Making Sure

By Nick Prinsloo

Did you address the shot correctly? Did you line it up correctly? Did you keep your eye on the object ball during the final delivery of the stroke? Did your head stay down? Most importantly, did the cue come through in a straight line? These are all questions that you should be asking yourself after dogging that makeable shot. Once you have found your answer, the next time you get a chance at the table again, or are faced with that same shot that you missed previously, you should be making dead sure that you don't make that mistake again.

Similarly, if you are an improving player (by this I mean someone who is no longer a beginner, but whose game has improved in leaps and bounds in a short space in time, like say, two years), and you suddenly find yourself stuck at a certain level, making hardly any new noticeable progress, the only way to improve markedly beyond that is to make a little more sure of your shots every time you play. Try a little harder.

What helps to make sure of every shot is to take a slight pause after your warm-up strokes, right before you execute that final stroke. It helps you time the shot correctly, and it gives your eyes the moment they need to fix themselves on the object ball before you strike the cue ball. One other habit you also want to get yourself into, is to get up from the shot if you feel unsure about it. For example, if you have lined up the shot incorrectly, and you can see that you are going to miss, get up and start over again. How often don't we try to ignore that little voice in our head that is screaming at us that we are doing it wrong, playing the shot anyway?

Once you have reached a certain level and can play almost all the shots in the book, the only thing that sets you apart from the pros is that the pros make fewer mistakes. This means putting in a little extra effort, a little thing which precedes success in any walk of life. Speaking with Charlie Williams after his win in the BCA Open 9 Ball Championships earlier this year in Las Vegas, he told me that he only missed six balls during the entire tournament. Now that's making sure!

Not all of us can play such near-perfect pool, but the essence of improvement lies in striving towards something bigger and better than what we already are, and often, bigger and better than we think we can be.

Make sure. It pays off.

Comments or questions? Email me: nick@azbilliards.com

Copyright © Nick Prinsloo