My System For Improving At Pool
Improving becomes so much easier when you finally understand what you are doing wrong and how to fix it.
A few years ago, I thought that the only thing that stood between me and professional-level play was thousands of hours of table time.
I had been stuck as a Korea Billiards Federation SL7 (approx Fargo 590) for nearly a decade. After being stagnant for so long, I was frustrated and decided to fully commit to improving. I promised myself I’d play for 2 hours a day, every day — no excuses. I did this for months.
Every day, I made the 30-minute trip to the pool hall and got my table time in. I was dedicated. I showed up. I put in the time.
And after all that effort?
My game barely improved.
What I failed to recognize was that it wasn’t enough to just play more pool.
I needed structure. I needed direction. I needed a system.
The Overload Trap
Almost every serious amateur player I talk to wants to improve. They have the motivation and dedicate time to the game, but they don’t know what they need to do to reach that next level.
There’s a lot of great instruction out there. But the problem is how most of players try to use it.
They watch a video about cue ball control.
Then one about shot routine.
Another about speed control.
Then elbow drop.
Then straight shots.
The next time they get to the table, they’re running through a mental checklist, trying to remember everything they just watched — five different thoughts before every shot. They expect it all to come together, certain they’re about to play some of the best pool of their lives.
Instead, they feel overwhelmed. Their focus is scattered across parts of their game that are normally automatic, and suddenly they’re playing some of the worst pool they’ve played in months.
Frustrated, they fall back into what feels comfortable, and nothing has changed. It’s not that the advice was wrong; it’s that their attention was divided. They’re trying to rebuild their whole game in one night.
The Turning Point
The turning point for me was when I began teaching.
The WPB YouTube channel grew, and people started asking me for advice. At first, I didn’t feel qualified. I wasn’t a pro. I was just a guy who loved the game and wanted to make some entertaining pool videos.
But if I were going to teach, I wasn’t going to give out bad information.
I bought about 50 instructional books.
I dug into the fundamentals.
I asked the best players I knew detailed questions.
In trying to teach others, I finally became a student of the game.
My Journey
Using what I learned, I finally started seeing improvement.
I slowly rebuilt my game from the ground up, focusing primarily on my fundamentals. Within a year, I was an SL8. Eighteen months after that, I was an SL9.
It wasn’t just playing more. It was deliberate, focused, structured training.
Today, I am ranked among the top 30 amateurs in South Korea KBF 9-ball. I play in two amateur 8-ball leagues, of which I have the highest all-time ranking in both, out of nearly 1000 players.
But I’m not where I want to be yet.
But now I have my eyes set on the international professional scene.
I got so close to taking down my first big name earlier this month at the 2025 Peri Open. I played against Marvin Asis in the first round. I started the match up 5-3, but ended up losing 7-9.
My goal over the next year is simple. Get to a level where I can challenge and beat well-known established international pros, not just occasionally get close.
I’m going to train for it, and I want you to join me.
The Incremental Improvement Cycle
This is the system I developed that got me from SL7 to SL9, and it's the same system that I plan to use to get from SL9 to competitive pro.
This system takes a more focused and consistent approach to improvement by hyper-focusing on a single aspect of your game at a time for a period of one to two weeks at a time. The cycle goes something like this:
Learn Best Practices:
In order to know what's wrong with your game, you must first know what right and wrong looks like. You have to educate yourself on best practices and seek knowledge from great players. I feel like this is where the majority of players get stuck. Players spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on a new cue, but none on education and coaching.
Identify Flaws:
With the newfound knowledge that you have, you’ll start finding a ton of things that you need to improve. Take note of anything you want to work on, but don’t try to do it all at once. Prioritize the list and pick something to focus on. I typically pick whatever item I’m most motivated to work on. I’ll dive deeper into how to identify flaws in your game in the next WPB Weekly Break.
Focus on Fixing:
Once you have identified an issue you want to fix, make it the primary focus of all of your practice sessions. Find and perform drills that address the issue you identified. If your focus is something like staying still in the shot, just focus on staying perfectly still, every shot. It’s really that simple.
Automate:
Eventually, the thing you are focused on will become a natural, automated part of your game that requires no focus. When you reach this point, you either start working on another flaw that you identified or educate yourself further to find another issue.
In my experience, you typically find something else you want to work on while focused on a single part of your game. Ignore the urge to work on it, but do take note of it and queue it up for once you finish your current focus.
One focused improvement every week.
Compounding Progress
These changes build on each other over time.
Some of them will result in immediate improvement.
Some will make your game feel worse before it feels better.
That’s okay.
What matters is the player you’re training to become, not just how you played in a single league match on a random Thursday night.
If you stay patient and focused, these small, deliberate improvements will begin to add up.
You won’t notice it day-to-day, but it will quietly build.
And then one day, it hits.
You start setting new personal bests.
You convincingly beat a player you couldn’t even touch before.
And that’s when everybody else will start to notice.
What Comes Next
This week was about understanding the incremental improvement cycle and becoming a student of the game.
Before we get into next week's focus, I want you to start studying.
Inside the World of Pool and Billiards App learn section, there are 80+ lessons on everything from the fundamentals to multi-rail kicking systems. This is the accumulation of all of the same knowledge I used to rebuild my game from SL7 to SL9.
Start your 7-day free trial and begin reading through the course.
Even if you don’t continue the subscription afterward, at least read through the lessons this week.
The training we’re about to do will make a lot more sense once you understand the why behind it.
Welcome to the journey.
See you next week.
-Jake