biggest improvement in pool equipment

measureman

measureman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This is just my opinion.And when I become King it will be the law of the realm.
First off I've been playing since 1961.
I have played with clay balls and slow cloth to modern balls and fast cloth.
Solid tips and layered tips.
Standard shafts to LD shafts. I don't like LD shafts.
Chalk is my pick.
I spin the hell out of the cue ball and since moving from Masters chalk to Blue Diamond and Predator my miscues have gone down dramatically and I seem to get more action on the cue ball with less effort.And this has been with many different layered and solid tips.
Except for the one Sniper tip I tried. I miscued so much the first hour that I whipped out my knife and cut it off to rot on the pool room floor.Maybe I got a bad one.
Switched shafts with a now forgotten tip on it and the miscues ceased.
I am a fan of Ki Tech hard tips. But that's a personal preference.
 
measureman said:
This is just my opinion.And when I become King it will be the law of the realm.
First off I've been playing since 1961.
I have played with clay balls and slow cloth to modern balls and fast cloth.
Solid tips and layered tips.
Standard shafts to LD shafts. I don't like LD shafts.
Chalk is my pick.
I spin the hell out of the cue ball and since moving from Masters chalk to Blue Diamond and Predator my miscues have gone down dramatically and I seem to get more action on the cue ball with less effort.And this has been with many different layered and solid tips.
Except for the one Sniper tip I tried. I miscued so much the first hour that I whipped out my knife and cut it off to rot on the pool room floor.Maybe I got a bad one.
Switched shafts with a now forgotten tip on it and the miscues ceased.
I am a fan of Ki Tech hard tips. But that's a personal preference.
Click to expand...

Absolutely chalk. Because no matter what form of billiards is played you can do WAY more with chalk than without it.

An APA 4 in the 1800s with chalk probably would have been the greatest player on the planet.

In fact, somewhere I read that the story goes that spin is called English because of an englishman named Jack Carr who first brought chalk to America. He sold it labeled as Jack (or John) Carr's Magical Twisting Powder and traveled the country doing medicine show type exhibitions showing players the power of chalk.

So people started calling side spin as English. And the English call it side or screw or follow. Sometimes they say deep screw for a really long draw shot.

I would add that leather tips to hold the chalk are the next most important invention.

From there consistent balls followed by consistent rubber are my choices.
 
A rather good player was just not getting what he wanted out of his stroke & you could just hear that something was not right. Now keep in mind that I said 'rather good. He shoots well but is in his early 30s.

He was using the standard Masters Blue that was on the table. I called him over & asked if I could look at his tip. I asked him if he minded if a *****ed it up a bit. I did & put some Blue Diamond Chalk on it & gave it back to him. After a few shots he looked over at me & said 'Thanks Rick, whatever you did.'. I gave him the Blue Diamond chalk & told him to use it.

I prep my tips, even layered, with light *****ing, put a coat of Blue Diamond on & then use Masters. It works very well & the Blue Diamond Chalk does not get all over the Cue Ball.

Best Wishes to ALL.
 
JB Cases said:
Absolutely chalk. Because no matter what form of billiards is played you can do WAY more with chalk than without it.

An APA 4 in the 1800s with chalk probably would have been the greatest player on the planet.

In fact, somewhere I read that the story goes that spin is called English because of an englishman named Jack Carr who first brought chalk to America. He sold it labeled as Jack (or John) Carr's Magical Twisting Powder and traveled the country doing medicine show type exhibitions showing players the power of chalk.

So people started calling side spin as English. And the English call it side or screw or follow. Sometimes they say deep screw for a really long draw shot.

I would add that leather tips to hold the chalk are the next most important invention.

From there consistent balls followed by consistent rubber are my choices.
Click to expand...

We call english 'side'. Also, screw more commonly than draw, and top more than follow.
 
I would say cloth and rails. When you play on one of those miserably slow tables it is often hard to tell if it is just the cloth, the rails, or a combination of both. Nothing will keep me out of a particular establishment more than a real slow table.
 
fastone371 said:
I would say cloth and rails. When you play on one of those miserably slow tables it is often hard to tell if it is just the cloth, the rails, or a combination of both. Nothing will keep me out of a particular establishment more than a real slow table.
Click to expand...

Rails have gone downhill since the Monarch and Manhattan cushions were no longer made.
 
fastone371 said:
I would say cloth and rails. When you play on one of those miserably slow tables it is often hard to tell if it is just the cloth, the rails, or a combination of both. Nothing will keep me out of a particular establishment more than a real slow table.
Click to expand...

I did say since I started playing.
I learned how to play on slow cloth with clay balls.
I also ran 101 balls on slow cloth,clay balls,unknown chalk and an unkown solid tip on a house cue. Imagine that!
 
There were a lot of advancements over the years, but to me, one of the most significant was Simonis cloth.

I remember directional cloth where you felt like you were shooting uphill one way and downhill the other way.
I remember nappy cloth where you had to frequently stop and pull the pills and fuzzy bits of cloth off the table.
I remember 14.1 championships where they ironed the cloth ---- yes, with a real iron --- between matches to get the nap down.

Next cam Mali cloth which was a step up from the above cloths,

But when Simonis cloth came along, all of the above disappeared forever.
 
ENGLISH! said:
I prep my tips, even layered, with light *****ing, put a coat of Blue Diamond on & then use Masters. It works very well . . . .
Click to expand...
This is interesting (Blue Diamond and then Masters on top of it); I've never heard of, or tried this. Not al all doubting that it's a good system -- I just wonder why this works (in terms of the mechanics of combining the two)?

Arnaldo
 
Waitresses.
Years ago, women did not come around poolrooms unless it was to grab a husband by his ear and drag him home. If a guy wanted an adult beverage a bald headed man with a coin apron and a rack around his neck, usually brought it to him.
Now, however, we have sweet young things in short shorts and skin tight yoga pants bringing us what ever we want.
Pool isn't always about putting your balls in a pocket. :)
 
Tramp Steamer said:
Waitresses.
Years ago, women did not come around poolrooms unless it was to grab a husband by his ear and drag him home. If a guy wanted an adult beverage a bald headed man with a coin apron and a rack around his neck, usually brought it to him.
Now, however, we have sweet young things in short shorts and skin tight yoga pants bringing us what ever we want.
Pool isn't always about putting your balls in a pocket. :)
Click to expand...

Always the voice of truth.

Now that we have the most significant, I'll voice my opinion on the second most important:

Better video recording and viewing equipment. I remember watching pool on VHS or ESPN on the largest tube televisions made and rarely being able to tell what was going on. I had some great instructional VHS vid's that I watched on a 13" TV right next to my pool table.

Now, I can video myself with a $100 camera and get better video than any of that. I can watch youtube videos and actually see what is happening.

The equipment hasn't made the leaps-and-bounds improvement to the shared knowledge that video has and never will. All of the actual billiards equipment has only refined what was started hundreds of years ago.

The double-edged part of this particular sword, tho, is the amount of garbage that exists.
 
ElCorazonFrio said:
Always the voice of truth.

Now that we have the most significant, I'll voice my opinion on the second most important:

Better video recording and viewing equipment. I remember watching pool on VHS or ESPN on the largest tube televisions made and rarely being able to tell what was going on. I had some great instructional VHS vid's that I watched on a 13" TV right next to my pool table.

Now, I can video myself with a $100 camera and get better video than any of that. I can watch youtube videos and actually see what is happening.

The equipment hasn't made the leaps-and-bounds improvement to the shared knowledge that video has and never will. All of the actual billiards equipment has only refined what was started hundreds of years ago.

The double-edged part of this particular sword, tho, is the amount of garbage that exists.
Click to expand...

Tap tap tap.

These are the things that I find funny as well. Even funnier to me is when you see instructional material come out, with different names for things that have been discussed for years with 'known' verbiage. :eek::grin-square:

The upper echelon of players seem to have gone down in numbers, largely do to the lack of 'pro' anything; while the middle of the pack moved forward in leaps and bounds with the information age. There seems to be more 9 ball A players today than there was 20+ years ago IMO.
 
Tramp Steamer said:
Waitresses.
Years ago, women did not come around poolrooms unless it was to grab a husband by his ear and drag him home. If a guy wanted an adult beverage a bald headed man with a coin apron and a rack around his neck, usually brought it to him.
Now, however, we have sweet young things in short shorts and skin tight yoga pants bringing us what ever we want.
Pool isn't always about putting your balls in a pocket. :)
Click to expand...

See, the sports bar, err, poolhall isn't all that bad.
 
FranCrimi said:
There were a lot of advancements over the years, but to me, one of the most significant was Simonis cloth.

I remember directional cloth where you felt like you were shooting uphill one way and downhill the other way.
I remember nappy cloth where you had to frequently stop and pull the pills and fuzzy bits of cloth off the table.
I remember 14.1 championships where they ironed the cloth ---- yes, with a real iron --- between matches to get the nap down.

Next cam Mali cloth which was a step up from the above cloths,

But when Simonis cloth came along, all of the above disappeared forever.
Click to expand...

There has been good cloth around for hundreds of years, Fran.
I played on quality cloth long ago...the big difference is that the need for good cloth has
come about because of more sophisticated wants of pool players in general.
England, Belgium, and Spain has produced great cloth for centuries...I am pleased that
the pool world is now using it more.

I think the biggest advancements have been in billiard balls...
...they are much closer to perfect now and numbers and stripes don't jump the needle as
much on a spherical micrometer.

....and cue repair and cue making has come a long way.
 
arnaldo said:
This is interesting (Blue Diamond and then Masters on top of it); I've never heard of, or tried this. Not al all doubting that it's a good system -- I just wonder why this works (in terms of the mechanics of combining the two)?

Arnaldo
Click to expand...

Hi,

I think with the base of Blue Diamond:

1. it holds the Masters on longer, even though I chalk before every shot when actually playing, I don't always when just hitting balls & I don't miscue & I use english even to the extremes.

&

2. it sort of provides a bit of a cushion because of the different texture & that allows the masters to stay gritty & not get pummeled to dust so quickly.

But... that just my guess with nothing to back it up.

Best Wishes.
 
It's amazing that no one would even think about giving credit to Diamond for building a coin operated pool table that plays like a real pool table, therefore ending Valley's rain over the coin op industry world wide....figures;)
 
realkingcobra said:
It's amazing that no one would even think about giving credit to Diamond for building a coin operated pool table that plays like a real pool table, therefore ending Valley's rain over the coin op industry world wide....figures;)
Click to expand...

Good point....I didn't play hardly at all on a bar box till Diamond made one.
....and don't forget the Diamond 9-footer with a one-piece slate....
...it made setting up a major venue far more practical......
....set-up and tear-down in a fraction of the time.
 
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