…and so the pendulum swings…
Over the last year or so I haven’t had much time to play, so I’ve focused exclusively on One Pocket because I’m fascinated (addicted) to the strategies and mental exercise involved. Now that I’ve got a little extra time to get to the table (twice a week vs. once), I’ve decided to add 9Ball back into the mix. When I first got back into 9Ball a few weeks ago, it seemed that I’d completely lost my ability to run balls. I’d developed more of a ‘pokey / pushy’ short stroke from One Pocket, and was struggling to run more than 3-4 balls. After 2-3 weeks of getting back into a rotation game, I’ve discovered that my ball running ability has gotten much better.
I’ve always heard that playing multiple types of pool games is good for improving your overall playing ability, and I can attest that this is true. After playing One Pocket almost exclusively for a year and a half, my 9Ball game is now much better. I’ve actually changed my stroke (in a good way) when it comes to playing rotation games. I’m now moving the cue ball MUCH better and with more “touch”. It’s hard for me to describe exactly what I’ve changed from a technical point of view, but I guess the best way to describe the change is that I’m no longer “hitting” or “shooting” through the cue ball; rather, now I am “thoughtfully pushing” or “thoughtfully focusing on the rotation that I’m imparting to the cue ball” when I stroke. This is a huge mental change from my former thought process of “how hard do I have to hit this shot to get the resulting position I want” approach. As a result, the object balls are traveling much slower, I’m getting more “bite” on draws and spins, and the cue ball position results are much more accurate. I want to play around with this for a few weeks and see where it takes me.
Angle of Reflection 