June 16th, 2010
Position Play Is Absolutely Key
By Ernie Reynolds
If you are an experienced pool player you can usually hit the balls in pretty well. Occasionally you pull off a great shot that can really get you out of a tough spot. Some outrageous cut shot or maybe a “that-looks-impossible” bank shot can really save your bacon. The frustrated look on your opponent’s face is just an added benefit when you make one of these shots. 8^)
However, I and many others have come to the definite conclusion that to really be successful in winning pool games, you gotta play position. Nothing else I have seen can give you the tremendous advantage that a well-placed cue ball leave can. If you play position well, most of your shots are easy.
Just think about it. When you lose your shot, what is the usual reason? For me, it’s because I got lousy position for my next shot and have to try something very difficult or maybe even next to impossible. The cue might be stuck behind another ball or maybe it’s on the rail way at the other end of the table from where I want it to be. I didn’t get good position from the previous shot.
Now of course I miss some simple shots occasionally because I’m human and I don’t always remember to use the basics all the time. My concentration wanders or I may be distracted by the cute girls at the next table over. Some days we just don’t play as well as we are capable. It happens.
But I’ll tell you, when my position play is right on, I am one tough cookie to beat on the pool table. The game becomes almost effortless when you can place that cue ball right where you want it for the next shot.
Ever notice how some racks seem to be set up just right for a long run of balls? You break the rack and continue shooting and the next thing you know you are shooting for the eight ball. It’s a beautiful thing.
Well, many games can be like that when you finally get into the position play habit. Make it a point right from the start to read the layout of the table and visualize how and in what order you will sink your remaining balls on the table. You may have heard it said that you should plan your next three shots before shooting. It’s good advice.
One challenge I have with position play is when there are clusters of balls on the table. I have a bad habit of running the table without breaking up the balls in a cluster and then I end up with an impossible shot to make before the eight ball. Not only is this frustrating, but it clears the table for your opponent to make all of his balls and win on you.
It is very important to break up those clusters before you get down to your last ball. As you are shooting your first balls, try to work the cue ball rebound into the cluster and break up the frozen balls. You will thank yourself later when you don’t have to waste a shot because of a ball that is frozen in a cluster.
As my pool game has matured, I have tried to put much more effort into playing position. It really does result in much easier shots in general, and I find myself stuck without a shot a lot less. It’s great to be able to make the tough shots when you have to. But, if you don’t have to, all the better.
The bottom line - Position play will win you more pool games.
Tags: Added Benefit, Bacon, Balls, Beautiful Thing, Break, Concentration, cue ball, Cute Girls, Definite Conclusion, Eight Ball, Game, Habit, Many Games, Opponent, Pocket Billiards, Pool Games, Pool Player, Pool Table, Rem, Tough Cookie, Winning Pool
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January 20th, 2010
Cues, Balls and More - Outfitting Your Billiard Room
By Jimmy Mathews
Outfitting your billiard room can be an exciting endeavor. There are so many options on the market for cues, balls and more that narrowing your choices down may prove frustrating.
Where to Purchase Cues, Balls
Outfitting your billiard room should not have to break the bank. With a little ingenuity and perseverance the items to outfit your room can be purchased reasonably. There are great online stores on the internet where you can purchase items to outfit your room at a cut rate.
There are also online auction houses where you can bid on the supplies for your room at relatively low cost. There are discount warehouses that sell cues, balls and more at discount rates. Cues, balls and more, outfitting your room can be an activity that is adventuresome if approached in the right manner.
There is no reason to spend more than is wanted to outfit the room; the time should be put in to investigate all options. There maybe some of these items available in second hand or thrift shops. A great place to look for these items is the classified section of the news paper.
This should not be a decision that is made over night, keeping in mind that these items are a luxury item, meaning that they are not required for day to day living. To wait a day for a better deal will be well worth the effort. Jumping on the first deal that comes along is never a good idea unless the items are being purchased second hand with the possibility of the seller having another buyer waiting in the wings.
How Much will it Cost?
Prices will vary greatly for new equipment. Top of the line equipment can run into the thousands. Lower end equipment can be a few hundred, either way it will cost.
Designing and decorating the perfect billiard room can be very expensive and certain considerations should be taken. How often will the room be used and how skilled are the users? If this is the first time anyone has any experience with a billiard room spending too much money on the equipment is not a wise choice.
If the users are experienced and will use the equipment regularly than spending a bit more may be warranted. It is entirely up to the users as to what type of equipment to buy. Breaking the budget for recreational purposes is probably not the best option though, good inexpensive equipment can be had.
Styles
When outfitting your billiard room, you will need to concentrate on your personal tastes and the style of the billiard room that you have envisioned. There are many styles of cues, balls and other equipment for a billiard room on the market and the style of these items should match the billiard room.
If the billiard room is done in wood with an ornate billiard table, a traditional look, then the equipment should have a traditional style to it. You can also choose more modern accessories in your room - so it all “boils” down to your personal preferences. Take a good look around and make sure the styles match.
Moreover, you should have fun when decorating your billiard room - which is the best way to end up with a billiard/game room that you can be proud of!
Jimmy Mathews is a pool enthusiast that loves talking about billiards and ways to improve your game! You can find Jimmy over at http://www.Corner Pocket Pool.com where he and his team review the top pool table covers. Shop online with Confidence!
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Tags: Auction Houses, Billiard Balls, billiard cues, Billiard Room, Choices, Classified Section, Decorating, Discount Warehouses, Endeavor, Great Online Stores, Ingenuity, Mathews, News Paper, Online Auction, Perseverance, Pocket Billiards, pool, Reason, Thrift Shops, Top Of The Line, Waiting In The Wings
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December 12th, 2009
Performance Pool - A Great Way To Improve Your Skills
By Ernie Reynolds
We all know that the best way to improve your skills in most sports is to practice - a lot! It’s also fairly common knowledge that if we practice in a scientific and intelligent way we will increase our abilities all that much better and faster.
Tim “The Monk” Miller has come up with a great practice aid that can send your pool-shooting proficiency through the roof. It’s a “card” game called Performance Pool.
The game consists of 52 cards with different pool shots on them. Each card is assigned a value - 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 points. Each player gets seven cards.
You setup the shot shown on the card and attempt to make it on the pool table. If you make it you get the allotted number of points. If you miss, you get zero points. Each shot can be attempted twice.
The player with the highest score wins after going through all seven cards. A match can be set up to be the best four out of seven games or something similar.
There are some other rules to the game, such as the ability to trade cards with your opponent and such. To see them all, look here. There is a score card available that Tim will send you if you visit the site and send him an email.
It’s pretty obvious that Performance Pool could be a fantastic way of spicing up your practice sessions on the pool table. Besides being a challenging game in itself, this will help you learn some new shots and develop your position playing to a high degree.
Many of the shots involve two object balls, and require you to develop your english and cue ball positioning skills to be the most successful. Other cards help develop your ability to make a safe leave efficiently.
The game is available as a deck of cards with a different shot on each one. If you go to this page, you can see what the cards look like, read a short explanation of how to make the shot, and click a link where you can see a short video of Tim Miller demonstrating the shot. This is a very valuable aid and really makes it clear how to best make the shot on the card.
To get your own deck of Performance Pool playing cards for the special Pool and Pocket Billiards Resource price of $14.95, click here.
Tags: 52 Cards, Billiards Game, Card Game, Common Knowledge, cue ball, Deck Of Cards, Email, Game Cards, Game Pool, Highest Score, Monk, Object Balls, Opponent, Pocket Billiards, Pool Billiards, Pool Game, Pool Shots, Pool Table, Practice Sessions, Proficiency, Score Card, Seven Games, Tim Miller, Zero Points
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November 30th, 2009
Billiards and “Take a Cue”
By Yossarian Fisher
Physics, aside from being a challenging high school subject, is also the main governing force of all matter in the universe. It also governs how much energy you need to exert on a pool stick when making a break or what direction a ball will bounce off to when it hits another. Of course, we are not going to count the numerical value of energy one has to exert. There is just no way for our mind to convert that information into muscle signals. Instead, this information is learned through practice and experience of playing the game.
Pockets on Every Corner
While it can be said that practice is the essential building block of any good athlete, practicing the game of billiards is an entirely different matter all together. The idea of the game itself is simple, using a stick; a player must poke a white ball -and only the white ball, towards colored balls in an attempt to make them fall into any of six holes on the pool table. For now, let us put aside the fact that there are rules that dictate the order of colors a player must successfully land in the holes, also known as pockets. This leaves us with a very simple of a knock-balls-into-holes kind of game. Is it simple enough?
Not always. In a basic nine ball set up, there will be ten balls in play. One cue ball, and the nine colored billiard balls. These nine balls will not conveniently place themselves in a straight path between the cue ball and a hole. Even if some did, it does not mean that landing one good shot will place your cue ball properly for the next shot. This means that on a basic level, the average pool player is considering how he or she must make the cue ball hit another billiard ball which in turn, would both cause a billiard ball to fall in the pocket and leave the cue ball in a desirable position where it may knock another target into the hole. That alone may seem plenty. There is more though.
Rack ‘Em and Shoot ‘Em
Now we reconsider the previously set aside fact that there are certain pool rules about the order of balls that must be hit.
All that is missing is the fact that if a player fails to successfully pocket a proper ball in his or her turn, then they will lose that turn. So in the event that the player knows that there are not good shots to be made, the player must then play the round with the consideration of placing the cue ball in an equally inappropriate location so the that opponent would not be able to score.
This is why playing billiards is not easy for beginners. There are plenty of things that can only be learned through constant practice. It is amazing when we consider how fast a pool player’s mind quickly calculates the different factors of this game. In tournaments and other major competitions, these players show tremendous ability to concentrate and zone out from the cheering crowd which allows them to pick up that cue stick and still make good shots; and for all the scientific physics that occurs in every game, watching a round of pool is akin to witnessing magic. GP
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Tags: Athlete, Billiard Ball, Billiard Balls, Billiards Cue, Colored Balls, cue ball, Desirable Position, Holes, Kind Of Game, Nine Balls, Numerical Value, Play One, Playing The Game, Pocket Billiards, Pockets, Pool Billiards, Pool Player, Pool Stick, Pool Table, School Subject, Straight Path, Target
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November 19th, 2009
“Point The Way” Review
By Ernie Reynolds
I love the game of pool and have played for most of my life. I learned early on that pool is, in large part, a mental game. What I mean is, after you have played for a year or two and can put the balls where you want them, progressing to a higher level is largely a matter of getting your head together.
We can all make some nice shots once in a while. However, the great players can make these shots regularly and with consistency. They have trained their mind to concentrate only on the game at hand and block out all the extraneous distractions.
I read a good book recently that really puts these ideas into perspective in a big way.
“Point The Way”, by Tim “The Monk” Miller delves deeply into the mental aspects of the game of pool and billiards. He has taken a spiritual view of the game and its impact on a person’s life and attitudes. This is no “how to make a bank shot” fluff, this is a heavy-duty “why can’t I shoot consistently” mental tune-up.
The Monk has taken the game of pool apart and investigated why we sometimes miss easy shots, choke up when we play certain types of people, get nervous when we get to the 8-ball, and many of the myriad of trials and tribulations that can happen to us at the pool table. He explains that there are three main elements to playing pool - performance, learning, and social fellowship. To get the most out of the game, we naturally want to experience all three.
In addition to advice on improving our mental control and attitude, the book of course contains chapters on the fundamentals of the game, the variety of shots that are necessary for an all-around competent shooter, strategies for maximizing your practice and training, and even advice on preparing for local pool tournaments. There are many anecdotes to illustrate the various concepts.
One concept that I especially enjoyed was the section on the “Id” - that little voice in your head that sometimes talks you out of playing to your best potential. Another was the mental games you can play on your opponents to gain an advantage on the table and walk out with money in your pockets instead of going home broke. The Monk relates some of his many interesting experiences along these lines.
I had seen The Monk mentioned on the web before and wondered about the origin of his nickname. It seems he led a spiritual life for some years before getting into pool and was actually some type of religious monk. He has taken this inner spirituality and made deep studies of the “how’s” and “why’s” of our performance or lack of performance on the pool table. It makes for some very interesting reading.
If you find yourself struggling with the ability to play consistently solid pool like I did for years, the problem may lie with your mental game. Once you get into your head and straighten out all the attitude and emotional issues, you may find that you have stepped up your pool game to a much higher level. I have experienced this in recent years, and this book will certainly help me to achieve even greater consistency to my game in the future.
“Point The Way” is not your average, run-of-the-mill pool book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to improve that aspect of pool playing that many of us overlook - “the game within”.
Tags: Anecdotes, billiards, Distractions, Fluff, Fundamentals Of The Game, Game Of Pool, Game Pool, Little Voice, Mental Aspects, Mental Game, Mental Games, Monk, Myriad, playing pool, Pocket Billiards, pool and billiards, Pool Billiards, Pool Table, Pool Tournaments, Social Fellowship, Spiritual View, Trials And Tribulations, Tune Up
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