The added advantage of hitting slowly is that if you happen to miss the ball will still end up in or around the pocket. Also a ball is far more likely to actually drop if played deadweight. If you're playing someone who's better than you it's really the only way to catch up, covering pockets cuts down on their options while giving you an easy shot to take the next time round.

Bring all that trash in here. This is your house. Mark out your circle of pain. No seriously don't be afraid to play safeties, if you have no shot or a next to impossible one then roll it up behind one of yours and get two next time. Gormless prats might well slag you off but when you start beating people who are technically better than you by virtue of the fact that they're idiots you won't mind so much. Plus it gives you more time at the table to be getting better with. Tactics are important, think about each shot, if one of their balls is stuck on a cushion make sure you don't move the fucking thing etc.

Don't play snooker. Seriously it'll break your heart, get proficient at pool and then think about it but wait til you're actually any good first. You'll find yourself getting better the more you play, stick at it pool's great craic especially when you get to the stage where you're firing doubles down and kicking Lafortezza and Henbane asses all over the shop.

Are you doing your leaving? If you want to get good, really good. Repeat it.

Lafortezza

Originally posted by DapperGent

Gormless prats might well slag you off...

...and still beat you over the course of the evening

Originally posted by DapperGent
Don't play snooker.

Don't play snooker at first , play pool regularly and get some vague skillz, then go play snooker, and take your time and practice the mid range straightish shots. You'll be crap and depressed but when you return to the pool table you'll have developed a bit of a touch from the trickier and more tactical game that is snooker.
You'll feel more confident after potting a few longish range snooker balls and a small pool table won't hold any fears even when you're going end to end on a thin cut.

I'd also recommend getting yourself to the bookshop and buying a book on snooker to see how to make a bridge hand, and how to get your stance right, supposedly its meant to be like a boxer, left foot forward a bit, then bend at waist, etc etc,
get a book with pictures. It all starts with good technique.

Originally posted by DapperGent
pool's great craic especially when you get to the stage where you're firing doubles down and kicking Lafortezza and Henbane asses all over the shop.

Except when you're losing 10-6 overall, and were whipped even worse the previous session.
It must hurt, does it?

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by VinnyL
unfortunatly, this is one sport u can't use performance enhancing drugs for...

Valium ?

celticfc

On the BBC's sport academy website here you can view some very good video's by Ronnie O'Sullivan which can help you out with the basics, ie. the grip, the Stance, Bridging, Cueing, Sighting.

There's another site here - http://www.easypooltutor.com/ which gives some good lessons.

With plenty of practice you will get better.

gobby

also, when you are lining up a shot look through the white towards the object ball.....

Makaveli

Nice guide Dapper.
Thing about pool really is though, it's all about the next shot. Which is annoying because you can spend too much time thinking about that rather than the shot you are on.

As for snooker, well it's hard as hell. It's also not really anything like pool.

AdMMM

If you find it hard to actually pot anything, just before your shot, walk around the table while looking at the ball you're to hit and the pocket you want to pot it in, you'll spot where you should hit it, dont take your eyes of that position and hit it!

Works for me!

Although I suck with those dead-on straight shots!!

niallith

jus practise alot i used to play about 2 hours a day nearly and got pretty good then try playin snooker for few weeks then go back to a pool table and itl seem so easy

Victor

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
Valium ?

This will only make you not worry about losing, it won't improve your skillz.

Dustaz

Originally posted by DapperGent
No seriously don't be afraid to play safeties, if you have no shot or a next to impossible one then roll it up behind one of yours and get two next time.

In some rulesets of pool this is illegal. Your shot must result in either a ball being pocketed or hitting a cushion or the shot is a foul.

Most people dont play that rule however. Just like most people insist on NOT allowing shots to carry and that stupid 'stick pocket on the black' rule

Those two really annoy me. Shots should carry and you should be free to pot your black whereever.

Lafortezza

Originally posted by Dustaz
In some rulesets of pool this is illegal. Your shot must result in either a ball being pocketed or hitting a cushion or the shot is a foul.

Isn't that american rules? I prefer having the chance of playing safeties, makes the game more tactical, especially when I'm beating DapperGent by 5 balls potted to 1 or two.

Originally posted by Dustaz

Those two really annoy me. Shots should carry and you should be free to pot your black whereever.

Shots shouldn't carry if you're good enough to set yourself up from the first shot then get a good run of potting from there, if you can carry shots then if you're any good you can nearly clear the table, doesn't make for that interesting a game.

I agree about the 'stick pocket on black' being a crap rule, I play that you nominate a pocket each turn you have on the black.

henbane

Originally posted by DapperGent
Bring all that trash in here. This is your house. Mark out your circle of pain. No seriously don't be afraid to play safeties, if you have no shot or a next to impossible one then roll it up behind one of yours and get two next time. Gormless prats might well slag you off but when you start beating people who are technically better than you by virtue of the fact that they're idiots you won't mind so much. Plus it gives you more time at the table to be getting better with. Tactics are important, think about each shot, if one of their balls is stuck on a cushion make sure you don't move the fucking thing etc.

Don't play snooker. Seriously it'll break your heart, get proficient at pool and then think about it but wait til you're actually any good first. You'll find yourself getting better the more you play, stick at it pool's great craic especially when you get to the stage where you're firing doubles down and kicking Lafortezza and Henbane asses all over the shop.

Cocksucker!

Gormless prat? Don't be bringing that testical trash in here - a pool table is no place for tactics. If you're thinking you're doing something wrong.

Emboss

keep the cue straight using your chest and chin create a good line...if you're really bad just try lining the balls up over the pockets keep the cue relaxed in your hand dont *grab* and don't be lashing the balls out of it

like anything else practice makes perfect..

Imposter

Also having your own cue is a help. Nothing worse than a different cue everytime you play.

Also snooker on a full-size pool table can be good fun. You can get some nice breaks going and it aint nowhere near a hard as full-size snooker. Not for beginners though.

woosaysdan

european pool rules

american pool rules

DapperGent

Originally posted by lafortezza
[BExcept when you're losing 10-6 overall, and were whipped even worse the previous session.
It must hurt, does it? [/B]

You got nothing. Thats why you're bleating like a little lamb. It's the fear.

Back to what Dustaz was saying (I'm ignoring Henbane cos he's an embarrassment to himself and those who have to share a table with him), carrying shots is far too much of a penalty for a foul, plus it doesn't challenge a player to be clever. Carrying shots generally finishes a good game of pool unsatisfactorily.

I'm with you on the stick on the black crap though. I think thats designed for poor kids to extend a game. You should have to nominate a given pocket though.

As for laying snookers. It would be rubbish without teh tactic0rs!

Dakeyras

just reading through this thread and as opposed to posting my wonderous tips i thought a night for all to show their skills and learn could be fun. A pool competition???

posted an idea in boards events:

Yes right here

Makaveli

Sticking on black is a better game.
It's crap if you miss your shot on black and the ball stays over the pocket the other person has an easy win.
Nominating pockets each time means you play over cautiosly and will try and draw a mistake out of the other player. This tends to take longer than stick pockets.

As for shots carrying, well like Dapper said it's too much of a penalty.

LoneGunM@n

As said before, practice makes perfect ....

I should know, I played for a full year [2 hours a day] in Aungier Street DIT common room :rolleyes:

It's all about stance & knowledge of angles .... I've found though, that after playing snooker for a while, I tend to be too tactical when I revert back to playing pool :mad:

In relation to the black ball rules ... the rule we use is:

the pocket that the last ball is potted in is the pocket that the black must be potted in too .... or the exact opposite pocket .... makes for interesting matches

henbane

Originally posted by DapperGent
(I'm ignoring Henbane cos he's an embarrassment to himself and those who have to share a table with him)

As for laying snookers. It would be rubbish without teh tactic0rs!

Don't you bring that trash up in here. Big man on boards but no cojones backing it up.

As for your testical nous - forget about it and play the damn game.

And you shouldn't post when you're drunk.

Dustaz

Originally posted by DapperGent
carrying shots is far too much of a penalty for a foul, plus it doesn't challenge a player to be clever. Carrying shots generally finishes a good game of pool unsatisfactorily.

The good thing about it (combined with the black rule) is that it speeds up the game nicely. If you foul, you wont be back to the table for a while. Tough. Dont Foul.

The Ball-in-hand rule is probably better than 2 visits, but theres no way in hell You'll ever manager to persuade the morons in this country that its a valid rule.

As for laying snookers. It would be rubbish without teh tactic0rs!

Its a pool table. Play tactics all you want. Any decent player should be able to pot not matter what you do.



PS Henbane and dappergent. No-one cares who beat who in the common room last week, give it up.

Thorbar

Maybe this thread should be moved to the new Snooker / pool forum?

DapperGent

Originally posted by Dustaz
Its a pool table. Play tactics all you want. Any decent player should be able to pot not matter what you do.

A good snooker can really screw your opposite number up and win the frame for you. No matter how good you are a really difficult snooker can easily lead to a foul or at very least good position on your next shot.




P.S. Whats wrong with a bit of trash talk between friends?

thegills

Lads,
Your missing the point. The chap who posted always seems to miss shots. The bridge or stance doesn't matter as I know guys including myself who can play standing up and with numerous different bridge hands.

You could be q-ing crooked. Put the white on the baulk line, hit it off the far cushion and see if you can get the ball to return exactly to your q-tip. Sounds easy but it'll answer your problem.

You need to concentrate on your swing. Cue up and stop the q as you are about to hit the ball. Turn your head around and look at your q-arm. From elbow to hand it should be perfectly perpendicular on 2 planes.

I have taken mediocre players, showed them how to hit straight and they have improved immensly.

Hendry and Davis have very straight q-arms hence the consistency but if you see Jimmy White or Tony Drago they are always twirling the cue around hence the inconsistency

Makaveli

Originally posted by Thorbar
Maybe this thread should be moved to the new Snooker / pool forum?

When did this board pop up?

miju

Originally posted by VinnyL
unfortunatly, this is one sport u can't use performance enhancing drugs for...

that debatable. Nothing like a can of Red Bull and a few doobie to help your concentration during a 5 hour session

miju

Originally posted by Makaveli
When did this board pop up?

2 days ago

The Rooster

stick pocket or opposite pocket are rules that you won't find in any rule book, and would never be used in a "proper" competition, however they can be good fun and are definitely good at prolonging games when you're running out of euros to feed the table with!