[<<] [>>] by Ian Plummer
3rd January 2004 (Other News)

This fifth booklet in the series is applicable to beginners and intermediate players. It deals with common problems in the basic strokes covering the following topics:

Section A - The Roquet

1. I keep missing my roquets, always on the left hand side.
2. My mallet keeps twisting in my hand.
3. I keep missing reasonably short roquets of 4 or 5 yards. I feel I am at least as likely to hit a roquet of 10 or 15 yards.
4. My roquets seem to start on line, but tend to curve off before they reach the ball I am trying to roquet.
5. At times I hit the ground with my mallet on roquets, or more especially on long rushes and cannons.

Section B - The Rush

6. I can't get enough distance in my rushes, and even in a roquet shot I have trouble reaching the far end of a heavy lawn. I don't have the strength for such shots.
7. I have no confidence with rushes longer than about two feet. Sometimes I miss altogether when I try to rush a ball any distance.
8. Sometimes my ball jumps when I play a rush shot. At times it has jumped right over the other ball.

Section C - The Take-Off

10. I find it hard to control distance in my take-offs. Others seem to be able to judge them fairly well, but I go too far or stop too short. I seem to take far too long to get the feel of the lawn.

Section D - The Stop-Shot

11. My stop-shots are nowhere near as good as the ones I see other players doing. My striker's ball always seems to go too far.

Section E - The Roll

12. I can't do a proper roll or pass-roll. The croqueted ball goes too far, or else the striker's ball does not go far enough.

Section F - The Split

13. Unless I play a take-off, I find it very hard to judge approach shots from a yard or two to the side of the hoop. I cannot seem to get a forward rush from such positions except by sheer fluke.
14. On split-shots I can usually get the striker's ball where I want it, but I do not seem to have much control of the other ball. It usually stops well short of where I would like to place it. In fact, I no longer try to get it right down to the next hoop.
15. I can control splits fairly well if the angle is not too wide, but I avoid a split if the angle exceeds 45 degrees, as I'm not confident the balls will go where I want them to.
16. I cannot understand why I find some splits, such as from 1- back to 2-back and 3-back, easier than the mirror-image shots, such as from hoop 1 to hoops 2 and 3.

Section G - Hoop Running

17. I tend to stick in hoops on any shot which is at all sidey.
18. I can run hoops easily enough at practice, but in a match the ball just won't seem to go through.
19. I keep running much too far through hoops, giving
20. No matter how hard I try, I cannot play a jump shot through a hoop. The ball just won't jump for me.

Section H - The Break

21. I play several good shots to get a break started, then when I have all the balls set up where I want them, I do something stupid like sticking in an easy hoop or missing a short roquet.

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