The severe shortage of entries in this 'blog lately are mostly caused by my wrist injury and the lack of practice it's caused, but when I do practice I'm having to deal with yet another problem - whether to play as Banks Dave or as Straight Shot Dave.

You see, Banks Dave and Straight Shot Dave have two completely different attitudes - attitudes forced upon them by the games that they play.

Most games, 9-ball, 8-ball, one-pocket, and the like share the same ultimate need of extreme accuracy. In these games missing is simply not an option. You play safe or you make the ball. Luckily, this accuracy can be obtained and maintained by the proper level of concentration.

In banks you simply have to accept that misses will occur. There are just too many variables in a bank shot to ever make much more than half the shots attempted. A banks player has to be able to accept these inevitable misses unconditionallly or he will soon go insane. A banks player's attitude is much more relaxed. It has to be, or the common cycle of safety, safety, safety, miss that repeats so frequently in banks would destroy any chance of an enjoyable experience.

As I continue to find myself on the verge of ending my long slump I've been trying to balance my time between practicing banks and practicing games like 8-ball and 9-ball. I need the banks practice as the Derby City Classic is less than two months away, and I need to practice the other games to maintain my resurgence.

The problem comes when switching back and forth. Banks Dave, when trying to play a game like 9-ball, looks like he's just whacking at balls. There seems to be no concern for cueball position. Easy shots are missed just as often as hard ones.

Straight Shot Dave, trying to play a game of banks, gets frustrated very quickly, failing to understand that all the accuracy in the world does no good if it's not properly blended with shot speed, cueball spin, equipment condition, and even a little luck.

I'd like to be able to blend the mindsets of these two pool personas into a single player but I haven't been able to do it yet. I'll have to ask Nick Varner and/or Shannon Daulton how they do it.

Perhaps then I'll start addressing the difference in the physical styles of the personas, but that's another subject.

Do me a favor. Look at the object ball last.

And what's up with all the damn practice strokes?

Putz.

A couple of times each month during the past 30 months I've thought I was out of my slump. Not back to the pro-level shooting I'd briefly experienced, but at least back to the level I'd enjoyed for years prior to that magical two days. On these hopeful occasions I'd make three or four balls in a row and then excitedly set up the camcorder to capture whatever physical mannerism had turned out to be the secret to my game. The special arm angle, bridge length, or grip position that I'd so carelessly forgotten so long ago.

On each of those occasions my delusions of decency eventually evaporated. Sometimes an hour later, sometimes several days later. I'd start missing easy shots again, and getting shape would become the pipe dream of a has-been.

The jury is still out on this, perhaps the 75th time I've allowed myself to get my hopes up. For a couple of solid weeks now, except for a brief period the other day when I decided to table my trusty Schon for a while, I've played the way I'm supposed to play. The way I used to play.

To put it briefly, I run out when I'm supposed to. How strange it is to make that observation about my game after all this time. How wonderful to catch myself thinking "I'm out" instead of "I should be out" when the balls are open.

Pool, for now, is fun again. I no longer have to hide inside my banks game, where misses are expected, to cloak my inability to make even the easiest shots, to see even the easiest patterns, in other games.

Though this latest streak began a few days before my Seattle trip, I still give that trip all the credit for my recent resurgence. The enthusiasm with which I looked forward to playing against my friends in Seattle, or simply being around "pool people" again, was something I was desperately missing - even though I didn't know I was missing it.

Maybe the monkey is finally off my back. I'm not willing to say it just yet. The memory of all those other disappointments still stings and makes me cautious. I don't know what will have to happen before I'm willing to declare that my game is back for good. Perhaps it will come to me gradually, a persistent level of competence that I'll eventually realize has become my "real game" and is not just indicative of another hot streak. Or maybe I'll experience an epiphany during my practice some night. I'll simply drop into stroke and never look back.

As I said, the jury is still out. I can see the light at the top of the well, but I haven't quite pulled myself out yet. I just hope I don't fall to the bottom again.

Time to go practice.

Tonight I played with my Schon for the first time since it was shipped back from Seattle. Before tonight I'd been continuing to play with my Predator since I'd been doing so well with it during my "good cue's" absence.

My game fell apart. I don't really understand it, since I did play fairly well in Seattle with the Schon, but tonight I overhit everything and missed most halfway tough shots.

The weight on the cues is the same, but the Predator's balance point is a couple of inches closer to the butt (he he, I said butt) than the one on the Schon. Apparently this is enough to make a huge difference with certain stroke styles, because when I started shooting with my Predator again everything fell back into place.

For further expermentation I played an APA race to 7, Schon Me against Predator Me. While the results of one race are certainly not conclusive, they can still be pretty informative (or damning) at times.

Predator Me: 7 games, 2 safeties - .714 innings/game
Schon Me: 1 game, 3 safeties - 4.0 innings/game

That's better than four times as good playing with the Predator, and it doesn't even take into account how much more relaxed I was with that cue. It's amazing how much easier the game becomes when confidence is on your side.

So anyway, for now at least, I've decided to practice my non-banks games with the Predator. My banks game still seems to like the Schon.

Of course, if the pattern holds true, all this will change before too long as my newfound shooting style stops working and I migrate to something else.

Today I strung together five racks of 8-ball for the first time in nearly three years. Still shooting with the little short stroke and for some reason my alignment is still good even without the cue's motion to check it against.

I'm still not willing to declare that "I'm back" completely, but it feels pretty good to be this close again.

Found myself tonight at my sister's Halloween party discussing pool with a friend of her boyfriend.

I'd played this guy once, about two months ago, and he made a very nice run and beat me in a game of 8-ball. Anyway, during the course of the conversation I ended up inviting him to my house to play. What I had forgotten, in my Cone Smoker induced stupor, is that my 8-ball game sucks.

Now I'll have to work on my 8-ball game to avoid making a fool out of myself. This will of course cut into my banks practice, and with the Derby City Classic coming up I need all the banks practice I can get.

Fortunately the little mini-streak of good shooting that began a week ago continues. I can say with confidence that I'm playing better right now than I've played in nearly three years. I have yet to drop into dead stroke again, but the balls are being pocketed with pretty good regularity, and that leaves me free to loosen up a little and allow my position play to fall into place.