Product Description

Make pool's most difficult shots with ease. Control the table, out-think your opponent several shots ahead, and finish the game with a "top-shelf" shot. To play competitive matches, 8-Ball, or 9-Ball, you need to have the shots, read the table, and know the strategies to be successful.

First, Pool Player's Edge will show you how to execute

· stop, stun, and drag shots;
· frozen ball shots;
· banks and kicks;
· combinations and caroms; and
· jump shots and curve balls.

Second, you'll learn how to incorporate these skills and shots into your overall table strategy (mapping the table), which gives you a superior plan of attack in every game you play. Remember, when you can consistently set yourself up for the next shot, thinking ahead several shots becomes much easier—and more important.

Third, you'll learn winning tactics for 8-Ball and 9-Ball. The book's three-dimensional diagrams showing ball position, cue placement, and shot execution will help you grasp the intricacies of the two games. You'll make smarter decisions, be more confident, and perform your best consistently in competition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #809070 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

From Booklist
General pool instruction books are many, and all face the same challenge: balancing the different needs of beginning and intermediate players. Too many basics, and better players will feel cheated; too much esoterica, and novices will be lost. Kanov and Stauch, of Pool & Billiard Magazine, do a nice job of splitting the difference here. In Part 1, "Becoming a Player," they break the game into "The Essentials" (the physical elements of play); "Perfecting Your Aim"; "Top-Shelf Shots" (more accomplished tools that are nonetheless often useful or necessary); "Mapping the Table" (learning positional strategy); and "Mastering the Mind Game" (addressing the key mental aspects of a game where, really, you play yourself). Parts 2 and 3 focus on eight-ball and nine-ball, the country's two most popular games. Clean layout makes lessons easy to locate, and attractive diagrams usually make them easy to understand. The writing is thorough but not dense. Passionate players will find some points to protest (the authors occasionally equivocate on the best means of approach), but this is solid stuff. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Gerry "The Ghost" Kanov and Shari "The Shark" Stauch combine an unprecedented wealth of professional pool experience and talent to create this book. Both are staff members of Pool & Billiard Magazine, the top publication for the sport. They have played and worked with virtually every top professional pool player and instructor in the world.

Kanov has been playing professional and amateur pool since 1968. He has dozens of local and national top-three finishes and championships, including two national team championships as a player or coach. He is an instructional editor and technical advisor for Pool & Billiard Magazine and writes the "Ghost" column.

Kanov also is a touring professional on the Camel Pro Billiard series and a coach for several top players. He also has a screen credit: He portrayed a referee in the motion picture The Color of Money. Kanov lives in Gallatin, Tennessee.

Stauch has been on the Women's Pro Billiard Tour since 1980. She has been consistently ranked in the top 32 and is a former Illinois and Wisconsin state 9-Ball champion. She is the owner and executive editor of Pool & Billiard Magazine and has performed dozens of exhibitions for a variety of clients, such as ESPN, ESPN2, and Gordon's Gin and Vodka.

Stauch is the founding president of the Billiard Education Foundation, which conducts youth billiard national championships and provides scholarships. She serves as the treasurer on the Women's Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) board of directors and as the public relations director of the World Confederation of Billiard Sports, an international federation that succeeded in getting pool recognized as an official Olympic sport for the 2000 Games. Stauch was also involved with The Color of Money, serving as a consultant. She lives in Summerville, South Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Great book
This is a great book fot the beginner and average player, it has a lot of techniques that will help build a game or develop and improve that of an average player.

The Pool Doctor Is Making House Calls
I really enjoyed Precision Pool, but I loved The Pool Player's Edge! While the first book gave its readers gems and tips in acquiring fundamentals and advanced skills, Kanov and Stauch provide an opportunity to troubleshoot and apply those skills in their latest book. The first section gives the reader tools to diagnose and fix problems in fundamentals, which everybody needs. I don't care who you are, when you are having trouble with your game, chances are it's your fundamentals that need tweaking. The "Quick Fixes" work great to get you back on track. But the real joy of this book is in the last two sections on 8-ball and 9-ball. The sections break each game into Phases - Opening Game, Middle Game and End Game that provide the reader with winning strategies and key shots to employ those strategies.

The book is filled with great diagrams, as usual, and further uses some great action photos of real pros to illustrate the concepts provided in the text. It is a real thinking-man's book and I enjoyed it thoroughly.