Wooden Rack - The Secret Art of Rack Mechanics

[sjm]

Whether we like to admit it or not, racking is a skill. Just like jumping or anything else in pool. As a pro, I wouldn't want anyone else racking for me. Just like I wouldn't want anyone else shooting a jump shot for me. The outcome is far too important to leave up to a third party who really can't be neutral, no matter how hard they try.

Setting up the field of play in pool or any other sport is not the responsibility of those who compete, but instead others who are hired to do so. Would you play football on a field you didn't set up yourself? Would you play baseball on a field you didn't set up? How about bowling, shuffleboard, or ping pong? In all of these, the setup may be imperfect, but the conditions are the same for everybody, and for most, that's good enough.

The philosophy should be the same for pool. Sadly, in many events, players have to rack because there's not enough money in the sport to hire refs to rack the balls at every table. That's why rack your own events should be played with the template and with alternate break.

On the other hand, when pro pool is presented to the public domain, seeing players rack and, even worse, seeing players removing balls from the pockets after a rack is completed, makes the game look cheap. In what other sport is it the competitors' responsibility to set things up for play?

Watch the World Snooker Championship that's now in progress. Players never have to rack the balls and they never even touch the object balls. That's because there's enough money in snooker that they can afford to have a referee in every match. That's where pool is headed, at long last. Until we get there, however, you will remain correct that racking is a skill. That said, at top pro level, it's a skill that's on the endangered list.

 

[BeiberLvr]

Once the balls are in position, vibrate/pump your fingers pretty fast and loosely without applying much pressure to the balls.

Met a woman who knew this technique.

Didn't realize she was a pool player.

 

[maha]

if you are going to have rack your own then you need a procedure for the racking. i suggest this.

1. the balls are put in the rack located on the short rail. then in one motion the racker moves the rack up to the spot.
and he get one push to tighten the balls then removes the rack.

2. the opponent gets one chance to ask for one re-rack if he feels its not right.

this eliminates the many minutes a few players take to get their rack just how they want it. and speeds the game and each player has little opportunity to fix a rack to ideal conditions for himself.

overall no one should rack for themselves. if they cant hire a ref. then maybe require a pushout after the break so the break is neutralized.

or maybe make all breaks from the centerline of the table with the cueball behind the headstring.

 

[AtLarge]

I have no problem teaching it. It's just too hard to explain through text and it's something you would probably have to see to fully understand. Regardless, here it goes:

1. Place the rack and form the balls in a diamond shape like you would normally.
2. Place both of your thumbs on the back ball, each middle finger goes on a wing ball, and your pointer fingers fall into place on the balls in the second to last row.
3. Once the balls are in position, vibrate/pump your fingers pretty fast and loosely without applying much pressure to the balls. You want them to rattle around against each other semi-loosely.
4. After a second or two of vibration the balls will all start to move/vibrate together in unison. As soon as this happens you stop and let the balls fall into place.
5. Usually the head ball will roll off a little and most of the remaining balls will freeze together.
6. Now, note where the head ball rolled off to and move the whole rack so that the headball is centered on it's new location.
7. Now repeat the whole process again from the new location.
8. Use a few extra iterations as needed until all of the balls fall inward on to one another and most are frozen.

During the whole process you're keeping your fingers and the balls very loose. You aren't applying much pressure on the balls other than just a little forward pressure to keep them all grouped together within the rack. You're just loosely pumping. releasing, and letting them fall into place in unison. When they come to rest they tend to fall against one another so the rack just comes right off without any balls moving.

It takes a little practice at first but it's amazingly easy once you get the hang of it.

To better understand, maybe think of it as just getting each ball to quickly rock back and forth, once they all start rocking back and forth in unison you let go. Since they were all moving together, and they all stopped getting rocked at the same time, they will generally all have the same reaction as they come to rest and freeze together.

Thank you for posting this technique. I hope it helps many people improve their racking.

 

[Willowbrook Wolfy]

I don’t see what the problem is. Maybe it’s just from experience but I’ll break anything. Just by sighting from end of table I can usually tell when I need to move the cb to the other side of the table or when to break with draw or a wing ball on one side tends to rack loose(that’s wired in my ). I just consider it part of the game. If someone is doing it over and over I’ll call them on it. But Even loose racks are pretty easy to spread if you know how to break/hit them.

 

[FeelDaShot]

Setting up the field of play in pool or any other sport is not the responsibility of those who compete, but instead others who are hired to do so. Would you play football on a field you didn't set up yourself? Would you play baseball on a field you didn't set up? How about bowling, shuffleboard, or ping pong? In all of these, the setup may be imperfect, but the conditions are the same for everybody, and for most, that's good enough.

The philosophy should be the same for pool. Sadly, in many events, players have to rack because there's not enough money in the sport to hire refs to rack the balls at every table. That's why rack your own events should be played with the template and with alternate break.

On the other hand, when pro pool is presented to the public domain, seeing players rack and, even worse, seeing players removing balls from the pockets after a rack is completed, makes the game look cheap. In what other sport is it the competitors' responsibility to set things up for play?

Watch the World Snooker Championship that's now in progress. Players never have to rack the balls and they never even touch the object balls. That's because there's enough money in snooker that they can afford to have a referee in every match. That's where pool is headed, at long last. Until we get there, however, you will remain correct that racking is a skill. That said, at top pro level, it's a skill that's on the endangered list.

Good post and valid points for sure. I see racking as more like teeing up your shot in golf, rather than mowing the grass before the tournament. Depending on how the ball is tee'd up, you might approach the shot differently. But even that analogy doesn't quite compare because racking in pool is obviously unique to pool.

Unless you use a template, each rack will be different. Two identical racks with a wooden triangle would be extremely rare. Just because you have a neutral racker doesn't mean that each player is breaking the same rack. Not at all. But as you see with the template, it's too perfect and leads to other problems.

Maybe bowling would be a better comparison? What if in tournaments they decided to place the pins by hand....by a neutral racker. How close should each pin be to the true spot? How much variance from perfection is acceptable? I wonder if they had issues with the machine setting the pins in bowling when it was first implemented. Were the results too predictable like a template?

 

[GoldCrown]

Pool is broken

And that’s just how I like it.

No pun huh… talking about breaking and you say broken. Your busted.

 

[sjm]

Maybe bowling would be a better comparison? What if in tournaments they decided to place the pins by hand....by a neutral racker. How close should each pin be to the true spot? How much variance from perfection is acceptable? I wonder if they had issues with the machine setting the pins in bowling when it was first implemented. Were the results too predictable like a template?

I think bowling is a good comparison. The neutral racker in pro bowling is the pin setting machine and, yes, it doesn't always do the job correctly. Recognizing this, pro bowling matches allow each player the right to a rerack once per match. I'd be fine with such a rule in pool. Bowling does not, however, permit a player to set the pins up for him/herself even though the pin setting machine is imperfect, and pool should not permit a player to rack the balls even if the neutral racker is imperfect. Like almost every other major sport, players are not permitted to set up the playing conditions.

Yes, golfers have to tee it up (actually, it's optional) and pool players must move the cue ball around in the kitchen before the break (also optional if the referee has left the cue ball in the kitchen). Sadly, nobody gets away without doing any work.

 

[DeeDeeCues]

If it is really true that you know a way to rack "super tight, even on bad tables," why don't you or the "pro, whose name I promised not to ever reveal" go ahead and inform the world how to do it. Sure, I understand why you and he might not want to talk about the "super shady stuff," but why not inform others about a racking technique that might help reduce the number of bad racks in this world. Is it because you view the "secret" as an advantage in rack-your-own matches, and you don't want others to be able to give themselves tight racks?

He made a promise. Without his word, a man is nothing. Why are you interested in having this guy dishonor himself?

 

[Pin]

On the other hand, when pro pool is presented to the public domain, seeing players rack and, even worse, seeing players removing balls from the pockets after a rack is completed, makes the game look cheap. In what other sport is it the competitors' responsibility to set things up for play?

I wonder if the budget would work if you had one or two rackers working the whole tournament (instead of one per table). Players might have to wait a few minutes sometimes, but if there's money added they could be told to suck it up.

You'd need to get the timing right for the televised games I guess. But in the earlier rounds, if the TV tables were given priority maybe that could work.

You could get the old-timers' atmosphere, players shouting "rack 'em sausage."

 

[sjm]

I wonder if the budget would work if you had one or two rackers working the whole tournament (instead of one per table). Players might have to wait a few minutes sometimes, but if there's money added they could be told to suck it up.

You'd need to get the timing right for the televised games I guess. But in the earlier rounds, if the TV tables were given priority maybe that could work.

You could get the old-timers' atmosphere, players shouting "rack 'em sausage."

This idea is not unlike an area referee, who presides over many tables at once and is called upon when needed, but only racks when asked to by the players.

I feel, as you do, that if an area referee had to rack on every table, it would slow a tournament down, and I'm not up for that. If you can't have a referee at every table, template and alternate break seem best to me.

 

[Positively Ralf]

Quick solution: Buy a rack template.

Solution that noone will do: Stop playing 9 ball and play express ten ball or 14.1

 

[DeeDeeCues]

Quick solution: Buy a rack template.

Solution that noone will do: Stop playing 9 ball and play express ten ball or 14.1

I like the triangle. I like the randomness. I don't care about getting slug racked. I want an effort at a tight rack. Manipulating the rack is cheating.

If I don't get a good spread that I can run out, I need to figure out a different way to win. I'm better than most at defense and getting out of safeties.

 

[Bob Jewett]

... I feel, as you do, that if an area referee had to rack on every table, it would slow a tournament down, and I'm not up for that. ...

I think an area referee can easily rack for six tables. The players could get the balls and triangle ready which would be a signal for the ref to come over. Having reffed for six tables, I find that there is usually nothing to do.

 

[AtLarge]

He made a promise. Without his word, a man is nothing. Why are you interested in having this guy dishonor himself?

You should reread what was promised (post #1). He has not dishonored himself, nor would I be interested in that.

 

[Fatboy]

I have never been able to break very good or rack the balls so I get any type of predictable results.

However I am good at slug racking. I’ve never used it in action, unless it was $5 pool with a friend and I slip one in on him. I always re-rack. This is just in social pool with someone I really know, just to bust their balls. I’d never do it if a friend was running a package, I wouldn’t ruin that-not cool. But as a rare joke a slug can be funny(in the right circumstance)

Best
Sluggo

 

[sjm]

I think an area referee can easily rack for six tables. The players could get the balls and triangle ready which would be a signal for the ref to come over. Having reffed for six tables, I find that there is usually nothing to do.

I'll defer to your experience here, Bob, if you feel delays would be minimal. Thanks for chiming in.

 

[Chili Palmer]

if you are going to have rack your own then you need a procedure for the racking. i suggest this.

1. the balls are put in the rack located on the short rail. then in one motion the racker moves the rack up to the spot.
and he get one push to tighten the balls then removes the rack.

2. the opponent gets one chance to ask for one re-rack if he feels its not right.

this eliminates the many minutes a few players take to get their rack just how they want it. and speeds the game and each player has little opportunity to fix a rack to ideal conditions for himself.

overall no one should rack for themselves. if they cant hire a ref. then maybe require a pushout after the break so the break is neutralized.

or maybe make all breaks from the centerline of the table with the cueball behind the headstring.

I wouldn't be completely against that but what happens when you have a table with a finicky head spot and the CB rolls off 1/16 of an inch on the re-rack?

 

[Chili Palmer]

I think an area referee can easily rack for six tables. The players could get the balls and triangle ready which would be a signal for the ref to come over. Having reffed for six tables, I find that there is usually nothing to do.

I guess I would have to know how long an average professional rack takes. For ease of numbers let's say it's 6 minutes, that's one rack for every minute, if the ref is also doing ref duties (watching hits, etc.) then I think that would add delays, especially since the there's no way the racks would end on 1 minute increments.

Thoughts/better information?

 

[maha]

chili.

just an idea of a way to stop fixed racks. it can be changed to fit conditions.

something needs to be done. it hurts viewers and gives the game a bad taste for them.
especially when a player makes the same ball in the same pocket almost every break. that shouldn't happen.

the break should be a random event with the best of it going to who can hit the rack most solid and control the cueball. not who can fix it.