So, since last Friday, I’ve been playing terribly. My stroke has never once felt right, I’m not getting good action on the ball – and I’m missing everything. Use to be, I could blame it on throw – but not so much anymore. Everything is just “off”. Well, today I tried something to get it back. I played considerably slower than usual. I didn’t do any drills at all. I just shot. First I tossed the balls on the table (all 15) and basically played a loose game of 8-ball against myself. I did that twice. Then I played 2 rounds of straight pool, reshooting those I missed and/or lost position. Then I played 9-ball the rest of the day. I broke, and took ball in hand to get started if I didn’t have a shot on the 1b. I made some really good shots, including one rail rider past the side pocket even. 🙂 I also missed some shots that I shouldn’t have. I made some good combos, not so good banks, and one jump shot even. The jump shot was even a cut shot! It was a short jump and I only need to get over half a ball, but I jumped, and made the ball – extra lucky was I got position on the next ball.
Overall the day was good. The best part of the day was when I realized I was trying to stab the ball. I had lost my follow-through. As soon as I made a mental effort to “push the ball”, my accuracy went up 15-20%. Things, I think are good again. If I play well the rest of this week, I’m buying my spot in the tournament in 2 weeks.