Help with Pool Experiment / Part 3

Chuck Fields said:
Exactly. It wasn't that just didnt hit it good, he chose a shot that was risky given his ability. He's trying to do stuff that is out of his reach at times.
Btw. Welcome back Colin!
Chuck
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Cheers Chuck!

It's seemed to me it's the same guy in all 3. He sometimes plays shots in a way that makes me think he could be an A player, but then plays some that makes him look like he forgot his meds.

I wouldn't be completely surprised if the next vid shows him running 5 racks, as he shows a decent stroke at times. But he also shows some very lazy shots and poor choice.

That said, interesting threads to a degree. :)
 
Colin:

There was no spin on the cueball when it went to the side rail.

I thought he was cuing up for slow follow (with a TOI hehe), to shoot the 4 in the other corner, or possibly the 3 in the upper right. That's what I would have tried for.
 
David Marcus said:
Really...4's! Wow, very interesting.....
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i said before and i tend to agree with this poster. a 4 possibly a low 5. it was hard to judge from your 1st video.

what i noticed and no one has brought up is that you play no defense at all. you try to run out even when the layout makes it impossible.

that leaves you open to lose racks you should have won ...in my opinion of coarse.i watched all of your 1st 2 videos and only 4 racks of this last one. it seems to me this girl plays at a higher level than that young guy in your 2nd video.

i am curious as to what your actual tap handicap is and i would like to see how you do on a bar table dealing with more clusters than on a 9'.
 
David Marcus said:
Really...4's! Wow, very interesting.....
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With the way both players are playing in the video, I could name more than 20 local APA 5's and 6's that could spot them 4 games on the wire, in a race to 7, and still outrun the nuts.

Making balls isn't the only part of pool. Making a ball is useless if you don't play shape; And when you don't play safeties, you're going to sell out.
 
DAVE_M said:
With the way both players are playing in the video, I could name more than 20 local APA 5's and 6's that could spot them 4 games on the wire, in a race to 7, and still outrun the nuts.

Making balls isn't the only part of pool. Making a ball is useless if you don't play shape; And when you don't play safeties, you're going to sell out.
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exactly the point i made in my last post.

i faced a tough 5 last sunday. he was shooting better than i was so i had to play defense.

the 1st rack he ran 5-6 balls then i ran 5-6 balls then he ran out. 2 nd rack the same way and he got up 2-0 real quick. after that i went into defense mode and winning 4 in a row for a final score of 4-2 in 45 innings.

as you said there is a lot more than pocketing balls to this game.
 
ScottK said:
Actually, I said that... in the second thread. Welcome to the discussion though.
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I'm still trying to figure out if this discussion is about how well the OP thinks he plays pool or how we actually judge people.
 
I know that you are looking for letter grades. As I say in each of these, I have no experience or perspective for that, so I'm merely gonna tell ya how it looks to my inexperienced eyes...

I would rate them both as low APA SL6's in my part of the world, if this is how they both play consistently. Now I've seen David in a couple of these videos, so I'm wavering between SL5 and SL6 for him. As someone else mentioned, he doesn't appear to know what a safety is. He can be a really good shotmaker, but plays position poorly.

Erica plays position far better, but isn't as strong a shotmaker. She missed some shots that really surprised me, after watching her do the other things that she did on the table, as well as she did. This is all I've seen of her, so its a small sample.

One thing that annoyed me was the conceding the 8 ball by both players. I saw both players dog far easier shots than the 8 balls they were conceding, in this very match. I understand the "respect" thing that people like to go on about, but I really dislike conceding anything but a hanger with ball in hand. Especially at this level. Perhaps that's just me.
 
When I was running handicapped tournaments, I just used the ghost to rate people.

4-ball ghost = C
6-ball ghost = B
9-ball ghost = A

If they play even with the 4-ball ghost, they are a solid C. If they are a slight favorite, C+. Strong favorite against 4-ball ghost, but slight dog to 6-ball ghost, B-. Pretty simple way to ballpark someone's speed.

Aaron
 
Aaron_S said:
When I was running handicapped tournaments, I just used the ghost to rate people.

4-ball ghost = C
6-ball ghost = B
9-ball ghost = A

If they play even with the 4-ball ghost, they are a solid C. If they are a slight favorite, C+. Strong favorite against 4-ball ghost, but slight dog to 6-ball ghost, B-. Pretty simple way to ballpark someone's speed.

Aaron
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I wouldn't exactly use that as judgement. I've beaten both the 9 ball and 10 ball ghost and I'm no A player. Maybe a C+/B- if I'm playing well.
 
Aaron_S said:
When I was running handicapped tournaments, I just used the ghost to rate people.

4-ball ghost = C
6-ball ghost = B
9-ball ghost = A

If they play even with the 4-ball ghost, they are a solid C. If they are a slight favorite, C+. Strong favorite against 4-ball ghost, but slight dog to 6-ball ghost, B-. Pretty simple way to ballpark someone's speed.

Aaron
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I'd agree with this assessment.
 
DAVE_M said:
I wouldn't exactly use that as judgement. I've beaten both the 9 ball and 10 ball ghost and I'm no A player. Maybe a C+/B- if I'm playing well.
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This is based on what a player is favored to do, not what happens in any particular set. If you are favored to beat the 9-ball ghost (ie: you will win more than 50% of races to 7), you are not a C+/B- player by any assessment method familiar to me. Common sense says you should throw out your best and worst and find the average of what's left.

Aaron
 
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Aaron_S said:
This is based on what a player is favored to do, not what happens in any particular set. If you are favored to beat the 9-ball ghost (ie: you will win more than 50% of races to 7), you are not a C+/B- player by any assessment method familiar to me. Common sense says you should throw out your best and worst and find the average of what's left.

Aaron
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How many times did you make them run the ghost? Two? Three Times? If I went based off of say, 10 sets, then I would be a B+ player at best.

The same for the OP, posting videos of different games at different times, will never give accurate results. Even for an experiment.
 
DAVE_M said:
How many times did you make them run the ghost? Two? Three Times? If I went based off of say, 10 sets, then I would be a B+ player at best.

The same for the OP, posting videos of different games at different times, will never give accurate results. Even for an experiment.
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The more the better. I would usually ask them to show up an hour before coin flip for an assessment.

As I recall, the only people who's handicaps I had to adjust were ones who's games I was familiar with, and I just took a guess at their rating. The ones I gave the ghost test to got a pretty accurate rating right off the bat. As with any system, it's only as accurate as the data you put into it.

I did not even try to give an assessment based on the OP's videos. As you said, not enough info.

Aaron
 
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