DAY ONE: Three day intensive training with Demetrius Jelatis
Friday, September 6th started the first day of my poolgrimage. My effort to consciously improve my game and to become a better billiard player. It was finally time to go to Minneapolis and I packed my bags eagerly two days beforehand. In fact, I had to buy a new duffle bag on Amazon that was long enough to hold my pool cues. I woke up at 4am to make the 5am flight out of Boise and I was in Minniapolis by 9:30am or so. Demetrius picked me up from the airport and we geeked out talking about pool all the way to his house. There was a ton of excitement in both of us. We couldn’t wait to begin.
When I arrived at his house, I set all of my bags in his basement. He actually had a really nice bedroom for me downstairs. There was even a sink to brush my teeth, a long bar, a nighstand with a reading light, a mini fridge stocked with a ton of bottled water, and plenty of space to relax. There was also a bathroom downstairs, so there really wasn’t a need to go upstairs except for meals. Down in the main room of the basement there was a nine foot diamond pool table with tournament blue Simonis cloth. That enormous pool table and its tight pockets stared at me very intimidatingly. I hadn’t played on a nine foot table in over a decade, and the seven foot valley tables that I usually play on have massive pockets.
We immediately got going and he asked me to just shoot a few balls in with easy shots to see how I played. I ran around the table, shooting balls, and honestly missing more than I was making. I was not ready for what happened next, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t either.
He explained what he thought about my game. There’s no way to sugar coat it. My assessment of my own ability was wrong. I was not the player I thought I was. I had played pool my whole life and with great success, so I thought I knew the game. The problem was, that I didn’t know enough to realize how much I didn’t know. I just ran around the table whacking balls with a general idea of how to hit them and only a mild idea of where the cue ball was going to end up. I had no stroke or pre shot routine. I had no real clue about position or pattern play. It was as if the game I had played my whole life was a different game than what pool really was. It was a humbling moment. We had both been under the impression that when I flew over that the program we were going to do would be aligned for someone who was already quite proficient in pool. It took the wind out of my sails.
Demetrius didn’t flinch though. This was one on one instruction, and he had built it into his plan to adapt the program to whatever my ability was anyway. He took it as a positive thing and that it would challenge him and his ability to adapt as an instructor.
He could see my concern and immediately started into the mental game of pool. Telling me that I needed to accept who I was as a player. I needed to check my ego and to not worry about false expectations. I was just creating pressure on myself with all of these expectations of what I thought of my skill, what he thought of my skill, or what my friends thought of my skill. He told many stories about tournaments he was in, and how the mental game can affect play. I needed to not complain or explain why I shot a particular shot, but simply accept that was how I was playing. If I missed an “easy” shot to not get upset, because if I missed it, clearly it wasn’t easy. I had done something to miss the shot and to accept that. All I was doing was creating pressure for myself, and in a game situation, there is enough pressure already without me creating false pressure on myself. I needed to shoot every shot like it was life or death, but at the same time not care at all. Over the course of these three days, I learned so much about pool, but I was truly impressed with his mastery of the mental side of the game.
We followed up with preshot routine, stroke, and acceleration while stroking without punching the ball with my stick. We followed that with stunning the ball from short distance, follow, and draw. Then we went over punch follow and punch draw. Demetrius put that all together with some 5-shot drills and some Joe Tucker drills, followed by a wagon wheel drill, and a line of balls drill. We broke for lunch and watched a bunch of you tube videos of professionals while eating lunch. He showed me a ton of different players and how their pre shot routines and strokes differed. Slight differences in body shift and feathering that I had never seen when I was watching similar videos at home. From Buddy Hall to Earl Strickland to Siming Chen we watched pre shot routine of pros and diagnosed stroke. Directly after lunch it was more drills until dinner.
For dinner, we went to CJ’s billiards to watch the Friday night tournament. I met quite a few regional players and met some really nice people. Demetrius played me in a race of eight ball and then a race of nine ball. When he turned on his game, his concentration was amazing. I learned of the power of mumm pool. He played a quiet, concentrated game, and ran rack after rack. I didn’t get a shot other than breaking on the alternate breaks. Afterwards, he mentioned that he was very on stroke that night, but I wondered if he was just being nice.
I met a friend of his called Moe, and Moe commented on my game, and helped me with some really good tips. He also had some great ideas for practicing by stroking into the mouth of a bottle of beer for more precision. We played me a few games, and I found that he was a really great player. Everyone in the tournament had the ability to run out racks. It wasn’t like the bars that I was used to back home. We watched the finals and saw Jesse Engel (Fargo rate 752) win the tournament with a called five bank cut of the eight ball into the side after he was snookered directly against a ball. Wow, what a shot and a finals!
All night people ask me who the shooters were in Boise. I had no idea what to tell them. We only have one bar with nine foot tables that I was aware of (the pocket). Either there wasn’t a big pool community and a lot of big players in Boise, or I simply wasn’t aware of who they were. I’m sure the true answer is a little bit of both, but as I get better at this game, I hope I become a bigger part of the pool community in Boise. I’d love to eventually find a practice partner to shoot drills with.
We ended up getting back to Demetrius’ house around midnight and chatted up more pool until 1am. I went to bed amazed at how much I left to learn, and excited about the process of learning so much more. The next day we were planning on getting up at 9am, and I knew it was going to be another long day of pool. After, an amazing but very long and exhausting first day, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
EDIT: Demetrius now has a website. https://mnpoolbootcamp.com/
When I arrived at his house, I set all of my bags in his basement. He actually had a really nice bedroom for me downstairs. There was even a sink to brush my teeth, a long bar, a nighstand with a reading light, a mini fridge stocked with a ton of bottled water, and plenty of space to relax. There was also a bathroom downstairs, so there really wasn’t a need to go upstairs except for meals. Down in the main room of the basement there was a nine foot diamond pool table with tournament blue Simonis cloth. That enormous pool table and its tight pockets stared at me very intimidatingly. I hadn’t played on a nine foot table in over a decade, and the seven foot valley tables that I usually play on have massive pockets.
We immediately got going and he asked me to just shoot a few balls in with easy shots to see how I played. I ran around the table, shooting balls, and honestly missing more than I was making. I was not ready for what happened next, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t either.
He explained what he thought about my game. There’s no way to sugar coat it. My assessment of my own ability was wrong. I was not the player I thought I was. I had played pool my whole life and with great success, so I thought I knew the game. The problem was, that I didn’t know enough to realize how much I didn’t know. I just ran around the table whacking balls with a general idea of how to hit them and only a mild idea of where the cue ball was going to end up. I had no stroke or pre shot routine. I had no real clue about position or pattern play. It was as if the game I had played my whole life was a different game than what pool really was. It was a humbling moment. We had both been under the impression that when I flew over that the program we were going to do would be aligned for someone who was already quite proficient in pool. It took the wind out of my sails.
Demetrius didn’t flinch though. This was one on one instruction, and he had built it into his plan to adapt the program to whatever my ability was anyway. He took it as a positive thing and that it would challenge him and his ability to adapt as an instructor.
He could see my concern and immediately started into the mental game of pool. Telling me that I needed to accept who I was as a player. I needed to check my ego and to not worry about false expectations. I was just creating pressure on myself with all of these expectations of what I thought of my skill, what he thought of my skill, or what my friends thought of my skill. He told many stories about tournaments he was in, and how the mental game can affect play. I needed to not complain or explain why I shot a particular shot, but simply accept that was how I was playing. If I missed an “easy” shot to not get upset, because if I missed it, clearly it wasn’t easy. I had done something to miss the shot and to accept that. All I was doing was creating pressure for myself, and in a game situation, there is enough pressure already without me creating false pressure on myself. I needed to shoot every shot like it was life or death, but at the same time not care at all. Over the course of these three days, I learned so much about pool, but I was truly impressed with his mastery of the mental side of the game.
We followed up with preshot routine, stroke, and acceleration while stroking without punching the ball with my stick. We followed that with stunning the ball from short distance, follow, and draw. Then we went over punch follow and punch draw. Demetrius put that all together with some 5-shot drills and some Joe Tucker drills, followed by a wagon wheel drill, and a line of balls drill. We broke for lunch and watched a bunch of you tube videos of professionals while eating lunch. He showed me a ton of different players and how their pre shot routines and strokes differed. Slight differences in body shift and feathering that I had never seen when I was watching similar videos at home. From Buddy Hall to Earl Strickland to Siming Chen we watched pre shot routine of pros and diagnosed stroke. Directly after lunch it was more drills until dinner.
For dinner, we went to CJ’s billiards to watch the Friday night tournament. I met quite a few regional players and met some really nice people. Demetrius played me in a race of eight ball and then a race of nine ball. When he turned on his game, his concentration was amazing. I learned of the power of mumm pool. He played a quiet, concentrated game, and ran rack after rack. I didn’t get a shot other than breaking on the alternate breaks. Afterwards, he mentioned that he was very on stroke that night, but I wondered if he was just being nice.
I met a friend of his called Moe, and Moe commented on my game, and helped me with some really good tips. He also had some great ideas for practicing by stroking into the mouth of a bottle of beer for more precision. We played me a few games, and I found that he was a really great player. Everyone in the tournament had the ability to run out racks. It wasn’t like the bars that I was used to back home. We watched the finals and saw Jesse Engel (Fargo rate 752) win the tournament with a called five bank cut of the eight ball into the side after he was snookered directly against a ball. Wow, what a shot and a finals!
All night people ask me who the shooters were in Boise. I had no idea what to tell them. We only have one bar with nine foot tables that I was aware of (the pocket). Either there wasn’t a big pool community and a lot of big players in Boise, or I simply wasn’t aware of who they were. I’m sure the true answer is a little bit of both, but as I get better at this game, I hope I become a bigger part of the pool community in Boise. I’d love to eventually find a practice partner to shoot drills with.
We ended up getting back to Demetrius’ house around midnight and chatted up more pool until 1am. I went to bed amazed at how much I left to learn, and excited about the process of learning so much more. The next day we were planning on getting up at 9am, and I knew it was going to be another long day of pool. After, an amazing but very long and exhausting first day, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
EDIT: Demetrius now has a website. https://mnpoolbootcamp.com/
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