DAY TWO: Three day intensive training with Demetrius Jelatis
Demetrius knocked on my door at 8:30am ready to go for another day of billiards. I was exhausted from the day before; my muscles ached everywhere, but his passion for the game was contagious. I immediately jumped out of bed, took two ibuprofens, brushed my teeth, and started warm up drills.
We reviewed all of the drills from the day before and worked more on my stroke and pre-shot routine. He was happy of my improvement and it seems that the things he taught me sunk in a little deeper after a night of rest. We reviewed a little about sidespin and then had lunch. During lunch we watched professionals play a few runouts on YouTube and he went over pattern play, position, and shot making.
I wasn’t making shots like I had before. (My shotmaking actually still hasn’t fully returned yet.) I think it’s due to the changes in my stoke. My head placement and body position changed a little, and the hardness of my hits changed. My aiming was off. After decades of shooting like I have, I assumed it would take a little bit to get my shotmaking back up. In order to work on my shotmaking, Demetrius put pocket reducers in the pockets and had me shoot some long and difficult cuts from across the table. Man, that nine-foot diamond table was almost impossible to make shot in before, but after he put those pocket reducers in, the balls pretty much had to be perfect to go in. I was making shots a little more consistently after that drill.
After that, we worked a lot on position and did a ton of the Bert Kinister drills. Those drills were really cool, and I learned a lot about cue ball position. That was followed by the Bert Kinister 60-minute drills and some position plays Demetrius came up with himself with using hanging balls for position. We then started pulling the ball out of the corner little by little and playing position based off of the techniques used when it is hanging. We continued with more drills, including that tough line drill again.
That was followed with an alternative version of the wagon wheel drill to find position when cutting a ball along a rail. This was one of the drills that I found the most interesting. Between the hanging ball position drill, the mid table wagon wheel drill, and the cutting ball along a rail drill, I felt I could get just about anywhere on the table from a ball just about anywhere on the table. Besides the changes to my pre shot routine and stroke, I felt that this position knowledge would make the biggest impact to my game going forward.
After some training on side pocket avoidance, we relaxed and played a few games of pool for fun. This was followed with us both being drained and exhausted around 10pm. It was a long fourteen-hour day of pool on the second day, but that didn’t stop us as we went on for one more hour as I asked him questions on curve shots. We did a few curve shot drills and then we went to bed exhausted. My muscles ached. It was a sixteen-hour day of drills and training followed by a fifteen-hour day of drills and training. I honestly didn’t know if my body would make it through the weekend and I had one more day of this training.
EDIT: Demetrius now has a website. https://mnpoolbootcamp.com/
We reviewed all of the drills from the day before and worked more on my stroke and pre-shot routine. He was happy of my improvement and it seems that the things he taught me sunk in a little deeper after a night of rest. We reviewed a little about sidespin and then had lunch. During lunch we watched professionals play a few runouts on YouTube and he went over pattern play, position, and shot making.
I wasn’t making shots like I had before. (My shotmaking actually still hasn’t fully returned yet.) I think it’s due to the changes in my stoke. My head placement and body position changed a little, and the hardness of my hits changed. My aiming was off. After decades of shooting like I have, I assumed it would take a little bit to get my shotmaking back up. In order to work on my shotmaking, Demetrius put pocket reducers in the pockets and had me shoot some long and difficult cuts from across the table. Man, that nine-foot diamond table was almost impossible to make shot in before, but after he put those pocket reducers in, the balls pretty much had to be perfect to go in. I was making shots a little more consistently after that drill.
After that, we worked a lot on position and did a ton of the Bert Kinister drills. Those drills were really cool, and I learned a lot about cue ball position. That was followed by the Bert Kinister 60-minute drills and some position plays Demetrius came up with himself with using hanging balls for position. We then started pulling the ball out of the corner little by little and playing position based off of the techniques used when it is hanging. We continued with more drills, including that tough line drill again.
That was followed with an alternative version of the wagon wheel drill to find position when cutting a ball along a rail. This was one of the drills that I found the most interesting. Between the hanging ball position drill, the mid table wagon wheel drill, and the cutting ball along a rail drill, I felt I could get just about anywhere on the table from a ball just about anywhere on the table. Besides the changes to my pre shot routine and stroke, I felt that this position knowledge would make the biggest impact to my game going forward.
After some training on side pocket avoidance, we relaxed and played a few games of pool for fun. This was followed with us both being drained and exhausted around 10pm. It was a long fourteen-hour day of pool on the second day, but that didn’t stop us as we went on for one more hour as I asked him questions on curve shots. We did a few curve shot drills and then we went to bed exhausted. My muscles ached. It was a sixteen-hour day of drills and training followed by a fifteen-hour day of drills and training. I honestly didn’t know if my body would make it through the weekend and I had one more day of this training.
EDIT: Demetrius now has a website. https://mnpoolbootcamp.com/
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