Packages are a positive to the sport. It's frequent for the top pros. But very few can run an 8-pack and a 6-pack like Shane did in the last tournament. I like to see it.
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Professional pool played on 7 footers... I don't get it
- Thread starter JazzboxBlues
- Start date
Packages are a positive to the sport. It's frequent for the top pros. But very few can run an 8-pack and a 6-pack like Shane did in the last tournament. I like to see it.
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Probably not many. Folks get an idea ingrained in their head and, valid or not. They tend to hold on to it.
I just don't get how, with all the technology that makes the game "easier ", (i.e. ld shafts, premium chalk, duramith balls, high quality cloth, jump sticks, break sticks, leather tips, and on and on) all these things are fine, but if you play on a 7 foot table, it somehow ain't"real pool".... even though the stats posted indicate otherwise.
I dont even like pool or pool halls
I dont like the culture im following it less and less
I dont like the culture im following it less and less
OK ... seems I'm in a "rant" mood. Hope Mr. Wilson doesn't ban me.
Look ... if you actually do love this game - don't ***** about shit. If you play better on a 9' - great. Good for you. If you excel at working those tight quarter of a 7' .. fantastic! The whole concept is singular. Some tables have fast cloth .. some slow. Some table are big - some are small. This community is about promoting the game. You don't have to knock the bar box guys to make yourself look better - you just need to promote your own chosen venue. I've watched folks do some really magically stuff on a little 7' table. I've been amazed by folks that "owned" a 9'. Some folks like 8ball .. some 14.1 ... or 1 pocket. We shouldn't be *****ing about minor details ... we need to work together to push this sport to a higher level. The "hustle" and scam crap was years ago. I don't mean to channel Joe Rogan or Earl ... but this really is a beautiful game. We need to quit crappin on each other.
Look ... if you actually do love this game - don't ***** about shit. If you play better on a 9' - great. Good for you. If you excel at working those tight quarter of a 7' .. fantastic! The whole concept is singular. Some tables have fast cloth .. some slow. Some table are big - some are small. This community is about promoting the game. You don't have to knock the bar box guys to make yourself look better - you just need to promote your own chosen venue. I've watched folks do some really magically stuff on a little 7' table. I've been amazed by folks that "owned" a 9'. Some folks like 8ball .. some 14.1 ... or 1 pocket. We shouldn't be *****ing about minor details ... we need to work together to push this sport to a higher level. The "hustle" and scam crap was years ago. I don't mean to channel Joe Rogan or Earl ... but this really is a beautiful game. We need to quit crappin on each other.
But thats what you do crap on each other its the pool player culture
Im not bashing on anyone i like several others here have only stated that we simply get nothing from seeing pro level players on small tables
Damn sure wont be supporting anything of that nature either
Im not bashing on anyone i like several others here have only stated that we simply get nothing from seeing pro level players on small tables
Damn sure wont be supporting anything of that nature either
Sur ... I've only been here a few months ... so I'm not anyone to bark at anyone here. But I'm sorry - I've seen some damn fine games played on the little tables. I just don't think we should be bashing anyting here. Just IMHO
edit:
I think we DO need to support all of it.
My girlfriend told me I was childish. It really pissed me off, but I calmed down, took a deep breath, went to her house, rang the doorbell, and then ran away as fast as I could.
Uhhh the reason why there are more break and runs is because it's easier to make a ball on the break and have a shot. If you could make a ball and get a shot on the 1 ball in 9 or 10 ball you would run way more than 50 percent. Bar table 8 ball is way harder than 9 or 10 ball. You actually have to think. I think bar table 8 ball is harder than 9ft 8 ball FOR SURE. And I'm a big fan of 9ft tables and think many players can win a match that they would have a far far worse chance of winning on a 9ft but 8 ball is different.
All 6 events for which I posted some 8-Ball stats in this thread (post #75 above) used alternating breaks, so packages of the normal type were not possible.
But we can still look at the breaks of a given player and see how many he ran on his own successive breaks, and we can call these "alternate-break packages."
The largest alternate-break packages were 6, 4, and 8, respectively, for the streamed matches in events A, B, and C (played on 7-foot tables).
The largest alternate-break packages were 6, 7, and 4, respectively, for the streamed matches in events D, E, and F (played on 9-foot tables).
Justin -- what are your reasons for thinking that? Is it just that you feel more thinking is involved with the tighter quarters? Please examine the stats in post #75 above before responding. Thanks.
I guess I should have said depending on conditions. Like a Chinese 8 ball table obviously is tougher than a 4 1/2 inch bucket gold crown with new cloth. I was talking about something like that where most pro tournaments that are on 9ft's are always new cloth with at least 4 inch pockets. I always hear commentators say these pockets aren't your normal pockets at your local club or pool hall which is false. I guess they want to make us look good I don't know. Like this year's Mosconi cup table, 8 ball on that IMO will have way more run outs then a diamond bar table since the balls are spread out more & you can actually make more errors and play worse patterns and get away with it. Obviously long shots like when the cue ball is frozen on the rail and you have a long shot is a little tougher on 9ft regardless but overall I think bar table 8 ball on a standard diamond is tougher than 9ft on a standard diamond.
Interesting to read the thoughts of a player of Justin's calibre. I've only ever played on 7ft bar boxes in the US when in a bar with mostly non-pool playing friends, who are not difficult opponents, and have played for fun while getttng drunk. Most of my real pool experience is on 9 footers and occasionally 8 footers. 8 ball on 8 footers is way easier in my experience than on 9 footers - yes there are more clusters but they are easier to break open. Maybe on a 7 footer the clusters and the traffic do actually become a factor? Still I'd rather see the "pro" game played on "full size" tables - find another way to make it tougher like less friendly pockets.
At Large's data suggest that averaged over roughly pro-level players, performance on the two tables is about the same. Justin here finds 8-ball on the 9-foot table a little easier.
I don't think these are inconsistent. I think if we could tease out the data well enough we would see a difference between short-stop level players and world-class level players on this issue.
Because world-class players like Justin are less likely to get burned by a shot-making issue, they are more able to capitalize on the open space you get on a bigger table.
For average pros and below it is more of a tradeoff.
What about the "culture" bothers you?
Very well said. For the first 2 years I played, I was pretty much exclusively on 9-footers. When I moved to North Carolina from Mississippi, the closest place to shoot pool to where I lived had 7-footers. I didn't like them too much...seemed way to small for my liking. This is a point when my accuracy was great, but my positional play was poor. Then I developed shoulder issues on the shooting arm side. For the next 3-4 years I played almost exclusively on 7-footers because there was less strain on my shoulder. I not only developed a love for the barbox, but my skills at positional play took a great leap as soon as I started playing on them full time. Within the past month or two, I've begun to play on a 9-footer. It didn't take too much of an adjustment...the skills were all translatable. The only trouble was long distance cut shots (beyond 7 feet), but this doesn't take long to improve upon) I still tend to play on the bartable more because tendinitis is always lurking and I try not to put to much strain on the shoulder, but that is just fine. I love trying to maneuver around balls and break out clusters in those tighter quarters. As for the professionals, I love watching them shoot on any table, but it should certainly be longer races on 7-footers...like a race to 20 or more.
But a word to newer players: Use the 7-footers to your advantage. The guy who wrote The Talent Code noticed that talent hotbeds often use smaller spaces to hone talent. Another poster noted that beginner carom players are advised to start on smaller tables. Playing on 7-footers will be a boon to your overall pool game. A lot of great players were top-notch bartable players before they became greats on a 9-footer.
Thanks for the further explanation, Justin. For the stats I posted earlier in this thread, all of the streamed matches in the 6 events (3 on 7-footers and 3 on 9-footers) were played on Diamond tables with pro-cut pockets.