By: The Monk

Are you the type of player that does not seem to get any better as the years roll by?  You read books watch video clips and take lessons but this only seems to help you for a while and soon you are right back where you were. You are stuck in a quagmire.

The root cause is bad habits which is why you only improve for a time after taking lessons. The bad habits are still there and begin to creep back in. You are a smarter player with bad habits. You are a more skilled player but you have bad habits.

These habits are not glaring bad habits. Most players have no idea of the bad habits they have. It would take a serious training program (MONK 101) to help them overcome the things that plaque their game. The habits are subtle.

Approaching a shot with a bad habit may not make you miss but it will affect your cue ball speed.  It will cause your position play to be lacking and this turns your run out into a shot maker’s nightmare.

How many racks have you thought you should have run? Even with ball in hand, how many times have you failed to finish a rack you knew you should have finished? Where was the breakdown? It almost always comes in the form of cue ball speed caused by bad habits.

Not only has this happened to you, it has been happening for many years.

Here is a bad habit you may not be aware of. When I land on the rail, I change my timing. I experience stress. While that ball is on the rail I am concerned. This concern is a bad habit.

If I pocket a ball and go too far with my cue ball I burst out with something negative. That is a bad habit. On both of these experiences, I perform the next shot with bad habits. If I make the shot, the bad habit effects the quality of my cue ball action and things seem to get worse.

Another bad habit is I am not particular where I hold the cue. My grip changes from shot to shot.

My feet are not placed properly and I shoot the shot anyway. Bad habit!

Have you ever lined up a shot, missed the shot and told your opponent that you knew you were going to miss the shot? Faulty alignment is a Bad habit. The bad habit here is shooting the shot when you know you are not lined up.

When you give one shot more value over another shot you have a bad habit that will cost you the game. How many times have you missed the money ball? It is a bad habit to approach any shot different than what it actually is.

You begin your run and notice a ball that has no pockets. You worry about that ball so much you miss long before it comes up.

You deliver a long stop shot and the cue ball slides forward. Your grip was ahead of its proper point. Bad habit!

You see the shot, know the stroke and shoot the shot. Sometimes you simply forget about “know the stroke” and deliver the wrong stroke. When you fail to think the shot all the way through you have demonstrated a bad habit.

Midway through your run out you fail to go through your entire pre shot routine. It gets worse as you approach the money ball. Bad habit!

When a bad habit crops up you miss position, get out of line and have to come with a tough shot where position is not guaranteed. You experience stress and then you begin to take chances. Seems like you are playing this game against the wind.

Most of these bad habits are subtle and hard to identify. They take away the quality of your stroke. The cue ball does not act like you think it should. Your grip, your feet, your shoulder is out of line and the stroke reflects this bad habit defect. Often times we pass it off to table conditions or just plain bad luck.

When you watch a pro who has faced and overcome bad habits you will see that he is very fussy about how he sets up for a shot. Many times he will land on the cue ball and suddenly get back up. He has trained himself to know when he is right. How do you erase all the bad habits you carry in your game? It is complicated and would take a high level instructor to help you eliminate the things that defeat you.

The MONK 101Master Instructor has trained for four years to acquire the skills to lead you to freedom. I have a 21 day program that is designed for this type of training. Why teach you shots and stroke when you are plagued with bad habits. It is the job of the instructor to turn your performance skills into a pro level before he teaches you shots and move. The Zen Masters here teach you to pull back the bow string before he gives you an arrow. I teach you to shoot without bad habits and then give you the shots to win games. Once I eliminate your bad habits I begin to build your game. Only then will you have a game you can sustain at a high level. You can visit The MONK here at  The Monk 101