Pro Pool Workout #7
It is the ability to sense weight
and tension that pool players refer to when they talk about feel
and it is gravity which gives us
that ability. If you have trained
seriously, you have undoubtedly expanded your awareness of the pull of gravity
on your stance, stroke, bridge, and grip.
You have helped your nervous system notice smaller increments of weight
and tension and have increased the sensitivity of your sense of feel.
Gravity also plays a role in what
pool players refer to as balance, which is nothing other than feeling and comparing weight and tension in two places at the same
time. In other words, balance
is about a relationship. Good balance
is when weight and tension is in the proper relationship to support your best
performance. You are out
of balance when the positioning of the weight and tension of your body parts
and cue stick interferes with your best performance.
If you develop your sense of balance, you’ll take your game to a new
level of consistency.
You can discover an unlimited number
of places in the shot process that can be examined and improved in terms of balance.
In fact, every single part of your body and cue stick is in relationship
with every other single part and every one of these relationships has a balance
component. Thank God you’ve been
blessed with a magnificent nervous system that can unconsciously put most of
this stuff into proper relationship! If
not, forget about pool, you’d spend your entire lifetime just learning how to
walk!
It makes sense, however, to train
your nervous system to pay closer attention to balance
and to become aware of smaller and smaller distinctions. You
can do this in training by putting conscious attention on specific relationships
and allowing your nervous system to absorb the information.
Although there are hundreds of
relationships to examine, there are several which can have a major impact on
your game. Here are seven examples:
1. The
relationship between the weight of the cue stick resting on your bridge hand and
the weight of the cue stick resting in your grip hand.
2.
The relationship between the weight of the cue stick in your grip hand and
the weight and tension pulling on your elbow.
3.
The relationship between the weight on your leading foot and the weight
on your trailing foot.
4.
The relationship between your left and right hips.
Think mostly in terms of tension.
5.
The relationship between your left and right shoulders. Think in terms of weight and tension.
6.
The relationship between the left and right sides of your bridge hand.
Think in terms of weight and tension.
7.
The relationship between your eyes.
I know it sounds funny, but you can learn to feel the weight of your
eyeballs in their sockets and that can help you place them consistently.
For the next month, devote a portion of each practice session to doing balance awareness exercises. Pick one of the examples and pocket balls with your focus on the associated weight and tension. Don’t be too concerned with whether you make the shot or not, as the only purpose is to increase the flow of information to your nervous system. Adjust the balance every couple of shots by moving the weight forward or backwards, left or right. See what happens without adding a lot of conscious judgment. Your nervous system will pick up on any changes of value. Good luck & good shootin’!