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The Price of Performance in Billiards

Posted on 01. Apr, 2010 by Mike Fieldhammer.

The Price of Performance

What does golf have in common with pool? Answer: Players look for the quick fix to improve their performance. Verdict: Expensive equipment makes a difference. You get what you pay for in life and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Take a small thing like the tip on your current cue. Have you pampered it by shaping, shaving, scuffing or tapping it? I would think that you have. Players realize that a good tip plays better and that some tips outperform other tips. Moori and Kamui layered tip costs around $40 installed. These tips not only last longer, but also provide a more consistent hit from the first use to the end of the tips life. A LePro or Triangle tip can be had for as little as $15 if you find some backwater cue repair guy. The truth is that the layered tip typically has 8 or more thin layers of leather but it only provides roughly three times the performance. This makes perfect sense when you figure that there is a point of diminishing returns on layers, but the Price/Performance ratio is almost exactly the true 3:1.

OB and Predator have gone to great lengths to “Over-Engineer” a pool cue shaft. The complicated manufacturing and assembly of these high tech shafts has up to 4 times the waste and 20 times the glue used in a solid “Old-School” maple shaft. These shafts cost 2 to 3 times more than traditional shafts that come standard with most pool cues. In exchange, you get a shaft that reduces cue ball squirt and increases accuracy. Here again, a player can leverage their equipment to have a significant edge on their opponents playing with yesterday’s state of the art, today’s obsolete shaft.

Samsara performance jump handle. Like stealing.

Why on earth would you use caveman tools while working on the space shuttle? Precision counts. The best and naturally most expensive joint configurations of 2010 are the Radial Pin and Uni-Loc joint both made by the same company. These joints assure a solid feeling cue stick when the butt and shaft are put together. If the cue was built by a competent cue maker, the cue should end up dead straight.

A high performance cue stick made by a high end builder with the finest components and a quality tip will outperform lesser cues and offer the owner an advantage that can be bought. You may say, “But what if I’m not that good of a player to notice or to make use of all that cue?” Well, a 650 horsepower Ferrari may never break 100 miles per hour on rural roads in the United States, but short flashes of supercar performance will be evident even driving at Hyundai speeds. Acceleration, handling, and braking will all be superior even driving within the speed limit. If by accident, the pedal is depressed to the floor, the Ferrari will make every driver faster be they a Professional or Learner’s Permit driver. Equipment does matter. Don’t short change your pool game in order to save some pocket change.

It’s no accident that Tiger Woods gets prototype golf clubs to test that may never hit the production line. They are technically legal for him to use in competition, but are so expensive to build that they couldn’t possibly be a profitable consumer product. That’s just one of the perks that comes from being the #1 golfer in the world (the others belong on a different website). Thankfully for pool players, some equipment upgrades can be done for under $10 like a couple of cubes of Blue Diamond chalk.

Next Gen Cloud 2.0 Chalk

The debate about whether or not equipment improves play is over. It absolutely does. There are still options out there though, so it really just comes down to finding the right fit. The best way is to try a number of different cues side by side, so that you can feel the difference. That way you won’t spend money on something that turns out to be nothing more than a failed experiment. As a billiard coach, I am happy to answer your equipment questions or need advice on shaft selection. Feel free to drop me a line or give me a call.

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Three Strikes to Avoid For Better Billiards

Posted on 26. Apr, 2009 by Fieldhammer.

This month I have three simple reminders to help you look and play better at the table:

1. Be sure your grip hand is not too far back.

2. Do not elevate your cue unless you mean to.

3. Always place the chalk “blue side up.”

Pool players shorter than 5’10” are far more likely to grip the cue stick too far back. I guess they’ve seen some lanky, run-out player gripping near the bottom of the wrap or several inches up from the rubber bumper. This might be exactly correct for a person who is 6’2”. . However, your wingspan as a 5’5” pool player is not built to hold it in the same spot. Gripping the cue too far back severely limits your backswing. This robs you of smooth acceleration and power. It also hampers your ability to see the cue moving (hopefully) in a straight line. Furthermore, your back hand can be descending whilst striking the cue ball which increases the possibility of an errant strike.

Cradle the cue in the correct position based on your height and length of the cue stick. Your hand should be hanging straight down from your elbow at the moment the cue tip contacts the cue ball. [See Diagram A] The grip hand should swing smoothly like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. If your hand is positioned properly and your cue stick is level, the game will get much easier to master.

cue action

This brings us right to reminder number two. Keep your cue as level to the table surface as possible on every shot. Jump shots and Masse’ shots are obvious exceptions to this rule of thumb. You must realize that on most shots there is still a small degree of elevation. In other words, the cue slopes downward from the back of the cue to the cue tip. The execution of an elevated stroke can cause unwanted curve of the cue ball on its way to the target. [See Diagram B] Aiming is tricky enough without trying to gauge the amount of curve or swerve. Billiard Physicists like Jewett, Shepard, and Alciatore have dissected these effects in the laboratory, but the bottom line is minimize/avoid elevation for a more consistent pool stroke.

level cue

Third, my personal crusade for 2009: Please place the cube of chalk on the rail with the blue side up. [See Image C] This game involves a lot of sublime actions/reactions that are affected by friction. Scads of chalk, dirt, and other impurities all change the behavior of the colliding spheres. To play the game well, a player must understand and learn to control cut angle, cue ball deflection, speed, squirt, swerve, throw, skid, and countless varieties of spin. Dirty cloth and balls make these complicated variables even more unpredictable. Preventing the equipment from becoming filthy is something we can all do to help.

Blue side up please.

In these tough economic times, pool rooms, bars, amusement vendors, and tournament promoters are tempted to cut back on table maintenance and expenses. During the boom times it wasn’t such a big deal to replace worn cloth or throw out a trashed cue ball. Now, it seems tables are going many months longer between getting recovered. Ball cleaners are getting old, not repaired, or used with improper cleaning solutions. Staffing cutbacks prevent suitable cleaning of said equipment.

Players are routinely seeing $1.50 per game or ever increasing table time fees at leagues and tournaments. We have the right to request good equipment and a proper playing environment. We are the customers and those in control of the equipment should listen. We should also be compelled to take care of their equipment.

Exhibit care to make it last and to show the owner’s investment in the expensive equipment is respected and appreciated. This will give you more credibility when you ask for cleaner equipment. Take care of the billiard equipment and everyone can enjoy playing on quality tables with a clean set of balls.

Mike Fieldhammer
Professional Billiard Instructor

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Post-Derby (Part I of III)

Posted on 12. Feb, 2009 by Fieldhammer.

I’ve got a potpourri of opinions and observations about the NEW Derby City Classic. This year marked the 11th Annual DCC and as always, it was great to see a lot of people and players, visiting with new friends and old. The quality of the play is as mind boggling as ever and it is the one and only event in the world each year to see bank pool and one-pocket played by the world’s best. These two games are best sweated in person. If you’ve never seen these players live and have only seen these two games via webcasts or DVD’s, you must witness it live. I’ll explain why in more detail in another post.

Unfortunately, I’m very sad to report that if the Derby City staff does not do some serious damage control from this year, there won’t be anything left of our “most highly anticipated tournament of the year” but a logo on the back-side of a Diamond smart table token.

The DCC has always been the tournament stop of the year for me. I have recommended it to pool players for years and I have always loved every minute of it. I’ve spent hours since I’ve returned home reflecting upon my experience this year and found it difficult finding a positive to complement each negative that comes to mind.

Regarding the new venue:

The Executive West

The EW was outgrown several years ago and it was hope that this new spacious venue would allow fewer bottle necks and continued growth for the event. There was loads of extra room in every part of the Horseshoe complex except for the playing area. The hotel was a mile and a quarter from the tournament room. The casino is at the complete other end of the complex. The third branch was the vendor aisle that stretched away from the tournament venue and towards the casino parking garage. The long, cavernous corridors effectively spread players and spectators apart.

Smoking

Smoking is prohibited in the tournament room but was blatantly ignored in the TAR room. People literally stood in the door way to/from any tournament room.
Poor placement of the bar directly outside of the tournament room was a congregation area for smokers. You had to jog through 30 feet of open air to avoid smoke.
This was a step backwards because the last couple of years at the Executive West, smoking was done outdoors only. 3-4 years back, at the EW, the corridors full of vendors was smoking and it seems we’ve returned to that. At the Horseshoe, you could smoke and lean over vendors’ tables if you were so rude to do that.
One of the main complaints I heard about the venue was the lack of fresh air. Granted we were in a cold snap but air in the entire venue was stale and stinky.

Food

The food seemed slightly better in the new venue but not worth three times the price. Staffing issues due to the “storms” kept a couple of restaurants closed.

Tables

The tables were too close together. Even smaller players like Ralf and Jose, examining shots, leaned their behinds on an adjacent table to get a closer look. I noticed that I had to wait on players to shoot more than ever.

Spectators and Players

Spectators were not happy with the new venue. At first appearance, it seemed glamorous and exciting with the tiered seating and upstairs viewing, but there was actually less room for spectators. Cut backs by tournament staffing were such that they never checked VIP – I never saw anybody checking wristbands.
Of the 16 tables in the main pit, the four on the ends had lights suspended by the light rigging and the other 16 were suspended by cables. Raised platforms with a row of chairs were only available for 8 of the 16 pit tables and they were single row seats whereas the EW had two rows of seats on the elevated platforms. I didn’t see too many people taking advantage of the upstairs seating to view the pit tables. The large, full sized diamond lights hampered the view on some of the tables. It also just doesn’t seem natural to watch pool from that angle.
Of the 20 tables upstairs, there were maybe four tables that had decent seating where you weren’t in cue reach of the player. Worse than that, most of the tables were walkways to the overhead viewing areas so there was a trickle of overhead viewers walking through. Just like downstairs, the two tables next to the backdrop of the Accu-stats arena had draping and banners that had to be moved by players, especially tall ones like Shawn Putnam or Scott Frost.