I'd guess maybe its a follow-through thing? Try a lighter cue and really strike smoothly through the ball. I could see how stopping short would make it bounce.
i don't think i'm understanding what you want the cue to do. do you just want the cue to stop still every time?
I don't want it to do anything. I'm comfortable and I was explaining why... You assumed something was wrong and that I was looking for help.
haha sobis has got a good point there. Although I do also find it a bit strange you would say that you feel like the cue is bouncing off when you use lighter ones.
i'm just not understanding what you mean? the cue ball is supposed to bounce of the object ball. i don't understand what the weight of the stick has to do with that. if the cue doesn't "bounce off" with a heavier stick, what does it do?
The best way to describe it is through a bowling analogy and since both of you shoot pool, I'mma be judgmental and assume you've both thrown a bowling ball too. When you throw a bowling ball and it hooks into the pocket, balls with a heavy/driving core will drive through the headpin, into the five pin, and if there's enough drive it'll actually go past the nine pin instead of hitting it - which is why you see those guys with huge arcs leave so many 9's. But if you throw a flat ball, it has no momentum on its hook and just sorta deflects off the pins - which is why you see guys throw it straight and DESTROY the rack but still leave a five pin. When I use a lighter cue, my stick sorta feels like it stutters. I don't have extra weight holding down my forearm, so I'm more likely to shoot crooked - though that has nothing to do with momentum of the cue, just another point I thought up as I was typing. Either way, more weight = more momentum = smoother stroke for me, no matter how aggressively I'm striking. If you imagine a clock, I know that when I'm shooting with a heavier cue my tip is gonna go from 6:00-12:00 every time (unless I'm applying English). With a lighter cue, my tip will hit the cue and won't have enough consistent momentum to follow through so cleanly. That's all. edit: Oh, and my bowling reference only makes sense if you don't bowl straight, you know. I'm talking about real bowling, not lets-get-drunk-and-throw-it-between-our-legs bowling.
Pretty sure thats the only way to actually bowl. Also, I get what you are saying and I think there is definitely truth to it, which is why its all a personal preference thing and why diff weight cues exist to begin with. I agree with you, I think the heavier cues give more "sturdy" shots, I just think the lighter ones offer better cue control in genera hence my own preference .
uhg. just one of those nights. every other time i missed a shot i left the bitch perfect. couldn't get a damn roll to save my life.
didn't play 8 last night (but our team swept 5-0 fuck yeah bitches), but i beat a pretty solid 4 16-4. feelsgoodman.jpg
shot really well last night. won all three of my matches pretty handily. also i found a picture of what i used my money from the tournament on: swag.
monday i won 8 and 9. in 8 i was playing this 3 that we've affectionately titled "the luckiest motherfucker ever". he won the first game because i missed a decently hard shot on the 8 (hard, but makable), and he had an easy run out. since i'm a 4 and he was a 3, i had to win 3 games before he won 2, so i had to beat him 3 straight games. the next two games i won pretty handily, but the last one it came down to the 8. i had played defense with one ball on the table, but he smacked the holy hell out of the ball and lucked it in, also knocking the 8 ball around so that it was sitting right on the tit of the middle pocket. it's hard to describe it, but basically it was not an easy shot, you had to barely barely graze it (and also put the correct english on the ball so it would spin into the pocket), and he missed the whole ball, giving me ball in hand with 1 ball + the 8 for me to make. it was a difficult leave, since the 8 was so arduosly placed, but i used a time out and was able to execute my instructions perfectly, leaving it exactly where i needed to and making the 8. i should have won a lot bigger in 9. i played a 6, so i had to get to 31 before he got to 46. after two games i was up 15-5. but i had a heartbreaking scratch the next game and he went on a tear. i ended up beating him 31-32 (which translates to a 14-6 win overall).
nice, I unfortunately didnt get enough matches in for playoff qualification, gonna have to wait for the next season. Been practicing like a mofo lately, really working on my consistency.
I played last night at my local bar with my buddy for the first time in months. We used to be on par with each other, but now that ive been legit practicing and playing APA our power levels (OVER 9000!!) are very mismatched. Absolutely train wrecked him all night long. Also the bar table is small so for me it was like playing basketball on a Fisher Price hoop, dunknig every single shot on the table. Almost no game lasted more than 3 or 4 turns, ran the table off the break twice. He is not a gracious loser and was absolutely not happy about only winning 3 games in 4 hours. We also played a bunch of really interesting people. Two girls came in at one point and put their change down and said, "looks like we are going to have to kick you off the table." They walked away for a second and at the same time my buddy scratched so I said, "Ball in hand". The girl makes a dead stop turns around and goes, "APA rules?!?" Turns out she is a captain for a whole bunch of teams in the area and knows the guys I play with. She was nasty as hell too, managed to go about 50/50 in games against each other, but probably because its a small table where neither of us missed any shots. Woulda likely wrecked me on a full-size. After they left another group of like 4 guys came in and challenged my buddy and I in doubles. Was the exact opposite, these guys were clearly terrible. First game I broke and ran everything except the 8 off the break (shoulda had that 8 too, I got a bit too jumpy). They basically threw in the towel right there and were about to leave but we made nice with them and switched teams around and were teaching them various tips and whatnot for a while Ended up being a really cool group of dudes who were just a bit drunk. It always amazes how quickly the attitudes of cocky douches change when they get flat out schooled in front of a group. It's like you either get real modest real fast or you shut up and walk away. Basically, if you ever want a real awesome confidence booster in billiards, go play on a short table for a night. Its easy as fuck and you look like you deserve to be on ESPN in front of a crowd.
haha i feel like i'm wasting my time on short tables. if you REALLY want to improve your game, play for an hour on 8 or 9 foot tables. regulation tables will then seem like the fisher price hoops. you should try Scotch Doubles sometime. that's where you and your partner alternate shots instead of turns. you can go to Vegas off Scotch Doubles too, and the odds are usually better because not as many people compete. ask your rep if he plans to have a vegas tourney for it. there's a 10 point cap on it, so find yourself a 6 or a 7 (depending on where your skill level lands) who's looking for a partner.
I'd be out of luck on a larger table. I can't even reach half the shots I need to make on the small bar room tables. Bagelstein I usually (unintentionally) play to the skill level of my opponent. So, if I'm playing someone who is shitty, my play is shitty as well. My best games have always been against extremely good players.
Yeah I hear you on that, its hard to get a rythm going if the people you are playing with don't have their own as well. I think because I play by myself a ton on my table at home I am able to play pretty consistently with whoever.
it took me a while to grow accustomed to playing lower rank players. i always play up to my competition, i love playing people better than me. gave my dad his birthday present last night. we got him a Nick Varner cue, which is really a great little stick, and i got a good deal on it.
So this weekend at the bar a guy came in who was a 6 in 8-ball and 8 in 9-ball . My god this was absolutely the best billiards player I have ever played against. We played for hours and this guy literally missed no shots except the ones he intentionally threw away for either defensive reasons or to just fuck around with me. I had a bunch of games where I went on a good run and managed to get it down to the 8 ball or just 1-2 other balls, but at the end of the night I got him to admit that he was never worried about losing even in those situations. He was setting me up to get down to the 8 and have a ridiculously hard shot that I would miss so he could win the game, that's how good he was. He was saying how he used to play pro competitions but had to quit because of his wife. Recently got divorced and just started playing again and had already won some amateur tournaments. It was nice to be able to play with this dude and feel like I was giving him a run for his money, even if in the end he was just toying around with me. Also put me right back down in my place. Getting wrecked on your home turf is humbling haha.
yeah. once you get in the 7-9 range, you simply are not going to win. i can hang with 6s pretty well (with the handicap of course), but i played a 7 in a tournament on saturday and it was a joke. i did manage to win 1 game, and i did it in spectacular fashion (like a 6 ball run), but after that it wasn't really ever close. i would play what i thought was an excellent safety, and he would effortlessly get out of it, half the time making the ball in the process. it wasn't that he was doing things i couldn't do, he was doing things i never would have in a million years even seen the possibility of existing. one note though, if the guy went pro, i don't think he's allowed to play in the APA. not sure what the technicalities are, and if because he's "retired" it's ok, but i was under the impression that once you go pro, you can't ever be considered an amateur again. last night was the first night of the new session, and my captain purposely matched everyone up horribly to make sure no one will get moved up this week, because the Vegas tournament is thursday through sunday. so i only got to play one way (8 ball), and it pissed me off because i've been shooting really well lately, and i had to play a 3 that wasn't very strong at all. i slaughtered him, but we still lost horribly overall, and i didn't get home until after midnight because i had to play the last match. but whatever. we've got a really good chance of winning the Vegas trip off 8 ball, because our points are nasty good right now. we can play an 7/6/4/3/3. our 7 is practically unbeatable, our 6 is really fucking good, we have three of the strongest 4s in the area on our team, and our 3s can shoot. and then we have a 2 as well, so theoretically we could play 7/6/4/4/2 if the match-ups looked favorable for it.
THIS. Exactly what was happening, he was jsut using strategies that I really had not thought to ever do, its the first time I truly realized how straight forward my gameplay was. I've tried to incorporate a bit of his thinking style in my own game and its really been a massive help in many situations, it also pisses the fuck out of my friends who don't like it when I purposely dont get a ball in so I can force them to give me a ball in hand and get the next 4 in instead haha.
Also just got a call from my area APA director, asked me to join his team. First match on Sunday, I am psyched.
oh, yeah dude, defense is fucking huge in APA. it might get you knifed in a bar match, but it's necesfuckingsary in league play. oh and everything fell apart in the Vegas tourney. oh well. saturday i've got a top gun tourney so we'll see if i can bring the fire.
yeah it's weird because it's not like i've been whooping up on people or anything, but i guess i have been winning and it's been 3 years since i last moved up. it sucks because it means i probably won't play 8 again for a long time, because we don't have the points. good luck in the tourney.
Yeah I really don't thinking winning/losing matters. Funny enough after only playing 2 9 ball matches and winning one against a 5 and losing one against a 2, I got moved down to a 3. I think the number of strokes and innings matters much moreso. When I played 9 this week as a 3 no on believed that I was a 3. The game was completely unfair, I won by nearly 20 points. Probably get moved right back up to a 4 soon enough.
Oh yeah was also experimenting with a new style of breaking last night after seeing how a lot of the better guys were breaking last week. Usually I jsut used my normal bridge and swung through with a good follow through, worked well. I've got solid breaks and can get a ball to drop maybe 50% of the time. But now I am resting the cue on the back rail and using an overhand bridge. It gives you so much more control that you have the freedom to put as much force in as you'd like. I am a strong ass dude too so I hit that thing hard as fuck. I did about 20 breaks last night and dropped anywhere between 1-3 balls every single time. Was un fucking believable how much of a difference this made.
Simon (the name of the program that judges your rank) uses a lot of different factors to determine your skill. winning definitely matters. and yeah, i used that break for a long time, and you do get way more power that way. but these days i'm going with physics and break from the side, at the dot, about two inches off the rail. in 8 you want to aim for the second ball and use straight outsie english into the rail. you have a much better chance of getting the 8 on the break this way. for 9, put the ball in the same place, but aim straight into the 1 ball with no english. this gives you a much better chance of making a ball, and a better chance of getting the 9 on the snap. try it out in practice and see what happens.
Actually this is very similar to how I was breaking before for 8ball. I know a lot of people do this approach and aim for the second ball, but I'm not a fan. It definitely gives the best 8 ball movement, but the break doesn't give a reliable spread and its too easy to fuck up and scratch right into the corner pocket. Even if you hit it perfectly the 8 won't sink reliably (obviously or the game would be a bit broken haha). What I was originally doing however was starting from that same point off the rail and aiming right through the head ball. You can almost always pocket the head ball directly into the side pocket doing this and the spread is fairly decent. I need to practice resting the cue on the rail and using that overhand bridge from this spot as well. I need to experiment much more with 9-ball breaks though and I'll give that a shot. Right now I tend to go a few inches off center and hit flat through the 1, can usually get one of the side or back balls in, but its far from reliable. Sinking off a break in 9 is also far more important than it is in 8 so I definitely need to work on it.
Yeah, I'd have to really work on putting english + enough power to get the break. I am not consistent enough to hit that hard with english from long distance. Something to practice then.
Wow, predator is expensive as fuck too, I'm looking in the $200 range, got any good suggestions? I'd like a wood-wood joint, prob 18-19oz and don't know too much about the different tip types. Basically i am going for a cue with more control than power. http://www.ozonebilliards.com/schon-cues.html These are fucking gorgeous, god damn, want so bad.
yeah preds are expensive, but there's a reason for it. the Lucasi Hybrid (with the Hybrid shaft) should run you around $250 or $300 i think. if you want more control, ge a super soft tip on it.
http://www.ozonebilliards.com/lucasipoolcue.html How do you feel about this one. Whats the difference between lucasi and lucasi hybrid. Also, I am not seeing any info on what type of join it is other than unilock.
Also was trying to figure out what type of tip to go with, I don't know if I want super soft. I'd imagine if the tip is too soft then any slight variation in your movement will have that much more effect on hitting a consistent shot. Would probably just go with a soft tip, but there are still a bunch of brands to choose from that I have no idea about.
i'm not terribly familiar with different sticks, as i've said before, all i know is what i hear people who do know talk, and the Lucasi Hybrid is consistently lauded as a good one for someone starting to get serious about playing. and i don't know all the specifics, but the hybrid shaft is about half the cost. they sell the hybrid now without the hybrid shaft for like, $150.
i have a kiumi (sp?) super soft on mine. the softer the tip, the more english you're going to be able to get.
Wow, aaaand I just won my first 9-ball tourny. Beat a 5, two 6s, and a 4. $200 and a brand new case, looks like I am buying that new cue.
Man another 2 wins this week, undefeated so far this season, won 31-15 in 9-ball too. I think I know my stronger game.
congrats man. i only played 9 on monday, and i was getting my ass handed to me. the score that was seared into my head was 23-7. when i heard that i got PISSED. i ended up winning 31-26. probably my first comeback from such an enormous deficit, and felt pretty great.
The comebacks I've seen in 9-ball are unreal. That's how basically all my games went in the tournament, except the other way around. I would start out and just get a massive head start, like 15-20 points and then these guys ( who are admittedly better players) would realize that I'm not bad, just new to the APA and buckle down like mofos to close the gap. Ended up winning every match only by single digits.
