Yes, I’m now taking pool lessons. A couple friends of ours gave Christy and I 3 lessons each from Rod Gustafson, Certified BCA pool instructor. I had my first lesson Friday the 30th and my next one is Tuesday the 3rd.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from a pool lesson — I mean, do we work on standing for an hour? The bridge and placement of my fingers on the cue? Where my eyes are looking? or do we actually get to shoot pool and I learn tips here and there? I truly was lost as to what would come my way.
So what did happen? We worked on fundamentals first, consisting of stroke and aim. Some follow, some draw, and finding out where I am in terms of being able to hit the ball in the center and hit where I aim. I have a bunch of work to do in both of these areas, so that’s what I practiced today at Shooter’s. During the lesson we also did some talking at the dining table vs the pool table, to discuss certain philosophies and theories about practice, what to work on, and what’s worth spending time on at the pool table. We ended the session with some actual game playing (8- and 9-ball) and he threw in a “toolbox tip”, as he calls it. I know I’m going to enjoy the rest of the lessons and if I get as much out of them as I did the first, I’ll continue getting lessons as I can afford.
So what did I practice today at Shooters? Rod gave me some homework and I did everything in the list, starting with a specific kind of warm-up, a stop shot progressive drill, a draw progressive drill and a follow progressive drill. That took about an hour. I happen to know that the Q-drills game I’ve been playing takes about 30 minutes for a 10-game set. I only had 1.5 hours to practice so I started on the game and started off GREAT but then finished with some horrible scores. Just take a look at the scores for this set:
Ugh! The first 5 games averaged a great score of 12, but the 2nd 5 games averaged only 5, giving a total of 8.4. Still 8.4 is higher than my running average so far, which is 7.6, so I guess I’m improving.
Since my last update, I’ve played 5 sets, scoring 7.5, 7.0, 8.3, 9.3, and 8.4. My latest trending and itemized lines are below for my pleasure:
For my next lesson, tangent lines are on the agenda. I’m sure we’ll review how I did with my homework, and Rod also said he’d customize some stuff based on our first session together. Like I said, I’m excited about improving my game because with just one lesson, I think I learned enough to be able to improve my game a lot. The toolbox tip alone was worth the lesson, so I figure everything else I got is just great icing.
See you at the tables,
Wayne
