Billiard Coach – Mike Fieldhammer

Tip #4: How much room do I need for a pool table?

Posted on 04. Jan, 2012 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Tip #4/31 for January. What size pool table should I buy for my home?

This one is a great tip suggested by June Maiers. Props to June! She’s a great player of all games and runs an excellent junior league program. She wrote to me, “How big does your room need to be if you are trying to fit a 7-foot, 8-foot or 9-foot table? I saw a few Craig’s List adds where the person said they bought the table, have it and now need to get rid of it because it didn’t fit.”

Kramer plays pool in a tight home room.

Well, I say having a pool table in your home is great but if you have to resort to a short cue too often, it can take some of the joy out of playing the game. Many homes have rooms large enough for a table but have one trouble area. You know, maybe there’s one wall that’s a little too close and if the cue ball is frozen on that rail you’ve got to shoot with a cue that’s a foot shorter than the standard 57″ one piece pool cue. Some rooms are a little better and only have a post that hampers that one shot out of 500. Lucky you! Jacking up or using a short cue rarely is a fine trade off. If your table is really too big for the spot, playing can be maddening. Try to get a table as large as you can handle that won’t make you crazy. Remember, it’s nice to have a little breathing room around for spectator chairs and for the non playing shooter to hang out without having to lean on the table.

I have a great relationship with one of my sponsors Peters Billiards in Minneapolis. They’re a great retailer that sells Brunswick and Olhausen pool tables. I’m attaching a pdf file that has their recommendations on what size room will accommodate what size pool tables. And if you’re ever in the area of 35W and Crosstown, please stop into the store. Tell ‘em the Billiard Coach sent ya.

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Appearance Counts: Look and Feel Good for Success

Posted on 02. Jan, 2012 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Tip #2/31 for January, 2012.

The data has been crunched and verified. First impressions matter. Humans make subconscious decisions within seconds of meeting a new person. Your appearance and the way you carry yourself will affect your opponent. Arriving for an important match looking and feeling like a winner makes a difference. Small things like this can add up to cause an opponent to doubt their chances of winning against you. Your air and attitude portrays a confident and prepared persona. Professionalism. Think Ralf Souquet. Every time he removes his tip protectors, he’s unsheathing his doomsday machine. “Der Pool Queue des Schicksals.” Opponents and spectators know he means to be victorious.

In order to win, you must believe you can win. On some level, telling yourself you can do it pushes the mind in the direction of kinda believing that you can. “Fake it till you make it!” One of the thinks that helps me is belief in my equipment. I feel more confident in my abilities when I have confidence and pride in my pool cue. The new tip you’ve seen me shape in yesterday’s post is for my old Samsara Cue. Last month after running the 13th Annual Northern Lights Shootout, I returned home with this beauty which was getting a new wrap and refinish.

"Clip, clip here, Clip, clip there, We give the roughest claws. That certain air of savoir faire, In the Merry Old Land of Oz!"

Well, getting this baby back last week was more emotional than I care to admit. I bought it five years ago and played with it for a couple of years. Then, I decided flying with it was too stressful. It sat at MSP unattended in the bottom of my duffel for a few hours when I didn’t make my connection in ATL. Well, my year of flipping through cues and shafts had taken a toll on my confidence and thus my performance. Now it is refinished, sporting a new wrap, and I couldn’t be happier.

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Happy New Year! Here’s a Tip.

Posted on 01. Jan, 2012 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Happy New Year!  Start your year with a tip. Or 31 of them. Once again, I’m attempting to blog every day in January to start the year off right. This year, resolve to play better pool and you’ll be rewarded by a sense of accomplishment and to quote a friend, “A chance to win tens and twenties of dollars!”

Happy New Year! Light Painting over my diamond. No photoshop trickery at all. Click for larger view.

Below is a video I shot on my Canon 5D Mark II in my kitchen. As you’ll see, I’ve already removed the old tip, cleaned and prepared the gluing surfaces, and glued on the new Black Heart tip. All that remains now is to trip and shape the tip.

This end of the pool cue is where the ‘rubber hits the road’ or in pool parlance, ‘The tip hits the cue ball’. Don’t forget to chalk. Don’t forget to keep your cue tip in ship shape. I’ll revisit the subject later this month.

I’m still looking for ideas for this month’s instructional tips. Please contact me or post something on the forums (anonymously even!) to help me complete this series of 31 articles.

Thanks,

Mike Fieldhammer

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PoolSynergy: Thanks for the tip!

Posted on 15. Nov, 2011 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Check out Melinda’s introduction and links to all the thankful bloggers here.

Melinda is one of the most thankful people I know. She’s called upon the PoolSynergy faithful to write about something in the realm of pool that we’re thankful for. I brainstormed a quick list of more than a dozen items that sprang to mind, but each one deserves some solo attention and shouldn’t be lumped into one big list. So, there are plenty of things I’m thankful for this fall and here’s just one of them: Moori original layered tips.

The oldies, but goodies. Original Moori tips.

Tip technology has come a long way in the last fifteen years. I remember my college days when I played more pool in the Augsburg game room than I did studying. My tip choice in those days were the ubiquitous Le Pro which was and still is a decent tip. Once every 6 weeks I’d use my poor college student’s lathe(my lap) to trip down a fresh tip. Some Le Pro’s lasted a little longer than others but they all mushroomed. My lap served as the platform for a spinning cue shaft several times a week to sand down the mushroom. Thankfully the Japanese introduced a game-changer about a dozen years ago. The layered pigskin cue tip named Moori. I stockpiled a bunch of M and MH tips back when they were boss. Now I change tips about every 8 months and mushrooming is a minor inconvenience just once. A week after I install a new tip I trim down the slight mushrooming and the tip is good for months.  Confidence in my tip and peace of mind is a key ingredient for me to play my best pool. Trusting in my tip is a good thing. Thanks!

Mike Fieldhammer

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