Billiard Coach – Mike Fieldhammer

PoolSynergy Volume III – Life Lessons Applied to Billiards

Posted on 15. Jan, 2010 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Billiard Life Lessons: Experiences away from the table that make a better player

Mike Fieldhammer – January 2009

This article is the third of a series of posts written in coordination with other pool bloggers. This month’s theme is BILLIARD LIFE LESSONS. To see others, go to: January PoolSynergy Index

Sometimes a better pool game comes from education or an experience outside of the billiard parlor. The scene takes place in a physical therapy clinic during the summer of 2002. I had injured my knee from an aggressive training plan focused on running. My knee had been so touchy that I saw an orthopedic surgeon who practically laughed me out of his office.  He wrote a prescription of four sessions of PT (physical therapy) and sent me on my way.   The good doctor’s diagnosis was simple—my buttocks, quads, and core muscles were weak causing motion in my hips which made my knee wobble while running.  The cure was to strengthen those muscles, not work on my knee.

Being the summer, evidently vacation time for body workers, I was actually lucky to have three different therapists attend to me during my four PT sessions.  Each one had a different personality and style of teaching me, the student, about curing my knee pain by strengthening my supporting muscles. I learned of balance from one, flexibility from another, and strength training from the third.

During one of my sessions, I felt like I was being bombarded with strength training exercises.  Do twenty reps of this three times per day.  Do 30 of these three days per week and stretch that way for 5 minutes three times per day, and on and on.  Stress mounting, I burst out, “When am I going to have time to run when I’m doing all these crazy exercises? How long will it take before I can run pain free? Do I have to keep doing these stupid things forever? ”    Mr. PT (Pretentious Taskmaster) pacified my irritation with a soothing analogy that I’ll never forget.

“Pretend you’ve just been stranded on a deserted isle in the tropics. Think Survivor season one. You’ve made a smart choice by building a hut on the edge of the beach. Close to fishing and swimming, away from the jungle dangers and the best view too.  You will have to hike into the jungle to collect your drinking water of course. Just imagine forging a trail to the fresh water stream with a machete, hacking back foliage and establishing a good foot trail to tote your water bucket back and forth.  Blazing that trail will be a lot of work. It will take many trips back and forth stomping down the path and hacking back plants to create a trouble free trail.  Then after some time, you’ll have an excellent path to traverse day after day.  After some time of using the trail, you’ll notice a few leaves dangling in your way or a branch here and there poking out into the path.  When you see this happening, you’ll want to grab your machete and do a little house keeping.  It won’t be near as much work as making the trail, but it will be good to do this once and a while as maintenance.”

I was grinning before he spelled out the concluding sentence. “So all of this physical therapy will be lots of work for the next six or eight weeks, but from then on, you may want to pick a couple of these exercises and do a little brush up every couple of weeks.”  No problem Mr. PT (Positive Thinker)! I’ll bust through these things to get strong and remember to brush up on them before a pain in my knee tells me to.

As a professional billiard instructor, I have told this story to many pool players who were suffering from an ineffective stroke. Put in some hard work now, get the stroke developed that will carry your game to the next level and beyond, and do some reminder tune-ups when you feel like you’re in a funk or slump. Right the stroke and your pool game will sharpen right up again.

This article is the third in a series of posts written in coordination with other pool bloggers. To see a full index of all three volumes, go to: http://www.sunburstselect.com/PBReview/PoolSynergy.htm

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Three Strikes to Avoid For Better Billiards

Posted on 26. Apr, 2009 by Fieldhammer.

© 2009 Mike Fieldhammer, BilliardCoach.com

This month I have three simple reminders to help you look and play better at the table:

1. Be sure your grip hand is not too far back.

2. Do not elevate your cue unless you mean to.

3. Always place the chalk “blue side up.”

Pool players shorter than 5’10” are far more likely to grip the cue stick too far back. I guess they’ve seen some lanky, run-out player gripping near the bottom of the wrap or several inches up from the rubber bumper. This might be exactly correct for a person who is 6’2”. . However, your wingspan as a 5’5” pool player is not built to hold it in the same spot. Gripping the cue too far back severely limits your backswing. This robs you of smooth acceleration and power. It also hampers your ability to see the cue moving (hopefully) in a straight line. Furthermore, your back hand can be descending whilst striking the cue ball which increases the possibility of an errant strike.

Cradle the cue in the correct position based on your height and length of the cue stick. Your hand should be hanging straight down from your elbow at the moment the cue tip contacts the cue ball. [See Diagram A] The grip hand should swing smoothly like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. If your hand is positioned properly and your cue stick is level, the game will get much easier to master.

cue action

This brings us right to reminder number two. Keep your cue as level to the table surface as possible on every shot. Jump shots and Masse’ shots are obvious exceptions to this rule of thumb. You must realize that on most shots there is still a small degree of elevation. In other words, the cue slopes downward from the back of the cue to the cue tip. The execution of an elevated stroke can cause unwanted curve of the cue ball on its way to the target. [See Diagram B] Aiming is tricky enough without trying to gauge the amount of curve or swerve. Billiard Physicists like Jewett, Shepard, and Alciatore have dissected these effects in the laboratory, but the bottom line is minimize/avoid elevation for a more consistent pool stroke.

level cue

Third, my personal crusade for 2009: Please place the cube of chalk on the rail with the blue side up. [See Image C] This game involves a lot of sublime actions/reactions that are affected by friction. Scads of chalk, dirt, and other impurities all change the behavior of the colliding spheres. To play the game well, a player must understand and learn to control cut angle, cue ball deflection, speed, squirt, swerve, throw, skid, and countless varieties of spin. Dirty cloth and balls make these complicated variables even more unpredictable. Preventing the equipment from becoming filthy is something we can all do to help.

Blue side up please.

In these tough economic times, pool rooms, bars, amusement vendors, and tournament promoters are tempted to cut back on table maintenance and expenses. During the boom times it wasn’t such a big deal to replace worn cloth or throw out a trashed cue ball. Now, it seems tables are going many months longer between getting recovered. Ball cleaners are getting old, not repaired, or used with improper cleaning solutions. Staffing cutbacks prevent suitable cleaning of said equipment.

Players are routinely seeing $1.50 per game or ever increasing table time fees at leagues and tournaments. We have the right to request good equipment and a proper playing environment. We are the customers and those in control of the equipment should listen. We should also be compelled to take care of their equipment.

Exhibit care to make it last and to show the owner’s investment in the expensive equipment is respected and appreciated. This will give you more credibility when you ask for cleaner equipment. Take care of the billiard equipment and everyone can enjoy playing on quality tables with a clean set of balls.

Mike Fieldhammer
Professional Billiard Instructor

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How to improve your pool game in 30 minutes

Posted on 21. Apr, 2009 by Fieldhammer.

Very simple: watch a bit of snooker. You can do it from your desk/home by tuning into the terrific streaming coverage of live snooker from Sheffield, England.

HOW THIS HELPS YOUR POOL GAME:

- Observe the picture perfect strokes of these professionals

Seeing these gentlemen pot (pocket) balls in tiny pockets with rounded jaws (pocket openings) with incredible accuracy is simply amazing. The technique and delivery of the cue demands such precision that they know they must have near flawless fundamentals. Just look at the perfect set-up, still body, and authoritative cue delivery and statuesque finishing position. If all pool players (author included) stayed down on shots this well, we’d all run many more racks.

- Admire the complexity of the game

If you get lucky and watch the right match, you’ll see a game that has flashes of 8-ball, one-pocket, 9-ball, straight pool and maybe even three cushion billiards. The unique scoring system might take you a little while to get the hang of, but snooker has a bit of everything. It starts with a safety break like straight pool, might progress into a total clearance or a run of 36 balls without a miss. Some of these breaks (runs) resemble an excellent rack of 8 or 9 ball with some delicate position plays and some power shots to break open the rack of red balls to continue the inning. A player might not be able to catch up midway through a frame (game) and might have to snooker his opponent in hopes of a miss or foul to add points to his tally. Games of this sort can have some ingenious safety play and maneuvering like the best one pocket clashes. Jump shots are forbidden in snooker, so players will have to lag or kick at balls from the worst of positions. A little billiard knowledge helps. Frames may last eight minutes to nearly an hour long.

- See melt-downs and world class play

Players have reacted in all sort of ways under the pressure of “The Crucible”. Players can choke or rise to the occasion. Last year there were two maximums in the WC for the first time ever. Earlier today, first time WC participant floundered to make even a 30 point break. The commentators were aghast. Word is that he had been making six or more centuries every day for weeks training for the tournament.

- See what we’ve been missing in televised pool broadcasts

If you watch for a while, you’ll want to phone up ESPN and scream. Sure, we’ve got quite a bit of streaming pool tournaments to watch in the last couple of years, but none compare to the BBC’s polished production. Most of the links at the end of the article are to fanatics who simply capture and pass along the high definition live broadcast put on by the BBC. They actually have two channels running simultaneously since the Crucible has two snooker tables for most of the event. Each telecast features about half-a-dozen cameras, wonderful (and useful!) computer graphics, and soothing, intelligent commentary be one or two snooker greats. Just listening to the patter is entertaining for any pool fan. You’ll pick up lots of British slang for pool terms.

- Fun tidbits from the Maplin UK Championships last year:

Cannon equals carom and a plant is a combination shot.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is every bit as amazing to watch play snooker as Efren Reyes is to watch play one pocket. Ronnie missed 2 makeable balls in succession in the eighth frame and brought his pot percentage from 95% down to 94%.

Red into the right center (or right middle) means side pocket.

The online screen graphics are actually very meaningful, unlike the nine ball graphics that show which balls the players pocketed in the ESPN telecasts.

Feature match April 21-22

The World Championship is being held at the fabled Crucible Theater from April 16 through May 4. That’s correct-seventeen days of snooker. The first round of coverage is underway. Today, an interesting match is Australian Neil Robertson vs. the legend Steve Davis. The young lefthander from down under has incredible cue action. That’s a monster stroke for us yanks. He’s 27 years old and he faces off against a snooker living legend and Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire knighted twice over. Steve Davis, OBE is 51 years old and has career earnings of over 5.5M British Pounds. With today’s conversion rate, that’s over 8 Million US Dollars! He won the World Championship six times in the 1980’s and fought through qualification matches to reach the field of 32.

Matches tonight

These are the best links for streaming I’ve found:

This has been my favourite. It is a bit larger by default and has no distracting chat.  The video and stream is EXCELLENT quality:

http://atdhe.net/watchtv.php?b=x

These all have decent coverage and chat windows:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mordane

http://www.justin.tv/sportstime

http://www.justin.tv/mordane2

http://www.justin.tv/scooby1

Here are some reference sites to follow the action and news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Snooker_Championship_2009

http://www.worldsnooker.com/ws_championship_venue.htm?tid=124

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/snooker/default.stm

Not too sure about this feed:

http://www.justin.tv/siaki

These is the odds to win outright from the new WC sponsor BetFred.com

Selection Price
O’Sullivan, Ronnie 7/4
Selby, Mark 7/1
Maguire, Stephen 8/1
Higgins, John 10/1
Carter, Allister 10/1
Murphy, Shaun 14/1
Junhui, Ding 16/1
Hendry, Stephen 25/1
Robertson, Neil 25/1
Day, Ryan 25/1
Allen, Mark 28/1
Ebdon, Peter 33/1
Fu, Marco 33/1
Perry, Joe 33/1
Dott, Graeme 40/1
Cope, Jamie 50/1
Wenbo, Liang 80/1
Lee, Stephen 125/1
King, Mark 125/1
Swail, Joe 125/1
Walden, Ricky 125/1
Holt, Michael 150/1
Higginson, Andrew 200/1
Davis, Steve 300/1
Bond, Nigel 500/1
Burnett, Jamie 500/1
Gould, Martin 2000/1

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Like Teaching a New Trick to a Dog

Posted on 03. May, 2008 by SammD.

And no, I’m not referring to “teaching an old dog new tricks.” That’s a different article.

About three years ago, I was teaching Vegas, my white lab, to “wave” on command. Following the guidance of a book full of doggy tricks I had purchased, I could sort of get him to do it. He struggled a bit, gave me that tilted-head look of confusion, and just tried to get the treat from my hand. We worked on it for about 45 minutes and I just let him go play.

The next evening, I called him over, had him sit in front of me, and along with the waving hand gesture, I said, “wave.” Well, low and behold, on his very first attempt, he was waving. Without any assistance from me at all, he had remembered everything we worked on and was waving on his own. Nowadays, all I have to do is make the hand gesture and a little white paw comes creeping up.

Not to compare us with dogs, but I couldn’t help noticing an uncanny parallel after a difficult practice session the other day. I’d recently been struggling with my stroke hand inadvertently inching slightly back on my cue whenever my adrenaline starts pumping. I don’t always notice it when it’s happening. I just notice something feels a little off and I miss the shot.

On Monday afternoon, I had a three hour practice session where, before every single shot, I checked my perpendicular to make sure my hand was in the correct spot. Initially, it felt so awkward, like I was way too far forward. I didn’t care. I forced myself to shoot it anyway. Most of the time, I would make the shot. Sometimes, I was so flustered I would screw something else up.

I struggled. Admittedly, I was frustrated. I felt so inconsistent and wasn’t even sure if I was making any progress at all. I finished my practice feeling a bit deflated and left with my tail between my legs.

On Tuesday night, I screwed my pool cues together, determined to get to the bottom of this. As usual, I threw some balls out and just stroked some shots in to warm up; with some big powerful strokes. It was like a miracle. Everything I was forcing myself to so consciously do the day before was all happening on its own. I could see the shots. My stance and stroke hand all fell right into place. It was effortless.

I was thrilled. I had made progress. Forcing myself to the brink of madness the day before wasn’t all for nothing. Like Vegas, I had successfully learned a new trick. I absorbed as much as I could on the first day and when I gave myself a break and returned to the table refreshed, it all sunk in.

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