how are ya'll doing in league ?

JBB2388 said:

Does anyone actually use the patches for what they're intended for? I know I don't. Seems to me that most just accumulate them in a drawer except for Dave's friend there that he posted a pic of. Perhaps they need to find a better way of acknowledging the accomplishments. Stickers, free tips, tools or something.

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Patches are better than stickers, and it's too expensive to give a plaque or trophy for something as silly as making the 8 on the break.

My APA team is doing really well this session. We're leading our division in both 8 and 9 ball and I've only lost 3 matches this session. The problem that I see we're going to run into eventually is that if/when I go up from a 6 to 7 it's going to be much more difficult (although not currently impossible) for us to make handicap. If anybody else on team goes up also then it will be impossible. Also, our home bar suddenly decided last week they would no longer take greens fees and we have to use quarters instead. This makes it quite a bit more expensive, and it's frustrating considering our team already spends quite a bit on food and drink while we're there.

Out here we get the pins instead of the patches...I never know what to do with them...I generally just toss them in a junk drawer. I've had a couple of cool ones that I kept on my case for a while but lost them...I'm guessing the clips on the back of the pins came loose and the pins simply fell off over time...

DAVE_M said:

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Patches are better than stickers, and it's too expensive to give a plaque or trophy for something as silly as making the 8 on the break.

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Yeah I agree. There really doesn't seem to be a better answer.

StraightPoolIU said:

My APA team is doing really well this session. We're leading our division in both 8 and 9 ball and I've only lost 3 matches this session. The problem that I see we're going to run into eventually is that if/when I go up from a 6 to 7 it's going to be much more difficult (although not currently impossible) for us to make handicap. If anybody else on team goes up also then it will be impossible. Also, our home bar suddenly decided last week they would no longer take greens fees and we have to use quarters instead. This makes it quite a bit more expensive, and it's frustrating considering our team already spends quite a bit on food and drink while we're there.

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Same problem here. I think eventually I will be raised to a 7. But the team won't be in trouble....I just won't get to play anymore! Or better yet, we'll have to get rid of one of the shitty 4's in favor of some good lookin girl. I prefer this route.

Last night was week 4 in my CRAPS league (modified NAPA 8 Ball rules). And I moved myself to 4-0. In terms of individual games within the matches I'm now 12-7. Each match has gone to the hill, still. I fell behind by a game for the third time in four weeks, my opponent getting to the hill before me on all of those occasions. This time I lost the third game, looked at my team captain knowing I'd lost both games by completely horrible choices of english on easy shots. Said to him "I'm putting him away now."

Almost backfired and shot myself in the foot again, but he missed an easy one on his last low ball (dogged it, I guess you guys call it) and I ran out. Then I took the fifth game easy to get the win, 3-2. He was an interesting opponent. I'm 99% certain I caught him on a bad night and was lucky to pull the W. His talent for breaking out his trouble balls was pretty advanced, across all five games I didn't see him fail once when he was going for that, and he played a pair of ball in hands really well to get some break outs when given the chance. But he dogged a whole lot of very easy shots, and I wound up with the win. I'm still pretty amazed at the number of easy shots he missed, considering the talent he showed for playing those caroms directly where he needed to be for the break-outs. But like I said - probably caught him on a bad night and got lucky.

Hopefully the luck holds. This is my first ever league session as a non-reserve. And last fall that meant three matches, this spring so far two on my other team as one. My goal going into this league session was to come out of the 15 weeks with an 8-7 record. So far that means pulling out a 4-7 record the rest of the way.

I think I'm capable of more right now, though - a friend told me on Tuesday evening that I always lift my head on my shots, which is why I was miscueing so often (it felt like a plague). I looked at him after he said I always did it and said "And why the hell didn't you ever tell me this before?!" He shrugged and said he thought I knew I was doing it. Like I'd keep doing it! Haha. One fix at a time, progress!

JBB2388 said:

I plan to take that leap eventually if I can ever get past worrying about embarrassing myself.




SANDBAGGER!!!!!!!

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As someone with experience in another game - if you're particularly strong playing the level you're at: do it. As long as you're ready to at least make an impact on the days you play strong, it is worth it to accelerate your development. What I did when I was an amateur DG player was jumped to the Open division for an entire winter, turned down all prize money (things are different in that game, regarding amateur/professional status), and then went back to the amateur level again in the spring. The boost I got emotionally from playing suddenly easier opposition, and the number of times I was able to play from ahead or in competition for the win gave me the right mentality to play at a high level with a good head under any circumstances. When I bumped back to the Open division level after a spring/half summer spent a notch down I had the head for playing at the top, and the game to match.

In any game, whether it is billiards, darts, disc golf, racketball, whatever the skill game is - that bump up for a season just to get used to stiff as **** competition helps your skill game, and then the drop back down for a little while helps the head game - and when you move up for good, you've got every part of your game finely tuned for high level competition.

Sitting at league and just watched a snapped 8 ball break n scratch.... Followed by the other guy giving it right back with an identical break. Same pocket, cueball hitting same chair.

So we had a sort of funny night last night at league. I was joking before the matches were starting that I was going to guarantee getting a patch in something. Well of course this fired up the team and my buddy who played first in 9 ball (about the 4th game in) made the 9 on the break and started talking trash about he got his etc....

Well CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! First nine ball game I snapped it, Challenge Complete lol. Don't motivate a good shooter

Spimp13 said:

So we had a sort of funny night last night at league. I was joking before the matches were starting that I was going to guarantee getting a patch in something. Well of course this fired up the team and my buddy who played first in 9 ball (about the 4th game in) made the 9 on the break and started talking trash about he got his etc....

Well CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! First nine ball game I snapped it, Challenge Complete lol. Don't motivate a good shooter

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Annnnnd another patch to add to the shoebox LOL

ChrisWoj said:

As someone with experience in another game - if you're particularly strong playing the level you're at: do it. As long as you're ready to at least make an impact on the days you play strong, it is worth it to accelerate your development.

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Chris, I am working on a couple of my buddies from our team to join me so it may happen sooner or later. Thanks.

So Tues 8Ball league our team scored 12 points for the second straight week. Won all 5 matches two weeks in a row and jumped from 8th place in our division and 16 points out of 1st to 3rd place and now just 6 back with seven weeks to play. We need to finish 5th or better to keep our qualified status for the states and a chance to play for Vegas. I played a SL6 and beat him 5-2 for my 9th straight win this session after dropping my first two matches. I didn't play all that well but my opponent, who is a good 6 was never really in the match. My safety play was working very well for me which was necessary considering how often I ended up out of position. This won the match for me...no question. Twice I locked him down giving me BIH and simple run outs for the win. I also scratched 3 times which I can't remember ever doing in a match before. Twice were from kicking off his safties.

I am gunning for Spimp's 80% win percentage. I figure I need to win my next 9 matches without losing to get there. :bow-down: Can't imagine doing it as that would mean winning 18 straight matches from where I started 9 weeks ago. To easy to catch a few bad rolls and lose a match you should have won as most of you know. Currently my 9 straight is the longest winning streak I've had and I had to become a SL6 to do it.

As you can see below I haven't been playing APA for long and my stats clearly show that I do not dominate my matches but find a way to win most of them. Since there are no SL7s in the division this session I probably have my best opportunity to take the top gun trophy. I'm currently ranked first and don't believe there are any players better than me this session from what I've seen.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded reply. Glad to see there are more guys posting to the thread lately though. Good luck to everyone this week.

DAVE_M said:

Annnnnd another patch to add to the shoebox LOL

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Or that kitchen junk drawer oke:

I think the few I have are in my truck's glove compartment.

JBB2388 said:

I am gunning for Spimp's 80% win percentage. I figure I need to win my next 9 matches without losing to get there. :bow-down: Can't imagine doing it as that would mean winning 18 straight matches from where I started 9 weeks ago. To easy to catch a few bad rolls and lose a match you should have won as most of you know. Currently my 9 straight is the longest winning streak I've had and I had to become a SL6 to do it.

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Nice! Of course you have about 45 matches to my 200 so a little catching up to do quantity of matches wise at least . Also, to make it tougher a lot of my matches were played as a 7. Spotting that extra game is reallllly tough to fade sometimes! I hope you can do it though. I chunked my match 2 weeks ago so I think I am back down to 81.5% as a whole (6-2 this session). I deserved it though after missing like 2 8s and scratching on another SMH. I am fortunate for sure to win some of these matches (gotta take the humble road)! I wish a few more stats are available. One stat I would like to see is my hill/hill record and just overall higher level play records which would help me gauge my play on more pressure situations.

Spimp13 said:

Nice! Of course you have about 45 matches to my 200 so a little catching up to do quantity of matches wise at least . Also, to make it tougher a lot of my matches were played as a 7. Spotting that extra game is reallllly tough to fade sometimes!

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Yeah, no doubt. Any chance of me getting to 80 right now is nowhere near as impressive as carrying it after 200 matches. The one thing though is I'm learning how to win more now than I did 30 matches ago. I play safe more. Use timeouts wisely when an extra set of eyes on a tough layout could help. Have a crafty 70 year old player on my team. He's a 5 but he's been playing the game for over 50 years. He's exceptional at seeing better shots than I was considering and is great with kick and bank angles. The decent players in the division know me and are gunning for me from what I hear from my captain. I'm up for the challenge.

JBB2388 said:

The one thing though is I'm learning how to win more now than I did 30 matches ago. I play safe more.

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This is very important. I don't play break and run pool. I can (and do), but I don't try to break and run every rack. I assess the rack right away after the break. If I don't think I can run it, then I better get a good game plan early on in regards to a safe, breakout, or lagging a ball close to a pocket. I am sure I probably play too much safe to be honest, however hands down it has helped me win some matches instead of just going gung-ho with firing in balls trying to run out. Playing smart pool is very important (as well as capitalizing on the opponents mistakes) once you get to higher level shooting. Getting out when you are supposed to give a great sense of confidence moving forward.

Spimp13 said:

Nice! Of course you have about 45 matches to my 200 so a little catching up to do quantity of matches wise at least . Also, to make it tougher a lot of my matches were played as a 7. Spotting that extra game is reallllly tough to fade sometimes! I hope you can do it though. I chunked my match 2 weeks ago so I think I am back down to 81.5% as a whole (6-2 this session). I deserved it though after missing like 2 8s and scratching on another SMH. I am fortunate for sure to win some of these matches (gotta take the humble road)! I wish a few more stats are available. One stat I would like to see is my hill/hill record and just overall higher level play records which would help me gauge my play on more pressure situations.

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I really like NAPA's stats. The only problem is that the page loads slowly.

JBB2388 said:

Or that kitchen junk drawer oke:

I think the few I have are in my truck's glove compartment.

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Just dont put them in your cue case. I have 3 or 4 in it right now. They tend to take up room you might need

krupa said:

I really like NAPA's stats. The only problem is that the page loads slowly.

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As a fellow Matt you need to up that win/loss brotha! I do like seeing more stats like that for sure, pretty cool.

Spimp13 said:

As a fellow Matt you need to up that win/loss brotha! I do like seeing more stats like that for sure, pretty cool.

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I try to be more process-oriented and not so focused on results.

Those are some very detailed stats. Wish APA had those!