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Something interesting happened to me today. I was practicing solo for about 3 hours. For background info, my objective now is to get fluency is my cueing, and to just pot ball after ball. So I line up all 21 balls between black and brown and try to pot all of them in one go (i.e. 21 pots in a row). My best is 20 pots (i.e. one ball left), with my overall average increasing to the last 4-5 balls. I also practice the 'line-up' with 5 reds between black and pink spot (with my average also increasing to 3 black, and making 4 blacks occasionally, and 6 blacks is my best). I've been doing this for the last 2 months. During this time I've been working on my cueing, sighting, stance etc. To give you some background on my level of play, in a match, my highest break is like 30 plus (made many many years ago, and I seldom make breaks above 20, so I'm a novice for sure).
Anyway, in the last 1.5 hours today, I told myself let's try a longer back pause. So I pause for 1-2 seconds, then pot the ball. I'm definitely looking at only the object ball when I forward swing. I found that my potting improved. I occasionally 'forgot' and out of bad habit when back to my normal very short pause (but still a pause, say 0.5-1 second), but this time I took the pause to the extreme and held the cue back for even up to 3-4 seconds. Just holding the cue there for a long time before making the forwardswing. After awhile I was consistently pausing for up to 2 seconds, total standstill before I pushed my forearm forward for the forward swing.
To cut a long story shot, I began to pot almost every ball in sight. To give a comparison, if my potting was a 3/10 previously, it was now like 7-8/10 (NOT that I was only potting 3 out of 10 balls I tried. It's just a scale to give a comparison of the improvement). It was way better. On my 21 balls line up practice, I was getting down to the last few balls more regularly. I tried potting black of the spot, and all the high blacks that were 50/50 to me previously were now all going in. I tried potting blacks of the spot, and hardly missed, only not being able to proceed because i was out of position to hold the black for the next black.
I then tried some long straight blues (wondering whether I was cueing straight). Once again, I held the pause to a total standstill, then while looking at the object ball I just pushed forward. The ball went straight in. I tried another 4-5 more long straight shots, and 2 more entered, and the rest missed at the jaws. So I was pleasantly surprise that I was cueing decently straight.
The thing is, I was potting so fluidly that I did not even need to consciously check the line of aim, focus on BOC etc. On the high black and all the other pots, I just stood based on experience on what the correct angle is (i.e. I was still sizing up the line of aim, but not so methodically as I previously did, and more instinctual), and when I was down and aiming I could just 'feel' and see that the angle was right and the pot would be right. And when I was looking at the object ball during the pause and the forward swing, I did NOT focus on a single BOB point. I just looked at the whole object ball and 'read' the angle as correct.
Also, I was getting a lot more cue action with this longer pause i.e. I could get so much more screw back distance, and with control.
I really hope I can repeat this again, and that it's not a once off phenomena when the moons aligned. I believe if I can pot like how I did today, I can definitely take my game to the next level because I was potting so confidently. Hardly anything missed. Now, of course I did not become a Ronnie O'Sullivan overnight. I was potting mainly perfectly straight and 3/4 balls half table length. Also some 1/2 and 1/4 high blacks. And I definitely did miss some shots, but it was like from 30% to 80% improvement i.e. a significant difference.
Anybody had this sudden improvement experience before?
What did the pause do to make such a difference? I did not change anything else with my cueing besides the long pause today.
Is aiming the ball without focussing on the exact BOB point acceptable? I was looking solely at the object ball throughout the forwardswing (actually, I start looking at the object ball at the front pause before the backswing, and continue looking at it during the long pause and the forwardswing), but not at an exact point. Just the whole object ball in general and 'knowing' that the angle was right.
Am I just getting my hopes up?!
Anyway, in the last 1.5 hours today, I told myself let's try a longer back pause. So I pause for 1-2 seconds, then pot the ball. I'm definitely looking at only the object ball when I forward swing. I found that my potting improved. I occasionally 'forgot' and out of bad habit when back to my normal very short pause (but still a pause, say 0.5-1 second), but this time I took the pause to the extreme and held the cue back for even up to 3-4 seconds. Just holding the cue there for a long time before making the forwardswing. After awhile I was consistently pausing for up to 2 seconds, total standstill before I pushed my forearm forward for the forward swing.
To cut a long story shot, I began to pot almost every ball in sight. To give a comparison, if my potting was a 3/10 previously, it was now like 7-8/10 (NOT that I was only potting 3 out of 10 balls I tried. It's just a scale to give a comparison of the improvement). It was way better. On my 21 balls line up practice, I was getting down to the last few balls more regularly. I tried potting black of the spot, and all the high blacks that were 50/50 to me previously were now all going in. I tried potting blacks of the spot, and hardly missed, only not being able to proceed because i was out of position to hold the black for the next black.
I then tried some long straight blues (wondering whether I was cueing straight). Once again, I held the pause to a total standstill, then while looking at the object ball I just pushed forward. The ball went straight in. I tried another 4-5 more long straight shots, and 2 more entered, and the rest missed at the jaws. So I was pleasantly surprise that I was cueing decently straight.
The thing is, I was potting so fluidly that I did not even need to consciously check the line of aim, focus on BOC etc. On the high black and all the other pots, I just stood based on experience on what the correct angle is (i.e. I was still sizing up the line of aim, but not so methodically as I previously did, and more instinctual), and when I was down and aiming I could just 'feel' and see that the angle was right and the pot would be right. And when I was looking at the object ball during the pause and the forward swing, I did NOT focus on a single BOB point. I just looked at the whole object ball and 'read' the angle as correct.
Also, I was getting a lot more cue action with this longer pause i.e. I could get so much more screw back distance, and with control.
I really hope I can repeat this again, and that it's not a once off phenomena when the moons aligned. I believe if I can pot like how I did today, I can definitely take my game to the next level because I was potting so confidently. Hardly anything missed. Now, of course I did not become a Ronnie O'Sullivan overnight. I was potting mainly perfectly straight and 3/4 balls half table length. Also some 1/2 and 1/4 high blacks. And I definitely did miss some shots, but it was like from 30% to 80% improvement i.e. a significant difference.
Anybody had this sudden improvement experience before?
What did the pause do to make such a difference? I did not change anything else with my cueing besides the long pause today.
Is aiming the ball without focussing on the exact BOB point acceptable? I was looking solely at the object ball throughout the forwardswing (actually, I start looking at the object ball at the front pause before the backswing, and continue looking at it during the long pause and the forwardswing), but not at an exact point. Just the whole object ball in general and 'knowing' that the angle was right.
Am I just getting my hopes up?!
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