2nd Chance Kick--Clean Ball

Broke, made stripes after a miss, spotted the 8 in an end pocket. Ran solids and the cue ball ended up right next to the 8 in the pocket. Went with a 2-rail that I usually use high 1st Gear. Way off! Realized I just cleaned the balls. 2nd chance kick I used low first Gear. That was it, the cue ball didn't grab onto the cloth like it does when it's a little dirty. I'm going to start getting into the subtleties that you can use with "Shifting Gears". There is so much you can do to get a little more, or less English.   Lester

PCR of 9

Session 1 was a PCR of 9. Planned a carom to make the 8, 4 balls ahead. Got down to 2 balls and didn't have the position I wanted. While I was stroking the shot, I remembered I had to mow lawn today! Stray thought. Ran the next 2, and ended up with a bank instead of the carom. It was 1/8 of a dot adjustment to the SSL for 1st Gear.  Missed it! Well I gotta mow the lawn today so I can't do what I read Jeanette Lee would have done---how many practice shots?  many hundreds I KNOW!   Lester

2nd Gear

This morning I had my spots lined up for a 2-rail 2nd gear shot. The STANDARD SHOT LINE (SSL) (the point at which you aim, using 2nd gear, where the cue ball will go into the pocket). The 8 ball was frozen on the long rail by an end pocket, with it's front at the point on the rail. The 3rd dot from that pocket is the 2nd gear SSL. The cue ball was another 3 dots away on the other side of the table. To find your aim point the calculation is 1/2--1/2. So from the SSL you first go 1/2 of 3, which is 1 and 1/2 dots, then 1/2 of what is left. 1/2 of 1 and 1/2 is 3/4's dot. That's your aim point to go into the pocket. BUT, the 8 is that slight distance away from the pocket. Trace the path and go down the pocket with your cue tip. Then notice how wide the space is to a ghost cue ball sitting behind the 8. My question to you is do you have to go 1/2--1/2 again?   Lester

2nd Chance Kick

In my 3rd book, I had a game called "Two Or More". It was great practice "Shifting Gears" It's 2 or more because you have to kick the cue ball 2 rails or more. And you had to make a 2-rail FIRST, before you could continue.
I took that game another step, and I call it "Second Chance Kick". In 2 or more a 2-rail is 1 point, 6-rail is 5 points and so on. If you miss a multiple rail shot, you can bet some of your points, that you can make it with your 2nd try.
There IS a rule that comes with the 2nd try. Here's where the players shooting have to be honest, because you can't adjust on the rail, you have to adjust on the cue ball. I have small dots made from billiard cloth that I mark the spot. Sort of like they do in golf. Scoring: if you make it, you get the points, miss you make a subtraction.
I've got "Mulligans" also---Another blog!   Lester

pool credit

Is there anyone out there that has to alter their stance because of a sore neck? About two years ago I started having neck pain. Went to the chiro, he told me to get some X-rays, after 7 x-rays, yup you got some arthritis. Went back to the chiropractor and he gave me an exercise to do to strengthen the muscles in that area. When I was a letter carrier I had back surgery in 2004. The surgeon said "here if you don't do these exercises, you're going to be back for a fusion. Been doing them since. I did something with 1 of the surgeon's and the chiropractor's. I call it my neck-butt exercise/ pool credit. NBX/PC for short. In the morning before I go down and shoot, I start with 3 of these. And then anytime I go shoot the rest of the day, I have to do 1 of these exercises before I pick up a cue. The first time I shoot every day I write down a Pool Credit (PC) Rating (PCR). Then the rest of the day I see how much better or worse I do.  Lester  PS  I hope to get this exercise on video for my website.

1st Gear

In my last blog I mentioned a 2-rail 1st gear shot. When my daughter was in high school, she walked by me at home and said "whatcha doin' Dad. The sarcastic remark back then was "I'm writin' a book" And next would be "well leave me out of this chapter" She had a basketball game that night and one of her friends came up and said "Mr Fiegel, it's so cool you're writing a book" So I had to write a book. My 1st book was based on THE STANDARD SHOT. If you were 1 dot away from a pocket, shooting into the dot with 4:30 or 7:30 English you could shoot a ball or a kick, and throw it that 1 dot. Long story short, I published a book, there now I'm done. But once I got used to writing things down for the 1st book, I wrote some more things down. I went out to the 2nd and 3rd dots to do the same thing as I did with the standard shot. Book Two--"Shifting Gears" The STANDARD SHOT was now 1st Gear. The cool thing about yesterday's shot is that you can go on both sides of the pocket at the other end of the table and use the SAME english.for your 2-rail. The cue ball by the way is going diagonally across the table.  Lester

Hate when this happens

Today after I had a table run and made the 8, I spotted the 8 in the pocket it went in, and proceeded to run the other set of balls and ended up with a 2-rail 1st Gear shot. I shot it and the cue ball followed the 8 into the pocket (even with all the English it had on it) I HATE it when I'm that dead on!  Lester