Skins and the Rear View Mirror

Ok. So. I'm totally stealing the following analogy from a former pro player. I'd name him.. but I think it would be more fun for y'all to guess :)

What would happen if you drove down the road looking only into the rear view mirror? You'd crash into things in front of you, right? Pretty hard to make good, consistent forward motion that way, huh? Well. Same in pool. If you are so caught up in what happened before it's hard to move forward. I know I've talked about this before, therefore, you can conclude... this is probably pretty gosh darn IMPORTANT!!!!!

Let it GO. And that means to LET IT GO. Stop dwelling on the bad things, don't sweat the 'small' stuff. Fine. If you loose the whole darn match.. stomp off and dwell about it for days.. but if you're in the middle of a match??? LET. IT. GO. You popped a cue ball off the table in an effort to draw the ball like 20 feet? Woohoo... move on. You missed a safe by 6 balls leaving them straight in? Yesssss.... move on. You missed a straight in shot 2 feet away from the pocket? Sweeeet.... move on.

Actually.. I'm totally not kidding about the whole losing the match thing (unless you have more matches to play that day,) and dwelling about it for days. See, if losing doesn't affect you... you will NEVER EVER be better. Seriously. Confused yet?? :) What I'm indeed asking from you is for you to CONTROL your emotions. God forbid right? I don't want you to like missing a ball or shape. What I want is for you to DISPLAY the dislike of doing something wrong at the appropriate time. And in the middle of shooting... isn't it. But at the same time, if losing doesn't piss you off, you'll never become great.

Ok... so on to the fun stuff!! Sooooo many people think that practically every shot is a scratch shot. They hardly are. Actually... I lie.. almost EVERY SINGLE shot is a scratch shot... they just aren't natural scratches. Meaning you really have to do something to make the cue ball scratch. When I coach someone and they constantly ask if they'll scratch on the shot.. that's when I pull out the following two games. Scratch 9 Ball and Skins. The first game is for beginners and the second is for more advanced. Ugh.. there I go trying to lie to you again. They both are pretty hard, the first is just meant as a learning device, while Skins is an old time gambling game :)

So.. this is the table layout for the break on Scratch 9 ball.

Yes. You are breaking with the 1 ball with the intent of pocketing said 1 ball. Every ball you intend to make.. you must shoot into the cue ball and then into a pocket. For example, here's the shot after the break:

You shoot the 2 ball into the cue ball making the 2 ball in a pocket. Easy right??? HAhahahahaha!!! Ok.. so here are the rules: push off the break. No 3 fouls. Scratch by not hitting the cue ball means ball in hand of the OBJECT ball to the incoming player. Scratch by pocketing the cue ball means ball in hand of the CUE BALL to the incoming player. Called pockets (you wouldn't learn anything otherwise.. and I don't want to hear about 'this is nine ball..' it's only 9 ball because the game is quicker :P) No combo's allowed... caroms yes.. combo's no. My game. My rules.

Once you feel like you are doing pretty good at that game. Move on to Skins. Here's the table layout for the opening shot:

The 1, 2, and 3 are on the foot spot, frozen in a line straight back. The cue ball is on the head spot. The object of this game is to pocket all three ball in a single turn. You must call your shots. And just like Scratch 9 Ball, you must hit the object ball into the cue ball, pocketing the object ball. As you can see from the set up, the opening shot is probably the most difficult. You must bridge over the 2 and 3 ball. Oh, and I just used the 1, 2, and 3 ball.. this is not done in rotation. However.. bridging over the 2 and 3 ball means you will be jacked up and applying follow onto the 1 ball making pocketing the one ball slightly easier. Aim for a slightly fuller hit and hit hard. If you make the one the cue ball should come back around the table and 'break out' the 2 and 3.

Keep shooting until you miss. If you make all three.. wooohooo!!! .. you are the first on the board. The balls are set back up and you go again. Winner breaks. If however, you do not make all three.. lets say you make one.. that ball comes back up on the spot and the incoming player has the table. The only time the table is reset back to the opening position is when all three balls are made. If the cue ball is pocketed it gets put back on the head spot and it's the next persons turn. You can play this with just two players or ring it up. Once you ring though.. remember that the etiquette for ring games is different and could get noisy... but personally... that's the whole fun of it!

Well have fun and remember to only glance into that rear view mirror!!