I’m not one to speak for others but Mike has said more than a few times that the Wilson situation should have been dealt with much sooner.
I know Mike has essentially delegated moderation long ago. Sure, he’s available but Wilson had way more power than he should have.
I don’t think AZB knows what to do to improve things here currently. They’re married to an antiquated demo here.
I was recently reading the billiards sub on Reddit and saw a number of members engage Mike which resulted in a few threads being removed from the NPR. That should have probably never existed in the first place.
It has lost it's plot. I'm responding to a few threads, most on NPR. I didn't check and thought this thread was on NPR. It is time to drop it or move it to NPR I believe. We need to get more and livelier pool discussion going for the main forum. I don't know how to do that but with little pool conversation the forum wanders into areas that should be NPR. People think NPR is only politics and are reluctant to go there. We used to talk about important things like old cars, old whiskey, and old music. Seems to be a common thing, I have largely lost interest in "new".
I think it might be time for a political subforum under the NPR forum. I have plenty of answers, as long as people don't want good answers!
I know better than to declare victory prematurely but this is promising.
I tweaked my footwork a tiny bit. Most misses were CB left, so I closed by stance a little. That worked well in some tester shots. It felt pretty comfortable. So I ….
I tried going back to a very consistent cadence, amounting to “trust the process.”
Stand behind the shot.
Place back foot just inside the shot line (toes near the line).
Step in with front foot slightly more straight than I had been doing.
Get down.
Here’s the cadence part:
1 Address the CB.
2 Eye pattern back and forth between CB and OB to confirm aim and alignment.
3 Two practice strokes with cue drawn back as far as the shot would need.
4 Two shorter feathers.
5 Pause at CB address. Eyes CB then OB.
6 Backstroke, ever so short natural pause at backstroke.
7 Fire.
I tried the Mighty X to see how many in a row I could get. I got to 22 with almost all shots landing the CB within a ball width of where the OB was. Many shots I got dead stop, no spin.
I had replaced thoughts of shot execution with thinking about this cadence and rhythm.
On the 23rd shot I missed, a thought of shot execution (“Where is my shoulder?”) crept in right at the backstroke. Because my thoughts wondered, I skipped step 4. And I missed. Shoulda stood up.
bakersfield bob was the best as he wasnt the same speed as the top players mentioned that played super bar speed. he was good but more of a very good shortstop but on the bar table few could beat him.
but jay could clock him the best as he hung out some at jay's pool room in bakersfield ca.
he old mud balls were regular balls made of clay and or whatever back in the day.
the bars mostly had a big cue ball which also heavier would follow the rail down the table and come out the slot at the break side.
the small ball which wasnt necessarily small but weighed more with magnets in it. so when pocketed would get pulled aside on the rail and come out at the break side while all the other balls followed the rail into the locked side of the table waiting for another quarter.
both balls were very hard to draw because of weight and of course the slow thick cloth on cheap humid wet bar tables.
Thanks for the link, I haven’t seen that. When I started on bar tables it was the big cueball. Then I think it was the spring ones. I don’t recall the heavy mud ball. But I am talking ‘80’s and don’t have the bar box experience that many have. Had occasion to play on a vintage bar box last year in Oregon. Well maintained, not a Valley, but had the oversized ball. Hadn’t seen one in forever. Not the ideal solution, but played better than one I played with in recent weeks that wasn’t balanced.
