Just curious?

Sort by date Sort by votes
No room for a table at home and with many snooker and pool halls still closed due to restrictions here in Ireland, it'll be a while before I knock balls around a table again.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Wolven said:
Most of the strong players I know never had the space for a table. They play and played in pool halls, competition was the driving force. A few strong players in my area have tables, but those almost always came after they got good. Having a table is nice. I had a table and never used it. When I didn't have a table I played all the time. I got a table again......
Click to expand...
I have known quite a few players who had tables and did not want people to know. They would be sitting around the pool room and make a game starting out in dead stroke.

Most players come in and may not have hit a ball for a few days. It may be like hour three before they may be hitting them like they should. It's nice sitting there knowing you had just put in a 2 hour session before even coming to the pool room.

Forget about the bar league players. They may heardly get to practice at all. Hard to practice in a bar especially a busy bar. That is also one of the advantages of your own table. You are able to privately work on stuff. You don't need people bothering you or wondering what you are doing. It's none of their business.

While pool is a competitive game, it is also a solitary game. You are the only one at the table. Every golfer needs their time on the putting green or driving range. It's how they build their game. Then they turn it loose on the compitition. I think it is hard to do that kind of practice in a public pool room at $10. An hour.

Pool can be a very mental game. Not all practice is productive. It is nice to be able to play when you feel in the mood. Just sitting in the pool room and saying to yourself,
"Well I should hit some balls I guess, I haven't played all night".

That is not even practice. It can be a waste of time and money if you are not really in the mood. I played just a little while ago. I got up about 6am to put out the garbage and of course could not pass the table and not hit a few balls.

5 minutes turned into an hour.
Honestly, who is reading this and would not want to just go in the other room and hit a few balls right now.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 1 Downvote
middleofnowhere said:
I have known quite a few players who had tables and did not want people to know. They would be sitting around the pool room and make a game starting out in dead stroke.

Most players come in and may not have hit a ball for a few days. It may be like hour three before they may be hitting them like they should. It's nice sitting there knowing you had just put in a 2 hour session before even coming to the pool room.

Forget about the bar league players. They may heardly get to practice at all. Hard to practice in a bar especially a busy bar. That is also one of the advantages of your own table. You are able to privately work on stuff. You don't need people bothering you or wondering what you are doing. It's none of their business.

While pool is a competitive game, it is also a solitary game. You are the only one at the table. Every golfer needs their time on the putting green or driving range. It's how they build their game. Then they turn it loose on the compitition. I think it is hard to do that kind of practice in a public pool room at $10. An hour.

Pool can be a very mental game. Not all practice is productive. It is nice to be able to play when you feel in the mood. Just sitting in the pool room and saying to yourself,
"Well I should hit some balls I guess, I haven't played all night".

That is not even practice. It can be a waste of time and money if you are not really in the mood. I played just a little while ago. I got up about 6am to put out the garbage and of course could not pass the table and not hit a few balls.

5 minutes turned into an hour.
Honestly, who is reading this and would not want to just go in the other room and hit a few balls right now.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you said.

When I didn't have a table, I would practice for free after getting kicked out of the tournament. In our pool halls there were nights were it would be $3 and hour instead of 10$, so those days would be practice time. Still, had to get there and scrape ice and snow of the car, not ideal. Also, getting in stroke an hour before tournament was hit and miss. Back then there was a burning passion to get better, so it was all fun, after a decade it got kind of old.

Most of the players that I know with tables were never the top dogs, of course some were.
What some would do is go to pool room X to practice and then come to hall Y for action, I knew several guys that did this.

There is a lot of information out there, so one can learn theses days in comfort of the home. Back in a day, there was very little information out there. So, most of the things we would learn from other players in the pool hall, times change.

One thing I do know, most guys that didn't face tough competition in money games or tournaments would choke under pressure.
They would play a lot worse then when practicing or having fun games, they also always complained about it.
Like Bruce Lee said - 'wooden boards don't hit back'. :)

Yeah, I want to hit a few balls.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Nyquil said:
Agreed. The older I get the more of a hermit I am becoming and I don't get out much at all these days. Ideally if I can find a couple of lad's that are decent at playing that I am comfortable with letting into my home that would be ideal for me. I would benefit from having some consistent practice partners and maybe some small cash games to keep me competitive. I have all the equipment just no social skills when it comes to meeting new people lol. Been kicking around the idea of trying to get into a B level league. I think this would help me advance my game also.
Click to expand...

That's like a cat my parents had, as he was getting older he would go out less and not as far, until one day he just stayed on the stairs.
My father is like that now too. :)

When I stared playing I would go with a friend. I found going into a pool room by myself intimidating. Even now, I have my favorite rooms and don't go to others. I don't get intimidated but don't feel as comfortable, although I always run into a friend no matter where I go.

Leagues are good way to make friends. I don't like them because most of the time you just sit and wait your turn.
If you are shy then it is much easier to just play, no need for talking.

Enter some tournaments, it is the best way in my opinion. You get some play and can hangout too, play some friendly games.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
All the top players in my area cut their teeth and kept them sharp at the local rooms.

Now that we're older and have homes, some of us have tables. Playing on mine ruined my game....lol

Buyer beware
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Gdub1717 said:
How many of you guys own your own practice table vs practicing at the local pool hall?
Click to expand...
How many days (and hours) a week can you afford to use someone else's table ?

I was watching CSI last night when someone (probably Jeremy) said SVB shoots 1,000,000 shots per month.
That is 6,000 shots per day, and at 24 hours and 60 minutes per hour, that is 4 shots a minute.
So the number is likely to be high by 3×4= 12 or roughly 100,000 shots per month--1,000,000 shots per year.
Maybe that is what I heard.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just food for thought. If you were a golfer or tennis player could you own a golf course or championship tennis court?
The answer is no. We are pool players and we can own championship equipment. It is not out of the reach of most players. If not now certainly later. It should at least be a goal.

golfweek.usatoday.com

Tiger Woods' backyard practice area is da bomb

It's nothing new for PGA Tour pros to have a backyard putting green to practice on. After all, these guys literally putt for dough. Jack Nicklaus had one in his prime, Phil Mickelson has greens running at various speeds, instructor Dave Pelz has the best I've ever seen
golfweek.usatoday.com
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
When my daughter was born I realized that continuing my addiction to golf would harm my relationship with my daughter in terms of time stolen by being gone all day for 2 or 3 days a week. I quit golf and bought a table to have some "guy time" that I could enjoy anytime I had a moment at home without taking quality time away from my family and especially my daughter.

I have had my table for over 20 years. I have taken lessons a few times, and for the last year have had a regular coach, not because I ever intend to play competitively, but because I just really enjoy playing, and the better I play, the more I enjoy the game. For 20 years, I have played pretty consistently daily. Sometimes just a rack or two in the evening, but ordinarily about an hour a day. Sometimes just drills, sometimes just 8 ball, sometimes just 9 ball.

I play mostly alone and have never been in a league because I am just not in to the bar life and there is no other option within hours of my home.
Really I wish I could be in a league environment to test my skills. Now that my daughter is grown, I could take the time to be involved. None of my close friends own a table or play seriously. Still, I really enjoy the table and the play is relaxing. When friends come over to play that is just icing on the cake.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have a GC4 about 15 feet from me right now. I just stopped practicing for the night. It's pretty damn nice having a table in the man cave. There are also three poolhalls within ten miles that I don't play in. Strangely enough I play in a bar about 30 miles away with the same guys that also have tables in the neighborhood. Go figure.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Shuddy said:
In my opinion there’s a weird progression that can happen, and this has been mentioned by numerous pro snooker players, John Higgins being one of the more recent. When you start out, you have the club. You learn a bunch from your peers and simply playing, maybe you get some solo time in there. Then, you start to have the desire for a space that allows you to work on things distraction free, to fine tune everything. If you have the means, this will probably result in a home table. Then you hit a certain level where motivation, focus, competition become become important factors for staying sharp and maybe even getting whatever improvement is left to get, and that will lead you back to some kind of club. Maybe it won’t be like the club you first started in, but it’s with your peers again.

John Higgins has talked about this quite a lot recently, and specifically created a space for his fellow Scottish pros to play at. He felt the table at home wasn’t work like enough, and that his practice time on it often felt wasted. He needed a place away from home that motivated him to play.

As for me, I have a table at home. But I also live on an island, so you know…
Click to expand...
Please say hello to Dr. Moreau for me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
tomatoshooter said:
I have a table. It's a huge help but it's not everything. The biggest advantage is the convenience. If I watch a video and a player says to do something, I can do it right then. I can play hours a day for no (extra) money. I don't feel silly going to a pool hall and paying just to roll a cue ball up and down the table for an hour. There's no time lost commuting to a pool hall and back. Because the table is the same, I can know that any difference is in what I'm doing. During the lockdown my pool table provided a much needed source of frustration.

There are areas that are somewhat drawbacks. If I invite someone over to play pool, I feel like Floyd Mayweather saying "Hey I just put a boxing ring in my basement, want to come over and spar sometime?" The biggest is that you get so used to how your table plays that it can be disorienting playing on other tables. This was mainly when we came out of lockdown and I started playing other places. Not so much when I play other places, but in my room I'm just shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot in the exact same environment so if other people are there talking with their slow ass shooting it is very distracting. This doesn't have any effect outside of my room, in a bar the distractions become ambiance and I slow play doesn't bother me.

I do need to shoot on other tables more but there's no way I could have achieved the improvement I have without my own table.
Click to expand...
This is similar to my experience. Being able to go down and try a shot without having to wait until the pool room opens is a great aid. If you can , video yourself at least half the time, then once every couple of weeks , do a review to check for mechanical changes , but mostly to reaffirm improvement. I was practicing on my table after I moved back from Arizona every night for from 2 to 5 hours , using Joe Tuckers drills and several other teaching aids. But the majority of my practices was pocketing balls better . I knew I was shooting better , but I didn't realize how much until one night I shot a 117 on the corner pockets drill, I did have to fudge a little on one 10 shot sequence because of a post in the way , but it was not a big factor in the overall workout.. Joe said he was playing on the mens tour when he got to that point. When I got back from Phoenix about a year before I was shooting between 200 to 230 , after a few weeks I got below 200. Then I just steadily crept down a few shots at a time and I started staying around 170 then I was creeping and hung at 150, more creeping and I shot 130s for 3 months. I was actually playing the best pool of my life at this point and I was 67 years old. I would start out great and look like I was going to shoot 100 then blow up, or start out so bad, I thought about starting over, but then shot stellar the last half. but I kept coming up 130 lol. Then the one night I shot the 117 , I started out the first half better than I had ever done it , fell apart a bit in the middle and regained composure and played great at the end. That may be one of the best benefits of his training drills. They last a couple of hours and it teaches you to not give up if you miss a couple of shots . All you need is a chance and you might never miss the rest of the session. I forgot to add Joe to the great influences in my pool journey, but he was very helpful, he just turned up a little late in life for me to benefit fully.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
middleofnowhere said:
Just food for thought. If you were a golfer or tennis player could you own a golf course or championship tennis court?
The answer is no. We are pool players and we can own championship equipment. It is not out of the reach of most players. If not now certainly later. It should at least be a goal.

golfweek.usatoday.com

Tiger Woods' backyard practice area is da bomb

It's nothing new for PGA Tour pros to have a backyard putting green to practice on. After all, these guys literally putt for dough. Jack Nicklaus had one in his prime, Phil Mickelson has greens running at various speeds, instructor Dave Pelz has the best I've ever seen
golfweek.usatoday.com
Click to expand...
If I was a golfer I would try to set up a net to practice drives and a putting green. You are right, though, we can reasonably own a table identical to those that championships are played on. That's pretty unique in the world of sports.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top