Judging the speed of the table…

That's the true magic of Efren. He was able to control the speed of the shoot so well. Seemed to always put the cueball in the right place. Too fast or too slow and he'll miss the spot.
 
Of course there are other more minor things like being able to pocket balls, but if you can't get the speed of the table down, you'll never run racks. Johnnyt
 
If I could do that consistently…I'd win almost every game.:joyful:


To that end..how do others test the table for speed before a game/match?

...lag a couple of times from head string to rail, as in determining the breaker.

...3 rails to the corner, from a corner, to just fall in the pocket

...place cb adjacent to an ob at midtable, lag LR, SR, LR to just nudge OB


What other methods are helpful? and quick?
 
To that end..how do others test the table for speed before a game/match?

...lag a couple of times from head string to rail, as in determining the breaker.

...3 rails to the corner, from a corner, to just fall in the pocket

...place cb adjacent to an ob at midtable, lag LR, SR, LR to just nudge OB


What other methods are helpful? and quick?
Personally I do none of these. I wait until I'm playing. On my very first shot I pick "ghost ball" position for the cue ball to land on the table. If I don't have to contact a rail then its a bonus. I'd play the shot as I would on my table speed-wise and I'll know if the table and or rails play faster or slower than my table. Then I can adjust from there. A lot of matches I play in its frowned upon, or can even result in a forfeit if you are known to have played on the table previously, even if its just a lag shot you hit before the game officially starts.
 
It helps to have a baseline. So knowing what your typical stroke or speed is like normally is the key to determining the different speed on varying tables. Once you know your baseline or typical stroke speed, then gauging table speed is fairly simple.

How does one gauge fast or slow? How fast is fast? How much slower is slow compared to fast? Humans tend to be more precise with numbers. So a lag shot would be #1, and all the way back up to the short rail would be #5. #3 would be half way back up the table, #2 is 1/4th and #4 at 3/4ths. Just an example...
 
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