My Best Advice

October 20, 2010

My Best Advice

Once again, I have to preface with the assumptions that you want to become a better player and that

you are able and willing to put in some effort to achieve that goal.

I’ll begin by suggesting a few good things for you to do before I get to “My Best Advice&quot;.

Read

Pretty much everything about playing pool is both known and documented, either in print or on the

web. You can find inexhaustible sources of material to read if you want. I have dozens of instructional

books on playing pool. Andrea’s favourite pick is Phil Capelle’s “Play Your Best Pool”. Even if you think

you know the topics already, it’s a great reinforcement of the principles and basics of pool.

Watch Videos

There are tons of great videos out there. Some of them are free and other aren’t. Utube has over

5,300 hits when you search for Billiards. They fall into several categories; matches between

professional players, trick shots, interviews with pros, and instruction. Watching the pros will give you

a look at the various styles that they use. Try to figure out shat is good and not so good about them.

Look for things that you might want to change or improve in your game.

Find Capable Instruction

There are many instructors on the web with a lot of good resources for you. There are also a few

people around Victoria that would be suitable. My favourite online site would be: http://

joetucker.net/. Joe has lots of free stuff available as well as paid for materials. He is a first-rate

instructor with a great style of teaching. Locally you can give Andrea or myself a call.

Ask questions

If you can’t figure it out yourself, ask somebody that knows. That’s the efficient way to do it. There is

always somebody better out there and they will usually be willing to talk about things. The other

perspectives that you will hear by asking questions are valuable in themselves.

Think

You have a brain (well, most of you) so use it. Try to understand why things happen. Once you

understand why things happen you can begin to control where the cue ball goes and how it behaves.

Also, trying to reason out the best approach for a given situation is important. The simpler that the

solution is, the more reliable it will be. That translates into long-term success. Once again, if you

don’t understand, ask!

Watch Yourself

Get a video camera and watch yourself. I love watching myself on a pool table. It is such a valuable

tool. Things can subtlety change over time and watching yourself to spot those bad habits creeping in

will help you get back to where you should be. Watch for body movement, wrist twisting, bad

alignment, popping your head up and anything else that you can spot. Failing that, knowledgable

people can help you discover your flaws.

Practice, Practice, Practice

There is no substitute for practice. Practice is where you should do your learning and experimenting.

Practice is not playing games against an opponent or playing in league. Practice is time spent at the

table on your own, or with a partner that has a similar set of learning goals.

My Best Advice

Be careful who you listen to. Everybody thinks they understand the game and wants to tell you all

about it. More often than not they are just wrong. Every week I hear people trying to explain things

about pool and they are wrong. I doesn’t take much to perturb the proper explanations of pool, and

any misinformation can destroy all of your efforts to improve and gain consistency. I can only think of

three or four people in this city that I would trust to instruct. Again,

Larry Wilson