Do you watch your league team members play?

We all usually stay until the end of the match, but sometimes the way the bar is set up it's tough to stay involved in the match. We play at one place where the visiting team is removed from the table and behind a partition, another place there is one sitting table and the bar and the home team gets the table. Sometimes it kinda sucks

I'm the captain of one team, and co captain of another, so I tend to watch a lot. (I'm also scorekeeping a lot, so it goes along....)

I do try and get some time on a practice table if I can.

We have a couple players that may leave before the night is done, if we have enough people to keep score, as they work early in the morning. But they will stay if need be, and its no big issue. They don't just play and leave, they are usually there till the last match starts.

I see many instances of "play and leave". I'm not gonna have that on my teams. (Extenuating circumstances to be allowed for.)

We play in the VNEA & BCAPL Masters Div.
If our teammates didn't stay, they wouldn't be our teammates very long!

randyg

My current league teammates all watch each other play. We route for each other witch I believe boosts team moral and increases the level we play. We take our pool serious and we come to win but we are all so like minded that we can play serious pool and still have fun. The last team I was on had no chemistry ...a couple of the guys would show up, order a drink and sit at the bar until their matches were called then take off. (it was clear that pool was secondary to these guys even though they had the potential to play well) The team captain would watch all the games but had a "we're just here to have fun" attitude and he didn't have a competitive bone in his body (I guess there's nothing wrong with that...its just not me)...none of us on that team clicked and our performance reflected it.

Why stay?

I find that the players that stay or watch other team mates play are the ones that are trying to improve and/or the ones that Love the game. They are the ones that seem to play better.

The guys that are just there to socialize don't seem to see the importance of watching and learning.

Is this APA? If both captains agree the other team can put up a player twice. Your team can decide who they put up.

On a related note, how do you deal with players that don't want to share the work of scorekeeping? My APA team plays double jeopardy (8-ball and 9-ball), and I have some players that don't want to score for 9-ball.

bigshooter said:

Last week our opponents did not have a third player. I brought it up several times politely throughout the night hoping they would get a hold of him or find a substitute. Time came for the last match and they shrugged and said forfeit.
The joys of league play.

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Hey

There all too busy on there phones and iPads to watch anybody else....lol




.

if they leave early on my team, they are replaced ! you gotta support the team. if they cant ! they are hist ! that's why you play team, is to get to your local city tourney then state then vegas !

our team is an even mix. two guys who watch every match virtually every time (I'm one). another pair that is always at the practice table or bar and almost never watches. then a couple who are in between and split their time between 2 leagues on the same night.

I feel like having the support is really helpful and may even directly influence your chances of winning.

it's kind of a downer when everybody abandons you, and you have to win with the opposing team rooting against you, hoping for you to get bad rolls etc.

it's also a real pain in the ass when you have to score your own match in 9 ball. tracking balls and innings while you shoot distracts you from the match.


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bigshooter said:

I play Masters APA and I have a supportive team.We typically play on one table so we can hang out for awhile. We all watch our teammates play their matches. I do see a lot of other teams whose members play their match and leave immediately.
Sometimes the first two players leave immediately when their match ends leaving the last player alone. What's the point of being on a team?

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I hate when I see teams that basically "abandon" their playing person to go hang out elsewhere. My team, although only 3 members, has at least one other there keeping score while the other is warming up. There are teams I see that have several members but they are hanging out playing at other tables leaving the player playing to not only play but also to keep score which can be pretty distracting.

Unless there is a good reason to leave (early work day, kids/wife needing something at home, etc...), if you're not staying till the end to support your other players, you're doing it wrong.

Regarding scoring APA 9ball, it's a pain. So we decided to pay one of our teammates $5 a match to score all night. He's good at it, so everyone's happy.

CreeDo said:

our team is an even mix. two guys who watch every match virtually every time (I'm one). another pair that is always at the practice table or bar and almost never watches. then a couple who are in between and split their time between 2 leagues on the same night.

I feel like having the support is really helpful and may even directly influence your chances of winning.

it's kind of a downer when everybody abandons you, and you have to win with the opposing team rooting against you, hoping for you to get bad rolls etc.

it's also a real pain in the ass when you have to score your own match in 9 ball. tracking balls and innings while you shoot distracts you from the match.


Posted from Azbilliards.com App for Android

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Scoring your own, 9-ball? Yikes!

I don't have an issue scoring my own 8-ball match, but 9-ball, to do it right....that takes too much concentration to do either properly, score or play.

(I have done it, for singles qualifiers, so I get it. Still....)

ctyhntr said:

Is this APA? If both captains agree the other team can put up a player twice. Your team can decide who they put up.

On a related note, how do you deal with players that don't want to share the work of scorekeeping? My APA team plays double jeopardy (8-ball and 9-ball), and I have some players that don't want to score for 9-ball.

Click to expand...

You can't double play after week 8 I think

The guys that played will usually leave by 930 or 10 o'clock. I have no issue with that..they work early in the morning and work is more important then silly apa leagues lol As hard as it is to put together an apa league in this area I'm not going to give anyone any grief . I play tuesday night and I'm off wednesday so I stay the end. Bca leagues I work the next day so unless were in a tight match or in the playoffs I leave in the 4th set.

I try to tell the players on my team who have to sit as early as possible, usually by the third match. I have a couple older guys on my team that are better played early. One of them usually stays to the end, the other (battling cancer) leaves whenever he feels like he is ready to go.

I have a couple that are always late because of work commitment, and of the 2 one has to leave for work at 4 AM. This player arrives late and will not stay to shoot the last match. I have a 2 or 3 match window where I can play him.

4 of us are there pretty much start to finish. I showed last week 4 days after surgery to keep score and captain/coach.

We are currently in 2nd place, starting to have handicap issues because one of the irregulars went up. He probably will be dropped from the roster in favor of another unreliable 3.

I am going to take this mish mash of misfits and malcontents to Vegas. This is my vow. I managed to do it once with similar circumstances and I will do it again.

I think it also has to do with the size of your room and seating arrangements, how comfortable it is to just sit around while not playing, or worse, while playing. Often I lose concentration due to the cluttered, people-everywhere nature of our room. That isn't half as bad as when I have my 7 other teammates there to "support" me, and now I'm navigating through them, and enduring an unerring "good leave" compliment after every miss. They mean well, but it doesn't help my game.

Then there's also the 7 teammates of my opponent 4 feet away, whispering comments about every position I leave myself in, flirting with waitresses, screaming about the UFC fight, and talking so much shit it no longer smells like cigarette smoke in there. So I've got to position myself as far from them as possible, and now when it isn't my shot I feel like I'm watching a cockfight in Mexico from 10 feet behind the crowd and wondering who's winning.

Some players come to play a game, say hello to their friends, have a drink, and roll out. I don't blame them -- I often wonder about the long term consequences I'll face for sitting around in the smokey pool hall with shitty dubstep music blaring until 1 in the morning twice a week because I'm stupid enough to be captain of two teams in two different leagues.

Think I may have gone off on a rant there. :sorry:

/fml

VNEA and BCAPL, yes!

randyg said:

We play in the VNEA & BCAPL Masters Div.
If our teammates didn't stay, they wouldn't be our teammates very long!

randyg

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I really miss my many years in the VNEA and the BCA(PL). Here in Gainesvile, we have little besides APA.