Daily Run 3 Racks + 10' Table

Side Pocket said:

So I put the new cloth on my table and I'm not sure if I like it.

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Howdy! I like your avatar. I have an 8x10 framed photo of the same gent on my wall in the pool room (OK it's my basement).

I assume you are posting these daily runs because you want feedback? I hope so because I'm going to give you my 2 cents based on your 42 ball run on 860 Simonis. Agree or disagree, but I think I have a point here and there. I'd like to know what you think.

OK, here goes. First, you are an amazing shot maker. It is easy to forget you are playing on a 10' table! Second, it was the right move to go with 860 Simonis. You did that so that you will have comparable playing conditions when you try for a high run at Derby or wherever, right? I don't think you have to go as far as playing on a tournament table to check the speed. Just play any one of the 1000's of videos of pro tournaments. I think you'll see ball action much closer to your new cloth than the old one.

I think the 760 cloth is an impediment to your development into higher levels of play. The clusters just open up too easily. It makes a huge difference if a cluster ball moves out 1 full inch on 760 and maybe only 1/2 inch on 860. This leads me into my first observation. I think you are going into clusters a little too haphazardly. It doesn't appear you know what your next shot will be when you are going into a cluster. You CANNOT continue to break clusters and hope you get a next shot. You won't run many 100's doing that.

Take an example in the 42 ball video: You shot the 8 ball (hard to tell the color) and ran into the cluster. This was the absolutely wrong shot!! I can think of two better ways to open up the cluster and still be assured of a next shot. First, how about using the 1 ball to open up the cluster at 37 seconds into the video? The 4 ball, which you shot, was a perfect key ball for the 12 as a break ball. Here's my thinking on the 1 instead: You had natural or near natural angle to shoot the 1 and go into the bottom ball of the three. You would have hit this shot medium/soft so that the cue ball doesn't run more than 2 or 3 feet past the cluster in the event you missed it. You had several shots available to you (safety balls) after separating those 3 (ie, low risk shot).

Option 2: At 1:05 minutes you hit a stop shot on the 15. Why didn't you hit a little harder or with a touch of follow to send the cue ball into the bottom of those 3 balls? If you look at the path of the cue ball in the shot you took, you can see the cue ball going right towards that bottom ball. You had the 5 and the 9 and the 11 as safety balls after going into that bottom ball. You cleared away some of those safety balls before taking your cluster opening shot. At this point you are leaving your destiny up to the pool Gods, who do not often smile kindly. This would have ended the average person's run, but you made an amazing combination off the rail on a 10' table to save yourself. Great shot, but you shouldn't have had to take it!!

I shouldn't presume too much, but I wonder if playing on 760 robbed you of the necessity to play more thoughtfully when it comes to breaking/separating clusters.

Anyway, I hope you see this as helpful. Going into clusters the wrong way is going to make it much more difficult to reach your goal (daily 100+ runs).

OK, I have one pet peeve, which you can ignore but I'll say it anyway... If you are "training" for a high run competition then your opening break is fine. That's the way they do it. However, in general I think using this break in the normal course of events is a little bit of a cop out. I say if you are a 100 ball runner, then your opening break should be a realistic break you will encounter along the way. This particular break is not easy to come upon in a real run of balls, and is designed to give an extra advantage due to the typically large spread of balls it generates. It's a little like smashing the pack open like and 8 ball break and then starting your 100 ball run. Like I said, it is a pet peeve and if you can run 100 with the break you are using now, then I'm sure you can do it with any other opening break, too.

Great shooting overall. Congrats in advance on your 100!

Side Pocket said:

Any other recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

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"My name is Side Pocket and I am a 9 ball addict." "This is Ames, Mister."

Glad to see you're really interested in learning 14.1. I'd say for a high run, you do need some luck. But if you are running 100 every day, that doesn't happen by luck. You need lots of knowledge in all aspects of the game for that. At that point your "lucky" high run will be like 300.

You might consider buying a couple of books on straight pool. The first one that comes to mind is George Fels' book on straight pool. You can google AZ and find threads on what books are good for straight pool strategy.

There is one other concept I could mention. It is something marop said John Schmidt told him in one of his videos. Look at the situation at 6:00. You have a 9 for the break ball, the 3 for the key ball, and you are shooting the 4 ball. You never want to be in a position where you are too high for shooting the key ball in the side pocket. In other words, you were one the wrong side of the 3 ball. Schmidt says when the margin for error on this shot is low, then go ahead and leave the cue ball below the key ball so that you can go up table and back down for the break ball position. Otherwise, you have to do what you did, which is to force the position with much lower success percentage. In this particular shot, you should have looked at the line between the 9 and the 3. You should realize at that point that you can't leave the cue ball anywhere to the right side of the 9. The better play would be to stun the 4 in (or use a lot of inside) and hold the cue ball to the left side of the 9. Then play to send the cue ball to the head rail and back off the 3 (or maybe even just play a simple draw shot off the 3). I suppose you could also have hit the shot you did but a little harder to send the 3 ball into the bottom left corner. You'd have a decent margin for error there as well. But, I think the thing to remember is that it is a good idea to get good at sending the cue ball to the head rail and back for break shot position. You can get out of a lot of trouble with that shot.

Side Pocket said:

46 Ball Run 11-15-2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul7gncyOK4s&feature=youtu.be

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Hey Side Pocket. I watched your video and have a couple of random comments as I see them:

What's your objective at 1:12? Am I correct that the 11 ball (the one you ran into) was a potential break ball and not in the rack? In this situation I'm shooting that 13 ball all day. With the 13 there, you have a problem cluster. Without it all the balls go to a pocket (I think the 9 passes the 10, but either way...). The 8 ball becomes a good key ball to get simple position for the 11 ball break shot. The other benefit of the 13 is that you are not shooting over a ball. You may have lost position because you were shooting over that ball.

At 12:04 you decide to "rearrange the furniture" and see what happens. On this particular shot, it is helpful to know a rule of thumb for position play. I came up with this myself, but I'm sure others have done the same. To me, this is almost a trade secret because the rule works pretty consistently regardless of the angle between the cue ball and the object ball. The rule, or reference point, is this: With low outside english on this type of shot, the most you will be able to bring the cue ball back towards you is a point a little over 1 diamond on the short rail and 2 diamonds up on the long rail (otherwise known as the "foot string"). So if you measure back one diamond to the left and then up to the foot string you are in proximity of the 7 ball. Guess what...You hit the 7 ball! Once you learn a point of reference like that, you can experiment and see what happens with extreme outside draw. Can you manage to hit the 3 (your break ball) or can you get as far as the striped ball next to it? It isn't unrealistic for you to have played to bump the 4 up and then have the 15 or 5 as safety balls. I think knowing stuff like that is what gets you to 100 more consistently. You have to tighten up on your position play a bit. Actually it's kind of funny. I'm not laughing at you, don't misunderstand. When you hit that shot the balls you went into bounced back into almost the identical place they started at! You played beautifully to get through the rest of the rack.

3rd rack was nicely done though I would have liked to see the 8 ball as your break shot.

At 11:30 you took a dangerous shot that led to your downfall. But, OK, sometimes you have to take a shot like that. I could suggest 2 alternatives on that shot. 1) Shoot with a lot of follow and right english, much like you would do for a behind the rack break shot. At least this way, you are going into the side rail and the right english SHOULD get you higher up table above some of the balls. The draw action kept the cue ball low. This is not just an observation I can make after the fact. It was somewhat predictable that you would end up where you did. Option 2) Shoot the same shot but plan to hit softly enough to send the 11 about 4 inches off the 1 for another potential break ball. You are shooting for position on the 6. Anytime you can open up half a cluster and KNOW what your next shot is, that is better than blasting apart the whole cluster but not have any idea what the next shot is.

So I think the general theme with your game is you should consider working on opening up clusters more carefully, seeing if you can separate balls rather than blast them, and seeing if you can get position on safety balls after separating them. Hitting a shot without knowing exactly where the cue ball is going to go is a last resort, not a routine part of each rack. I think this is probably the weak point of your game right now. Fix that and you'll be posting 80's and 90's! :thumbup:

Maybe you should consult some of the experts on the main forum. I do know that the cue ball will skid off the rail with any new cloth.

stevekur1 said:

my guess would be that it is Simmonis 860, since Simmonis is a title sponsor of DCC.

-Steve

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How did you embed that video on here?

Timothy Rose said:

How did you embed that video on here?

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All I did is put the Vimeo Link on my signature. I see Marop's videos do the same. He posts his Vimeo's here as well.

It thought maybe it was an Apple Thing because it shows that way on my iPhone.

Maybe it's the vbulletin software that makes it possible.

-steve