It just came in. I had ordered “The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards” by David G. (“Dr. Dave”) Alciatore, PhD book, companion CD and DVD off of his website last week.

First impression: nice. The book is not too big, not too small, feels weighty enough, etc. As I flip through it, what strikes me first are the many color diagrams everywhere.

And they’re cool diagrams — not just your normal pool table with balls on it and arrows trying to describe concepts. Some of these really get across what he’s trying to show you. One example is Figure 5.14 on page 141 — he shows a big blob across the table for where a decent shot on the 8-ball would be, and how one might get there. Typical books just show big triangles, which I guess is good for theory, but this matches my idea of pool better at the stage I’m at — which is namely “I need to ball to go there-ish, so how do I need to hit the ball to go in that direction?” (* note, see bottom for my take on this).

Also throughout the book are references to video on the DVD/CD. This reminds me of Unix Power Tools book, my all-time favorite technical book and example of how a good technical book should be. It’s riddled with cross-references and indexes such that you can just pick it up, read any page in it and learn something, and then be able to find anything else related to something on that page. I love it.

The book references (and the CD/DVD contains) over 90 digital video clips, 60 special high-speed video clips, 20 technical proofs and lots of cross-referencing within the book itself.

About the only thing I’d improve on the book (again, I’ve had it only 5 minutes so far) is a set of visual chapter indicators on the bleeding edges so that you can page through sections more quickly. Just a personal preference.

You can purchase your own copy in interested by going to his online shopping center.

I look forward to practicing and putting some of these principles to work so that I can know them better. Look here again later on for my reviews of the CD, DVD and book as I use them more. I think this book will make an excellent companion to my “Science of Pocket Billiards” yellow book by Jack Koehler, which I think is the best pool book ever.

I also think this will help me make the ultimate practice, drill and enjoyment system for pool. I just need the time and VC funding to make it happen. I’m still working on the information, but it’s going to be so cool.

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* – my take on what I said about “there-ish” and where I’m at. I’ve heard and can agree that probably the best way to learn the dynamics and physics of pool and more specifically, the pool table you’re actually on right at this moment, is to implement “spot shooting,” meaning that for every shot you make, you should point out an exact spot on the table (like dime-sized or smaller) where the cue ball should land. The idea is that if you can get past failing every single time (because I mean who could land on a dime every time, right?), you should be able to quickly see how “off” you are on your position play. You also gain the advantage of actually picking out your next shot and are hopefully including the 3rd shot in consideration as well.

So I agree that spot shooting is better than “I need the ball to go that way”. I am trying to incorporate spot shooting into my playing. It takes a high level discipline and awareness, something I sometimes do not have when practicing or when playing with friends. You also have to be able to get past the failures and actually learn from them.

I had a pretty bad dip there, but overall, I’m averaging 7.4. I still want to be able to consistently get 10+, so I’ll keep playing until I do.

I’ve also changed my graphs so that it shows how bad I really am by 1) displaying a scale of 0-20 instead of 0-[max] and 2) showing both a trendline (peach) and a rolling average line (yellow). I also added the data labels so you could more easily see the best (10.4) and worst (5.0) in a more exact way.

I actually got a -1! (Ouch). Anyway, here’s the latest in the trend of Q-Drills. You can see the original post for an explanation of what this is about.

With today’s 4 sessions, I’ve now completed 10 sessions. My average over the 10 sessions is 7.4. Here are the details:

I got a 20 5 times, 19 twice, 18 twice, and I like that. However I got 1 or less 13 times and that’s very very disheartening. If all of those “1 or less” games were a 5 instead, I would have averaged 8.0 or better instead of 7.4.

I also decided to make an astrological chart of my pool scores just to see if anyone would notice or comment on it.

As I explained in a recent post, I’ve started playing a new drill game to help me A) more realistically determine where my pool skills are and B) hopefully identify weak areas. I’ve played six (6) sessions so far and shown below is a graph of where I stand now.

Not too bad. I’m generally in the “advanced player” category and have once sauntered my way into Developing Pro status… Yay for me!

I’ve also “improved” the Excel spreadsheet that is offered on their site such that it gives the average game score instead of a total ball score, and it does graphs like this, and it highlights 0-3 games with red, and 14+ games in green. What I really want to do is put up a mySql database with some PHP scripts that allow anyone to track their games, and it gives graphs and reporting so that thousands of people can track their progress. Someday… someday…

http://www.easypooltutor.com/articles.html

This site seems cool. I haven’t gone through any of the articles, but it’s nice to see a free place where not only can you get help from other folks with some lessons (including PDF’s you can print out for free) but also submit your own.

A friend of mine found a new cool pool drill you can do by yourself or with friends.

I wish Allen Hopkins would explain things a little better though. In my opinion, he should explain the overall basics of the game in a paragraph or two. Get the gist out there. Garner interest. Then have the numbered rules that handle the exceptions or explain the little nuances of play.

For example, it might have been better to say:

Anyway, that’s my take on it. I started off not too hot, with averages of 6.5, 6.7 and 5.0 (ugh)
6, 9, 1, 5, 1, 7, 5, 8, 14, 9 = 6.5
5, 6, 8, 1, 8, 6, 4, 9, 20, 0 = 6.7
3, 4, 8, 7, 4, 1, 9, 3, 6, 5 = 5.0

The site has an Excel spreadsheet you can use to track scores, so I plan on doing that and also graphing on a timeline how I improve (or don’t).

I also kind of have issue with his scale, given that it’s shown in the gross sum instead of average. I think it should just list averages and the rankings:

and then of course give the disclaimer that the average isn’t valid until you have 100 or more scores to contribute to the average.

Also, Allen doesn’t specify the rotation part — do you have to MAKE the balls in order, or is it like 9-ball where you just have to HIT the lowest ball first, but you can call any other shot, like combos, caroms, etc. It is my personal opinion that you ust have to HIT the lowest ball first, but call any ball in any pocket.

This is more for my wife and some friends than for myself. I couldn’t find this picture anywhere via Google, so I’ll take the bullet and make it globally available.

However, did you notice?

• There are two 9-balls (they’re the yellow and white striped ones).
• Looks like there’s two 2-balls also (they’re the blue ones).
• Is Nick wearing a top hat and what’s that on the right side sticking out under his tie? (please don’t bother me about knowing who Nick is)
• I don’t care if they’re rich, musically talented, drive the women crazy, travel all over the world, dress nice, etc. I bet I can kick their asses at pool. Left Handed. On a snooker table. Drunk.