Recent content by ShootingArts

Terry Ardeno used to say he had a PhD, Pool hall Degree. Most that spend enough years learning get there. Some are like a guy on a job with me. Some that have been doing something twenty years have twenty years of experience, some have one year of experience repeated twenty times, not the same...

As often as I preach otherwise I got sucked into this myth. There is no such thing as pocket speed. Even pocket speed range varies widely from shot to shot. What matters is position speed, then we work backwards from there, will this speed pocket the object ball? If so, good enough, that is...

In cold weather I used to try to drink Jack Daniels dry. My dad got a little concerned and with the distillery nearby he decided to try to show me I was fighting a losing battle. One day after work he took me to the distillery and showed me the size of that thing. "You see son, no way you can...

In cold weather I used to try to drink Jack Daniels dry. My dad got a little concerned and with the distillery nearby he decided to try to show me I was fighting a losing battle. One day after work he took me to the distillery and showed me the size of that thing. "You see son, no way you can...

AI is the new Photoshop. I used to spend hundreds of hours with a camera, usually outdoors. Catch the perfect shot and post it on a photo site. Three-fourths of the comments would be "nice photoshop!"

Unfortunately pool doesn't lend itself to holding the zone long. The constant interruptions of racking usually means we come out of the zone after every game if we are lucky enough to hold it that long. One magic night I stayed in the zone for hours, the longest by far that I have been in the...

I miss a few bars from over the years. My great uncle was quite wealthy. He owned a large farm, thousands of acres of very fertile riverbottom land. He also owned a little bar with about a dozen stools where he spent his afternoons and evenings just tending bar and enjoying being with people...

Not sure if this qualifies as great minds thinking alike or not! I used to do the same thing when I went in a strange place to announce I was a doofus. Hu

Perfectly hit balls tend to fly back out of pockets at high speeds too. No sense hitting harder than pockets will accept! Hu

No cornerman needed! The multifunction shootingarts micro weather and climate station is coming to a pro shop near you soon! As well as the individual readings there will be an overall reading to tell you how hard you should break, how hard you did on your last break, and your last three breaks...

I have went many routes on tips. Back when the world was flat with gently rounded edges house cues most places were the same way. Flat across the middle, rounded edge. Fewer miscues, happier customers. Then I tried the equal radius tips, nickel and dime. The hotdogs played with dimes, dime...

I just mentioned this guy was a martial artist because he was usinging a one handed break, not a conventional break. I suspect a lot more speed is possible with an unrestrained break like that. He hit the head ball too when he had a pool table to demo on. More a one off than anything else. I...

Buffalo put in a challenge table up front by the bar to accommodate the foreign workers after a hurricane or two. Challenge tables were a lot more popular with them. The bars in fat city had challenge tables too. Been a long time since I went in bars so I don't know if challenge tables are...

I could set my own ears to ringing badly and have enough noise complaints from nearby tables that management would come ask me to behave. I have never been particularly strong. Thing is, my most effective breaks were just over medium speed. Losing control on full power breaks was not the way...

Most of today's young players don't realize that cloth was not just slow and then fast, there were many cloths. I think it might have been early eighties when I stumbled on some old slow cloth on five by tens on the Mississippi River. No AC, A five or six foot fan in the wall pulling in that wet...