Billiard Coach – Mike Fieldhammer

World Snooker Championship Continues

Posted on 21. Apr, 2011 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Day 6 from Sheffield is underway. The first round is nearing completion and players are happy to play longer matches when the second round begins. First round is a best of 19 frames and the second round lengthens to a best of 25 frames. I’ve been impressed as always with the BBC coverage, favouring it over the Euro-sport coverage. Where else can you hear Ken Doherty say “Tree” and “Ting?” They’ve featured “Classic Shots” between sessions where Steve Davis, Neil Foulds, Dennis Taylor, John Virgo, and Doherty try to recreate famous shots and are scored on their attempts by the other competitors. Very entertaining! They also do a Q&A with emailed queries for Davis and Virgo. Eleven days remain and I’m savouring every moment.

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Thirty-One Tips: 27. Tell Tournament Directors Your Opinion

Posted on 27. Jan, 2011 by Mike Fieldhammer.

To help improve pool tournaments, politely express your opinions to those in charge.

This tip is a little bit local, but the idea could be useful anywhere that players would like to see bigger and better tournaments.  I’ve put on pool tournaments in the past.  There is no doubt promoting, organizing, and running a pool tournament is a lot of work.  It is much more difficult than most players realize.  Typically a TD hears complaints and criticisms all day.  I’m a player know how easy it is to be irritable while exhausted at an event or bitter after a tough defeat.  TD’s understand this, but it is really appreciated when a player pats a TD on the back and gives a compliment.  Like I said, running a tournament is a huge job and thankful players should let the management know of their appreciation.

After an honest compliment, offer a polite suggestion of what you’d like to see to make the event even better.  The people who put on a tournament are usually interested in making their events the best that they can be.  Players are their customers and a heartfelt opinion or an idea that could be an improvement shouldn’t fall on deaf ears.  Thank the tournament director again and mention you look forward to playing in their next event.  You know, kind of a compliment sandwich.

You want an example? Okay.

Wayne Herron, I think you’re doing a great job handling the MOMA tournament.  I mean you’ve got over 500 singles entries in six divisions. I know that can be an enormous task and you’ve got the team tournament on top of that!  One thing I’d like to see though, is the singles event on a weekend rather than beginning on a Thursday morning. After all, it is the Minnesota State Singles Championship and I’m sure there are many players that just can’t take two days off work to make it to the event. It is a prestigious tournament and I’m sorry I couldn’t play this year, but I am really looking forward to playing in next year’s 32nd Annual MOMA event.  Thanks again Wayne.

Here’s the real local part of the story.  My predictions for the singles tournament.

So I can’t play at MOMA and skipped the Derby City Classic to play in Fargo last weekend and MOMA this weekend, so I’m looking for some action.  I’ll stop in at the River Centre a few times this weekend including this afternoon.  Before I head out, I thought I’d hold the envelope to my forehead and make some predictions.  The team predictions are much easier than the singles, but I still bet I’ll do pretty well on the singles picks.  No offense to anyone, I just quickly scanned through the list and jotted down the names that stuck out a bit.  So, drum roll please….

The winners will be...

Men’s Masters Division(24 Players):

My picks as potential winners-

Tim Tonjum- Played great at Seco’s and has been on fire lately.

Dustin Morris- Teammate and phenominal run outs, but will Valley’s hurt his game?

Jamie Pluta- Wildly talented!  Might snap it off or go two and out. Will he show up to play?

Tony Hilla- Super solid. Back from Derby City Classic, can he make the adjustment quickly to bar box?

My pick- Marc Oelslager.  Played a great tournament in Fargo last weekend and his experience on Valley tables will get him to the finals.

Men’s/ AA(73 Players):

Contenders:  Anyone from St. Cloud, or maybe Jeff Maurer or Kris Kalli. My pick- Matt Sherman.

Mixed Open A Singles(Includes the Women’s Masters)(138 Players):

I would love to see Jessica Frideres, Beth Fondell, or one of the other women win the event, but they will have to make it through a tough field of 138 players and plenty of sleepers.  Look out for Jesse Bastyr, Brandon Bright, and Nate Steen.  But the winner will be either Gary Sunde or Mike VanGrinsven.

Men’s/Mixed A (198 Players)

This is too short a race and too large a field to make an accurate prediction, but I’m guessing Zach Engstrom, Ed Haag, Darren Randt, or Bill Frisby will hoist the trophy.

Ladies AA Singles(32 Players):

Tough to decide.  Sam Matuska and Stacy Lamers could do it, but I’m picking Loni Bolz.

Ladies A Singles(59 Players):

The toughest division to pick for me.  Molly Nistler or Tesse Winjum. Why?  I don’t know.

Good luck to everybody and if you see me in the building, please stop me to say hello!

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Thirty-One Tips: 18. Take Care of the Equipment

Posted on 18. Jan, 2011 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Give a hoot

Someday, I’ll publish an article on the ultimate table and ball cleaning and care guide. Until then, do your best to help keep things clean.

Put your chalk blue side up, only strike the cue ball with your tip, and use common sense to preserve good playing conditions.  It’s true that pros can adjust to all kinds of table conditions, but they prefer tight but fair equipment.  Our future pool players(beginners) can get easily discouraged and put off of the game because they cannot adjust to tricky conditions.  Help grow the sport by keeping things clean so the next beginner on the table gets a taste of success.

Please help keep our tables clean.

Equipment matters- Cues, tips, chalk, balls, cloth, tables, pockets.  The game is difficult enough under perfect conditions.  We don’t need double tough conditions making the game seem impossible to new players.  These days, pool rooms are helping kill the game by letting their equipment go bad, and buying used equipment from auctions of out of business pool rooms, etc.  or even not air conditioning properly in the Summer to save money on electricity.  These tough playing conditions do incredible damage discouraging players from sticking to the game.  One tough session where they never run 2 balls in a row sends possible players running for the hills or bowling alleys.  I do a lot of work with Peters Billiards, a leading billiard retailer in Minneapolis.  I used to think that it was crazy that they were selling tables with 5 1/2 inch pockets to rec room home players and their families.  Eight foot tables are the de rigueur. Now I realize this easy playing equipment is the best choice for most beginners and their guests. At least they can pocket balls and develop skills that may lead to some family member coming into the pool room looking for a worthy opponent or perhaps to enter a tournament.

For more info on Equipment Matters, see a future article I’m writing.  The information will detail how worn and dirty cloth make the game so much harder.  Chalk stuck in the cloth will soil freshly cleaned and polished balls more quickly.  Dirty balls throw and skid more. They also wear more quickly, becoming grittier and smaller.  All of this friction makes playing the game of pool much more difficult.  Pockets play tighter and the physics of the game become harder to predict.  Bad equipment can make a table play much less forgiving for slight miss-hits and unintentional spin put on the cue ball. All of these things make it tough for capable players, just think how high of a hurdle this puts on the rank beginner!  Stay tuned for more on this topic.  Link will go here when it is written.

Bar boxes can have even more unpredictable challenges for players.  Lousy cue balls and mismatched rails. See “Big Table to Bar Box” for more on that mystery.

The above excerpt is from a huge article I wrote last year.  More thoughts on the sad state of pool can be read here: “How to Fix Pool.”

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Thirty-One Tips: 14. Care About the Industry

Posted on 14. Jan, 2011 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Last month, I wrote an article on how the Billiard Industry has changed over the last 20 years. I got a couple of comments in person about my mullet, and one published comment about Shanelle Lorraine. (I slipped a photo in this gallery just for you.)

I’m two weeks into my “Blog-A-Day” marathon, and am in need of some support and cheering on.  I’ve had a tricky week with multiple team tournament snafus. Support and activity on my discussion forums seems to come alive only when there’s bad news or controversy. I’m doing what I can to help and give back to the pool community, but sometimes it feels like I’m trying to jog a few miles hip deep in mud.

Before the holidays at the end of 2009, I wrote a short article that was published by two regional billiard magazines about how players can make small choices that could add up to big improvements in their local billiard scene. Read it here: Five Ways You Can Help Our Local Billiard Economy

I would love it if everyone tried just a little harder to do something small to help pool survive this drought and grow. The pool economy and I could use a little jolt in the arm.

Thank you in advance,

Mike Fieldhammer

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