The question came up recently about how consistently people are racking the balls at the last DCC straight pool challenge. Given that this event is becoming so popular, thanks to Dennis and Bill and others, with prize money going up, maybe two tables next year, and so on, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look at the "rack your own" practice in this event.
As some of you may know, I like to do video analysis of player strokes (mostly my own) and table layouts with the new smart phone software available nowadays. I figure if you can analyze a situation in a way that has never been done before, it can yield interesting results. If anybody has an idea of something pool related that might be interesting to study, let me know!
Before presenting the videos I put together below, let me give you the bottom line as I see it: Everybody is capable of racking extremely precisely. There are no real issues here. One player, John Schmidt, is kind of all over the place, however, in the last DCC. John racks like he's got a train to catch. My recommendation is that he just slow down a tad. There seemed to be some difficulty with all the players in getting the balls to stay frozen when removing the rack. Most of the players would hold the rack still while pushing the bottom row of balls forward with their thumbs until they were frozen together. John tended to reposition the entire rack until he found a sweet spot where they stayed frozen. You could argue that when the break ball was close to the rack, the rack position was placed lower or higher to get away from the break ball a little. It almost looks like he is trying not to bump into the break ball with the rack. Maybe just slow down a little.
Just to be clear, I don't think there is anything nefarious going on with John. Just slow down the racking a little!!
With that said, here are the videos:
I've used Hohmann as a baseline since his racking is like a machine. (It did turn out that other Euro players also rack like machines). I originally intended to present this without identifying players, but after completing it, I don't see any sensitive issues that might require anonymity.
https://youtu.be/CdnUaD8z59Y
Other examples of consistent racking:
https://youtu.be/04dzqQKvDt4
https://youtu.be/SBt5td3WFYY
https://youtu.be/tiknT7tAXZ8
Since Lou inspired my little study (my wife sees what I'm spending my time on and just shakes her head :smile here's Lou's 112:
https://youtu.be/bE7qjygeKpM
Here's John at DCC:
https://youtu.be/ZmzNdipv4JE
another from John some years ago:
https://youtu.be/9Kp_apLixv8
Someone racking for Schmidt, just for good measure:
https://youtu.be/qKrJ4GhPAQA
As some of you may know, I like to do video analysis of player strokes (mostly my own) and table layouts with the new smart phone software available nowadays. I figure if you can analyze a situation in a way that has never been done before, it can yield interesting results. If anybody has an idea of something pool related that might be interesting to study, let me know!
Before presenting the videos I put together below, let me give you the bottom line as I see it: Everybody is capable of racking extremely precisely. There are no real issues here. One player, John Schmidt, is kind of all over the place, however, in the last DCC. John racks like he's got a train to catch. My recommendation is that he just slow down a tad. There seemed to be some difficulty with all the players in getting the balls to stay frozen when removing the rack. Most of the players would hold the rack still while pushing the bottom row of balls forward with their thumbs until they were frozen together. John tended to reposition the entire rack until he found a sweet spot where they stayed frozen. You could argue that when the break ball was close to the rack, the rack position was placed lower or higher to get away from the break ball a little. It almost looks like he is trying not to bump into the break ball with the rack. Maybe just slow down a little.
Just to be clear, I don't think there is anything nefarious going on with John. Just slow down the racking a little!!
With that said, here are the videos:
I've used Hohmann as a baseline since his racking is like a machine. (It did turn out that other Euro players also rack like machines). I originally intended to present this without identifying players, but after completing it, I don't see any sensitive issues that might require anonymity.
https://youtu.be/CdnUaD8z59Y
Other examples of consistent racking:
https://youtu.be/04dzqQKvDt4
https://youtu.be/SBt5td3WFYY
https://youtu.be/tiknT7tAXZ8
Since Lou inspired my little study (my wife sees what I'm spending my time on and just shakes her head :smile here's Lou's 112:
https://youtu.be/bE7qjygeKpM
Here's John at DCC:
https://youtu.be/ZmzNdipv4JE
another from John some years ago:
https://youtu.be/9Kp_apLixv8
Someone racking for Schmidt, just for good measure:
https://youtu.be/qKrJ4GhPAQA