Benefits of joining an APA league?
- Thread starter BD23
- Start date
We used to have a handicapped nine ball league in this area that kept innings and safeties and such on a score sheet. It was mostly innings per win, where safeties were not counted, I think. I played in a room with tight pockets. The players there had an easier time in regional events because no one ever ran out in that room (except for Nick Varner
).You can develop handicaps based just on won/loss record. That's what FargoRate does. It requires more complicated math than the APA way, but it is much, much more accurate and much harder to sandbag. It also breaks down skill levels with about 50 rating points per APA SL.
As for the benefit of leagues like the APA, playing pool is not one of them. If I play in a league I want to be actually in a match more than 50% of the time I'm in the room. Better is 90% and I have played in leagues like that. I'm mostly there to play pool. I used to play (1970s) in a bar league where I got to play two games of eight ball per night, about one game per hour. It was social, not pool.
Yes, down time is a no go for me. There is a vnea format I won’t play in, 5 man team, three matches. The Four man team, four matches, is bearable. When you use two tables, it’s great, almost no downtime at all.We used to have a handicapped nine ball league in this area that kept innings and safeties and such on a score sheet. It was mostly innings per win, where safeties were not counted, I think. I played in a room with tight pockets. The players there had an easier time in regional events because no one ever ran out in that room (except for Nick Varner
You can develop handicaps based just on won/loss record. That's what FargoRate does. It requires more complicated math than the APA way, but it is much, much more accurate and much harder to sandbag. It also breaks down skill levels with about 50 rating points per APA SL.
As for the benefit of leagues like the APA, playing pool is not one of them. If I play in a league I want to be actually in a match more than 50% of the time I'm in the room. Better is 90% and I have played in leagues like that. I'm mostly there to play pool. I used to play (1970s) in a bar league where I got to play two games of eight ball per night, about one game per hour. It was social, not pool.
It'll give you something to bitch about.
Go to the pool hall and play alone for the 3 or 4hrs you'd be at league and record yourself then watch later to see what you are doing wrong.
You'll play more in that 1 4hr session than you will an entire season of league....unless you're terrible
Go to the pool hall and play alone for the 3 or 4hrs you'd be at league and record yourself then watch later to see what you are doing wrong.
You'll play more in that 1 4hr session than you will an entire season of league....unless you're terrible
Not sure how to find this average, but I don't think it is that high. I haven't had any break and runs throughout these six matches, and it seems to me that balls per inning average is sort of average for the rest of the league in my opinion.
APA is designed for the low skilled players to get them interested and teach then about pool.
It is not designed for high skilled players, so any high skilled players should just go and have fun
and if you can't do that don't play. I play apa 9 ball 7/8 and have fun with it. The best I can tell a
hi-skilled player that can't get on a team is to start your own. TAP is the same thing except you
are usually a number lower and 5 player can total 25 so it makes it a little easier for hi skilled to play.
APA also has a Masters division which plays 8/9 ball in the same match with no skill level requirements.
3/4 players per team
It is not designed for high skilled players, so any high skilled players should just go and have fun
and if you can't do that don't play. I play apa 9 ball 7/8 and have fun with it. The best I can tell a
hi-skilled player that can't get on a team is to start your own. TAP is the same thing except you
are usually a number lower and 5 player can total 25 so it makes it a little easier for hi skilled to play.
APA also has a Masters division which plays 8/9 ball in the same match with no skill level requirements.
3/4 players per team
Zerksies
Well-known member
In my experiance with the APA it's a drinking team that likes to play pool.
That's all leagues not just Apa. Tap, BCA, APA and local 8 ball leagues are no different. I drink soda, water and if I do have beer I will only have 1. My 68 year old butt does not need a DUI.
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Besides it being consistently scheduled day with hopefully committed teams and players (more on that later) there is really no benefit for joining unless you enjoy the company of the league players. Here is why (almost all of these is "APA's business model"):
- There can be and usually is a lot of waiting until you get to pay your single match as it is the selling scheme that the bar will be packed with up to 16 players per 2 team nightly match but only 10 of those players get to play.
- The league will always be growing / increasing in size because of their handicap system only allows 23 points thrown per team per match night. Once you team gets top heavy as committed players improve you have to dismiss players or break up the team. The assumption is that new players will always be found and recruited in this case, but what is assumed and expected is not always true. I hated having to leave my favorite team after going to Vegas with them because I was a 7/8. I did play on another team for a while after, but it was not as fun and I had no interest in being a captain for a new team trying to find new players that may not be fully committed and having to be in the bar 5+ hours every week (back to #1).
- The APA does not stand up for the bar and police their players when they take advantage of the tables or other facilities. Has happened more than once while I was playing league.
Do you at least buy food at the venue if they serve it? If everyone just drinks water and soda, the place won't last long.
Sometimes, but not every week. Some people have health issues where they are not supposed to drink alcohol.
3.00 for a bottle of water or a soda, they do just fine.
I could not say it better, especially points 1 and 2. Over my 21 years in APA, my SL rose from 4 to 7 as I improved. However, as my skills have diminished, my SL has stayed the same. Why? To break up teams for reasons pointed out above. What the LO doesn’t understand is that, being over 70 years old, I’m NOT going to start a new team. I’d like to finish my last few years playing a game I love with friends I’ve made over the last 20 years.
I am with you, on the point of aging, and remaining rated high. I last shot APA around 2012. At the time, I was an SL 7 (8-ball). I began having eye issues (due to cataracts), and lost quite a bit of "skill"... All Stars closed, and I left APA.
I had cataract surgery and lasix, and shot a bit of TAP leagues, but both my health and the health of my wife continued to go downhill. I continue to have eye issues... detached vitreous, 9 repaired tears in the retina, eye surgeries... vision will never be the same...
After a dozen or so other surgeries over several years, I just do not have any mental focus or endurance left. I shoot pool at a friend's bar, once every 3-4 months, now.
I would not mind shooting leagues again, but I do not feel that I could hold up to my rating, and that would be a problem for my team. My rating is locked in...
72 years old, and holding...
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When you say your rating is locked in, are you saying you don't have a chance of winning because you are rated higher than what you're capable of performing at? I suppose it would go down in time, but there are benefits other than just winning. I am 68 years old, have had about 10 different retina tear surgeries in my eyes, but I keep going. I haven't had any tears in my eyes for about 2 years now, as that was a phase I was going through. I do have plenty of floaters that bug me, but now I got used to them and just see right through them almost as if they're not there. With aging, we lose most everything gradually as time goes on, it's just a fact of life. I enjoy the camaraderie of playing team sports, it gives you a sense of belonging.
Locked in because you're played in Vegas as a 7?
Short of that, I thought there was a way to appeal your Skill Level due to medical issues...I'm not certain I recall how a Vegas-locked Skill Level would be treated. Sorry they aren't working with you more...
Yes... I played in Vegas several times, in the earlier 2000s...