Practice for SBE

I prep by playing on tight 9 footers.... I just play a lot more in the upcoming months.

Work on your soft touch... those tables roll fast.

Work on your break on the 7ft. In my experience, running out on a 7ft diamond is fairly easy as long as you get the break down and play simple position. I always get in trouble when I start trying to get fancy or perfect on position. It's a 7ft, half perfect position will do fine.


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depends on your skill level i guess but in general i say just keep playing the ghost so you get familiar with the table and it's size as far as playing position and speed. The break is good but for the most part only a few IMO will let you know what happens to the CB on that small table and what break you should go too.
Mix in a few drill for position play mostly the key ones which should only be about 5 or 6 shots.

Practice

Good news is its 9 ball so if you are used to 9 foot 9ball you will transition well to 7 foot 9ball because there still tends to be alot of space to do your work.

to transition, I focus on position ROUTES...three rail position speed on a 9 foot diamond is different than on a 7 foot....thats just common sense. when you are playing on what you are used to, you just "know" how hard to hit the ball to get your position, when you are playing on the 7 foot table, you will over run, then under run position, then before you know it, you are THINKING and well, that slippery slope begins to rattle your confidence.

Get your speed down!!! that is my advise

My Expo Practice

This year I've gone to some length on how I'm approaching practice.

I picked up the same plastic rack they use on all the amatuer tables.
I grabbed the score sheet and a couple buddies to run me into the same match scenario.
Best 2 of 3 sets.

And really just hit more balls IMO. 9 ft to 7 ft nine ball we're playing two totally different games. Kicking out of safes would be the most drastic change I see having to adjust to, personally.

Followed by the rail speed and then the decreased playing surface. Same size balls + less table space = an interesting game. And as someone stated here earlier, the tables do roll fast out there. Fast and dry, IMO.

rickwen186 said:

Good news is its 9 ball so if you are used to 9 foot 9ball you will transition well to 7 foot 9ball because there still tends to be alot of space to do your work.

to transition, I focus on position ROUTES...three rail position speed on a 9 foot diamond is different than on a 7 foot....thats just common sense. when you are playing on what you are used to, you just "know" how hard to hit the ball to get your position, when you are playing on the 7 foot table, you will over run, then under run position, then before you know it, you are THINKING and well, that slippery slope begins to rattle your confidence.

Get your speed down!!! that is my advise

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+1. Tap tap

NastyNate13 said:

As someone who mainly plays on 9 ft Diamond tables (albeit 14.1 is my main game), transitioning to 7 ft tables takes some time before the Open.

How do you guys prepare for SBE if you're like me and only play on 9 ft tables?

Throw out the balls and play the ghost?

We have two 7 foot Diamonds at my local place. Curious to see how others play.

Good luck to all those going!


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I'm actually glad you posted this, I'm taking my son there for the junior event and it made me remember it was on 7' diamonds.

Our home pool room bought a 7' Diamond table just for league nationals practice but we only play on 9 footers normally.