APA stop watch timer rule?

stutz

stutz

did you call that?
Silver Member
I've checked the rule book. Can't seem to locate this one. One member of my team is a decent shot, but I think he "over thinks" his shots. He's a 5, match him up against another 5 and the match can run 1.5 hours easy.

We played a team last night for the first week of two playoff weeks, and their 7, who thinks he's the best stick in the county :boring2: is running his chops about needing to put my team mate "on the shot clock"
 
It has been years since I played APA but I don't seem to remember any "shot-clock" rule. Though IMO, any more than 2 minutes is too long & as a courtesy to everyone it is best to limit the amount of time for time outs or as poker players say for when players "go into the tank."
 
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I agree, two minutes should be plenty of time, especially for a 5. Like I said he over thinks things. The other teams 7 was just trying to get into his head....didn't work :)
 
One minute for a shot is already an eternity... two minutes is a joke!

We have a 45-second rule in our APA division, and you can put your opponent on the clock if you feel they are going over 45 seconds on their shots. Once on the clock, the first infraction is a warning and then foul and ball-in-hand for your opponent after that.
 
that's an interesting idea Victorl. But, can APA divisions make rules like that, or anything for that matter, on their own?
 
Actually it's not just my division, but applies to our whole league, which is the Japanese branch of the APA.
 
All of the guidelines are on page 6 of the team manual. I have never seen them enforced during a regular league match. During playoffs and upper level play they are enforced in my area. As for your player I would have the captain talk with him to speed their play.

TIME GUIDELINES FOR 8-BALL MATCHES
Total Games
Must Win Match Time Average Game
4–6 45 minutes 10 minutes
7 – 10 60 minutes 8 minutes

TIME GUIDELINES
Average Shot 20 seconds
Special Situation 45 seconds
Coaching timeout 1minute
 
victorl said:
One minute for a shot is already an eternity... two minutes is a joke!

We have a 45-second rule in our APA division, and you can put your opponent on the clock if you feel they are going over 45 seconds on their shots. Once on the clock, the first infraction is a warning and then foul and ball-in-hand for your opponent after that.
Click to expand...

I agree, I was speaking of time outs or when a player really feels the crunch of deciding how to handle a particularly tough shot.
 
CB Jones said:
All of the guidelines are on page 6 of the team manual. I have never seen them enforced during a regular league match. During playoffs and upper level play they are enforced in my area. As for your player I would have the captain talk with him to speed their play.

TIME GUIDELINES FOR 8-BALL MATCHES
Total Games
Must Win Match Time Average Game
4–6 45 minutes 10 minutes
7 – 10 60 minutes 8 minutes

TIME GUIDELINES
Average Shot 20 seconds
Special Situation 45 seconds
Coaching timeout 1minute
Click to expand...

Not enforced in my area for regular league night either. But for doubles tournaments and vegas qualifiers they are. If matches go over time limit, it is put into sudden death.
 
As I understand it there is no actual shot clock or time rule in normal weekly play, but if enough people complain about a particular player or team they are subject to sanctions that might include application of a shot clock or sportsmanship violations. Something like that would be totally at the discretion of the local league office. I have heard that a shot clock is a common local rule and ranges anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. On the national a shot clock is enforced, but the player in question has to be complained about before anything like that happens.
 
This came up with one of my players recently. He is a bit methodical, granted.

In a match, it obviously got to his opponent. After a while, his opponent started timing each of my guys shots on his smart phone. (We thought he was texting in between.shots, lol)

After the match, he comes up to me and says I need to get my player to speed up, and shows me his phone. Most of the shots took between 30 and 50 seconds, so it wasn't way out of line. I called the LO's office to check into it. They would like us to keep it between 30 and 45 seconds locally.

My guy was good about it, and is trying to shoot a little quicker. He wasn't trying to shark the guy, he was over thinking it too much.
 
justadub said:
In a match, it obviously got to his opponent. After a while, his opponent started timing each of my guys shots on his smart phone. (We thought he was texting in between.shots, lol)
Click to expand...

Be careful about timing your opponents as this could easily be considered sharking.

I encourage all of the 'methodical' shooters in my division to shorten their shot clock for two reasons. First, it's far better sportsmanship to follow the rules (20 and 45 seconds per shot as someone else outlined). Second, you really have to shoot faster than the prescribed (allocated?) times if you want to avoid sudden death in tournaments. What better way to get used to shooting quicker than by doing so in league play.
 
Unfortunately, there is no penalty in APA for slow play during regular league play. You can complain to the opposing captain, the division rep and the LO but there is no penalty in the rule books. Local league by-laws might include something.
 
You might consider trying a night of TAP. This app http://vimeo.com/78388124 has integrated timers built right into the scoreboard which has eliminated any second guessing about the amount of time outs taken or how much time a player spends at the table during a shot. This of course has greatly increased the efficiency of nightly play, and has virtually wiped out arguments about the amount of time outs taken and player shot time. It can be set between ;20 seconds and :55 seconds and is now being used in all leagues. http://runoutapps.com/
 

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RunOut Apps said:
You might consider trying a night of TAP. This app [URL removed] has integrated timers built right into the scoreboard which has eliminated any second guessing about the amount of time outs taken or how much time a player spends at the table during a shot. This of course has greatly increased the efficiency of nightly play, and has virtually wiped out arguments about the amount of time outs taken and player shot time. It can be set between ;20 seconds and :55 seconds and is used in all leagues.
Click to expand...

Neat idea. We're still waiting for APA to sanction any one of the many apps developed to track league play.
 
Thank You..but, its now a reality.

8 Ball, 9 Ball & 10 Ball on all table sizes.

TAP & Runout Apps released iOS at nationals in Chicago late last year and TAP licensees are now saving thousands of $$$$ on gas, printers,paper, ink and TIME! Captains push a button to send the data directly into the TAP handicapping system. Players now have the simplest league scoring at their finger tips, and now Anyone can now run a TAP league from anywhere. Droid will be released soon.
 
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Our longest matches are in 8 ball when a couple of 3s face each other and go about 15 or 20 innings per game. I don't know how it happened, but I was there for a match that took 2 hours to play 3 racks.

I know some leagues enforce time rules. When I went to Vegas last year I got to talk to folks from other leagues and there are many who institute the same rules as used for LTC qualifiers. If the match starts at 7:00, it'll go into sudden death at something like 10:00. That would be great if our league did that, because most of us have to get up at 5:00 the next morning.
 
There is a guy in miami that plays incredibly slow. He was a three at the time and played this girl on my team who also played slow. They started at 730 and finished at 10pm. Race to 3! double hill! I was scoring and I wanted to stab the pencil into my ear to put me out of misery!
 
The only time limits I've ever seen enforced in APA are the 2 minute coaching timeouts during the division qualifier tournaments. And even then they are only loosely monitored by the other team unless there has been a blatant disregard for them.
 
They never ever enforce it, but if you have the LO in the house and bring it to his attention,
he can put them on the clock.

We had a situation once where one team was waiting for their teammate to finish
up an 8-ball match, so he could play in a 9b match. This is while the current 9b match is just
wrapping up. So this team stalls like crazy during the current 9b match to buy him time.
The LO put a stop to it.
 
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