Finally I'm a SL6 in APA

K

KoolKiller

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just want to share with you guys my experience with the league play. I've been playing APA since late 2009. I started as SL4 and stayed in this level for about a year and half. I've been called "sandbagger" numerous times as I can make all kinds of tough shots, bank shots, curved shot, ridiculous cuts;)..., but I'm not one. I lost in city wide when we were darn close to win it all the way.

I now look back and I know what my problems were when I was a SL4. I don't control cue ball, don't play safety, would go for every tough shot and leave opponent wide open tables, don't know how to get out of a defensive leave... Anyway, I started playing safeties more often about a yea ago and I quickly became a SL5. Beginning this year, I joined a local 9 ball money league, that plays on 9ft tables. I think playing on bigger tables really improved my play on the smaller APA tables. The most improvement I've made over these years is that I now know what kind of shot I can make, and I will instead play safety if I think the shot is 50/50. Previously I would go for it even it's 99% a miss. :p My cue ball control is much better and I seldom miss due to the "conservative thinking". My winning % in APA is 90% so far. The only night I lost was due to my opponent slopping 3 balls in a row, including the 8:angry:

I played my first match as a SL6 last night and I was all serious and smoked the other SL5. In my 9ball money league, I won the best player in the opponent team twice in the Final's night, 1 in regular match and 1 in overtime sudden death match as we had a tie in the regular session. My captain even cried a little bit when it was over as this was the first champion for him in many years... Man, that feels good...:grin:
 
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Congratulations on your dedication to the game and subsequent improvement. Glad you finally stopped sandbagging :)
 
KoolKiller said:
Just want to share with you guys my experience with the league play. I've been playing APA since late 2009. I started as SL4 and stayed in this level for about a year and half. I'be been called "sandbagger" numerous times as I can make all kinds of tough shots, bank shots, curved shot, ridiculous cuts;)..., but I'm not one. I lost in city wide when we were darn close to win it all the way.

I now look back and I know what my problems were when I was a SL4. I don't control cue ball, don't play safety, would go for every tough shot and leave opponent wide open tables, don't know how to get out of a defensive leave... Anyway, I started playing safeties more often about a yea ago and I quickly became a SL5. Beginning this year, I joined a local 9 ball money league, that plays on 9ft tables. I think playing on bigger tables really improved my play on the smaller APA tables. The most improvement I've made over these years is that I now know what kind of shot I can make, and I will instead play safety if I think the shot is 50/50. Previously I would go for it even it's 99% a miss. :p My cue ball control is much better and I seldom miss due to the "conservative thinking". My winning % in APA is 90% so far. The only night I lost was due to my opponent slopping 3 balls in a row, including the 8:angry:

I played my first match as a SL6 last night and I was all serious and smoked the other SL5. In my 9ball money league, I won the best player in the opponent team twice in the Final's night, 1 in regular match and 1 in overtime sudden death match as we had a tie in the regular session. My captain even cried a little bit when it was over as this was the first champion for him in many years... Man, that feels good...:grin:
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CRYING, there's no crying in. oop's sorry about that ,actually there is crying in pool.
 
Congratulations!

Playing safe and knowing when to do it are key to bringing your game up a notch or three. I know some players in my leagues who will be fierce if they ever realize that they don't always have to try to pocket a ball. (I'm not going to be the one that tells them, though. :))
 
Nice to see an APA player who actually sees value in moving up in ranking. I posted here earlier this year how making better decisions along with improved safety play brought my game up a bunch, all without aiming or pocketing any better. Went from perennial top ten in our BCA league to top player by a wide margin. A person can improve that aspect of their game way faster than changing mechanical problems which are also important but all the good mechanics and shotmaking in the world won't fix stupid. Congrats on your improvement!

Don't you just hate the slop in APA though?

JC
 
During last night's match, I heard the opponent's teammates whispering "wth, that guy should be a 7...". I think they'll be pissed if they knew I've been shooting as a 5 for a while...:grin::D

brandoncook26 said:
Congratulations on your dedication to the game and subsequent improvement. Glad you finally stopped sandbagging :)
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(I'm not going to be the one that tells them, though. :))[/QUOTE]
Good idea, I've been trying to tell the 3 and 4s in my team to play more safeties and they DO NOT like it, or they don't know how and when to do it. :mad:


krupa said:
Congratulations!

Playing safe and knowing when to do it are key to bringing your game up a notch or three. I know some players in my leagues who will be fierce if they ever realize that they don't always have to try to pocket a ball. (I'm not going to be the one that tells them, though. :))
Click to expand...
 
Great post. I loved the little dings of going up from 5 to 7 the past two years. I am forty eight and falling apart, this is one of the few team activities I can still contribute to. It is great to see the lightbulbs go off over your teamates heads when they learn a new shot or figure out a more efficient pattern.

One thing that helped me was when I started to play the whole table rather than two or three balls at a time. Thinking backwards from your blocked balls and clusters, finding break out balls, insurance balls etc. Every rack a puzzle to be solved.
 
I agree with you. One of the things I noticed is that when my SL went up, I became more naturally focused on my game. When I was a 4, I pretty much knew I could win the game just by my shot making skills and I don't pay attentions/respects to the other parts of the game. As I move up, I knew one tiny mistake could have cost me the match so I was 100% focused. In return, the seriousness/focus I put into each game, due to handicap going up, helped me to improve fairly quickly on my weaker aspects of the game, i.e., safety, positional play etc. My captain would call me nuts but I'd be happy if they move me a SL7 next week:rolleyes:





JC said:
Nice to see an APA player who actually sees value in moving up in ranking. I posted here earlier this year how making better decisions along with improved safety play brought my game up a bunch, all without aiming or pocketing any better. Went from perennial top ten in our BCA league to top player by a wide margin. A person can improve that aspect of their game way faster than changing mechanical problems which are also important but all the good mechanics and shotmaking in the world won't fix stupid. Congrats on your improvement!

Don't you just hate the slop in APA though?

JC
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[/QUOTE]One thing that helped me was when I started to play the whole table rather than two or three balls at a time. Thinking backwards from your blocked balls and clusters, finding break out balls, insurance balls etc. Every rack a puzzle to be solved.[/QUOTE]

Good point. I started studying the entire table late last year in 8 ball games and it helped me a lot. I looked the table and if I don't have a run out, I treat each ball on the table as a soldier that will defend my opponent from running out. When the table is in a runnable layout, I treat my balls like enemies and I want to bury them into the pockets as fast as I can, haha :thumbup:
 
KoolKiller said:
(I'm not going to be the one that tells them, though. :))
Good idea, I've been trying to tell the 3 and 4s in my team to play more safeties and they DO NOT like it, or they don't know how and when to do it. :mad:
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Yeah, I am like that. I need to play defense a lot more. It's hard to go against your instincts during a match. Plus when you do decide to play a safe and mess it up, some reason it feels a lot worse than missing a shot.

Probably the best thing for me is to shoot a lot of safes and defense during practice so it won't feel so foreign during matches.
 
KoolKiller said:
Good point. I started studying the entire table late last year in 8 ball games and it helped me a lot. I looked the table and if I don't have a run out, I treat each ball on the table as a soldier that will defend my opponent from running out. When the table is in a runnable layout, I treat my balls like enemies and I want to bury them into the pockets as fast as I can, haha :thumbup:
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With this strategy, say you can comfortably run 4 balls, but not 5. Do you pocket balls to get to 4 and then follow your strategy ?
 
you are heading the right direction if you practice more defensive plays. Defensive plays request higher level of cue ball control compared to just pocketing the ball so don't be frustrated when it failed. Keep using it and it will get better. think it this way, pocketing one ball may not do you too much good and sometime it gets you into trouble. One successful defensive play could easily won the game for you. So the return is much higher. ;)



ronscuba said:
Yeah, I am like that. I need to play defense a lot more. It's hard to go against your instincts during a match. Plus when you do decide to play a safe and mess it up, some reason it feels a lot worse than missing a shot.

Probably the best thing for me is to shoot a lot of safes and defense during practice so it won't feel so foreign during matches.
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No, if you do, you just killed 3 of your own soldiers!
I will see if I can break one of the clustered balls and then leave a safety, or move a ball closer to a cluster so that next time I can pocket it and break the cluster. Or just try to play a good safety and go from there.


ronscuba said:
With this strategy, say you can comfortably run 4 balls, but not 5. Do you pocket balls to get to 4 and then follow your strategy ?
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Never having played in APA or other similar super ranked leagues, is it possible for someone to explain the meanings of the ranks like SL4-SL6 and such?

Thanks Kindly
 
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