Johnny Henson
This article is written by Steve Farmer.
Many players have become pretty good at pocketing balls even though they have developed poor fundamentals along the way. They may have an inconsistent stance, grip, bridge, stroke, or alignment, but they have played that way for years. They have repeated those movements so many times that they no longer have to think about what they are doing. It has become automatic. Unfortunately, poor fundamentals will only take you so far before you plateau. That’s when a person decides to take a lesson, and now they are being asked to change the way they stand, hold the cue, build their bridge, address the cue ball, or deliver their stroke. Things that used to happen without thinking now require their conscious brain to get involved. Due to the learning curve this can actually cause their game to get worse for a little while, before it gets better. This is completely normal.
When you learn a new skill, you have to think about it. In pool, you may suddenly be thinking about your grip, bridge, head position, cue alignment, and stroke while also trying to make the ball. That is a lot to process. With enough correct practice, those new fundamentals eventually become automatic. You no longer have to think about every little detail. Your body begins to do what you have trained it to do, and your performance starts to improve.
There is an important point here. You cannot practice something perfectly until you first know what perfect looks like. If you think that taking a lesson expecting to walk out and immediately start running racks, you are setting yourself up with unrealistic expectations. The purpose of a lesson is to learn the correct fundamentals and understand what you need to practice. It is learning the correct fundamentals that is eventually going to help you break through your limitations. You may struggle a little before you improve. That is part of learning. Learn it. Practice it. Repeat it. Eventually, what you once had to think about becomes something you simply do.
You will rise higher than your plateaus by mastering the correct fundamentals. New players are taught and work on their fundamentals, which they master and become intermediate player, when a high level player begins missing shots or plateaus it’s usually because they have gotten away from the proper fundamentals at which time they have to take a lesson on the fundamentals to get back to what made them a high level player.
Feel free to contact me or my partner and fellow PBIA and ACS instructor, Steve Farmer, for more information about our classes and mentorship programs. Email us at shootyourbestpool@gmail.com or call 623-377-0042. Visit our website at BilliardUniversity.com.