| It is important to share your unique experience with others. When you are committed to this you are never alone at an event. You always have friends like us who want to hear how things went for you. We want to learn from your wins and losses. Join us and share your strength hope and experience with fellow travelers. |
| I can honestly say that there are many times I feel like quitting this game. My road back as a player has been long. It seems like it takes forever to be back in the winner's circle. I have won some tournament but do not feel like I am in control. I feel like I am shooting for my life. It is obvious that the competition has gotten tougher over the years. Matches are not so easy to win. But I am making mistakes I should not make. I am losing matches I should not lose. At this time, I simply need to stay the course. I teach players how to win and need to put in the practice and training I teach. There are three principles I want to follow when I compete. Often times our minds are the enemy that cause us to perform badly and it is important to control this powerful force. First, I need to connect to the exact shot I want to shoot. I need to see it in it's entirety. I also need to see the run out as it lays on the table. Often times, I decide to go as far as I can go and then decide what I am going to do. The second thing I must do is see the whole layout. Of course there are times when you play to a safety or play to a key ball. And the third thing I must do is trust my stroke completely. If I am tentative I deserve to lose. I must be able to hit the stroke and let the results be just what they are. In my run outs I am only weak because I see a blur on the tables and not the clear run out opportunity. Read the article 10 steps to better performance in tournaments. |
| Research is now telling us that understanding our chosen field is paramount to success. They say we must have complete knowledge of what we intend to accomplish if we are to succeed and reach our goals. This seems like an obvious statement yet many players skip vital parts of their training and never reach the level of success they desire. Let's be comfortable with the idea that we need to be fully versed in all aspects of the wonderful world of pocket billiards. We need to be committed to hard work in a consistent training program and be clear about the level we want to achieve. Where do we start? Many of my students who order THE MONK TO THE MAX write to me after they receive their package and wonder just where do they begin their studies. The Monk 101 teaching material covers a wide range of subjects on the art of pocket billiards. You will not get through these books and dvd's in a short time. It would take a long time to fully understand all that is involved. In other words, once you complete your study, you would have the complete knowledge you are seeking. Research also suggest that exceptional achievers are getting older. Success comes to a person who has worked hard, learned a great deal about his domain and applied that knowledge to skill development. We know that Tiger Woods won the Masters at a very young age. He had been training for this tournament for over 17 years!!! While there may be these young super stars popping up out of nowhere we are finding that they have been working on their craft for a very long time. If you begin to train in the proper manner you can achieve success at any age. The player stands in the winners circle and declares that he started playing pool when he was six. Older players think they have no chance but the facts are, the winner has been training for twenty years. If we are willing to put in that sort of time we can stand in the winners circle and we will accurately claim we have been training for many years. The key is not to waste time. I have been involved in my books and dvd's for the last year or so. I put together The Legacy. This is a complete training program that will take you to that winners circle. As I have been putting this together I find that I am actually re learning my own material. So much of it was written in a burst of enlightenment that I did not fully understand it. My research began when a player asked me, "Where do I start? What order to I follow?" and to be honest, I could not answer that question. There is to much material here. So I set up my camp in a resort in Florida and worked ten hour days on The Legacy so I could fully understand how to answer that question. In other words, I learned my own material. I became well versed in The Monk 101 program. My twenty five years of research and teaching has not been wasted. The Monk 101 is the mother lode of pocket billiards instruction. I often admired my teachers in school because they seemed to be so smart in what they were teaching. Even at a young age I realized that if you are well versed in a particular subject you can teach it. As I was leaning the class I marveled at how quick they were able to teach the subject. That is because they know what they were talking about as a result of long hours of study. We need to do the same. We need to know the material so we can reach a high level of skill execution. All that goes into a stroke comes from years of training and the acquisition of specific knowledge. The Monk 101 has everything you need. How long would it take to acquire a complete understanding of this game? It would take two years to master the material in The Monk 101. It would be like getting an associates degree. You would need to be diligent in your training and learning. Unless your training is specific and deliberate you will not reach your goals. You will be going around in circles and many of you have been at the same place for years. If you are not infected with bad habits you can reach your pocket billiards goals in two years. Those who are ruled by bad habits can overcome this by attending a Main Event. At the Main Event we work hour after hour, day after day to instill good habits on the approach to the shot. If you don't attend a Main Event you will not break through. You need a coach, a good coach who knows what he/she are doing. If you ordered THE MONK TO THE MAX I would like you to relax and read Point the Way. Then I would like you to begin your training in The Lesson while at the same time, read I Came to Win. You need to highlight the material that jumps out at you. I had a student arrive at The Monk Billiard Academy who had Point the Way so marked up I had to give him another copy. He was very well versed in that book. Watch the dvd Bring Your Game to its Highest Level as you begin to work through The Lesson. Watch both Four Strokes dvd's as you begin to work on the Four Strokes of Pool. When you reach Cue Ball Speed, watch that dvd. You must watch Mastering Self and take notes. Learn what is taught in that remarkable dvd. Watch it several times until you have a complete understanding of the material I teach in Mastering Self. We do not wait until the end of our training to master self. We begin to do that right away and use this material in all our other training aids. Read Focus on Winning and declare that you are not going to be stuck in the Lonely Conflict. Gain a good understanding of the Four Points to Power. When you acquire the skills to execute the perfect stroke you can then begin to learn the games that appeal to you. Most teaching programs teach you how to score in the games. I do not do that until you have the skills. Players often ask me to teach them banks or teach them how to break. They do not have the stroke to run tables so the break is really of no use to them. The do not have the stroke to hit the cue ball true, so the art of banking will not help them at all. In this game, we teach skill first, and then game strategy second. It takes hard work and a complete understanding of the material. You will notice that I did not mention the word talent anywhere in this article. Talent has little to do with it. Hard work and knowledge is what takes you to the top. It does not matter what age you take this game up, or how smart you are. All it takes is the willingness to commit and a desire to learn. If you have these qualities than let's begin. I will look for you in the winners circle. |
| LESSONS LEARNED |
| I Came to Win is the best book you can buy to prepare your mind for tournament competition. I know we lose out sometimes and the failures can come from our execution of shots. But we must not lose a tournament because we don't know why we are there and we are not prepared to win. Order this book today. $19.95. I personally guarantee this book. Money back if you are not satisfied and you keep the book. |
| Practice that Makes a Difference. It has been said that perfect practice brings perfect results. After thirty years of teaching this game I can tell you that perfect practice is the only way to train. Anything else is a waste of time. Unless your practice is specific and deliberate you are wasting your time. There is a good reason for this concept. Sometimes we think long hours of training, is the answer to great skill development and many times long hours will produce favorable results. But that is not the whole of the answer. Specific and deliberate practice produces a neurological response. Perfect practice creates a chemical in our brain called Myelin. When you train in a specific way, myelin is actually grown in your brain and this chemical enables you to retain the skills you are working on. The more myelin the better pool player you are. It can only grow when you are specific about your training. The Synapse are electrical neurons in our brain that send signals so we can spring into action. For a long time we thought this was the key to skill execution but now, they are finding out that when these Synapse are wrapped in a white substance called Myelin the ability to experience real skill development begins. If I were a gambler and had the ability to measure a persons Myelin count I could sit in the stands and tell you who the superior player was without ever seeing them hit a ball. The more Myelin the higher your skill level. Many players reach a plateau and never seem to improve. They read more books, they increase their practice, they spend more money on the game and year after year they stay at the same level. This is because they are not practicing the right things. They waste time. They produce their own faults over and over on the table and myelin cannot be grown in their brain. In the world of pocket billiard there are specific skills you must master. This is not a game where you can just bang balls around and hope to become a better player. Skills are physical cells that wrap neural circuits around your brain in direct response to specific experiences. If your training is detailed around skill development you will build a flood of circuits around your brain and thus be able to turn in that stunning performance. Let’s face it, our eyes see the shot, our brain uses its existing skills to produce the stroke that will give us our desired results. If your circuits are layered with myelin you will send the ball deep into the pockets of success. My mantra to my students is “see the shot, know the stroke shoot the shot.” If you study that mantra you will see that I am not asking you to shoot with knowledge. I am asking you to shoot with instincts. Your instincts will be honed by how much specific practice you are involved in. In other words, how much myelin have you produced from your training experience. When I lean over a shot and do not know how hard to hit it I have not built up enough Myelin on that shot. I shoot it several times and begin to feel how hard to hit the cue ball. It is this "feeling" that is controlled by the amount of Myelin I have gained from my practice. Dr George Bartzokis, a UCLA Neurologist put it this way, “All Skills, all language, all music, all movements are made of living circuits, and all circuits grow according to certain rules.” In other words, we must be specific about out practice. |
| First, you must be standing in the proper position for the break. You must be able to push yourself with your right leg at the moment of impact. You must be shooting down on the cue ball. Not a lot but slightly down. DO NOT DRAW THE BALL. This downward motion will stop you from bringing the one ball back down to the head rail where you always end up with a bank shot. The second reason you want to shoot down on the ball is to get your full cue tip on the cue ball. There are many players who look at the cue ball last so they are sure of the direct contact from their stroke. I think this is a good way to break. The most important thing is solid direct contact with the cue ball. Your follow through is primarily used as a psychological means to establish total commitment to the break. Try a short follow through and you will see the same results. In fact you might see better results as you are keenly focused on the cue ball. You must feel the contact with the cue ball in your grip hand. Make a conscious choice to experience this when you break a rack. Use a nice firm grip. Speed is not a real factor. Many players splatter a rack with a medium speed break. A soft breakers delivers a solid hit on the cue ball. Go through your Pre Shot Routine on the break as well as any shot. Visualize a good break before you step to the table. I will say that there is a perfect speed and perfect stroke we can use in our nine ball break. It takes great speed control before it is effective. The best shot to use to splatter a nine ball rack is the stun. In my book Point the Way I called this the "creeper" because the cue ball crept forward after making contact with the object ball. When you work on your break shot "stun" from about four feet away. When the cue ball hops and moves forward you have delivered your perfect break stroke. Now I want you to instill that feeling in your pools mind and when the rack is in front of you, forget about everything and repeat that perfect stun. You will see that rack shatter. If you have done your work well my friend, the cue ball will remain in the center of the table. If your break is not working then you need to adjust by moving to the other side of the table. Each table is different. If the table you are on is not break well, then use a slight amount of draw in your stroke. Just a slight. If that does not work, then use a slight amount of force follow and play for a safety break. The cue ball will play through the rack and leave the one on the head rail, while resting on the back rail. A situation like this in nine ball calls for upon your safety skills. |
| THE 9-BALL BREAK! |
| I played at JOB's in Nashville TN this past weekend and was out in two. It has been a while since I went two and out. If the truth were to be told my failure came from not playing a great safe. I broke and ran the first rack and then failed on one safety in the first match and then failed on two safeties in the second and was one my way home with an ice cream in my hands. No comfort there. Time to practice my Safeties as found in my Safety Play E book. |