Burksizm,

You are only 1 month into the process. I still may be a little too soon to put a lot of stock into the outcome of your shots. Make sure that you are seeing consistency. It sounds like you are.
Remember, we are looking at the dice flight in the air. Are they rotating together on axis?
How did they land? Did they both go straight to the back wall together and bounce back together stopping about 4-6 inches from the wall?
If these things are happening then you have thrown an advantage shot. Make sure that you are not landing right at the base of the wall. The dice need to land about 4 inches away and hit the wall at the apex of their bounce. Sometimes, if you land too close the dice will bounce up into the pyramids and get a double flop 7.

We have all thrown that great looking shot that lands too close to the back wall and bounces up into the wall, then ends up a 4/3 or 5/2.

Keep up the great practice, be critical of your shots and your results will come.

NFF

Are you consistently throwing fewer horn numbers: 2,3,11 and 12?

Are your totals of those 4 numbers consistently fewer than 48, 41, 35 or 29? Those numbers represent the mean and the 3 standard deviations for horn numbers in a group of 288 rolls. The best would be fewer than 29. Three standard deviations is the standard we look for to give us confidence that we are influencing the dice.

If you are using a traditional hardways set, the 1 and 6 form the axis around which your dice are rotating. You are hopefully avoiding those numbers. If you also record the individual die results, look for 69 or fewer 1s or 69 or fewer 6s. 69 or fewer of either/both of those numbers would be 3 standard deviations from the mean of 96 and would show that you are influencing the dice.

Another thing to consider is shorter practice sessions. Do you practice 2 hours because that is how long it takes you to complete a 288 roll sheet? Maybe do 72 roll sessions?

Thank you for posting your questions.

NFF is correct. You don’t want to put too much stock in the results this soon after the class. Give yourself some time. Concentrate on how the dice look in the air–are they on axis, are they level to the table, are you throwing too hard, are the dice splitting, is one die leading or higher than the other, etc. Look at your notes from the class and remember what was taught.

Self critique is so important. If there is some one in the area who had the class, you can practice together.

Something that we use from time to time, is don’t set the dice but simply make sure the grip is right on–thumb and middle finger centered on the dice and the fingers are straight across the front of the dice. Also insure the grip is very light so the dice naturally come out with out you flicking your fingers. Remember when the dice are in your fingers is the only time you have 100% control over the dice.

Don’t practice when you are tired or for long periods of time–15 to 20 minutes a couple of times is better that a 1 1/2 hour session.

Be to ask questions on the message board and you will get a lot of help.

Hope to see you soon.

Rose and Doc

Your dice are tightly grouped, with a good backward spin, landing just as you want, and you still get the 7 way too often. Until you can get to a Refresher, Tune Up, or Video Analytics, I am certain it would really help you get to the heart of the matter if you video recorded your grip, swing, release, flight, and landing.

I do this way my iPad Mini using the app, “Coach’s Eye”. In the Apple store, it was $19.99. I set it to record at 120 FPS, 720p. Newer phones could probably do this at 1080p, but you really need 120 FPS – and very good lighting. This app allows me to slo mo, and even easily advance/reverse 1 frame at a time using a slide bar. I’m sure there are other apps available.

This will allow you to get a 2nd point of view, which you need for situations like yours. It will also, importantly, allow you to determine if the double pitch you’re getting is caused by the back wall – a frequent cause of a double pitch. If so, you’ll need to adjust the distance of your landing zone from the back wall.

Again, your best help will be with a GTC instructor. Until then, video recording will answer a lot of questions.

Burksizm,

I hate to sound like a broken record so I won’t repeat the same things others have said other than to say don’t get discouraged… I was in the August class in Vegas as well and I can tell you, I’ve had some brutal practice sessions since then. The thing I keep reminding myself is to go back to the basics and make sure everything we have control over is rock solid. Even in the middle of a session I’ll catch myself and correct (sometimes again and again) a problem and my throws start getting better again.

Personally, I find that shorter sessions throughout the day works better, but I work from home several days of the week so it’s easier to do. I’ll go to my practice rig and throw until I seven out and then return to whatever I was working on for a while. At the same time I’m also making the bets as if I were at a live table, as much to try to mimic the pace of play as to practice betting. Once I’ve recorded 50 rolls I put those in and start a new set. At this point I only have about 1100 throws recorded, but I also trend the outputs from each set and the cumulative statistics after each set so I can tell whether things are improving over time. Perhaps that’s just the analyst in me coming out, but I’ve found that when I start feeling frustrated I can look and remind myself of how far I’ve come since I started.

To everyone else who has replied so far, thank you! There are some great ideas in here and I’m going to start kicking around ways to slowly start implement some of them in my own training.

BK

ok –

1. Don’t record your rolls for the first 6 weeks of practice

2. One hour of practice broken down into 4 15 minutes sessions is the best

3. Try not to look at the results for these first 6 weeks, but instead look at what the dice look like in the air – are they together? – are they landing together? – If not – CHECK YOUR GRIP!

4. You will take 3 steps backwards to take 5 steps forward

Hope all this helps.

Dom

"Chuckman" wrote: Are you consistently throwing fewer horn numbers: 2,3,11 and 12?

Are your totals of those 4 numbers consistently fewer than 48, 41, 35 or 29? Those numbers represent the mean and the 3 standard deviations for horn numbers in a group of 288 rolls. The best would be fewer than 29. Three standard deviations is the standard we look for to give us confidence that we are influencing the dice.

If you are using a traditional hardways set, the 1 and 6 form the axis around which your dice are rotating. You are hopefully avoiding those numbers. If you also record the individual die results, look for 69 or fewer 1s or 69 or fewer 6s. 69 or fewer of either/both of those numbers would be 3 standard deviations from the mean of 96 and would show that you are influencing the dice.

Another thing to consider is shorter practice sessions. Do you practice 2 hours because that is how long it takes you to complete a 288 roll sheet? Maybe do 72 roll sessions?

I throw 15 – 30 minutes at a time. That’s usually 1-2 coulumns. I have started recording the types of 7’s I toss. I know what’s happened when I toss 6/1, the dice have rolled right or left. It’s the 5/2 and 4/3’s that are frustrating. Also, what I appear to be able to do really well in practice sessions, is toss the same numbers consecutively. If I toss a 6, odds are I’m going to toss another 6, just not the same. It’s the same when I toss 7’s, I don’t just toss 1, I’m going to toss a few of them back to back.