Deadstroke / Zone

[jack]

An interesting discussion developed on azbilliards about being in the zone, how long you can stay in it, how can you get into it, etc. I know for me, if I come in having had a great day, good spirits, couple beers, warm up and start shooting, I can sometimes just drop into that dead stroke and never miss. But, this is always 8 or 9 ball. For one pocket, its hard for me to find rhythm, and often I've finally gotten a clear chance to run some balls, but i'm so out of stroke I'll miss a long straight shot.
Anyone have tips for timing, focus, and 'zone' when playing this game?

[SactownTom]

To me:

"Dead stoke" is when you string shots and games together when "the expected result equals the actual result. You see the shot to its completion and then the execution becomes what you've seen prior to the shot.

"The Zone" is a glimpse of how well you can play if you practiced and competed on a regular basis. IMO, 'Dead Storke' may or maynot be a part of the experience of the 'zone'.

I believe that "dead stroke" can last a lot longer than 'the Zone'

[jack]

thanks tom...i think i used to think of them as mostly the same thing...Pleasures of Small Motions talks about the zone and how to get there and hold it. Fancher agrees that you can't just summon it at the push of a button, but can put yourself in a good place for it to happen.
Btw, I sent you a pm Tom if you get a sec...

[NH Steve]

<snip>... For one pocket, its hard for me to find rhythm, and often I've finally gotten a clear chance to run some balls, but i'm so out of stroke I'll miss a long straight shot.
Anyone have tips for timing, focus, and 'zone' when playing this game?I've certainly heard players complain about getting out of stroke playing One Pocket for years -- but not necessarily from the top players, more from the average local players. No doubt there are many more soft, bunt safteties in One Pocket than there are in other games (although they come up to a degree in every game, IMO).

I do have a suggestion, though :) Try putting the same focus on accuracy in your safety play that you put into your shot-making. Truth be told, many safeties require a near perfect hit in angle, speed, and english -- even more so than just making a shot!! Don't just knock the cue ball near the rail, try to leave it perfectly frozen to the rail; don't just knock a ball to your side of the table, try to knock it to a specific spot; don't just try to leave the cue ball behind blocking balls, try to leave it locked up tight behind your blockers.

Challenge yourself to go for that pure hit even when you're just playing a 'simple safety'. If that kind of thing doesn't improve your game and help keep you focused, I'm sorry, I can't help you :) :)

[SactownTom]

thanks tom...i think i used to think of them as mostly the same thing...Pleasures of Small Motions talks about the zone and how to get there and hold it. Fancher agrees that you can't just summon it at the push of a button, but can put yourself in a good place for it to happen.
Btw, I sent you a pm Tom if you get a sec...

I'm not a big fan of Dr. Bob's views about pool. When he wrote the book 'Pleasures of Small Motions' he was still learning about the game. At best he was a strong D player. He did capture some of the esence of the game very well. I suspect someone told him 'how to get there' (the Zone).

I believe it just happens with the newer players sometimes and then the 'zone' is redefined (running 3 balls might be considered a basis for 'the zone' for a newbie) As you get more experienced, your definition for the 'zone' is may be running a rack of 8 or 9 ball, or if 14.1, running 34 balls.

Dead stroke, IMO, is a player's condition that can last for hours or days. When a player that has experience and a quiet mind and that all important 'confidence', lots of good things at the table happen.

The more I practice, the luckier I get. Lots of truth in that little sentence.

I got your PM. Trying to decide if would be the right thing to do.

[senor]

Dead stroke, IMO, is a player's condition that can last for hours or days. When a player that has experience and a quiet mind and that all important 'confidence', lots of good things at the table happen.


I agree, dead stroke develops over a couple of days and grows stronger. You may have lapses here and there, but they will become less frequent. The things I need for this to happen are 1) I beat my opponent the first night 2) I get minimal sleep 3) My opponent comes back the second night. If all three of these things happen, I guarantee I'm playing pretty sporty. Something about the lack of sleep helps me with the 'quiet mind' Tom mentioned up there. I played a couple of champs a while back. I probably matched up with one of the two about 15 times over a 6 week period. I would get about 12 hours of sleep if we played 3 or 4 days in a row. I broke even once and won the rest, and was playing at a higher level than normal.

[jack]

great advice steve...i think its very true...times when i've played well, i stay in that zone for each shot, safety or not...i think being warmed up well beforehand is enough to keep the muscles working for when you do start to run out...but, as you said, playing every safety with intent will definitely help both my focus and results...

[lfigueroa]

I don't know that there's any reliable way to get into that fugue state we call "dead stroke," other than constant study and practice. And then there’s the issue of “dead stroke” as a moving target.

IMO, dead stroke happens because on certain days many small physical things happen to sync up for us. Some of these little things are seemingly insignificant, but actually quite important to whatever idiosyncratic quirks make up our individual body mechanics and stroke. The mental state is just a manifestation the confidence we end up feeling and perhaps mild euphoria.

So I think dead stroke visits us when we're doing one, two, or maybe more things, differently than before. Perhaps a bit more of a step to the left, establishing contact between bridge hand and cue shaft with different motion, a slightly longer or shorter bridge, a longer or shorter grip, a slightly turned wrist there, a higher or lower head, a more level cue, a longer back stroke, a more relaxed or tighter bridge, and so on. On occasion, all this comes together to produce a precise stroke and the ability to do what we will with the cue ball. Then, the mental part of dead stroke comes to us and we become absorbed by our ability to execute shots with sharpened precision. The next day, we go to the table and, because we're not machines, we do it a bit differently, and end up with different results.

Way back when, I would notice that if I just played very quickly, without thinking, I could play "very well." I would run around the table, collapse into a stance, throw a hodge podge of sometimes unorthodox bridges on the table, and zip the balls into the pockets. I could run a lot of balls this way. The problem was that this "system" wasn't reliable enough to count on.

Nowadays, it's more the opposite. I find that it's when I'm concentrating on the balls and table, considering every nuance of the upcoming shot, position play, table layout, and using a very studied technique, that I play "very well."

So why the difference? I think it’s because the words "(play) very well" have a different meaning for me now than before. The lack of reliability that I experienced as a younger player was because I just wasn't good enough and didn’t have the knowledge I have today. The failure of my earlier "system" was actually my failure as a player. I could only play so well and missed the balls and position plays I was suppose to miss -- at the time -- not knowing I was suppose to miss them and blaming the "system."

Now, I think I have a better appreciation for how difficult the game can be, and can more clearly see what I don't know and might not be able to execute. I also now know, with much more accuracy, what playing "very well" means. Many times in the past, I thought I was playing "very well." Now, I have a much more narrow definition of those words and they require a much higher level of precision and consistency in execution than I would have used just six months ago.

So what does this mean? I dunno. Perhaps it's just that "dead stroke" means different things to different people, and different things at different times in our lives. Certainly, "dead stroke" for a player that has only been playing for a year or two, means something quite different than to a player with twenty or thirty years of playing experience. And because we keep "raising the bar," dead stroke always remains elusive and a very hard place to get to.