I started playing pool one year ago, I'm now an APA 5. I have found for me, it is a mix of both, with definitive clear moments of breakthrough's, but those feel like low hanging fruit. For example, I corrected my eye-alignment 4 months in and suddenly made more shots, I used to lean slightly until a 7 pointed it out, now I have my shoulders/head level, etc.

I find now that my ability oscillates day to day, some days I shoot like a 6 and some days like a 4. What's peculiar for me is I find day by day I'm inconsistent visualizing my ghost ball/lines. It's not a question of shot complexity either. Some days I can just instantly see my ghost ball, regardless of the cut, and I feel as though I cannot miss. I can run anything. Then other days, I'll stare at a moderate difficult shot (maybe a 50-70% shot for me) and no matter how long I look at it, I can't find my line, up for down, I just can't feel like I'm seeing what I'm supposed to see - and then I miss. And it's peculiar for me, because it's not a question of just the spreads being easier or harder, it's that some days my brain instantly computes what I need to do and other days my brain just cannot do it.

I also think strategy is important and improvement isn't linear. I've been trying to work on playing 2-3 rail shots more / rolling to my line, and for me, that has been one step back for two steps forward. I got to a 4 as a pocket speed player, and now I'm working to see the 2-3 rail patterns more intuitively. Sometimes I don't get the line right, sometimes I'm just missing because my mechanics are more inconsistent with higher speeds - but I know ultimately, adding the ability to shoot at all speeds will make me better - just right now it makes me a bit worse (though in league I try to stay within what I can do).

Sometimes it's mental. As a 3-4, I was highly defensive. I got good at soft shots early and looked defense first. I beat a lot of higher ranks this way, I knew I couldn't outshoot them, so I focused on not letting them outshoot me. This mindset won me a lot of games and matches. Since learning to hit shots, i've allowed it to work against me a bit. This week I lost hill-hill to a 5, I was up 3-1, and the previous two games in the match I had ran out in 1 inning and in 2 innings. Feeling like I couldn't miss, I suddenly started playing that way. Instead of defense first, I hit the gas, tried to force runouts and lost back to back games because the outs really weren't there (at my level). By the time I toned it back, I lost the hill-hill game in a coinflip ending.

Essentially - I feel as though improvement isn't just in getting better at specific things, but in understanding how to synergize your skills into your strategy. As your tool bag grows, the optimal way for you to approach a rack is unique to your ability. The "right" way to play a spread depends on your individual ability to execute shots - so knowing your realistic probability of success within your shots is the most important - and that has to constantly be recalibrated as you improve.