Appetite For Pool

Here’s what to do:

Step 1.  Take ball in hand behind 9 and shoot the 9 into the side.  Note:  you could also try to squeeze it past the 8 ball in the corner but then you risk hitting the 8 ball or worse not leaving yourself enough room to work shooting the 10 ball .   Roll the ball to position 2.

Step 2.  Shoot the 10 in the side with some slight draw to position 3.  Don’t hit it too hard as the cue ball does not have to travel very far.  It would be best to  leave the cue ball short of location 3 so that you don’t have  a steep angle on the 12.   When you have a full pocket to make a ball in it is important to not get too fancy. (Which none of us have ever done…)

Step 3.  Shoot the 12 in the corner with a stop shot or by hitting the cue ball just below center to position 4.

Step 4.  Shoot the  11 into the corner.  The key here is to not let the cue ball roll up past position 5 so that you have an easy shot on the game winner.   Another option would be to let the cue ball roll past and come back but again that is a bit riskier as you are letting the cue ball travel further than it needs to.

Step 5. Make the 8 ball in the corner.   Make sure you have a resting place for the cue ball in mind so that you don’t give away a game that you should have won.

Let me know what you think?

How do you decide who to listen to?  How do you get motivated?  Where do you find inspiration, affirmation and get your determination… Without pondering the constellation or entering inebriation; repeat this incantation: I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog gone it… people like me.

Approachability and attitude can take you places you never imagined or  dreamt possible. When you stop thinking and start doing you can kick down doors, run through walls, fly over hurdles, and kick it like Bruce Lee.

“Hello Again, I don’t Know Why,  Like an Unchained Melody, We didn’t start the fire,  Remember When, Pretty pretty Peggy Sue,  was Walking in Memphis,  when a Little Red Corvette, drove Over the Hills and Far Away, she was Taking it Easy, On the Road to Nowhere, Crazy, Maybe Baby…, but I love Rock and Roll, So Unchain My Heart, because You’re My Soul and Inspiration,  and I can Never Let You Go, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight,  Shake it Up,  Let’s Twist and Shout,  Get This Party Started,  because We’ve got Tonight,  and someday When the Levee Breaks,  you’ll be Out of Time,  and together we will float Into the Mystic, inspiration it’s Magic… ” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0DJ8hWgNes

Faithfully,

                                                                                        – John (ny Ringo)

Do you have any favorites songs?   No Spice Girls….

The Food Channel has been on way too much lately so here goes:

Ingredients that you will need:  Positive attitude,  Set of structured drills,  Table to practice on, Stroke trainer, Coach,  Competitions to play in, Proper fundamentals, Desire to learn,  Rain Man like focus…

Step 1:  Practice focused drills for 1 bagllion hours. (very technical)

Welcome to Pool's Diners, Drive ins, and Dives

Step 2 :  Mix in the use of properly maintained training devices.  Some examples include:  Elephant Balls, Wrist guard,  and chalk holder.

Step 3:  Fold in 2-3 hrs of focused practice per day.

Step 4:  Dash in paper practice for 1hr each week (see paper practice post).

Step 5:  Sprinkle in Tournaments and League play to get used to competitive pressures.

Step 6:  Throw in a Coach that will work with you and get him or her on your schedule.

Step 7:  Sprinkle in occasional goal setting reviews and read books by Kevin Elko and John Maxwell.

Step 8: Bake for 5-10 years (2-3 if you are Jeanette Lee and opt to instead live in a Pool Hall for 24 hours a day).

Step 9: This one is crucial: Bash head on slate in order to forget how hard you have been working and start again at Step 1 when your game comes out half-baked.

Playing great pool is about knowing when to take a Big Bite, seeing how it tastes, and changing your recipe through trial and error.

-”Guy Fieri”

Elvis aka Gary will be leaving the building next week because he is ... well a monster, and too aggresive for the people vacationing 30 feet from him...

Are there gators lurking just below the surface of your pool game?  

Just like this ten foot monster( or the black racer snake that I almost stepped on today) sometimes they are hard to see and can be hazardous to your health (But don’t worry the lady at the front desk said she would Google the snake who’s head I almost danced on) on my way to the pool and assured me it wasn’t poisonous.  I was a bit skeptical only because….well, she had to Google it!  Rule of thumb: if you almost step on a snake and someone has to google it you might be in trouble.   So far so good… I’ll say this for Hilton Head, at least the gators and snakes are friendly.

There’s a point here somewhere and one of them is definitely don’t wear sandals on vacation.  The other and more important point is that evaluating your own game is really tough, if not impossible from our own perspective.  That is why from time to time you should videotape yourself playing and make sure your fundamentals look solid.

You never know when a gator might be lurking just beneath the surface…

Thanks for reading and remember to watch your step!

-John

If you are married there is a good chance you will get ” invited” to go see Ranger and the gang… Just like in real life getting out of this one is trickier than it looks. The idea is to use a short draw stroke and bring the cue ball back to the long rail closest to us. Then shoot the 8 ball in the same pocket.
Here’s what to do:

1. Choke up on your stick and hold it near the very top of the wrap. ( this will shorten your bridge and soften up your stroke).

2. Hit low right on the cue ball and do your best to bring the cue ball back to the near rail to slow it down.

3. Ideally you will now have a somewhat steep, but makable shot on the 8 ball.

Let me know how it turns out, I’m sure it will give that movie a run for it’s money…

Thanks for reading! Remember:

-Ranger danger

It’s no secret that I love music, but when it comes to the best of all time it’s gotta be Weird Al… uhhh, ahhh… ok not really it is: Patsy Cline. Don’t get me wrong The Cars, Roy Orbison, Hall and Oates, Huey Lewis, Michael Buble, and countless others are near the top… but Patsy has the greatest voice of all time.  She was born in the Shenandoah Valley on September 8th in 1932.   Sources site that her talent was obvious and that she was destined for success.  If you’ve ever heard her sing it would be hard to doubt that she would eventually have enormous success as a singer.   Patsy’s first hit came at the age of 25 when she won a t.v singing contest singing “Walking after Midnight” (celebrating patsy).  

Here are some of her accomplishments:

• 10 million sold-2005 (Diamond Album) Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits
• #1 Juke Box Record “Crazy”
• #1 Female Artist 1961 and 1962
• #1 Song of 1962 “I Fall to Pieces” (c.p. 2)
• Ranked #11 on Vh1′s greatest women of Rock and Roll
• 1st woman solo artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Tragically  she died in a plane crash in Tennessee at the age of 30.   But her impact and music is un deniable and her husband Charlie Dick still continues to support her memory and fans to this day ( everything I’ve found says he is very supportive so I plan on trying to meet him if it is at all possible)    So what does this have to do with pool?    A lot, or maybe nothing at all, the answer is it totally depends on you.   The hardest part of making an impact or doing something great is staying consistently motivated and inspired to take action now.   And to me that is what Patsy’s music and life is the perfect reminder of.   The world owes her a great deal, but a bigger question is: What will it owe us?  To me not trying to do something great is as “Crazy” as it gets.

Check this out:      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzq5X-p2C0Y

                      Thanks for reading( I mean listening)

                    -Tom Parker

Reading the layout of the table:  look for any problem balls that will often dictate which side you need to approach that shot from and often the rest of the rack can be played out as normal.   This is critical when playing 8 ball!  Asses whether stripes or solids have the easiest path to and through the 8 ball.  It is also important to note any clusters that could create problems/safety opportunities.   The mistake made often (me included) is making as many balls as we can.  It is crucial to only attempt to close out a game if you are certain(for me it is 80%) that you will be able to do so.   The answer is  to look for an easy ball to make that puts you in better position for a strong safety that a) forces you opponent to give you ball in hand or b) forces them to break up a cluster.

Thanks for reading!

I recently had the chance to read (and hear) the author from Nerves of steel: Dr. Kevin Elko.  Aside from having a very thick Southern accent he is also an amazing, energetic, motivated, and passionate person.  He  has  many fantastic quotes and I wanted to quickly mention two that really stuck with me:

1.  People who are good work hard,  People who are great work on themselves.

and

2.  Everything has a price, the price of winning is discipline.

Wow!  If you think about number 1 we all know people who are incredibly hard workers and as a result are very good at what they do;  which is great.   But what would happen if they spent a few hours a week or each day working on themselves?   The way they think, communicate, talk, write ?( there aren’t enough hours in the day to save my writing)  The results would be unreal!

Henry Ford had was no dummy check out his take on the above:

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few  do it.

Point # 2 may seem simple but in the fast paced day-to-day it is really easy to lose sight of the big picture.   This is especially true while playing pool.  If during a shot I am thinking about how much I don’t like the Neal Young song that just came on…. I will miss every time (and like that song even less).

Check out Dr. Elko’s book:  Nerves of Steel.

Thanks for reading

-The (Northern)Southern man

For this week I thought it would be helpful to work with the bridge for a few minutes each day.  While not always needed on a 8ft table you will definitely need to be able to successfully use the bridge on a 9ft table.  If you’re anything like me you probably haven’t spent a lot of time practicing shots with the bridge.  Being the natural rocket scientist that I am the first thing I did when I got my table back in high school was to break the bridge in half and throw it out the hay door window.  Which at the time seemed like the cool thing to do; but in retrospect not using a bridge correctly in a game can and will cost you the match.

Good Luck and Don’t break your bridge (at least until after you’re done practicing)

not as hard to catch as advertised....

Sometimes the key to playing good pool is finding the right tempo.  Not too fast that you miss, but not too slow that you …well, miss. Gingy can teach us a lot about tempo and playing with rhythm.  I’ve seen suggestions to practice using the same number of strokes and eye patterns each and every time…no exceptions!  I guess the idea is to make it second nature and consistent; which sounds like a good idea.   The problem is that I practice this a lot, and am pretty sure as soon as I play in a match, this (along with many other things) flies directly out the window…  At first I thought this was a really bad thing!   So doing what most idiots do; I decided to focus even harder on “the right mechanics” (number of strokes, eye pattern, elbow position) while playing.   This is what most sports or WWII fighter pilots may refer to as: a death spiral, or death roll… whatever it is it doesn’t end well.  To quote Allen Iverson:  When we’re talkin about Practice… practice? (somehow he uses it 15 more times and turns it into a question).   But, he has a point(I think…): practice is different than games.  We can’t think and play at exactly the same time.  We need to trust what we’ve practiced and continue working on our fundamentals so that they become second nature.

By not thinking at the moment we are shooting; we will all be run, run, running racks as fast as we can… (but not too fast or you may end up far, far, away from your best pool game)                                     -Gingy