Effective time outs

skip100

skip100

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My league team... let's say, struggles in time outs. More often than not good advice seems to be ignored or an ineffective strategy chosen. Meanwhile I see other teams have time outs that result in great safeties or run outs and wonder what the hell were they talking about that whole time? :grin-square: I'm exaggerating for the sake of discussion but you get the idea.

What works? What doesn't? What are some time out best practices?
 
skip100 said:
My league team... let's say, struggles in time outs. More often than not good advice seems to be ignored or an ineffective strategy chosen. Meanwhile I see other teams have time outs that result in great safeties or run outs and wonder what the hell were they talking about that whole time? :grin-square: I'm exaggerating for the sake of discussion but you get the idea.

What works? What doesn't? What are some time out best practices?
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Try to treat it like basketball. You take one when the momentum is going the other way and you don't when you have it. If a teammate is clearly frustrated, call time out. For tight situations, safety battles etc. call a time out just like an NBA team would at the end of a close game. Don't waste timeouts early if the two players are matched up pretty evenly.
 
Here's what has, and does work for me, when I've been on teams, and I'm the coach. Some players don't react well to being told what to do. If they called the timeout, I'll usually ask "ok, what are you thinking you should do?", and start the conversation from there. I ask what they're planning to do, and then offer my evaluation of their strategy. I'll also give them a couple of options, and then ask which one sounds like the one they could accomplish with the greatest ease.

If I call the timeout, I'll start the same way. "Just checking in - what are you thinking of doing?". And go from there. I have found, over the years, that players who arrive at their decision themselves, with input from a coach, tend to believe in the shot more, and usually complete at a higher rate. If they don't like the shot, they usually don't make it.
 
Most people call for a Time Out the shot AFTER they should have called for a Time Out. Brian.
 
a1712 said:
Most people call for a Time Out the shot AFTER they should have called for a Time Out. Brian.
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BINGO ! you hit the proverbial nail on the head .

i have to say in the last year my method and philosophy is the same as shawn armstrongs.

i could write a book about time outs discussions i used to have with my girlfriend...now a days i just let her get herself in a pickle and wait for her to call time out.

she is not receptive to some one calling time out on her at all. i used to preach to her that it was easier for me to call a time out and prevent her from getting into a bad situation than it was for me to just watch her make a mistake.... her call time out and then i have to help her get out of it.
 
Some good advice in this thread so far.

A coach has to know their players and how they shoot. There are a few 4s on my team, one, my brother sees the game so much better than he can execute. He picks the right shot more often than not, so for that type of player I typically won't call a timeout unless I see something horrible is about to take place.

Another 4, doesn't feel comfortable drawing or using stop shots or really even using the rail for position, everything is rolled into position. So with her if I see she is going to play a pattern where she is going to trap herself (she's a great pure shot, so her biggest problem is if she runs 4-6 balls she will trap herself when position gets tighter at the end if the opponent has a few balls left) so I have to watch her more carefully and sometimes call timeouts to tell her to shoot a different pattern that will allow for easier position (as with many lower skill players she will often just shoot the easiest shot and not necessarily the right one).

My other four is kinda a hybrid of the two above. She's really put in time working on knowing how to work her cueball, is a pretty straight shooter, but lacks good pattern play unless it just smacks her in the head. So I usually let her call her own timeouts unless I see something she is really missing.

In general I won't use a timeout early in a rack unless I feel it is absolutely crucial. I won't call a timeout if someone is shooting the wrong shot BUT I can see there is a good chance the opponent will have a tough runout due to how the balls will lay after said wrong shot. Really their is no magic formula to communicating an effective strategy during a timeout. Really you need to know your player and always try to make them feel as comfortable as possible. My player that hates drawing a cueball, I will never pick a shot where she has to do that unless mandatory. I have a player that hits right of center every time by about a half tip, so I always have to adjust her aim point on kicks and banks.

Timeouts are about making a shooter feel confident that the shot they are going to take is the right one. Cut back on analytical talk (the middle of the match is not the time to teach them what running English is) and focus more on the mental aspect. Can't stress enough, make the shooter feel confident. Knowing what's right for each individual shooter, plus communicating effectively with that person's communication style will yield the best results! Last thing, if they mess up, I always tell them it was my fault and I didn't aim them right or was a little off with my calculations.
 
You have to coach the the players ability but ultimately they have to be comfortable with what you tell them or they will probably fail at it anyway so it was all for nothing.

So if you give them advice and they don't take it, it is probably nothing personal, they probably were not comfortable with executing it so they probably are not being coached to their ability.

I have one person on our team that will coach everyone to a safety 99% of the time. Even if doing so puts them in absolutely no better position nor moves them towards a win. To me doing a safety when the game is NOT on the line is silly. Players should be working towards making their balls and if they can't, then they make sure they put themselves in a position so that when they do have to walk away from the table they will be returning to it.
 
Skippy27 said:
I have one person on our team that will coach everyone to a safety 99% of the time. Even if doing so puts them in absolutely no better position nor moves them towards a win. To me doing a safety when the game is NOT on the line is silly. Players should be working towards making their balls and if they can't, then they make sure they put themselves in a position so that when they do have to walk away from the table they will be returning to it.
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Dave Matlock said "every ball you pocket that doesn't lead to you running out is a dead soldier you can't use on the battlefield anymore". Sometimes, if the game isn't on the line, it's best to move your balls around the table by using safeties, so that you can run out in your next inning. Otherwise, you'll end up being that player who calls a timeout one ball after they should have.
 
Can you call a time out when the other team is at the table. Like when they have
kind of a tough shot on the 8. In football when the other team is about kick an
important field goal they call time out to try and shark the kicker. Boy oh boy
would that move PO some people. But I would think you're not allowed to do it.
jack
Free SJD
 
Lots of good stuff here. What I quickly realized is that you need to get buy-in from the person about to hit the shot. I know that if someone way better than me were offering guidance that I would listen... but that's not how most people react in the real world. If anything, from what I've seen in my league, the worse the player, the more likely he or she is to reject advice. It's an interesting sports psychology question.

The team that has successful time outs has a clear leader (also the LO) who knows his players' games and has apparently earned a level of trust - and the key word is "earned."
 
skip100 said:
Lots of good stuff here. What I quickly realized is that you need to get buy-in from the person about to hit the shot. I know that if someone way better than me were offering guidance that I would listen... but that's not how most people react in the real world. If anything, from what I've seen in my league, the worse the player, the more likely he or she is to reject advice. It's an interesting sports psychology question.

The team that has successful time outs has a clear leader (also the LO) who knows his players' games and has apparently earned a level of trust - and the key word is "earned."
Click to expand...

Some coaches will just tell the player what shot to play. I always think of a timeout as a teaching/learning opportunity. Perhaps I will impart some wisdom onto a player, and perhaps they may do the same for me. It's an opportunity to discuss the table, and strategy. I find when the coach and the player can come up with options, you sometimes find new shots that neither of you had thought of, simply from an idea that comes to one of you from a proposed shot earlier in the conversation. I think the key is to have a conversation. Or, if the player being coached is frozen in their tracks, give them a few options, explain the risk/reward, and let them choose the shot. So often, I have heard other players, after a timeout, say "I didn't like that shot....".
 
I feel like you have to know your teammate well do they prefer cutting over banking or vice versa, how confident are they playing safes etc. I like to give them multiple options on how to play the shot and let them choose the option they're more comfortable with. I always try to give them one option that I know plays into their strengths even if it wouldn't be my first choice and then walk them through what they need to do to be successful while at the table.
 
Shawn Armstrong said:
Dave Matlock said "every ball you pocket that doesn't lead to you running out is a dead soldier you can't use on the battlefield anymore". Sometimes, if the game isn't on the line, it's best to move your balls around the table by using safeties, so that you can run out in your next inning. Otherwise, you'll end up being that player who calls a timeout one ball after they should have.
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I would certainly agree with Dave, especially when you are dealing with higher level players that could very well run out at any given time. You have to coach/play to the opponent as well.

I certainly would recommend and do use safeties to move balls against good players, but again it goes to coaching to the level. It was a turning point in my match last night when I was down 1-3 in a race to 5. I shot safe 3 times in a row while breaking my balls out of a cluster and arranging them for a run out which I did right after my 3rd successful safety. My opponent got agitated and fell apart after that. What I wouldn't do is coach an SL2 playing another SL2 to play safe by putting one of their last balls up against one of the opponents 5 or 6 remaining balls. Nothing was accomplished unless you truly believe that 2 was about to make a 6-7 ball run out for the game. I'll take those odds and just move that ball into a better position without worrying about the miraculous run out.

In my experience coaching the higher levels is more just confirming what they are thinking as they may have some doubts or insecurities in something about the shoot. Sometimes, as pointed out by others, you may very well see something they didn't.
 
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