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Hello, my first on my blog.

Thanks, everyone, for checking out the video, and for your kind words (and greenies!). I'm glad you liked it! I truly enjoyed sharing this with you.

I'm just going to reply to all the posts in this one mega-response.

Current list of requests for AUSM Video 2
(including requests that didn't make it into AUSM Video 1):

Some real-time shots for reference
Breaks: 9 on the spot (head and wing balls)
Breaks: 10-ball (2nd ball)
...

I love the game. I love the study of it, the appreciation of it, the beauty of the struggle.

I love that no one really masters it, only some seem to come close, but they are the wise ones that would admit that they too, are still the students.

I love that the world fades away as one is on a 20 ball run, or a 200 ball run, and no one is allowed into that space, or that time, or that private world.

I fell in love in high school, and have been in love...

You and Drew are both correct ... but time does not allow me to report all of the crimes of Abraham the Terrible.

- posted to Gambling question


My very first lesson in gambling:
I had played for drinks and played challenge tables for money but had never matched up with anyone. Heck I did not even know what "match up" meant.

One night I went into my local tavern with my brand new Huebler to try it out. There was only one other person in the bar and when he saw me with a pool case his ears perked right up. As soon as I got to the table he was all over me....

Originally posted to a pool stories thread - 01-06-2013
This happened over twenty years ago but is still my favorite pool story I tell on my wife.

We were playing in a mixed scotch doubles tournament that was a race to four nine ball. Our first match was against Joe and Lavern, a team capable of winning the tournament. Realistically we were capable of maybe getting in the money. Anyway before the match Joe and I make a $20 sweat bet, not even enough to cover the entry fee....

I grew up in a small logging town in nothern CA, Douglas City population 90. Two room school house, first through fourth grades in one room fifth through eight in the other. I was taught to use the library (in Weaverville, eight miles away) for extended education.

The first time I used the library to my advantage was when I was in the eigth grade. One kid that I had always been stronger than and could out wrestle in the past, grew a head taller and was shaving! Luckily for me I had...

In 1982 we lived in Tacoma, WA. We accidentally found a weekly pool tournament at a little bar(The Creekwater) on South Tacoma Way. They only had one pool table. In the course of playing in that little tournament, another player told us about a 9 ball tournament Wed. nights at the White Spot in Fife. They had 5 bar tables and a 9 foot Gold Crown. I had never heard of 9 ball. It was described as being the biggest and best weekly tournament around. So we go and check it out. OMG! It was a whole new...

Passing the test at the H bar B
This is the preamble to the pool story.
In 1979 I had just met my the lady that is now my wife, well had known her for a couple of months. We had just moved to Oakdale, CA, "The Cowboy Capital of the World". I had long hair and a beard and rode a Harley. We played pool at the H bar B, where it was common for the cowboys to go outside and fight and the first one to hit the ground buys the beer. My wife had lived in Oakdale and knew most of the...

How I got into pool.
In 1974 I made a pool table. Prior to that I had never played pool, other than a couple of games at the bowling alley when I was ten or twelve years old. I worked in a particle board plant in Anderson, CA. We made the particle board tops for Sears cheap home tables. I came across an article in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics on "How to Build a Pool Table". So for $125 I built a three and a half by seven pool table, complete with balls, rack and cue. I also...

Kevin, here are the pix of butt.
Bil
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At first the players that I've worked with don't like the idea of creating angles with their tip and the cue ball (without "aiming"). Then when I show them how it actually works and the precision and accuracy it generates, they quickly "open their minds" to the potential of the TOI.

I know this is "common sense," however I'll say it again "the cue ball is the target and the tip is the only direct relationship we have to the Game."
...

I would really enjoy hearing what my fellow pool players feel they lack in the billiards product world? What products do you think should be reinvented/changed or what is the industry missing.

Please let me know

Beautiful cue, is it still for sale

9 ball is a game in the world. It involves spheres and sticks with pieces of leather attached to the end of them.

This is a unicorn:



I am so scared....

For many pool players it's a natural tendency to want to spin shots in with outside "helping" English. This technique is very useful, especially if you're trying to change the natural angle of the cue ball after contact. There's another way to do this if you want to "master a shot" so you can hit the three parts of the pocket. To do this you must become more accurate and develop a "FEEL" for the pocket. This isn't any more difficult, it just requires you to simplify...

If you want to experience the aiming part of TOI try this:

Set up a slightly off angled shot (straight in to a spot a half diamond to the left of the corner pocket). This means you need to cut it slightly to the right, so look at the center of your tip, then get down as if it's straight in, aim at center (for your reference point and to "dial in your eyes"), then more your whole stick parallel to the shot line slightly to the right.

Hit it at the center,...

This should not be considered unsportsman like. The rule...

Like any advanced pool system it's challening to explain the TOI in writing without video. Even on video it took me 10 hours of demonstration and description to be satisfied that TOI is communicated properly.

Before you think it's a 10 hour video I'll put your mind at ease, it's been cut down to just over an hour. The point is there's a lot involved in explaining something that ends up being simple. I took the 3 major calculations you have to make to play pool and blended them into...

I talked briefly with Shane about a certain long, tough shot off the rail and he doesn't even connect to the actual object ball (on that particular shot), instead connects to the ball, then aims at the shadow cast by the object ball and bisects it with the center of his tip.

I don't want to try to explain what he does, I only know what I do, however, with my solid "referential index" I can understand immediately{know} how others are making their connection. It's just best...

I was at a local pool room last night hitting some balls and I kept hearing the sound of the guy on the next table hitting his shots. This seemed kind of odd, I'm usually not aware of the sound of someone hitting the cue ball, this seemed strangely different.

I watched him hit a couple of shots and he seemed to be playing very similar to how I do as far as the contact of the cue ball and the sound that it made. I approached him between games and said "you're not from around...

The "TOUCH OF INSIDE" (TOI) technique is much more than just "cuing the ball precisely," although you are correct, it is important. The Cue Ball is the target in pool, not the object ball, so the object ball just "reflects" how you hit the Cue Ball.

There are a few ways to "aim" or "create angles" in pool. The most common one is to aim a part of the cue ball at a part of the object ball and try to hit it. This is the most common and...

To do anything consistently requires some type of "system". I think players, especially in this Aiming Forum are mislead about what an aiming "system" really is and how it works. One thing you need before aiming even matters is a "system" for hitting the cue ball straight every time. If you're mishitting the cue ball there's no aiming system that could matter.

If you play well I'm sure you have some kind of pre shot routine to accomplish this with your...

I have a 4 1/2 x 9 Murrey table, the "Californian" model and I want to replace the cushions but do not know if I need profile K55 or K66. My measurements of the old cushion do not closely match the diagrams for either profile shown on the Internet.

From the wood rail to the point of the cushion on my table is 2" but the Internet diagrams show the distance for K55 as 1 1/4 " and for the K66 it shows the distance is 1 1/8". Possibly I have to disassemble...