| The secret to success is found in your skill development. It is not found in the acquisition of knowledge. As a Cave Dweller attempting to run 1000 balls you will acquire skills you cannot understand in your present state. For instance, you will master the stance, grip and stroke and that will come to you suddenly when you least expect it. As you continue your efforts at the 1000 ball run you will experience personal growth that is real and reserved for Cave Dwellers only. When you master stance, grip and stroke you will fear no shot. In our struggling state we may think we have a great stance or stroke or grip but the fact is, we cannot fully see the shot when we land on the cue ball and this causes confusion. Still, we can make shots and perform at a high level. This is why some Cave Dwellers will drop out and remain in the level they are in for years and years. While other Cave Dwellers will continue to pursue a 1000 ball run and experience the magic of a perfect stance, grip and stroke. The perfect stance, grip and stroke allows you to see the target. In other words, you are certain you will make the shot. Great players are never concerned if they are going to make the shot or not. They know it will go in the pocket and that is a nice place to be. Our numbers show us where we are. Turn in your numbers so fellow Cave Dwellers can help you. This group of players are all on the same road. We can help. If you have a billiards tip you want to share send it to me and I will post it here. |
| SECRET TO SUCCESS |
| The most important quality you will develop during your pile rocks efforts will be to focus on the quality of stroke more so than the ball going into the pocket. I shot three hundred balls without a miss and in 40% of those shots I felt the focus on the stroke. Once I get this number to 90% or more, I will find success at a very high level. Keys to this focus. 1. Feeling the quality of cut tip to cue ball. You can establish a base line here by shooting a shot with slightly below center hit. You must have enough quality to follow the cue ball two feet or more. When you do this, pay close attention to the sound and feel of that cue tip through the cue ball. They try to duplicate this on the rest of your shots. 2. The follow through. You must establish what a good follow through action is. Remember, the cue ball leaves the tip moments after contact so a long follow through has no value. I try to establish a two inch follow through. I imagine the tip sending the cue ball forward. This works for me. You are a Cave Dweller. I believe in you. This type of information will not be shared with the general public. We are an army. The Monk's army. We are going to go out and win tournaments. We are going to win consistently. |
| SECRET TO SUCCESS |
| SERIOUS UPDATE!! I am going to be honest with you. The Cave is for serious players who are training. Players who are committed to excellence that can only come from hard work. Work that is consistent. I am not interested in a player who is not sure where he is going in this game. I will help all I can, but the Cave is reserved for those who really want to get this done. The Cave is not for the Faint of heart. WE ARE STRIVING TO GET A THOUSAND BALL RUN!! That won't come to someone who trains once in a while, or when he feels like it. A thousand ball run is not for the faint of heart. So if you are not training, and have not turned in a number and do not communicate on a regular basis you will be dropped from the Cave. You won't be dropped from my heart, but you will not be in the Cave. The Cave Dwellers have something on their mind and that is a 1000 ball run. If you don't train consistently, you do not have a 1000 ball run on your mind. When you get to three hundred and beyond and are turning in three hundreds on a regular basis i want you to consider taking a road trip with me. If you are that good, you do not have to worry about someone beating you. This road trip will be hosted by another Cave Dweller. For instance, David Rowell in Birmingham Alabama knows who will play for money and he knows how good they are. I plan on bringing a gang of Cave Dwellers down there to clean out the town. This sounds like gambling but it is not. If we run three hundred and turn in 12's and more in the mid term we can play the guys David will introduce us to. WE ARE NOT BUILDING OUR GAME SKILLS FOR NOTHING! We are building our skills to compete. Mike Houpert from up in New York invites us up there to compete with the locals. Always remember, CAVE DWELLERS DO NOT GO TO A TOWN TO LOSE!! If you still want to be in the Cave now that you know we are going to compete than welcome. Get your game. Run your 1000 balls. Go to Birmingham with me. Go to New York with me. Go to Orlando with me. We go to a town to win matches. We are not in this just for the art of pocket billiards. Cave Dwellers take it further than that, they are also in it for the ART OF WAR!! That is why I am not going to broadcast the Cave to the outside world after the end of this month. We are not going to hide out in our Cave. We are going to war! If you stay in the Cave then you need to prepare to have your fellow Cave Dwellers hit your town and leave a lasting impression. You know who the players are in your town. i know a guy just outside of Atlanta who will play for five thousand dollars and he is not that good. He would not survive a Cave Dweller who is putting up 16s in the mid term and running five hundred balls. Ultimately my friend, it has to be about competition and winning. Let's do this together. As soon as the Cave Dwellers are established I will share a plan with you that can be rewarding. |
| Vital stuff for Cave Dwellers to Master The most important thing you will do with all shots is to connect to the shot and fully understand your intentions with the shot. What do you intend to do with this shot at hand? The next thing you must do is determine how much interest you have in this shot. Is this a compelling shot, important and vital to this game? As a Monk player all shots are important. Are you keenly interested in this shot? If you are, you will begin to specify your focus and become keenly away of your intentions. It is this focus that will enable you to deliver the pure stroke for this shot. All environmental issues will dissolve and thus you will be free to execute the intended stroke. The noise around you is directly related to the amount of interest you have in what you are doing. You will then position your right leg in line with the target. A line from the object ball follows back through the cue ball and then connects to your right leg. You move your left leg forward slightly and then stand in the upright position to re connect to the shot. If everything is still lined up, you then go down in your stance. This pivot must be smooth and pure. I have students practice their pivot without a pool table. In the Main Event which comes up on April 29th we will stand on the beach with cues in hand at six o’clock in the morning and practice our pivot. Then you “land on the cue ball”. At this point we once again re connect to the shot. If we are one quarter inch off we will not see the shot properly. Sometimes we shoot it anyways and when we miss we turn to our opponent and say “I knew I was going to miss that shot exactly how I missed it.” When you are off line you can still make shots. What happens is that you wear down. It is like a cell phone that is searching for a tower. The battery will wear out as it searches. It is off line and working much harder. If we are not lined up properly we will need to make adjustments in our stroke just as cue comes to the cue ball and this will wear us out. If you find yourself exhausted at the end of tournaments it is a sign of miss alignment with your stance. You are working too hard. Continued here for our mail out friends............ When you land on the cue ball you must be in line. When you are not perfectly in line a red flag will come up. Do not ignore this red flag. The size of the pockets will allow you to still make the shot, but sooner or later you will miss. Make sure you know exactly where you are hitting on the cue ball. Some players think they are center ball and actually, they are slightly off center. When this happens they inject a slight amount of deflection in their shot. They miss the shot and then wonder why. They sighted perfectly and delivered the perfect stroke but the deflection caused them to miss. So you need to build the skills to hit the cue ball exactly where you intend to. Always remember, “The stroke, minus the interference equals the shot.” If you add value to any shot, other than the shot itself you have invited interference. You can reduce this interference when you fully embrace “See the shot, know the stroke, shoot the shot”. If I want you to make more balls I need to teach you not to care if you make the shot at all. The only thing you care about is how you hit the cue ball. Everything happens at the cue ball. Once you hit the cue ball you are no longer in control so you want to be sure you are totally free to hit the cue ball. We connect to the shot. We position our feet and re connect to the shot, we pivot and land on the cue ball and connect once again and then we go to the set position with the tip stopping directly where we want to hit the cue ball. At this point we play in our mind exactly how the cue tip will go through the cue ball, what it sounds likes and what it feels like. Then I pull back and pause and at that pause, I burn a hole in my target. Everything that exist in my environment ceases and the only thing that matters is the strike that I am about to deliver. I deliver this strike and after the cue ball leaves my tip I freeze as I watch the cue ball race towards the target. I want to see the exact moment the cue ball hits the object ball. Then I take a practice stroke and rise up slowly. When I move around the table I always keep my left side out. I refer to this as “left out”. I do not chalk my tip while I am walking around the table. While I am moving to the next shot I am letting go of all connection to what just happened. I am redeveloping my interest in the next shot. Once I arrive I then chalk up. Look at the tip when you chalk up. Do not do this vital act unconsciously. And at this point I am ready to go through my pre shot routine once again. It is always “this shot”, never “last shot next shot”. I am going to look for you in the finals my friend. |