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Nick Prinsloo has been playing pool for a total of 21 years, 15 years competitively. Originally a pro-level snooker player and instructor, Nick discovered 9-ball and came to the US in 1998, where he has been playing on regional tours ever since.
Lately, Nick writes more about the game than he actually plays. Nick was the Guide for Billiards at About.com for almost four years. Nick's column archive is located here. |
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Lesson 6: How To Become A Natural Player
Before we start this chapter, I want to say something that must be clearly understood: if you want to become a good player or even just improve upon your current game standard, you must take heed of what is said in the following lessons. If I say it is important to keep your head still on the shot, I mean that you will not pocket balls consistently if you don't keep it still. It may sound stupidly obvious, but it does not help to read how something must be done and then not do it. Reading these lessons is not going to turn you into a world-beater. YOU HAVE TO DO IT. Very few people have made it to the top by learning from books, simply for this reason. Secondly, you have to stick to the gradient. By that I mean following the lessons step by step. The success of this way of instruction depends almost entirely on you doing the right things in the right order. Don't jump from judging the angle to playing with advanced english. Don't try to judge the angle when you are already down on the shot. The biggest mistake I ever made was trying to play with english when I hadn't even mastered judging the angles. They say that life is too short to learn from our own mistakes, so we have to learn from the mistakes of others. Hopefully you can learn from mine. For the rest of this manual, we will follow the following gradient: (1) Judging the angle and
establishing the right technique; Copyright © About.com | ||
