Reddit reviews The 99 Critical Shots in Pool: Everything You Need to Know to Learn and Master the Game (Other)

Not sure how far you're trying to get, or how serious you want to take it.

I've reached sort of 'good amateur' level which means the weakest pro still beats me 2-1. What they call a B player, or a Fargo 600. I mention that, because I think it's maybe the max level you can get being almost completely casual.

Completely casual = no regular practice (or if I do it's a random, spur of the moment, once a month thing), I hardly do tournaments, I sometimes do leagues, and the bulk of my playing is just shooting around with buddies.

If you bring that level of dedication, which is very low, you can probably reach a similar level in maybe... I dunno.. 4-5 years if you take it seriously, get good books and videos, get good live instruction, and just play regularly. I did it the slow way and took 20 years lol... but that's partly due to bad habits. If you avoid those bad habits you can avoid about ten years of stalled progress. It's good you got some corrected early!

If you're nuts about practice, tear through books and videos, have no social life / family / long work hours, you could maybe do it in 2. I've heard of people doing this this but never saw it personally.

So to get there, this is I would do:

1. This is true of all sports but especially pool... you want to make sure your fundamentals, stance, etc. are completely normal and textbook. The more 'quirks' you have, the harder it is to learn. There are a few options here.

- If you wanted to do it properly (IMO) you need a pro instructor with great mechanics to evaluate your form and advise you how to fix any remaining bad habits. That might be a bit expensive. Let's say minimum $50 max... $200ish.

- You could also video yourself and submit it to sites and have people review and give advice. But of course these people may not play at a high level or recognize good/bad form when they see it :) But they can probably spot obvious problems.

- If you wanted to do it 100% by yourself, the fundamentals 'bible' is "Play Great Pool". But it's an expensive book, $70. The site doesn't look super professional but the instruction is solid gold. The author is/was a pro level player and coach.

- The cheapest and easiest method, is just read books and watch youtube videos on the subject. But without someone else to review your actual stance and stroke, you may have problems that you're completely unaware of.

2. Go through the 99 Critical Shots, mentioned elsewhere. It's a quickstart guide to pool basically. It'll take you through the basics including forward and backspin, then move on to more advanced stuff involving sidespin, and also cover banks, kicks, caroms, and cue ball position routes. Excellent and inexpensive book. Take it to the pool hall, go through the shots 1 by 1.

3. If you have cash to burn, Dr. Dave's VEPS is sort of a visual version of this, with a lot more. It's a great video series. There's actual several series, after the basics he has some stuff on strategy, a series on 8 ball, another on 9 and 10 ball. https://drdavebilliards.com/veps/purchase.html

4. If you don't have cash to burn, he puts a ton of this info on youtube for free, and there's another guy (Tor Lowry) whose youtube instructional stuff is really good.

5. All of the above is for solo learning and practice. Once you play with other people you'll have to learn strategy and runout patterns and such. Besides the Dr. Dave videos I mentioned, Phil Capelle's "Play your best 8-ball" is great. There are other games to learn too, 9ball and 10ball are tremendously popular. There are some ancient but still useful videos on 9-ball from Bert Kinister... drills that strengthen your ability to play common shots in this type of game. Don't let the low video quality fool you, the drills themselves are very handy. http://videos.bertkinister.com/

6. Once you can actuall run racks and play pretty good pool, you still have one more hurdle to overcome... being able to play at your normal skill level under pressure. A lot of players shoot great in their basement, but fall apart in tournaments and league. I suggest joining a league to start, then trying tournaments. And possibly gambling if that's your thing, though don't let anyone tell you it's necessary. Plenty of great players stick almost entirely to tournaments.

Good luck with it!

99 Critcal Shots in Pool. Is a great book to start with. https://www.amazon.com/99-Critical-Shots-Pool-Everything/dp/0812922417

Get yourself a copy of The 99 Critical Shots in Pool.

Here's the book if anybody is interested in buying it or checking out the shots in question. They appear on pages 76 and 77 and you can view them by clicking on the image of the book on the left.

As for shot 33, It's easy if you can gauge whether or not the ball is deep enough in the pocket. Personally, I wouldn't shoot what's portrayed in the diagram. It just feels like the ball would pop off the rail. The condition of the rails might play a role, too, but I'm pretty inexperienced so hopefully someone can give me some insight, too.

Shot 34 on the other hand! It never occurred to me to rely on a slight masse to make this shot. I'm guessing low left is more effective in this situation than high or just regular left.

Here is the mobile version of your link

99 Critical Shots in Pool is really more of the gold standard.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Critical-Shots-Pool-Everything/dp/0812922417

Yes lots of practice definitely helps you get better at pool. http://www.amazon.com/The-Critical-Shots-Pool-Everything/dp/0812922417

You can make bird houses/clocks with simple hand tools without spending tons of money.

I'm pretty fond of The 99 Critical Shots in Pool. It goes into some basics and a ton of shot situations with explanation. It's a great resource, imo, for nearly all levels of play.

For the mental game, I'm a huge fan of Pleasures of Small Motions. It's a deep dive into the mental game and talks about concentration vs focus and helps the reader with some mental exercises. Jury is out in this sub whether it's all that valuable, though I have found it to be a great help to my game. IMO, even at an early stage this book could be useful. Frustration can be a big problem for a beginner trying to get comfortable with the game and having some insight to the mental side can be a benefit.

Welcome to pool! I hope you enjoy playing and fall in love with it like we all have. :)

Dr. Dave can help you get better!

Also, a fantastic book is The 99 Critical Shots in Pool. Worth the money to buy a real book and not the digital version.

https://www.amazon.com/99-Critical-Shots-Pool-Everything/dp/0812922417

https://www.amazon.com/99-Critical-Shots-Pool-Everything/dp/0812922417

Here is the mobile version of your link