The Middle Game

I've been watching a bunch of my own videos lately trying to figure out what I keep doing that lets my opponent back in the game after getting him down. I feel pretty good about the game after the break, returning the break and moving decently. I frequently find myself on the positive end early, usually 3 to 5 balls to zip in the count. But somewhere after that point, I start trying to be either too aggressive or too defensive and I give up balls like christmas, so I always end up fighting for the last ball or 2 on the table. I feel reasonably okay with the end game, not leaving easy banks, etc, but if I can finish out the rack with a stronger middle game; maybe I can avoid the end-game knock-out spiraling.

I know part of the reason is when I miss a pretty makeable shot, I leave my opponent 2 or 3 balls, obviously that's easy to fix, but other times when just trying to move I overlook things - a combo, a carom, a bank or kick into the [remaining] stack that just kills me. I'm not sure if it's a lack of experience, or stack reading, or plain and simple CB control (probably all of them, to be honest) - but surely there's a strategy to be applied to the middle game, like there is for the opening and end game.

So, I guess my question to all of this - when do you start "playing the score"? If I'm up 4-0 in ball count, do I want to start moving things up-table at that point?

When I get some more time, I'll upload some racks that show exactly what I'm talking about.

stljohnny said:

If I'm up 4-0 in ball count, do I want to start moving things up-table at that point?

Click to expand...

I would say yes, unless you see something specific you can take advantage of, like a lot of traffic blocking your opponent's hole, or maybe you have a dead one in the stack and he can't break it up because you keep on leaving him in a position where he has to defend against something else.

If you're up 4-0 and you feel offensive opportunities are getting scarce, send them uptable.