Drawing Lessons

Oh, to be able to draw!
How does Allison Fisher draw the full length of the table?
And with such apparent ease!

Sure, I can draw the cue ball a little bit,
but as the distance between the cue ball and object ball
increases, the amount of draw, for me, decreases.
There seems to be a wall.

Yesterday, in our marathon 10-hour lesson,
El Maestro once again tried to show me the power draw.
"Watch closely" he would say, and proceed to draw
the cue ball in ways I can only describe as magical.
But of course, it all happens so quickly that
it is impossible to see what is actually happening.

He suggests strongly that if I were a better student
I would surely have been able to master this shot by now.
I suggest that if he could teach, then I would be able to draw!

Very frustrating!

For a long time I have felt that
my stroke is flawed in some basic way.
Certainly it is inelegant, to say the least.
The harder I hit the ball, the less accurate I am.
To me, this is wrong.
I think I must be flinching at the last nanosecond,
or blinking, or ... something, but what is it?

When I find out, surely I will be king!

He has me do all the obvious things
like shoot as low as possible on the cue ball,
hit it harder, follow through, etc.
Nothing but a wimpy, girly-man draw, if any at all.

Then Tony has me use an open hand bridge,
and instead of hitting the ball with a level stroke,
he has me try shooting somewhat downward on the ball.
The results are better,
but still not as spectacular as I want.

He suggests lifting weights to build a stronger arm,
and then changes his mind.
It seems that there is no solution to my ineptitude.
Then he remembers how he cured my break shot,
which was surely even more inept (less ept?)
than my draw.
One of the things he had me do that helped my break
was to deliver an exaggerated follow through.
This also helped me when shooting over balls.
Maybe that's the solution!
But by then, my mind and body were fried.
I'll have to give myself a day or two to recover,
and see if that helps.
Stay tuned...