banks are really esy. most miss because they dont know where to hit. which is easy to figure.
or they miss because they vary their speed. there is a standard for you speed to hit all your banks find that. then always use that speed unless you need to do otherwise. so in general if you hit a bank softer it goes longer and via versa. same with adding english outside on the cueball will make banks go longer and inside shorter.

use english and speed for position after the shot or to make a bank that wont go easily. like a simple across side bank but you have too muc h angle to make it without a kiss. so hitting it hard with inside may make the shot easy as well as makeable.

My first match as a SL 6, got matched up against a SL 5, so I need 5 racks, he needs 4.

He got 2.

He shoulda got 1, but I dogged an 8.

I shoulda had 2-3 ERO's, but they all collapsed when I missed basic, easily-make-able shots. Will I never get over these yips?

And after an hour of play, I'm EXHAUSTED. I'm a nervous wreck during a match, and it wears me out. I definitely notice a drop-off in my game as we approach the 1-hour mark.

I'm nervous in practice, too. I'm totally competing against myself, trying to get better.

(I murdered a guy 5-2 tonight, and all I can talk about are the things that went wrong.)

Speaking of banks, I won a rack after banking one in.

Sort of.

I left one ball on the table. When I got another turn, I needed to bank it, and get the cue ball through traffic to get shape on the 8. The ball I was banking was just behind the spot.

Wish I got Ray's message about speed, because I hit this one firmly to draw back from it. It missed long, badly--but ended up going three rails and into a SIDE pocket! AND I got the perfect shape on the 8 I was playing. I'm out.

"I feel guilty about that one," I told my opponent.
"That's OK, I feel guilty about the last one," he replied, about the one where I dogged the 8.

are you playing with your own aramath cueballs or the house magnetic or weighted or oversized ones.
each of those will make you choices different than normal.

Well, like Ray said, when you hit it harder, it will miss short and not long. However, when you put bottom English on it this will cause it to go long.

Bottom makes it go long.
Top will make it short.
Outside makes it long.
Inside makes it short.
Softer makes it long.
Harder makes it short.

So give yourself only four places to pocket a ball instead of six?! I'm of the complete opposite of this thinking. I actually worked toward getting good at side pockets to my options while at the table. They're not too tight and in fact they are most likely wider. You just don't have a rail that you can bounce into and still make it.

Really depends on how the balls are spread. If you have a few sitting on rails blocking each other you may need to get them first if you're thinking of a run out. As far as doing one end of a table and then switching to another that would really depend on any ducks sitting in pockets that can be used as a setup shot or as an out for a defense*.

* Ex:As you're running out some of your objects on one end you fail to get position where you need to. You can use the duck to "reset" yourself or you can play defense and have the duck sitting there as an out if your opponent tries to 'd' you back.

Wait--I *won* that rack when I dogged the 8. He didn't get out.

The one I shoulda won, my key ball was hanging in a corner, the 8 on the far end, one diamond from the pocket. Left myself a lousy angle, tried to draw my way out of that corner, loaded up--and miscued.

I dunno. It's not oversized, yet the coin-op table can still parse it. No, we don't use our own.

Isn't that what you are supposed to do, if you are trying to get better?

if its not bigger. then it is heavier. either much heavier or has a magnet in it. either way a junk cue ball and much harder to draw and play position with.

most league play they open the table for you so you can also bring your own cueballs.
even if they dont have a couple extra available for when you scratch and dont get it back.

I found out this past weekend while at the Tri-cup tournament (basically a playoff to get a spot to Regionals in June) that out of all the different leagues that were there our's is the only one that doesn't open the tables. I never even knew places did that for league night!

This is my third bar box league (M8, Valley, now APA), none have opened tables.

Thanks. Seriously.

Funny moment from last week: one of my teammates is trying to run out, his opponents balls are all out of the way. On his last position shot, he needs to lag end-to-end to get on the 8, which is two inches from the end rail, on the first diamond. The cue takes the wrong line, and now 2" from the 8, perpendicular to the rail. Again, the only ball on the table is the 8.

He calls timeout, and summons me.

I tell him he's in a great spot here. "Hit the 8 as thin as you can, so it BARELY moves. It will move this way (area near center of end rail). The cue ball hits the rail here (near the corner pocket), and will go here and here. You're just trying to lag the cue ball to the far end."

He looks at me like I'm speaking Martian. Most pool players have no idea how to hit a shot where the cue ball is the focus, instead of the object ball.

I try to explain it a second time, it's very simple--to me, any way. My teammates on the bench are screaming that I should step away from the table and come talk to them (they all hate my idea, too, and prefer the "obvious" safety).

I can see my guy is never going to understand what I'm saying, so I give in to the crowd, and tell him to make a full-ball hit as soft as he can, leaving his opponent the exact same shot that he is currently looking at. He executes this flawlessly.

Opponent steps up, tries a ridiculous kick shot to try to make this 8...and nails it.

Afterwards, I set it up again, and showed my guy the safety I had in mind. I hit perfect, leaving the 8 near the end rail, and cue ball ON the far end rail. His expression made it clear that he had never seen a shot like that. And this guy is older than ME!

Reading my post again, I guess it could have looked like I was being flippant. It was meant as supportive, and I'm glad you saw that.

Spent the night watching Tor Lawry YouTube videos.

Just went out to practice. I'VE NEVER RUN SO MANY RACKS IN ONE NIGHT IN MY LIFE.

Just watching a guy on YouTube confidently make simple shot after simple shot. No Bomb Squad stuff. I was able to relax and just fire balls into pockets. I wasn't perfect--but that's OK.

So excited about the big leap in my game, I snuck out of work early on Monday for an extra practice session. I shot even BETTER. My "rack up just the stripes, BIH after break" exercise against the ghost saw me get out five times in a row! I can't WAIT for League Night on Tuesday!

Yeah, I lost. I shot HORRIBLY.

But I have a bunch of excuses, and I'm going to use every one of 'em!

I practice at the pool hall. I play leagues in a bar. Both places use the same Diamond tables with Simonis cloth, and they play similarly, but the pool hall is much closer to my house and much, much cheaper to play for an hour or two compared to $1.50/rack at the bar. When I signed up for this league, I had never heard of the bar, so I googled it. Every online review was a complaint. Well, no one bothers to write reviews unless they want to complain, so I took them with a grain of salt...but after last night, I'm through with this place. I'll finish the current season, but my next team will play somewhere else.

Yes, I'm blaming the bar for why I played so poorly last night. And yes, I know my opponent was playing was under the same conditions. I take nothing away from his performance, he played great. We played 7 racks and the entire match was done in 18 innings.

It was warm out last night, and it gets HOT in this bar when there are a lot of people in there. I learned early on not to wear jeans, I was in shorts, polo shirt, and undershirt. The polo shirt was removed within minutes of arriving--and I was one of the first ones there! It got much, much worse when the room filled with players.

The first thing I do when I arrive is to assemble my cue, and give the tip a litle scruff with the tapper, carefully examining my work as I go. But the lighting in this place is so bad, I can't see it! They have lights over each table (a pair of bulbs covered by green shades) but even standing against the table, I can't clearly make out the scuffs I'm making. I sometimes need reading glasses for fine print, but I never have this problem in the well-lit pool room.

This place has 8 pool tables, in a room that should not have more than four. If the cue ball is on the rail, and you need to set your stance back further from the table, you never know what's going to happen behind you. Sometimes, your ass will hit another pool table, and you need to modify your stance in a ridiculous manner. I luckily drew a corner table, so this was only a problem on one side--but on the other side was literally, I kid you not, a couple at a table eating their dinner. I had one rail shot where she had to stop eating, because the butt of my cue was between her face and her plate. So kudos to my opponent for dealing with these distractions better than I did.

Meanwhile, it's just getting hotter. The shaft is not gliding over my bridge hand, I'm sticky. I've never used powder in my life, don't carry any, and this dump didn't have any even if I wanted it. I never got comfortable in warmups, and consequently, never got comfortable in the game. Oh, and the table is playing super-fast tonight! They just put new cloth down a couple weeks ago, the tables had been playing super-slow, but we had a few chilly nights this week, maybe they had the heat on and dried out the moist cloth? I don't know, but after a week of glorious practice, I suddenly have NO IDEA where the cue ball is going to go.

This bar also plays Bar Bingo on Tuesdays, and the carryover must be huge, because this is the biggest bingo crowd I've ever seen in this place. And our pool league's summer session is over, the fall sessions are upon us, and a lot of league players who take the summers off are back, so it's also the biggest pool crowd I've seen this place...and the temperature just keeps climbing.

I'm a SL 6, get matched up with a 5. It seems he just got moved up to 5, a few folks are congratulating him on that. I should be better than this guy. I need 5 racks to win, he needs 4.

I win the lag, barely (I had warmed up on this table, he hadn't). I shoot like **** the first rack and lose, but I *always* play poorly the first game, succumbing to jitters, then settle down.

I shoot poorly the second rack, but have a chance at the end. The 8 is a few inches off the end rail, about 1.5 diamonds from the pocket. The cue ball is 6" away, a tough cut shot to the left requiring the mechanical bridge, but Ishould be able to make it. I have to hit it harder than I like, because the cut is so thin, the cue ball is going to fly around, and the way I'm shooting, I have no idea where it's going. His last ball is to my right, and the cue ball is going to head that way, but should either end up at the far end, or keep going off the far end rail to the opposite quadrant of table, not leaving him much.

I hit the shot. The 8 drops. As long as this cue ball doesn't find a pocket, I'm good.

It comes off the end rail, and starts toward the side pocket, but not really. It's going to pass the side pocket, hit the rail about the third diamond....

...it crawls past the third diamond. Ok, second diamond....

....it keeps crawling. It's not gonna hit the first diamond, either. Oh well, whatever, it can't possibly scratch. At worst it's going to hit the hook--and even if somehow misses THAT, it won't have enough speed to scratch....

...it misses the hook...we still don't know if this is going to be a scratch...

....it drops in the pocket. I'm down 0-2. He's going to 4, I'm going to 5.

"I've never seen that in my life," I keep stammering, like a fool. "I've never watched a cue ball come off an object ball, watched the line it was taking, and been off by THREE DIAMONDS on where it would hit the rail."

I somehow win the next three, but I played so bad. I might've run four balls ONCE. I was never comfortable over any shot. It was 1000 degrees in there, my precious 9-1 record is on the line, and this tiny room is so crowded, I'm often jockeying for space at my table--jockeying with players on adjacent tables, or passersby who need to squeeze past us. Again, none of this bothered my opponent, he played great, kudos to him and shame on me...but F*** THIS PLACE!

Next rack, I can't get out. My last ball is on the end rail, a few inches from the pocket, but the 8 is on the center of that end rail. I can't cut this ball and keep the cue ball at this end for the 8. I didn't WANT this to be my "key ball", but with the 8 on one side of it, and opponents' ball blocking approaches from the other side, I had a narrow window to get shape on this ball, and I tried and failed a few times to land in that window, so it ended up being my last ball. I can make the hit, but I can't sink the ball. I play a desperate "maybe it will double kiss in, and the cue ball will stay there" shot, with predictably hapless results. Oh well, he has one ball left, he needs to cut it down the rail 6 diamonds and get the cueball back to the end rail for the 8. My last ball is hanging now. I like my chances...

He hit his shot like God, made the ball, got perfect shape, and got out. He's on the hill.

I play like crap some more. He's making a nice runout, but the 8 will be tricky, it's on the rail near a side pocket. His key ball is 6" in front of this same side pocket. He leaves himself straighter than he'd like on this key ball shot, but dutifully tries any way to follow it to as close to the pocket as he can...and he hits it WAY too hard. He's almost certainly going to follow it in. If he somehow doesn't follow it in, he's at best going to rebound out to the center of the table--

--neither of those things happened. he followed it INTO THE HOOK. This absorbed all of the cue ball's speed, rather than sending it rocketing back. It also DEFLECTED the cue ball in the perfect direction for him, leaving him an easy shot on the 8, which he made. It was an incredibly lucky break for him--but he played so much better than I did, he deserved it. He created his own luck. Conversely, so did I.

I can't WAIT to run out the door! Of course I'm grumpy about losing, but moreso, I'm *dying* from the heat in here. There are about 50-60 people in the pool area, another 60-80 playing bingo, and ONE waitress--and she's not that good a waitress, either. I'm focused on my match, the rare times she did make it back our way, I certainly never saw her, if she was ever there at all. Cold drinks would've helped mitigate things a little. My plan was wash my hands, gather my stuff, and flee.

I left the pool area and entered the bar area to find the mens room. IT'S 20 DEGREES COOLER IN THIS AREA! OMG, what a difference. F*** THIS PLACE!!!

I wash up in the COOL bathroom. Head back to the pool tables to gather my stuff, and crossing that threshold was night-and-day, I was back in the sauna.

My team won the summer session there. And my team is stocked with awesome, genuinely nice people. I'm gonna miss 'em, but after this fall session, I'm done with this place.

You could try to convince your team to switch to the pool hall if it's convenient enough for everyone. Although, it probably doesn't serve food and alcohol. Wish there was at least one Diamond table with Simonis cloth in our entire league!

Learn to play with a glove, seriously. Even when it's not too warm my hands still get a little clammy from moving around a shooting. I used to carry a small bottle of baby powder in my bag but I hated the mess. Then I decided to try a glove and after a few weeks of getting used to the feel and the slight extra thickness around my fingers I now will never go back! It completely eliminates the complication you just described.

Also, before your match starts get a paper towel from the bathroom, lightly wet it with cold water and just keep it nearby. Use it on your forehead and neck from time to time. It seriously helps during the hottest days! I'm from PA and our summers can get pretty hot and humid.

Last night three of our shooters shot terribly but I and another were able to get points to only make it a 7-5 loss (to the last place team that was missing their best shooter). I recorded a 5-1 win against their captain (SL6) and the only loss was due to him completely screwing up a defense that caused his ball to go into a pocket, then making a bad decision on a side pocket shot only to have the cue ball go off the corner of the pocket, back over to the other side of the table and left him an easy 8. So much for leaving him dirty with three ducks on my last shot

But, I had one beautiful defense that is probably one of my top five shots ever, even though it was incredibly simple. He was on the 8 and I had one ball left sitting on the other side of the 8. All three balls were sitting around 1 diamond off the lower left corner pocket down the side rail and a few inches off the rail. Since he had no shot and the cue ball was sitting at an angle where he couldn't hide me he decided to shoot the 8 into my last ball and send it cross table about 1 diamond from that corner pocket close to the opposite end rail.

The cue ball stopped on the other side of the table just past the side pocket and about 6 inches off the rail so I had no reverse bank and the cut was way to thin to risk it to the other corner. Instead I looked at the 8 ball at the opposite corner (it was blocking the natural bank) and saw that it was about a ball and half width away from the rail. So, I lined up to bank for that gap, figured out the speed I needed and played a defense by putting my ball between the pocket and the 8 ball and leaving the cue up by the opposite rail. One of the players on my team who was keeping score just dropped his jaw and said "Holy, f***ing s***!"

Even though this shot was nothing more than a bank it was the combination of accuracy and speed that made it extremely difficult to pull off, especially when your opponent is on the 8 ball so no chance for a mistake. This shot set up 6 more defenses in a row between me and my opponent trying to jockey position for the win. Glad I got that!

I should also mention it was my 300th lifetime match in league play which gets you some dumb plaque to shove in a closet, so a memorable win!

This is not my team's bar, it is where the entire league plays every week. Six teams in the league, this place has eight tables, the entire league convenes here every Tuesday.

Or, I could just avoid playing in rooms where the temperature soars to 90 degrees. If I'm exaggerating, it's not by much. A few years ago, I lost a LOT of weight (200 lbs), and one of the unexpected side effects is that I'm freezing, all the time. It's like I took off a 200-lb blanket. It's 73 degrees outside right now, about the same in my living room, and as I type this, I'm wearing thick sweat pants and a comically thick hoodie. I'm never hot, since I've lost that weight, I'm always the coolest guy in the room, my gf is constantly amazed at how cold my hands feel.

So keep that context in mind when I tell you: this was probably the hottest room I've ever been in, in my life. The only thing I can compare it to was when I worked in the tiny sportsbook at the old Imperial Palace in the late 1990's, and 100's of people tried to crowd in to cash their tickets at the conclusion of a Super Bowl. We had 100's of prop bets to grade, and the antiquated Gaming regulations mandated we use computers from the 1970's, it took us literally hours to feed the information into the computer (the computer would grade all the bets on a prop bet when you entered the result, and would freeze up for a minute or more while it did this, you had to wait before you could input the result of the next prop bet). When you're grading 100's of bets, and each one takes a minute or more, it's going to be a while before you can pay these out.

So folks would wait 30 mins in line, finally get to the window, and hand their ticket to the clerk. The clerk would stick the ticket into the machine. The machine would spit it back out, and display the message, "Results Not In Yet". The clerk would tell the patron to come back later.

Well, people don't like it when they come to get money, and get a story instead. Especially when they stood in a mosh pit for 30 mins to find this unexpected and very unpleasant result. They are naturally indignant. I'm not leaving without MY MONEY. What are you trying to pull? They might step out of line, but they're not leaving the room.

It got HOT in there. Folks were literally fainting. Fights broke out. Angry people give off even more heat than regular people. Remember that "run on the bank" scene from It's A Wonderful Life? Now imagine that place was filled wall-to-wall, shoulder-to-shoulder, and no one left for a few hours (folks who got paid were immediately replaced by new arrivals, the lines didn't stop for hours--remember, we take bets on this game ALL YEAR).

Folks hitting the floor. That was the hottest room I've ever been in.

Until this week. I tried to play pool in a room that was hotter than that. My gf met up with me a couple hours after I got out of there, and was shocked to feel the heat coming off the top of my head, and no trace of "cold" in my usually-icy hands.

Dude, I was literally fishing ice cubes out of my drink, and rubbing my bald head, face, and neck with them. This was not your run of the mill "it's warm in here".

Exactly what I tried to describe above, about my opponent's final shot.

Yeah, the shots I'm most proud of are safeties, not pocketed balls. They require creativity, and more precise execution. Nice job!

Tonight I got my rematch against the SL 7 from my old team (we went hill-hill on a night I didn't get a warmup).

I lost the first rack,like I always do. Nerves.

Grabbed a cue ball from a nearby table, squeezed it repeatedly in my left hand. THAT **** WORKS. I settled down, won the next four racks and out! And none were close! After one rack, I noticed a lot of his balls were still on the table, so o counted them: it was ALL of them! I felt like that guy in The Hulk when he calms down and surveilles the wreckage he caused. "I did this???"

As I put my cue away, my captain gushed, "I've never seen ANYBODY beat that guy like THAT!"

Well done, ytf!

Thanks buddy!

Match started around 7:15 pm, was done just before 8. I work nights and weekends, Tuesday is my night to go hang out with my friends until closing time. I went to bed about 3:30 am. Kissed my girl goodnight, rolled over and closed my eyes.

About one silent minute later, I started LOL'ing.

"What?", she asked, amused.

"I'm exhausted, but i can't sleep--I'm so excited that I BEAT THAT GUY!" She lol'd, but I explained, "This is what I've been working towards, for so long." Eight hours later, I was still over the moon.

Btw, my reply to this was, "I've been working really hard, practicing, watching videos."

He replied that he should practice more, but it was difficult because, "I can never find anyone to practice with."

I explained that practice is better done solo than with a partner; that the worst way to practice is to rack 'em up and play a game. "Ever play football?", I asked. "At football practice, you don't just line up and run plays--you do drills. You do blocking drills, tackling drills, ball-handling drills. You work on those fundamentals BEFORE you try to apply them in game conditions. For example, here's what I spent a half-hour on, last night," and showed him the great video of a drill that Suit posted this week in the "Need help with 1-rail position shots" thread.

His eyes went wide. He'd never seen anything like that--neither a practice drill, nor did he know such pinpoint control of the cue ball was possible, he marveled at it. I told him YouTube was full of helpful stuff like that.

I thought that was an interesting exchange.

I disagree with this a bit. If you can find someone that is also a student of the game, and similar skill level, it's pretty good practice to run serious sets for $. Especially if you freely critique each other.

I do agree that mindlessly banging out games with nothing on the line is terrible.