Long and short game.

[Khaos]

Wondered if anyone else had this or if they get this and how you over came it..

I played last night and managed to equal my high match break of 31 yay, getting better.
My long potting is in my practice partners words "sensational",
And I must admit that you leave me a long shot, straight away I know the angle and 9/10 it goes in.
But when I'm in the balls I lose it.

I pot the long ones and get myself in an then muck up, maybe it's concentration.

Anyone care to share?

[zach123]

Seems to happen to a me and a lot of the people in the club I go to. So what I do now is I concentrate on my short game in practice and when someone goes for their long pots and miss I can get in and make a 30 break or possibly more. I now only go for long shots when I can find an angle to get back to baulk or leave nothing better on. I think that when you go for a long pot your more relaxed because its one point while when your in the balls you know what's possible and this tenses you up so you ruin the break. That's what I find anyway.

[nrage]

Wondered if anyone else had this or if they get this and how you over came it..

I played last night and managed to equal my high match break of 31 yay, getting better.
My long potting is in my practice partners words "sensational",
And I must admit that you leave me a long shot, straight away I know the angle and 9/10 it goes in.
But when I'm in the balls I lose it.

I pot the long ones and get myself in an then muck up, maybe it's concentration.

Anyone care to share?

I have exactly the same issue, most of the time. In my case I definitely think it's concentration, having to think more about position and getting the power "just right" and actually just "aiming" properly. I think on the long pots I make a conscious effort to /really/ aim properly, but when I am in close I can get down on the shot without taking the proper care to really aim when I'm standing up behind the shot. As a result I get down off line and inevitably miss.

[Khaos]

I have exactly the same issue, most of the time. In my case I definitely think it's concentration, having to think more about position and getting the power "just right" and actually just "aiming" properly. I think on the long pots I make a conscious effort to /really/ aim properly, but when I am in close I can get down on the shot without taking the proper care to really aim when I'm standing up behind the shot. As a result I get down off line and inevitably miss.

I'm glad it's not just me. One thing I have noticed is that on long pots my pause is about .5 of a second longer than when I'm in the balls. For me I think this is the missing link and I'm working on it alot.
I think aswell the tendency to under estimate a pot is a problem for lots of people like myself.

[Khaos]

Pots

I have exactly the same issue, most of the time. In my case I definitely think it's concentration, having to think more about position and getting the power "just right" and actually just "aiming" properly. I think on the long pots I make a conscious effort to /really/ aim properly, but when I am in close I can get down on the shot without taking the proper care to really aim when I'm standing up behind the shot. As a result I get down off line and inevitably miss.

I'm glad it's not just me. One thing I have noticed is that on long pots my pause is about .5 of a second longer than when I'm in the balls. For me I think this is the missing link and I'm working on it alot.
I think aswell the tendency to under estimate a pot is a problem for lots of people like myself.

[LittleMissAlexa]

might be down to complacency

[nrage]

I'm glad it's not just me. One thing I have noticed is that on long pots my pause is about .5 of a second longer than when I'm in the balls. For me I think this is the missing link and I'm working on it alot.
I think aswell the tendency to under estimate a pot is a problem for lots of people like myself.

I think zach makes a good point also, I don't feel as nervous on a long pot as I do when I get in the balls. Even if the long pot is likely to leave something - that doesn't make me as nervous as bollocksing up a good chance to make a break. Making a break/improving my game is more important to me than winning the frame most of the time.

For example, I made an amazing clearance the other day. I was 17 points behind with 24 on (brown, blue..) and I cleared them all, granted one pot was purest fluke, but the rest were either moderately tough or down right difficult and not only did I feel no pressure I was 100% certain of the potting angle and played with no hesitation the whole time. It's maddening to play like that then, and miss a sitter in the balls!

The clearance went like this.. (cos I have to share.. )

White starts 3-4in from yellow-rail ~6-12in from top cushion (near yellow pocket). Brown is 2ft from the black/yellow-side corner pocket on something like a 1/2-1/4 ball angle. I get down and pot it, intending to bring the white round the table and back onto the bottom cushion for the blue which was ~1ft from the yellow corner pocket and nearly tight to the bottom rail. Position missed, I landed pretty much back where I started. So, I decided to double the blue down the table, actually intending to play the white safe onto the bottom rail. Missed the white position, but doubled the blue into the same pocket as the brown! :P White ended up just off the green rail and the pink is sitting nearly bang in the middle of the table with a 1/2 ball angle to the middle pocket. The black is sitting over the opposite middle, less than 1ft from the bag so all I have to do is roll the pink in to get position. I play the pink a little hard as I am worried about the cueing off the rail, the pink goes in, but I land 4-6in from the same rail again.. so black into the middle is a difficult cut. Instead of the cut I decide to play it to the end pocket, why, because I can just "see" the BOB/angle. I get down and play it and in it goes.. the guys watching were a bit flabbergasted by this stage, but congratulated me on "the best clearance I've ever seen" .. I suspect they thought the blue was intentional

[Khaos]

Nice work mate.
I played a game the othe night I needed pink to win and the other guy needed pink and black. The black was sitting over the black pocket on the green side .
I was 3-4 off the black cushion. Pink was just off blue spot. I just saw the angle got down potted the pink in the yellow pocket and screwed back for the black.
Felt no pressure at all and had about 10 people watching

[HemiRR]

Wondered if anyone else had this or if they get this and how you over came it..

And I must admit that you leave me a long shot, straight away I know the angle and 9/10 it goes in.
But when I'm in the balls I lose it.

I pot the long ones and get myself in an then muck up, maybe it's concentration.

Anyone care to share?

I notice that many players (including myself) tend to 'crowd' themselves when they are in the balls. ie. long shots fully streched out = maximum sighting (like a rifle); short shots crowded = reduced sighting (like a pistol). By this I mean that players are often choked up on the cue so there is less cue between eyes and cue ball and therefore less sighting distance.

When I practice I play the fully set off the blue spot with the cue ball on the baulk line near the yellow and again with the cue ball near the green. The rest on my practice is focused on set ups around the pink and black.

When I am in stroke (getting rarer as 60 yrs fades behind me) I can run the balls well because I seldom miss blacks off the spot. 20 years ago I was able to run over 70 balls off the black spot with no straight in mini draw backs for the next shot i.e. only ball on table is on the black spot, pot it and respot playing from where the cue ball comes to rest. Straight in shots must graw to the rail.

[HemiRR]

Wondered if anyone else had this or if they get this and how you over came it..

And I must admit that you leave me a long shot, straight away I know the angle and 9/10 it goes in.
But when I'm in the balls I lose it.

I pot the long ones and get myself in an then muck up, maybe it's concentration.

Anyone care to share?

I notice that many players (including myself) tend to 'crowd' themselves when they are in the balls. ie. long shots fully streched out = maximum sighting (like a rifle); short shots crowded = reduced sighting (like a pistol). By this I mean that players are often choked up on the cue so there is less cue between eyes and cue ball and therefore less sighting distance.

When I practice I play the fully set off the blue spot with the cue ball on the baulk line near the yellow and again with the cue ball near the green. The rest on my practice is focused on set ups around the pink and black.

When I am in stroke (getting rarer as 60 yrs fades behind me) I can run the balls well because I seldom miss blacks off the spot. 20 years ago I was able to run over 70 balls off the black spot with no straight in mini draw backs for the next shot i.e. only ball on table is on the black spot, pot it and respot playing from where the cue ball comes to rest. Straight in shots must graw to the rail.

[pottr]

I'm the exact opposite. Although it could be down to practice.

When I'm in the balls, I'm quite deadly and I have a pretty good safety game. My long potting of late is average and this frustrates me. It's become a guage for how well I'm playing because it's the only part of my game which has no consistency.

[LittleMissAlexa]

like i said before its complacency with short potting you feel its in and put even more thought into position and forget the pot simple science

[nrage]

I notice that many players (including myself) tend to 'crowd' themselves when they are in the balls. ie. long shots fully streched out = maximum sighting (like a rifle); short shots crowded = reduced sighting (like a pistol). By this I mean that players are often choked up on the cue so there is less cue between eyes and cue ball and therefore less sighting distance.

I must check this next time I practice. Also, I have found that for shots where the object ball is very close I can't always immediately "see" the BOB spot/angle I need, whereas when I used to play pool and not get so low on the cue it was much easier. Do players get lower for long range shots and stay more upright in the balls do you think? I know sometimes you're forced to be more upright when cueing over balls, or similar, but assuming you've got a simple hand on table shot would you be as low as on a long pot?

When I am in stroke (getting rarer as 60 yrs fades behind me) I can run the balls well because I seldom miss blacks off the spot. 20 years ago I was able to run over 70 balls off the black spot with no straight in mini draw backs for the next shot i.e. only ball on table is on the black spot, pot it and respot playing from where the cue ball comes to rest. Straight in shots must graw to the rail.

I have only managed 5-6 blacks off the spot, and a few of those were mini draw backs (which I can't always manage consistently well) so this is something I need to practice /a lot more/

[nrage]

like i said before its complacency with short potting you feel its in and put even more thought into position and forget the pot simple science

Maybe.. but I think for me it's the opposite. Because of my bad results in the balls I think I may be over compensating, over thinking, and starting to doubt my potting ability.

[zach123]

I'm glad it's not just me. One thing I have noticed is that on long pots my pause is about .5 of a second longer than when I'm in the balls. For me I think this is the missing link and I'm working on it alot.
I think aswell the tendency to under estimate a pot is a problem for lots of people like myself.

I think zach makes a good point also, I don't feel as nervous on a long pot as I do when I get in the balls. Even if the long pot is likely to leave something - that doesn't make me as nervous as bollocksing up a good chance to make a break. Making a break/improving my game is more important to me than winning the frame most of the time.

For example, I made an amazing clearance the other day. I was 17 points behind with 24 on (brown, blue..) and I cleared them all, granted one pot was purest fluke, but the rest were either moderately tough or down right difficult and not only did I feel no pressure I was 100% certain of the potting angle and played with no hesitation the whole time. It's maddening to play like that then, and miss a sitter in the balls!

The clearance went like this.. (cos I have to share.. )

White starts 3-4in from yellow-rail ~6-12in from top cushion (near yellow pocket). Brown is 2ft from the black/yellow-side corner pocket on something like a 1/2-1/4 ball angle. I get down and pot it, intending to bring the white round the table and back onto the bottom cushion for the blue which was ~1ft from the yellow corner pocket and nearly tight to the bottom rail. Position missed, I landed pretty much back where I started. So, I decided to double the blue down the table, actually intending to play the white safe onto the bottom rail. Missed the white position, but doubled the blue into the same pocket as the brown! :P White ended up just off the green rail and the pink is sitting nearly bang in the middle of the table with a 1/2 ball angle to the middle pocket. The black is sitting over the opposite middle, less than 1ft from the bag so all I have to do is roll the pink in to get position. I play the pink a little hard as I am worried about the cueing off the rail, the pink goes in, but I land 4-6in from the same rail again.. so black into the middle is a difficult cut. Instead of the cut I decide to play it to the end pocket, why, because I can just "see" the BOB/angle. I get down and play it and in it goes.. the guys watching were a bit flabbergasted by this stage, but congratulated me on "the best clearance I've ever seen" .. I suspect they thought the blue was intentional

I weren't saying everyone merely some people in my club. Other week my friend was hitting in screamers but in the balls lose his nerve and leave me an open chance. I've noticed this with a few people and do it myself. Probably why i can't improve my highest break