[Danny Harriman]

Originally Posted by billiard dave 7

Bad shot making, Diamond's, dogging end rack patterns, dirty balls sticking to racks, scratching off break shots, lack of focus, sent me to 3 cushion.

OK - thanks for keep in us in your loop. But not a good reasons to quit playing completely. As you must know I play a little 3 cushion also. Always interesting to hear what Motivates people to learn. You will learn some systems from Billiards that will improve your one pocket big time. No reason to 'leap frog'. Sounds like you did not have a table at yer house or you could have corrected the cleaning issues. I guess that's what I'm supposed to say eh. Its better than OK to find big ball, but don't forget about shooting straight.

[Straightpool_99]

Originally Posted by billiard dave 7

Bad shot making, Diamond's, dogging end rack patterns, dirty balls sticking to racks, scratching off break shots, lack of focus, sent me to 3 cushion.

Ok. Sorry to hear that, but 3 cushion is a great game, so I guess you'll enjoy that.

That being said, there are solutions to your problems.

Scratching off breakshots is one thing that should happen very rarely, and suggest to me that you were probably playing some of them the wrong way. There is a steep learning curve in this game if you come from 9/8 ball, part of that is learning the breakshots. There are subtle variations to some of them which take a long time to figure out for yourself, but can be learned quickly from a knowledgable person. Maybe a short lesson is all it would take? Worth a shot.

On Diamonds (I assume you mean Diamond tables), I understand what you mean. They are not the easiest tables on which to play straight pool. I suggest a normal Gold Crown to start. If you have to play on Diamonds, there are adjustment that could be made in order to increase pocketability of especially break shots. The rails are very bouncy, so rail breakshots could be shot a lot slower for instance. That's important, because they sometimes reject hard shots along the rails, yet suck down the slow shots like a vacuum cleaner.

On clean/dirty balls, it is very important to clean the balls. If your regular pool halls have dirty balls, I suggest buying some ball cleaning solution and bring a microfiber towel with you. 3-4 minutes of cleaning should give you balls that will react much better. It's worth it.

On lack of focus..We all struggle with that. Not much I can really say.

But shotmaking...That's a big subject on which I know quite a lot, since it used to be my biggest weakness. I think the biggest thing I ever did was to adopt snooker fundamentals. Secondly I realized that I had to make sure I had decided all the factors of the shot (speed, english, aim) while standing up, so that I could focus only on pocketing the ball when in my stance, and ignoring everything else. It all ties into the focus thing.

[billiard dave 7]

I did play a lot of straight pool on Gold Crowns growing up. Then I went south in the navy and ran into 9 ball more. Played fairly well, then less and less. Once you start to dog, it's hard not too. I didn't know what it meant to dog when younger. Don't get me wrong. I missed but never dogged. Playing 3 cushion for 10 years on so so tables sealed the deal on pocketing balls well anymore. If I play pool I always try to play and recommend straight to anyone for practice. Thanks for the constructive comments.

[Danny Harriman]

Originally Posted by billiard dave 7

I did play a lot of straight pool on Gold Crowns growing up. Then I went south in the navy and ran into 9 ball more. Played fairly well, then less and less. Once you start to dog, it's hard not too. I didn't know what it meant to dog when younger. Don't get me wrong. I missed but never dogged. Playing 3 cushion for 10 years on so so tables sealed the deal on pocketing balls well anymore. If I play pool I always try to play and recommend straight to anyone for practice. Thanks for the constructive comments.

That is a nice table, I would add while billiards and 14.1 are different animals, I play a lot on a non heated table and I do not find billiards hurting my straight pool game. Not trying to be obtuse here - just know that what will hurt your straight pool is lack of play. Anyhue you may have known this already, just needed someone to point it out. I use two different cues, one with conical taper 56", and one with pro taper 58", the adjustment to shorter cue and conical taper for 3 cushionwas not easy. I am rusty as of late in 14.1 - due to lack of practice and that is all. Billiards may actually be the better game but its omnipotent to think positive, or you will choke playing billiards also. Check out the book " the inner game of tennis" it can help you learn how to turn off the analytical side.

Three cushion is a beautiful game - so is straight pool, you might need a sports psychologist to help you keep from choking. To play well at either discipline you have to really love the learning process. I have a better excuse to focus on 3 cushion, I won't share it ad its a negative
the bottom line is you have to love it. I hope you don't think I'm all bark and no bite as it takes a champion to defeat me at either game. No reason to be bitter at straight pool billiard Dave.

[Straightpool_99]

I think one of the main differences between straight pool and other pool games (many except for 8 ball) is the requirement for precise vertical cueball striking. Often we are forced to play position into open space and we need precise cueball control both in terms of speed and direction. That means hitting the cueball within a mm of where we need, sometimes. We don't have the luxury of using the rails and spin to put us back into line. I think that is the main reason why so many 9 and 10 ball players struggle with straight pool, and why the game often comes naturally to snooker players. Sure, 9/10 ball players have great cueball control, but when the rails are no longer available, they lose a lot of their edge and they are not used to hitting shots at an off speed, which is another thing that may come up. Many of them are not acustomed to use the entire ball, but rather have only a few tip postions that they use and vary the speed instead...In straight pool that is no longer good enough.

Precise cueball control begins with pocketing the balls accurately in the center of the pocket. While I do realise the value of cheating the pocket, I think this is often overstated and very often leads to missed shots. When we hit the exact center of the pocket, we can hit the ball as hard as we like (not always, but nearly) and it will go in. I think I see more missed shots and position plays due to pocket cheating than I see successful shots using it, even at high levels of play. I've almost stopped doing it. I'd rather slam the shot in the center than try to finesse and cheat. It has improved my consistency quite a bit. Obviously one then needs to be able to hit the center at high speeds.

First and foremost, practising on hitting an exact area of the pocket will help you unlearn the shots that you pocket sloppily. Meany people have shots they always rattle in, rather than hit cleanly, and you can bet, when the pressure is on, that those balls are going to rattle out rather than in! That could easily shave 20,30 or even more points off your high run, IMO. Also I think many people will be surprised of the cuball control you gain, just by hitting the pockets center and the possibilities you do have (but maybe didn't realize) in situations where you have very little angle. There is a lot of cueball between maximum high/low and center.. CJ Wiley once said that having too many choices is not always good, and I agree. I've chosen to become the best I can be at hitting the exact center of the pocket, and take the position possiblities that offers me. For me that paid off and it's helped my technique as well as the ball count.

[evergruven]

nice thread..thanks and caroming uptown