Another bad patch, any tips?

[Strickimicki]

Hi all,

I'm going through another bad patch, and that after qualifying for Germany's second highest league for the coming season. When on form my game is mediocre to fairly good, but now it's just fallen apart. I'm missing the easiest of pots, sometimes missing the point of contact on the object-ball by half a ball (Yes, half a f---ing ball). I have the odd wake up moment were I string a very good sixty to 70 break together but these a few and far between. I was even on century course again on sunday, missing the last red along the cushion with the rest, getting position on the black.

So all is not lost, but these are hard times for someone like me who takes his game very seriously. I've been close to tears a few times, and can't play as loose as I normally would, as on every shot I'm so tensed up and expecting to miss. After around 5 or 6 pots that dissolves and I can start playing, but it's getting to that point is so difficult. I'm playing most of the time against a very talented player who takes up every possibility to punish me which makes things even more depressing.

And on top of everything else the luck has left me, my opponent misses/makes a bad shot and I'm left in the middle of the reds with nothing to go for, or I miss/play safe and leave sitters what ever I try.

HELP, Or Tablets required.

Brian.

[Terry Davidson]

stricki:

I've been going through a terrible patch lately and couldn't figure it out, one day I'd run a ton or two (in practice) and then the next i couldn't run 40 in the line-up!

So yesterday I'd had enough and I set up my video camera on a tripod over a top pocket and then videoed myself shooting balls into that pocket (no object ball, just the cueball) and what I saw gave me quite a shock. Here I though my technique was pretty good but things happen so fast under actual conditions it's tough to see them.

I looked great on the backswing but on the delivery my whole upper body was moving to the right almost one inch right from the start of the delivery, so before I hit the cueball. When I did go through the cueball of course it was right-to-left and it's no wonder my long potting was really suffering. Worked on that problem all day and I'm still delivering right-to-left but I've stopped the movement at least and the movement through the cueball isn't quite so bad but still visible on camera.

The really bad thing I saw was at the end of the delivery I was unconciously bringing the cue back onto line so without the video camera and Kinovea to do frame-by-frame analysis I never would have seen it.

So my recommendation is to somehow get a video camera and a tripod and set it up over a top pocket and then shoot cueballs into the pocket at varying speeds, all the way from a dead-weight P1 up to P10 for maximum power. Get Kinovea on your computer and watch each backswing and delivery in frame-by-frame and look for ANY sideways movement at all in the body and in the cue. Focus the camera on the cueball so your whole cue, head and shoulder is just in the frame.

I had NO IDEA I was moving this much on every shot, even the low power ones until I watched the frame-by-frame video. I believe we all get into bad habits and if we don't control them they become an integral part of our technique and then they become VERY hard to break. This is what has happened to me over the past 6 months and I just know I'll be working on this for quite some time to break myself of this bad habit.

Terry

[Strickimicki]

Thanks Terry I will do just that, again it sounds like sound advice. My game is always up and down, from the point of potting the craziest of shots to missing sitters over the pockets. I think this is partly the reason I love the game, because it's always so very close to hating it!

Thanks again, (Now where can I get a good camera dead cheap?)

Brian.

[Terry Davidson]

stricki:

I have a high-end Sony HD camera which cost me around $600(CAN) a few years back. I see a similar model is now under $300 so about 200quid or maybe a little less would get you a good camera with a USB connection. Mine has a 160Gb internal hard drive and I like that since I can record for 90 minutes with it although I have to admit I have rarely gone over 30 minutes with either myself or a student.

So if you can find a camera with say a 60Gb hard drive or even one that takes the 60Gb chips that should give you all you need. Remember to get a tripod too. Any camera tripod will work as they all have the same adaptors on the bottom

Terry