In order to improve your game, it is essential to watch advanced players and professionals play.
But how can you do it effectively, not just randomly?
Conclusion
When you watch an advanced player or a professional player play, watch as if you were playing yourself.
If you were to cue the next ball, what cue points would you cue, at what speed, and where would you position the cue ball?
Think about where you would position your cue ball, and compare it to the ball actually hit by an expert or professional.
If it is different, think hard about why it is different.
Or, if possible, ask them after the match.
You will find that as you improve, your consistency with the choices of the experts and pros will increase.
Details
To learn is to imitate.
If you want to improve your own play, it is essential to learn from the play styles of the experts and pros.
In other words, imitate.
In billiards, there are set rules. If you have a certain ration of balls, you have a certain way to get them.
Not that there is only one way, but there is a low-risk option that advanced players and pros will take when considering shooting probability and nexts.
When you are a beginner or intermediate player, you can’t read the choices of the experts or pros, and you can’t understand why they take those choices.
However, as you get better and more experienced, you will be able to predict and understand why advanced players and professionals make the choices they do.
If you are an advanced player, you will be able to match the play of the pros about 90% of the time.
And when you do, you can feel that you are improving.
What should you do if you don’t yet?
Watch your favorite pro player on youtube so many times that you memorize the scenes.
I like up-and-coming German fillers, so I watch them a lot.
He’s only in his early twenties, but he plays lean, compact, and high quality.
He started playing billiards at the age of seven, and seems to have a lot of sense.
I also like U.S. Boning.
His shooting and positioning are great, but I have the impression that he is a good safety and has many drawers.
As for Japanese, in recent years, Oi Productions is the best.
It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the Oi of the world.
Also, if you watch your favorite player over and over again, your own ball will start to look like the player you admire.
It is important to have the atmosphere of a good player, so that when you play in a match, you can act as if you are the player you admire, and you will be able to play at a good tempo.
Another effective way of looking at it is to concentrate on the final stroke of the cue ball, especially when the pro makes the final stroke to cue the cue ball after several preliminary strokes.
Then, synchronize with the pro’s stroke, as if you were cueing the cue ball yourself.
As you do this, you will be able to feel your stroking hand and your head twitching.
You will feel the difference between your cueing and the pro’s cueing, with the illusion that you are actually cueing, even though it is virtual.
It will speed up your progress!
