Pro Pool Workout
#2
There are four underlying principles that determine whether your stance, grip, bridge, aim, and stroke will function properly under pressure. The more you develop each aspect of your fundamentals to conform with these basic principles, the better you will be able to perform on a consistent basis.
These principles come into play regardless of your specific physical characteristics. It doesn’t matter whether you are tall or short. It doesn’t matter whether you have long arms or short arms. It doesn’t matter whether you are left eye dominant or right eye dominant. Your fundamentals, in other words, must take your personal characteristics into consideration. That’s why no other person can definitely say how you should form your stance or stroke. Are there standard forms? Yes, but even the greatest players in the world vary from these standards. They must, because each of their bodies, like yours, is unique.
The standards you are required to adhere to are the underlying principles. I call them The Principles of Effortless Functioning, a term I quite liberally adapted from the title of Peter Ralston’s great book, The Principles of Effortless Power. Peter is the only westerner to ever win the World’s Full-Contact Martial Arts Tournament and is also the holder of about a dozen different black belts, including ones in Karate, Kick-Boxing, and Sword-Fighting.
In his book, Peter revealed the underlying principles that one must master to fight at a world-class level, regardless of the specific discipline. I was very impressed with Peter’s work and used it extensively in my own development as a pool player. Out of the hundred or so resources I used to put The Pro Book together, it was one of the most productive.
Well, fighting is a little bit different than playing pool, but even so, I was inspired to discover four fundamental principles that all great players conform with and you can use to build your ability and consistency. These four principles are simplicity, gravity, alignment, and rhythm. They sound light-weight, but there are hundreds of distinctions that can be discovered with each principle as it relates to your stance, grip, bridge, aim, and stroke. Deepening your understanding of these principles is the secret to developing ability and consistency.
Let’s take a look at simplicity by reviewing a short excerpt from The Pro Book. Next issue we’ll apply it to a couple of interesting examples.
Simplicity
“In scientific thought, the simple always overrules the complex. For instance, even though we can make a mathematical explanation that proves the sun revolves around the earth, you won’t get any great minds to agree with you. Why? Because the mathematical explanation of the earth revolving around the sun is about a thousand times less complicated.
This concept of simplicity applies to engineering, invention, and all other fields of knowledge and application. The simplest machine that will do the work is the most efficient—the less moving parts, the better.
How does this apply to the fundamentals of pool? Let’s take a look at your stance as an example. The most efficient stance for you, for any particular shot, is the stance which is the simplest to successfully execute that shot. Your most efficient stance is decided by the make-up of your body. It is determined by your bone structure, cartilage, and musculature.
A simple stance is free of extraneous twists and turns. It is the natural fall of your body when it is lined up on the shot. Your most simple and dependable stance is unique and specific to you, not contrived to answer requirements set by someone else. You are senior to the stance, not the other way around.
In practice, look at your fundamentals from this point of view and start
cleaning out the junk that makes them complicated.
There is power in simplicity. Simplicity
is the key to efficiency.”