Most Overrated/underrated
- Thread starter Pangit
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The equipment is by far the most overrated thing in pool.
Guys still go around thinking "yeah, this tip spins the ball better, and you can't make that spin shot without a predator shaft, and this chalk grabs the ball better, your draw takes SO GOOD~!!"
They don't understand that any shot they attribute to the brand of stick or the tip or the chalk can be made with a house cue. Possibly even an unchalked house cue.
Underrated... I think people know the value of practice, most of us are just too lazy to do it.
I think mood is underrated. It has a real and drastic affect on how you shoot, but players have trouble accepting (or admitting) that something intangible is making them shoot worse. They look to mechanical issues, they start questioning the stick or the tip, they blame the measles ball, or the other guy scratching his knee. But they never just admit "I hit that ball in a shitty way because I'm in kind of a shitty mood."
...it takes real mental work to play well when you're not into it... and there's a snowball effect. You shoot poorly and then tell yourself "ok, I'm shooting bad right now, I'm just in for a bad night of pool"... which then tanks your mood further.
Guys still go around thinking "yeah, this tip spins the ball better, and you can't make that spin shot without a predator shaft, and this chalk grabs the ball better, your draw takes SO GOOD~!!"
They don't understand that any shot they attribute to the brand of stick or the tip or the chalk can be made with a house cue. Possibly even an unchalked house cue.
Underrated... I think people know the value of practice, most of us are just too lazy to do it.
I think mood is underrated. It has a real and drastic affect on how you shoot, but players have trouble accepting (or admitting) that something intangible is making them shoot worse. They look to mechanical issues, they start questioning the stick or the tip, they blame the measles ball, or the other guy scratching his knee. But they never just admit "I hit that ball in a shitty way because I'm in kind of a shitty mood."
...it takes real mental work to play well when you're not into it... and there's a snowball effect. You shoot poorly and then tell yourself "ok, I'm shooting bad right now, I'm just in for a bad night of pool"... which then tanks your mood further.
Underrated = productive people making a change in billiards, young kidos starting billiards at a young age
Overrated = people on the forums wasting time bickering pessimism, Pool in smoke-filled bars, Pool's rep as a hustler's sport, lack of respect, I can go on...
Oops...
Overrated = people on the forums wasting time bickering pessimism, Pool in smoke-filled bars, Pool's rep as a hustler's sport, lack of respect, I can go on...
Oops...
I completely disagree about ld shafts. I believe they're underrated, if anything.
And kamui chalk, while it can't be anything but overrated, is still a great product.
And kamui chalk, while it can't be anything but overrated, is still a great product.
By far and away, the joint protector is the most over-rated. I'm sure amongst the 10,000 azb posters, there's a dude who has a bent joint but I have yet to see anyone throw a cue away because the joint got ruined somehow and only a joint protector would have saved him.
IMO, the most under-rated piece of equipment is owning your own piece of chalk. The rooms I play in always have great chalk but once I leave my usual settings, there's no telling what I'll encounter. I keep a cube of Kamui and a small box of Masters in my case. I keep both simply to have SOMETHING in situations where there is no chalk or the available chalk is in bad shape.
Overrated - Room owners getting big income from a great bar tab, because pool halls with huge bars and smoking are keeping young people from the sport and at key ages.
Underrated - Tip gap distance. I see players everywhere with a pretty good stance and stroke who are erratic because they are too far from the cue ball with their hands and cue stick tip.
Underrated - Tip gap distance. I see players everywhere with a pretty good stance and stroke who are erratic because they are too far from the cue ball with their hands and cue stick tip.
ChicagoJoe said:
Absolutely. There is no way in hell you can compare a house cue or even other generic shafts to the technology put into a LD shaft. I shoot with an older guy 45-50 that played on the pro tour back in the mid 80s when it was like 20 pros playing all the events. He was showing me a couple things one day and used my predator shaft for the first time and he was blown away at the amount of control he had on that cue ball. Within an hour he was calling the cue ball positon within half a posted note every shot. He said Danny if I had something like this back then, alot of people would know my name.
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Yeah room owners need to starve so they can make the game better. If they keep making money, who knows, they might stay in business.
Absolutely!!! Unless you enjoy chasing them down all over the poolhall floor every time you drop one :embarrassed2:. I would be more likely to damage my cue trying to catch a dropped joint protector than I would just not using the JP's at all. I am slowly starting to leave all the JP's off of all my cues that are not being stored.
The most underrated thing in pool are those good folks that spend hours of their own time working with our youth in pool clinics/schools/etc. God bless you all just for doing ANYTHING for our youth!!!
Maniac
Youth programs
I agree with your second point. It seems so simple to me. JUNIOR LEAGUES CREATE CUSTOMERS!!!
I've tried to get junior leagues going, but have yet to find an owner who shows any interest...
On your first point though, I've had to reface several cues over the years because I didn't use JPs. So, I like them...though I wouldn't pay more than $6 a set, no matter how pretty they are!
Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
I agree with your second point. It seems so simple to me. JUNIOR LEAGUES CREATE CUSTOMERS!!!
I've tried to get junior leagues going, but have yet to find an owner who shows any interest...
On your first point though, I've had to reface several cues over the years because I didn't use JPs. So, I like them...though I wouldn't pay more than $6 a set, no matter how pretty they are!
Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
hrm... I don't think bickering, pessimism, pool as a hustler's sport, etc. ever got rated very highly to begin with, so it's hard to think of them as overrated.
Or do you mean people overreact to these things and they're really minor?
See, this makes no sense.
How on earth do you think the LD shaft gives a player more control of the cue ball?
Does the LD shaft read your mind and figure out where you wanted the cue ball? Does it somehow suck the cue ball to that exact position? If you hit whitey a little off from where you intended, does it magically correct the spin? If you hit the shot too hard, does it slow down the cue ball?
Cue ball control is 100% the player. It's not the cue. The cue doesn't decide where your tip strikes the cue ball, or how hard you hit it, or give you the brains to figure out the best position route.
I like LD shafts, own 'em, recommend 'em, and continue to use them. But the only thing it changes is where you aim your shots. You can't just buy better cue ball control.
OK, but do you see his point? I don't think he's preaching about making the game better, like "let's get pool away from smoke and alcohol".
I think what he's saying is... pool room owners might gain money in the short term from the bar, but they lose something too. Young people can't play there (or their parents won't let them) and the stuff you learn at that young, impressionable age is what influences you for the rest of your life.
If you get a kid into pool at age 10, and they can go shoot every day, they might be a player for life. Those lifetime hardcore pool players can create revenue for the pool hall too. If they get turned away at age ten, or can't play very often, they may never develop that love for it, and just become the occasional weekend banger who shoots when his buddies all go to the bar.
Overrated, thinkin' there's a magic this or that to make you a great player quickly, and when you first get hooked' by the game to Not get an instructor immediately, is def underrated.
Afraid to ask almost, assuming you mean they fall into the "most overrated" category?
Agree wholeheartedly!
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti
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Underrated: a good bridge hand. I see a lot of APA 2-4 8ball players with this problem. They don't know how to form a closed bridge. Their fingers hug the cue tight creating a lot of rubbing and therefore aim variance. Or they elevate their bridge hand on every shot, creating masse. Or when they need to elevate over a ball, they try to use a closed bridge. They would be better off using an open bridge most of the time.
Overrated: table roll. At least where I play the tables are level. But I still hear complaints. I think people are referring to the slight jog a ball can make just before it stops. That's due to either chalk smeared in the cloth, or uneven stretching when the cloth was installed.
- Jeff in Frisco
Overrated: table roll. At least where I play the tables are level. But I still hear complaints. I think people are referring to the slight jog a ball can make just before it stops. That's due to either chalk smeared in the cloth, or uneven stretching when the cloth was installed.
- Jeff in Frisco
A friend of mine convinced me to try playing with a predator shaft and it made a believer out of me. I thought LD shafts were just hype to make money, but it didn't take long for me to see a big improvement in my pool game.
James