This Discovery Made Me A Shotmaker

Today I will share a very simple, yet powerful discovery that improved my shotmaking by a mile.

I was always pretty good at making balls and could pull off some really difficult shots. But at the same time I also missed a lot of simpler shots that I just shouldn't miss. So what discovery changed this?

Being a pool player and also a teacher caused me to spend a lot of time working on my stroke. I worked on a smooth backswing, which obviously is very important. I trained to have my arm in the right position and I did a lot of drills. But most of the time when I missed, it wasn't because of my aiming, it was still because my stroke was off.

So I took the time to have a closer look to what was off with my stroke. It turned out that it was just one little thing.

I wasn't focusing on the right thing. I was paying full attention to making the ball. 

However, in pool, you don’t control the balls, you control your cue. But what does that mean?

Imagine yourself playing pool. You face a certain shot, you make your plan, you look at the angle, then step behind the cue ball, visualize everything and walk into the shot. Now  you are down on the shot and ready to shoot. What is your job now? 

To make the ball? No - that's not your job. Your job is to push the cue forward in a straight line. That's it.

Everything you did before already decided if you will make the ball, not what you are doing when down at the shot. What you are doing when down on your shot is just pushing the cue forward in a straight line.

I realized that when playing Snooker one night. It was one of those days, where I just didn't feel it. So, I decided to work a little bit on my stroke instead, and to forget about making the balls. I just concentrated on a nice smooth backswing, pause, and a straight forward motion, I didn't even care where the object ball will eventually end.

But surprisingly, suddenly the balls started to drop. And that was because I finally concentrated on my job when down. Pushing the cue forwards. The thing you have to understand is: Once you're on the shooting line, every shot is a straight shot.

There are just two reasons we are missing. Either our stroke is off, or we are aiming wrong. If we can fix our stroke, by changing our mindset and just pushing the cue forwards, we will definitely know that it was our aim that was off. 

So your task is to develop the trust in your stroke, even if you're missing by a mile. It doesn't matter. As long as your stroke was straight. Because the amazing thing is, that in the long run - our brain and body will finally start to overwrite the wrong information and we will aim right. Because now we know for sure, it wasn't because of our stroke. Otherwise we will never know: Was it because of our stroke, our aim, or both? What should we fix? 

This really improved my consistency in making balls. I hope you got the concept, because it's very hard to describe. It's the feeling you have when down at the shot, that you have to do something special. Hit the cue ball in a special way, add a touch of English, change your aim a little bit, move the cue a little bit while shooting and stuff like that. It just makes the game a lot more complicated than it already is.