Soooo...if a player makes a 2 rail kick and cuts the 8-ball into the side pocket which was 12 inches from the pocket...is it luck or skill? We re-setup the shot and it took him 23 tries to make it again. Is 5% a luck shot or is 10%? Where is the line? I'm thinking anything less than 10% is just luck. Thoughts?
Luck vs Skill Percentage - What Do You Think?
- Thread starter BarTableMan
- Start date
“ I got lucky “ says Efren
A good percentage of luck is simply invisible and therefore incalculable.
Take the initial spread after the break. Say you have a wide open dead out. There may be orientations that are slightly out of spec with your natural abilities; a tiny fraction of a ball stops you cold. Incalculable (except by BJ and PJ).
Take the initial spread after the break. Say you have a wide open dead out. There may be orientations that are slightly out of spec with your natural abilities; a tiny fraction of a ball stops you cold. Incalculable (except by BJ and PJ).
I was presented a shot in which 9 was just off the rail 1 1/2 diamonds above the corner and the current object ball was an inch above the nine. I knew a bank into the rail would go in the opposite side pocket if the nine went from the long rail to the half diamond on the short rail.
I got lucky
I got lucky
Optimistically, I'm 70% my kicks/banks approximate what I was shooting. Any of those actually going is just the probability of missing all would be impossible. lol.
You might be dead on line with a shot but just ONE parameter is out of spec. A good one would be distance; cue ball to object ball, ball to rail - whatever. A millimeter or an inch, same thing. Out of spec is out of spec.
Guys who can kick have very well developed spatial reasoning. I suspect the wizards just know when they're on or even "inside" the shot.
Good kicking is about speed of your shot as much as it is about knowing the direction of the kick shot.
Hitting the kick at the correct speed is not luck.
If you make it its luck. If I make it its SKILL.
The more I practice the luckier I get. My morning fitness program involves a Kicks Like A Mule Challenge. I document it in my Practice Practice practice thread.
My opponent left me safe playing 9 ball the other night. The cue ball was in the kitchen, the 3 ball was on the bottom rail 1 diamond from the corner, the 9 ball was on the bottom rail 1 diamond from the opposite corner. I kicked at the 3 and it went across and made the 9. I figured 90% luck.
RT Ford
Well-known member
If it took him 23 tries to make it again, it was 100% luck that he made it the first time.
Pool Hand Luke
Well-known member
Sometimes lucky is better than good.
Knowledge and stroke are key and knowing how to play to get lucky ups the percentage
I used the 2 rail kick system to save my ass in a apa regionals yesterday,
I used the 2 rail kick system to save my ass in a apa regionals yesterday,
The skill part of a 2+ rail kick shot is just to hit the ball to avoid giving up BIH to your opponent. Pocketing the ball unquestionably requires a measure of luck as well.
Better to be lucky than to be good! Skill will fail you at critical times, luck is the same 24/7. At my peak on a bar table it was pretty common to hear that I was the best or luckiest somebody had ever seen. Not too surprising, the bar was pretty low! When I think about it that is true any way you take it. Skill levels were pretty low and and the bars I was often in were low dives.
My opinion, if you can't set up a shot and make it three times out of ten anytime you take a notion then making the shot is more luck than skill. If your pocketing percentage goes up substantially the more money on the light it is a skill shot also.
I don't remember where I read it or even what activity the quote pertained to but I chalked it up as one of the great truths in life, "Luck beyond a certain level is a skill." There were people who were always lucky. I knew a man that won a pick-up truck in national sweepstakes, twice in five years or so. Not a man I gambled with!
As it happens a one rail kick into a carom with the ball I caromed off of about twelve inches from the pocket was how I announced I could run with the big fish in a small pond. At fifteen showing my skill was more important to me than hiding it. A lucky shot, but it took skill to get into the position I might get lucky.
Hu
My opinion, if you can't set up a shot and make it three times out of ten anytime you take a notion then making the shot is more luck than skill. If your pocketing percentage goes up substantially the more money on the light it is a skill shot also.
I don't remember where I read it or even what activity the quote pertained to but I chalked it up as one of the great truths in life, "Luck beyond a certain level is a skill." There were people who were always lucky. I knew a man that won a pick-up truck in national sweepstakes, twice in five years or so. Not a man I gambled with!
As it happens a one rail kick into a carom with the ball I caromed off of about twelve inches from the pocket was how I announced I could run with the big fish in a small pond. At fifteen showing my skill was more important to me than hiding it. A lucky shot, but it took skill to get into the position I might get lucky.
Hu
Start with a bit of natural talent. Add to that study, observation and practice. Apply those to countless hours of competion.
That puts you in position to see a shot like that. Successful execution? That’s where you need Lady Luck at your side.
That puts you in position to see a shot like that. Successful execution? That’s where you need Lady Luck at your side.
Knowledge of 3 cushion and being proficient at it will develop your kicking skills. Controlled speed and minimum spin are the keys. I routinely torment players that think they have played a good safe in 9 ball and in One Pocket, I'll make them a firm believer. Know the right time to kick and the right time to tie balls up.