Practice a predictable stroke, or see how predictable your current stroke is, by using this simple exercise:

Take a striped ball and place it inside the jaws of a corner pocket, with the stripe going straight up and down. Strike the ball dead in the center and shoot medium soft, aiming in a straight line through the diamond in the middle of the opposite end rail.
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Strive to be a careful, focused, and quiet shooter.  Don’t bang the balls around, click them.  Learn to appreciate the soft roll of a ball into the pocket.  Use no more force than necessary to achieve your desired result, and minimize the distance your cue ball travels.
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Many times we will see inexperienced players practicing absurdly difficult trick shots that might never come up in a game. This is the opposite of what a player ought to be doing! The reason to learn a new shot is to make the game easier.
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The greatest obstacle to overcome in pool is yourself — you are the unpredictable party.  The table will not move, the balls will only move where you make them, and your opponent is not going to tackle you.
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Pool at a high level is a thinking game, and compared to other sports, mental fortitude is a highly valuable asset. Far too often, players miss shots as a result of a lack of focus, lack of planning, lack of confidence, or just plain goofy thinking.

The mental aspects common to all games of pool that a player must strive to master:

FOCUS – ATTITUDE – CONFIDENCE – PRESSURE

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Your body and its actions determine the outcome of every pool shot you attempt. Parts of your body – including your mind — can easily sabotage your expectations at the pool table. I’ll save the mental dimension for another post, and examine the physical/mechanical aspects of executing a pool shot here.

DEVELOP A STROKE AND A STANCE YOU CAN RELY ON

The ultimate goal of evaluating the mechanics of the game is to produce a sound shooting routine that you can rely on in any situation. Different players will have different routines, but all successful routines share a proper implementation of the following elements:

BODY – STANCE – SIGHT – BRIDGE – GRIP – STROKE

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