Keep your pool table clean

Posted on 21. Dec, 2009 by Fieldhammer.

I am a big believer in vacuuming tables to keep them playing great. A brush works in a pinch, but a vacuum removes chalk dust and dirt better.  The brush method can dust up a cloud which may settle back on the table.   Has anyone seen such a cool vacuum as the Toshiba Escargot?  They say it is powerful and quiet.

Small and quiet.

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/toshiba-escargot-vc-z100l-vacuum-cleaner-10-07-2009/

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Pool Stories

Posted on 12. Dec, 2009 by Fieldhammer.

Billiard Tales: The most memorable pool story that made you a ‘better’ player

Mike Fieldhammer – December 2009

This article is the first of a series of posts written in coordination with other pool bloggers. This first month’s theme is BILLIARD TALES. To see others, go to: http://www.pooltipjar.com/2009/12/poolsynergy-volume-ii/

Pool stories.  I love to hear them.  I find the more players I talk to, the more little gems of information fall into my lap. This month, I’d like to highlight small tidbits from four of the best players in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. I struggled to select one great and memorable story that made a major impact on me that elevated my game, so I decided to pass on four small tips gleaned from great players.

Jimmy Wetch. Jimmy and I were at a major tournament watching a race to eleven between two players. One a legitimate pro and one with loads of talent and the ability to beat anyone, but not as seasoned in the pro circuit.  The rookie played hard and happened to get down 7-2. From the bleachers, Jimmy and I could see the player losing steam and not playing with the same determination as the first part of the match.  Jimmy said to me, “That’s the worst thing he can do. Now he’s gonna get punished by that guy for a long time.”  I asked Jimmy to explain further.  The upshot is that by giving up he was letting his opponent gain confidence and knowledge for the next time they drew each other.  He would have an edge on that player by knowing that he only had to get halfway to the finish line and his foe would ease up and he could coast in for the win.

The trailing player should have fought harder with every turn at the table and made the match a hard fought victory for the other guy no matter what the score was.  Showing no give up, sometimes even in an un-winnable situation, the player will have a twinge of respect for showing determination and fighting to the end.  That type of reputation might be more useful for the next match up than the alternative.

Lee Heuwagon. Years ago, Lee saw the frustration in my eyes after getting bounced out of a tournament earlier than I had hoped. We started to discuss my disappointing performance and he suspected that I was putting too much pressure on myself.  It is true that I felt I should have done very well in that particular tournament.  I went in with high hopes. My preparation for the tournament was as good as it could have been. I had been practicing and the field was one that I really felt I had a chance to win. Maybe all these factors took me out of my best game because the high bar I’d set was exerting undue pressure. His advice was that when it is time to win, it will happen.  He suggested that I focus on playing the great pool I was capable of and that winning would come easier if I relaxed and let it happen.

The magical blend of high level play, confidence, and determination is still a complicated equation. Learning from every experience but not beating yourself up about it is a more productive and pleasant way to deal with an early exit from a tournament.

Demetrius Jelatis. Demi is a real student of the game. Every serious player would benefit from watching Accu-Stats matches.  Demi has found inspiration in some matches so compelling, he’s able to commentate matches from memory from seeing them so many times.  His unusual advice about the DVDs is that you should watch some sub-par matches too.  Pat Flemming’s company denotes recommended matches in their catalog with an asterisk to help customers select great discs, and they are great. Many of them are semi-finals or finals matches with an incredible level of play.  The players who win tournaments are usually on a roll, playing tremendous pool and shooing in the high 900’s according to the Accu-Stats rating system.  Demi says that players can be fooled and discouraged to see such high level pool.  I think we have all seen a shot or a miraculous run-out that has made us groan and during the appreciation, thought, “I can’t believe how good that was. I don’t think I could do that in a million years.”

This kind of blue sky thinking isn’t reality.  Every top professional is human and they have bad matches, bad tournaments, and bad months.  Demi suggested watching some early matches that didn’t have the Accustats asterisk.  These matches sometimes show top professionals struggling to run out. They may show great exchanges where safeties and silly mistakes are made. These can be the types of games that happen to you and maybe you can see some familiar shots and learn from them.  It also might just make the pros less intimidating and give you the confidence to know that you too can play with the pros.

Beau Runningen. Beau means business. At only 25 years old, he has demonstrated the patience and wisdom of a player one might expect to see in a player twice his age.  Local players talk about the guy who did nothing but break for 2 hours straight, or the guy who didn’t pocket a ball during an hour long practice session because he was working on safeties.  Beau takes every part of a tournament seriously beginning with planning for a tournament months in advance. He’s got notebooks full of diagrams, drills, match notes, and the like.

All this planning and preparation seems to be regurgitated on the pool table. Beau makes run out after run out look routine. In fact he makes them look boring, which is really a compliment. No nail-biting shots, no wild chances with the outcome unknown, just the facts. Taking inspiration from Beau’s attention to detail and serious approach to every aspect of the game can do wonders for your game. In fact, my New Year’s resolution is to make a plan, work that plan, and repeat.  Repetition of good habits breed good habits.

This article is the first of a series of posts written in coordination with other pool bloggers. This first month’s theme is BILLIARD TALES. To see others, go to: http://www.pooltipjar.com/2009/12/poolsynergy-volume-ii/

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Good news for late night billiard players

Posted on 25. Nov, 2009 by Fieldhammer.

This study is apparently good news for night owl pool players like me. From the September issue of Scientific American.

Early Risers Crash Faster Than People Who Stay Up Late

Night owls belie slacker reputation by staying alert longer

Early birds may get the best worms—or at least the best garage sale deals—but they also tire out more quickly than night owls do. In a new study researchers Christina Schmidt and Philippe Peigneux, both at the University of Liège in Belgium, and their colleagues first asked 16 extreme early risers and 15 extreme night owls to spend a week following their natural sleep schedule. Then subjects spent two nights in a sleep lab, where they again followed their preferred sleep patterns and underwent cognitive testing twice daily while in a functional MRI scanner.

An hour and a half after waking, early birds and night owls were equally alert and showed no difference in attention-related brain activity. But after being awake for 10 and a half hours, night owls had grown more alert, performing better on a reaction-time task requiring sustained attention and showing increased activity in brain areas linked to attention. More important, these regions included the suprachiasmatic area, which is home to the body’s circadian clock. This area sends signals to boost alertness as the pressure to sleep mounts. Unlike night owls, early risers didn’t get this late-day lift. Peigneux says faster activation of sleep pressure appears to prevent early birds from fully benefiting from the circadian signal, as evening types do.

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Billiards: Adjusting to a bar box from a big table

Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by Fieldhammer.

Much as golfers must adapt to weather conditions and different courses, pool players must make a sometimes difficult transition themselves: switching between 9-foot and 7-foot tables.  Many capable big table 9-Ball players have trouble downsizing to a bar box to play 8-Ball.  Keeping key concepts in mind will make the change less challenging and make a player more comfortable on different sized tables.

Keep the cue ball movement to a minimum. Less cue ball movement is advantageous on a bar box.  The 7-foot table has tight quarters. Some players exhibit better control of the cue ball using a slightly more compact stroke.  Shorten or reign in your stroke since most shots can be made without a big stroke.  Punch balls in by focusing on a deliberate stroke.

If you are struggling with speed control on the bar box, consider rolling balls in. Follow and natural position leave less to chance if you have confidence in the table at a slower speed. Simple, natural position at controlled speeds also gives you a better chance to get the correct speed for position. Rails on bar tables are easier to predict at a low speed than high speed.  Just beware of skid and learn to recognize which angles and pace the balls tend to stick.

Select patterns appropriate to the table size. Shot selections should favor stop and stun shots over shots with close distance.  Close distance refers to positional shots with little distance between the cue ball and object ball.  For example, it is better to take a long stop shot over a close range cut where the cue ball will travel two rails back to the center of the table flirting with traffic.  A slight miss hit will still pocket the ball in a stun/stop shot and hold cue ball position. Conversely, the cut may still pocket the ball, but the speed and direction of the cue ball will be altered. This could lead to the possibility of bumping into balls or missing position from too much or little cue ball pace. The saying goes, “Get in line and stay in line.”  If your position becomes a little less than ideal, chances are that the amount of inaccuracy will escalate on the next shot.  This may accumulate over several shots until you are in a self imposed trap and are forced into a low percentage or desperation shot. It’s one of those runs that you wish you could rewind and select another opening shot or play a preemptive safety.

Beware of equipment differences. In bar box pool, you have a much greater chance of finding a subpar (or less than ideal) cue ball, mismatched object balls, a cheap triangle, inferior cloth, and mismatched cushions.  All of these factors hurt the highly skilled player because they introduce unexpected variables into the game.  Under ideal conditions, the more advanced player can exhibit a mind blowing demonstration of control. Such a player can move the cue ball ten feet or more to a target the size of a quarter.  If the cue ball arrives via three cushions, one of which is from a different table, then the player may have to settle for a dinner plate for position.

Pay special attention to the cue ball model and condition. Heavy or large cue balls drive through the object ball and alter the tangent line.  It just doesn’t follow the physics of ball behavior. It is yet another variable that befuddles experts, but doesn’t harm the lower skilled players who may not realize the difference. It’s an equalizer. Ralf Souquet will not even hit a ball on a seven foot table.  He considers it mini-golf compared to a professional PGA approved course.

Souquet, the money leader on tour in 2008, once commented on the bed of a nine foot table where the bed had new cloth, but the rail cloth was unchanged.  He is so sensitive to table conditions that his position play was a tad shaky because draw and follow took differently than the side spin did off the rails.  He doesn’t require new, slick cloth to play well, just the same cloth for the bed and the rails.

A light cue ball is a problem as well.  All pool balls wear down with use.  After all, they are hit with micro sandpaper in the form of chalk impregnated tips (only the cue ball, of course).  That is why players hitting object balls with their cue tip is highly discouraged at finer billiard establishments. Object balls accumulate chalk from both the bed cloth and the cue ball, which can wear them down too.  Cue balls have them all beat.  I’ve seen and played with sets of balls where the cue ball was a full eighth of an inch undersized.  This smaller lighter cue ball draws easily and follows reluctantly. Understandably, it doesn’t break out clusters as effectively as a heavier, regular sized ball does.

The size of cue balls also affects cut shots.  Smaller cue balls tend to overcut shots because the diameter is smaller, as the line at impact is slightly off.  Likewise, oversized cue balls hit everything too thick.  This, combined with the heaviness/lightness of the ball, makes predicting the tangent line (the final path of the cue ball after impact) almost like a guessing game.

If you can run out, do it.  The game at its highest level is very aggressive.  Top players will try to run out even if they have two or three problem areas to deal with.  Many times they’ll put on the brakes if their first crack at a breakout doesn’t work, but sometimes they’ll keep firing away.  Why the testosterone overload?  Players know that a safety is only so good on a bar box.  Balls are so easy to kick, jump, or bank in on 7-footers that the shooter would rather go down firing than lay down a paper thin safety.  Making a good hit on a ball isn’t that tough on a bar box and the chance of getting lucky looms large.  The table can be in worse shape than pre-safety.  After a kick or jump, foul or no foul, balls may be rearranged and un-runnable.  The worst case scenario is the player making a lucky hit and magically getting safe. Many players have scratched their heads and thought to themselves that perhaps the safety wasn’t so wise and a run out would have been more likely to win the game.

All of these adjustments can seem daunting to the small table game.  Keep your head up. Many advantages make the game seductive.  Larger pockets and less distance on the bar table make every shot makeable. Aggressive and creative play are rewarding and satisfying. Faced with a tough situation, you might dig up some low percentage kiss or carom and open up the rack perfectly.  Bank shots are ill advised on tough 9-footers, but may be the correct shot on a bar box. Make some slight changes to your thinking and start running racks on the bar box.

Mike Fieldhammer
Professional Billiard Instructor

Pool lessons make a great holiday gift. Gift certificates are available.

Mike is a full time tournament player and professional billiard instructor.  He is available for private instruction or group clinics and events.

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