Pigeons, White Rats and You

A word of encouragement from the world of experimental psychology…

As a psych major back in the 1970’s I was well indoctrinated in the virtues of positive and negative reinforcement as well as the influences on behavior of various reinforcement schedules. In regards to my personal pool development program, however, I think the simple act of making a good shot or winning a match is all the reinforcement I or anyone will ever need.

Still, there is one fact I recall from my school days that I still find encouraging. It regards this basic tenet of learning: The probability that a task will be performed correctly increases with the number of attempts a subject makes. In other words, the more we try something, the better we get at it.

I have applied this dictum to my pool game and am convinced that it easily transfers to our beloved game. A case in point: I devote much of every practice session to working on shots that are a problem for me, for example, long shots from various angles where the object ball rides the rail to the pocket. Not long ago, these shots were virtually impossible for me. During a recent session I pocketed 10 of them in a row. More than anything, I attribute my improvement making these shots to my repeated practice. During every session, I set aside time for them, even when I have other shots to work on.

(A note: I have to admit that I lost a recent match because I missed a shorter version of this very shot. Unfortunately, it’s hard to practice “not choking.” I’m hoping entering more competitions will produce the desired effect.)

Of course, the results of this kind of practice can be amplified by the degree of concentration you bring to the table. I, for instance, make careful note of my perceived contact points on the cue and object balls and follow the cue ball’s path to the object ball on every shot. When I miss, I make adjustments. I believe that this kind of applied practice will allow you to advance at a faster rate.

One last observation: I believe the reason there are so many lousy golfers in the world is directly related to the fact that for the most part they avoid working on their weaknesses. They go to the range, flub a few shots with the clubs they can’t handle and quickly switch to the clubs they have confidence in. Because of this, Uncle Jimmy, the family golf nut who has a closet full of golf outfits and a couple thousand dollars worth of golf clubs, couldn’t break 120 if his life depended on it.

Thankfully, most pool players are smarter than golfers.

Good luck and good shooting.

The Horror!

I just got back from my practice session over at the clubhouse. My sessions usually run the same – they start off with a couple of racks of straight shots, corner to corner, long-ways across the table. After I start poking them in (and, unfortunately, I do mean poke) with regularity, I switch to angle shots, placing the object ball just off the rail three diamonds up table from the corner (one diamond south of the side). After each shot, the object ball is placed back in this spot. I start this progression with the cue ball along the opposite side rail, one diamond north of the side. If I make the shot first try, I move the cue ball north one diamond and progress around the corner and along the end rail one diamond at a time till I’m shooting a straight in shot. If I miss along the way, my penalty is that I can’t move on until I make two in a row. When I complete this, I reverse everything so that I’m cutting in the opposite direction to the opposite corner… if you know what I mean. Sometimes I tell myself that I’m going to make up a chart and keep track of how many shots it takes me from day to day so that I can see if I’m actually improving, but I forget about it almost immediately. Next, I shoot some spot shots from both sides of the table varying the location of the cue ball. Then, I start playing nine ball by myself, setting the balls up in different formations, or just throwing them out on the table at random.

Of course, the most important part of my session involves practicing the shot or shots that caused me to be eliminated from the previous night’s tournament. Oh, God, I hate to think about it. I beat some good players last night but wound up missing an easy shot along the rail that would have left me with a straight in shot on the eight in the side. The Horror! Unfortunately this kind of thing is all too common. I’m pretty sure the problem lies with my stroke or with that series of spastic gyrations I call a stroke. I’m determined to make my stroke better. Today, I consciously exaggerated my follow through on every shot. I think I’m on the right track.

Anyway, my good buddy, JP, is moving back to Tennessee in a couple weeks and with him gone I can’t see myself going to very many bar tourneys anymore. I played with the A-players at DJs in New Port Richey this past Thursday. I didn’t expect much of myself and wasn’t disappointed. The eventual winner blitzed me in my first match. And after jumping to a 2-0 lead in my second match, I made the mistake of waking my opponent up and paid the price as he came back and ran three games on me. Still, I had more fun than I would have at the bar tournament down the road. Who knows, someday I might actually win a match.