aiming practice

There is a tournament coming up this Sat, in a club with very small pockets. So, I went to practice in another club with small pockets.
I did some aiming practice with the black for two hours. I noticed some of my pots were just sort of approximated, and they would go on my regular practice table but not when the pockets are smaller. So, I missed a lot of pots.
I think one reason being that I usually aim by using fraction, which is a kind of approximation.
I then changed my aiming method, to using ghost ball. I have made up a board that I could practice at home to train my eyes to see the half diameter of the ball from various angles. I did some practice at home before I went, and I almost ran out a table during my practice. I might have missed one or two balls in the early run, but I was running the balls all the way to the black at the end. Don't remember how many balls there was.
I think this new cue is good for me, 1/2 oz lighter. I put on a new tip after I came home from my practice because it has deformed quite terribly after doing lots of draw and stun at the same spot. I think this tip is a bit too soft.
I will do some more practice at home tomorrow before I go practice. The point is to get myself comfortable with this aiming method. so I can pot all balls no matter where they may be situated.
I still have problem with some funny side pocket cuts, and the long pots. But I am sure I can get over that in time.

Safety

Today I did not have any chance to practice before I joined in the double games. I played really bad, was not able to put anything together. But I played lots of very good safety and my opponent who followed me did not really get any chances. i also snookered my opponent quite a few times and won some game when my team needed snooker.
But my potting today especially when it was getting late was very pathetic. I need to get to the club earlier tomorrow and put in some practice to get used to the angles or else I will be in trouble.

rest arm

I am starting to practice my rest arm at home doing the push motion 100 times with the cue rested on the back of my dining chair starting last night.
The rest shot is like the regular shot whereas one needs to train one's muscle to shot straight.
What I do is I try to hinge my elbow while keeping my wrist loose and push the cue straight, 100 times. I did that last night and just finished it this morning. Hopefully this would help. if I keep this up.
D is so bad with the rest and he never bothers to practice it. A lot of players are able to run more points because they could play that one tough shot with the rest. It is a very important shot.

Screw shot

Lately, I have been able to play my screw shot much better than before. I am not sure if it is the new cue or what.
The biggest improvement I think lies in my being able to actually strike the cue ball lower.
The whole weight of the cue ball will press onto my cue tip during this shot, so it is very important that my tip stays stable through the ball. I am now holding my cue a bit firmer but not tighter. What I do is I make sure the V touches the cue, and that I open up my fingers on my back swing.
My power top has also improve a lot after I started doing this.

Aiming

I have been practicing my aiming angles and it is paying off. I feel so much more confident cutting the blue into the middle with side and what not. The fine cuts are tough because you are basically aiming into emptiess. But I am able to slowly see various lines to tell me the fractions of the balls I am hitting.

The biggest problem I have is the back cut in the middle of the pink ball, angles more than 1/2 ball is a problem for me still, but I am sure more practice will solve this problem for me.

Aiming is just memory and it needs to be refreshed. There are simply angles that I do not pot in a real match often enough so I need to get myself familiar with those in practice.

The long potting into a blind pocket is getting easier for me, but I still misjudge the angles sometimes.

To see the angles precisely one needs to train one's eye. It is not an in born ability fo rus to visualize 3-d object quickly with precision. I have made a board so i can practice this at home. But I have been lazy and have not really practice that enough.

Watched some frames by Judd Trump. He shot with so much confidence. Being 5-2 down he went ofr some tough long pots and then made a 123. He missed soe easy one in some frames though.

Through practicing with K and D I have learnt so much about safties play. I am having more discipline to restrain myself from going for crazy pots, and I am getting better at keeping my stroke through long grinding matches so when my chances come up I will be able to capitalize on them, rather than missing easy shot as I have done so many times.

Another thing about aiming is that I have been counting on the forgivness of the pocket sometimes but I should have confidence that if I aim dead center the ball will go in so I shoudl hit the ball with authority rather than being timid.

Read a blog and like what I read about positive energy during a macth. I have that problem. Sometiems I feel like I am going to go into a coma in the middle of a match.

I will try to use aiming, and my stroke timing to put myself in a nice rhythm no matter what so I will be able to perform. That is why aiming is so important because you really need to know the angles so well or else you will double check yourself and then miss.

Today I could not go practice but tomorrow I will go early and then have a practice session again playing double.

This week my highest break in a match has only been 38 or so so I need to put something more decent together before the end of the week.

New cue

I switched to a new cue and am now feeling much better.
The new cue is .5oz lighter and feels really good.
I also have been working on my pre-shot rhythm. Now, I would time my shot with the back swing, and draw back the cue approx the amount I want on my actual shot, so I am giving my mind and my body a signal as to how hard or soft I want to hit the shot, and then when i pull my trigger, I try to just go through the ball with the same timing, without actually forcing the shot, or taking anything back.
I practiced this yesterday for two hours. After a while, my stroke became very fluid and everything just fell into place to the point whereas I no longer need to watch my timing. It was beautiful/

slacking off

Have been too busy and distracted to practice systematically.
Will get back to practice again in a systematic manner.
Change a new cue, and use a new grip, more loose than before.
Need to find a new rhythm, may be a bit faster.
Anyway, safety play has improved, but break building is declined.
Will report later of progress.

Too serious

I am a bit upset because of how someone told me I was too serious about the game. I have been thinking about it a lot, and I have come to the conclusion that I need to be as serious and focused as I can because this game is very tough to learn. Those who complains do not know what they are talking about, since they are and will never be any good.

But I do understand why they say that, because they are so used to playing with someone who chats and laughs and so on. But that is not the kind of players I am interested in playing with.

Anyway, time to practice again.

PS My birthday today and I had some great surprise and a very wonderful time. So wonderful.

grip

Went to play S today, he played real well. I played real poorly.
Anyway, last night practiced and then played some guy and ended up feeling really depressed because he accused me of many things which really upset me.
But anyway, things are not always perfect in this world.
Back onto the game.
I am now very confused with all the potting angles once I started doing the pot black exercise, I keep missing! It is crazy!
I also video typed myself and I think my grip is a bit too loose causing a lot of miss.
So, I tried to make sure I have three fingers on the cu, rather than two, and it seems to be much better, firmer I should say.
The thing is I did not know that but I actually do the tightening of the grip quite naturally now(I have been worrying about not doing that without knowing that I am doing it.) so I should just focus on delivering that cue straight.
I believe the fact that I could put three fingers on my cue with the thinner butt is the reason why I liked that cue, although it was very light.
However, I want to give it another try tomorrow.
PS
I listened to the Christian channel today, and it gave me peace. I think I shoudl always remind myself to be kind, and remember God' grace. So, finally, I can get over what happened and move on.

Sunday

I went to practice for two hours today, because I had to do something for the rest of the day.
Did a bunch of long potting exercise, and the long stun follow and draw shots drills.
My draw is still not quite center, with my tops, if I try to hit real high, I tend to put unintentional running(right) on the ball.
Spent quite a bit of time on the black. Actually I really should do this more often especially when there is no one around. I tried to see where the ball would end up with 3/4 and half black, and how to get shape for me next red in various situations.
I notice that if I stun my black with a thick 3/4, I can almost get my cue ball to go back up to the pink spot after hitting the cushion. So, I can use that as my guide line for my carom of the reds to get position.
I stopped at 1/2 ball black, and will continue the more thinner black tomorrow. I have found it very hard to keep doing this.
So, I played a frame by myself but I asked myself every shot where I wanted my cue ball to be and how I want to play my next shot.
At around 4pm more people started moving in so i left.
All in all, a very productive 2 hours.

Sat

Won the tournament, pretty easy, no good players.
Highest run in the tournament was only 32 or 33 by me.
I watched some Marco Fu video and was trying to copy him, which did not go too well for long shots.
I then relaxed my grip and shoulder and was making more balls.
I read some training material and basically it talks about a triangle area for the cue ball for every shot. The ideal idea is to play the cue ball in the wide end of the triangle and to move toward this wide end to have a wide margin of error. In snooker, a lot of times I play to cut across the narrow end of this triangle.
Another thing I am working on is instead of practicing what i know I can do, I am working on shots that are very difficult, in order to expand my range of shots.
Today i tried to pot the long red close to the cushion to draw back for the blue, surprisingly I actually made quite a few of them.
Another shot is to make a back cut into the corner and stun follow for the black, and to stun follow a narrow long straight red for the black.
These shots are generally considered difficult but they are actually not--as long as you can sight precisely you can make them.
To be able to make this kind of shots put a lot of pressure on a regular opponent because they would not know where to hide when I can pot seemingly from everywhere and anywhere.
When the balls are close to the cushion, I have found that it is important for me not to look at the cushion and focus on the ball only, so I need to almost block out the cushion and the pocket in order to cue straight. I tend to twist my wrist otherwise because the pot looks thinner than it is due to the cushion.
I made some nice cut shots today, and one quarter ball green followed by a quarter ball brown to win the frame. I was very confident with both pots and that is because I have been practicing these cut angles regularly in the last week.
I need to also practice my siding shots. Once it is past half table I have no control nor consistency with my side shots.
I missed one shot down the cushion twice today, I need to work on that shot tomorrow. Also, I missed the black quite a few times again. I think it is time to get back into potting black from all angles, especially the angles more than half balls.

Friday Practice

I tried to switch to a new cue, with a shorter length and a bit lighter, but could not get on with it. Went to play S on Thursday and played quite bad. So, back to my original cue.
Today, made a 53 against K during our first game. Was on a black but got distracted by the waitress, really made me frustrated and kind of lost my momentum.
Played some partners afterwards and found that to be really boring. I hate playing double with really bad players--the game took forever and sometimes I never have a shot in the whole game.
Just feel like I have wasted my time.
Played E a couple games later, played well in the first game and won, then played real bad and lost the second game on the blue ball. I was very tired, missed three blacks and very simple ball in hand shots. Just not there.
I am not sure what it is but it is the third tip I have put on this cue and still it does not feel right. I need to get on the practice table and figure it out.
I would have finished the game in one visit if I only made a few more balls. If I made that black i would have made a 60 with 7 reds left, then another red and pink or black would have put me at 67 or 68 with 6 red left (75), so one more color after that would have been enough.
In other words, I only need to make that black, another black or pink, then one more red and color. I really lost my momentum after that. Live and learn I guess.