9-ball safety break (APA)

yeah, watch him when you get a chance over a set and see how many times he nails it. maybe he was a little more focused playing Tony. There was one break where he lost the CB in the side pocket, every other break he nailed. Pretty sick. But it made me want to go practice like 50 breaks in a row...
 
APA 9 Ball Break

I am an SL9 in APA and the break is the most important part of the game especially when your spotting alot of balls to a lessor skill level.

I break from the side and hitting the one ball full on as if it were a straight in shot and try to kill the cue ball in the middle of the table. This gives you the best opportunity not to be hooked after the break. Even though I may not be able to make the first shot after the break I can still play a good saftey to get ball in hand or an easy shot.

One big tip for breaking especially on a bar box:

Look at the first three balls on the rack they should be frozen to each other. If they aren't there should be at least one ball frozen to the "One" ball. If the one ball is frozen to one of the two balls BREAK ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE "GAPPED BALL". This creates a double break and the rack will still break very well. It's only when you break on the same side of the "gapped ball" will the break be lousy and you probably won't get 2 balls past the side pocket.

I know the rack should be racked properly but when your on a bar box and using a plastic rack its hard to rack the balls good. Keep in mind a SL6 and below probably can't rack the balls consistanly well to begin with. To avoid an argument during play just BREAK ON THE OPPOSIDE SIDE OF THE GAPPED BALL.

As a SL9 you should be able to make the ball or play safe ONE OR THE OTHER. Don't try and make hard shots, it only exposes yourself to your opponent (this is the only time he will get easy shots). Lower skill level players get very frustrated when all they do is kick at balls (since your not missing balls and playing safe instead of trying tuff shots. Watch the Pros play they either make the ball or play safe - pros miss very rarely because of this).
 
TWOFORPOOL said:
One big tip for breaking:

Look at the first three balls on the rack they should be frozen to each other. If they aren't there should be at least one ball frozen to the "One" ball. If the one ball is frozen to one of the two balls BREAK ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE "GAPPED BALL".

BREAK ON THE OPPOSIDE SIDE OF THE GAPPED BALL.
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Not to doubt you... just curious...

WOuldn't this be a contradiction of Tucker's Rack reading advice?

TWOFORPOOL said:
As a SL9 you should be able to make the ball or play safe ONE OR THE OTHER. Don't try and make hard shots, it only exposes yourself to your opponent (this is the only time he will get easy shots). Lower skill level players get very frustrated when all they do is kick at balls (since your not missing balls and playing safe instead of trying tuff shots.
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Tap, Tap, Tap. Great advice.
 
To be honest I like that APA has removed the push-out after the break. IMHO the push-out is rarely executed properly by your average to low level players. Giving an SL1-4 the ability to do a push-out is just going to confuse them and cause them to make stupid mistakes that higher level players will be able to take a lot of advantage of.

Remember, the goal of the APA is to make pool enjoyable for recreational players and to make it accessable to new players. Things like the push-out is confusing to most new comers as they have never seen it in their recreational playing. From what I have seen the APA is doing a pretty good job in bringing in new players and allowing them to enjoy the game. As there are such a small number of SL8/9's changing the rules to help them would impact 90x as many people as it helped. To be honest, IMHO I don't think the APA is worried about losing SL8/9's due to the rules, but they are worried about not bringing in new players. IIRC it's something like 1% (possibly less) of APA players are SL9...

I just like to look at APA as a great way to get myself out to play pool every week, drink beer, and hang out with friends. I think a lot of people try to look at it as something else, and thats when they get frustrated with the rules...

Just my $0.02...

Brian
 
btoneill said:
IMHO the push-out is rarely executed properly by your average to low level players. Giving an SL1-4 the ability to do a push-out is just going to confuse them and cause them to make stupid mistakes...
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aw... c'mon man you can't really be making an argument of eliminating a key rule in the game to dummy it down?

this is a rediculously simple rule to understand... and if someone has a low handicap or rides the shortbus to league and can't understand what to do.... isn't that why lower level players have more "coaches" available per rack?

This was the best and then the worst move ever by the APA instituting the pushout and taking it away almost immediately afterward cause it was too confusing for some people.... ?!?!?- do these some people wake up every morning in a puddle of their own piss & drool and lose a handful of teeth before they realize that they are trying to eat a rock for breakfast? lol. I mean geez how hard could it be to understand this?
 
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hobokenapa said:
Has anyone experimented with a safe break in 9-ball? I'm trying to embrace APA 9-ball, but when spotting 30 balls against an SL6, it's impossible to win when you are not making a ball from the break and leaving a wide open table (or making a ball and getting hooked). The luck factor in the break decides every match. The optimum strategy has to be to play safe from the break. Has anyone tried this, or got any ideas? I am thinking maybe hitting the 1-ball half ball and stunning the cue ball across the table onto the bottom rail and sending the 1-ball up table to the top rail??
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apa 9 ball is about as bad as it can get for higher level players. It is unreal the amount of weight they expect you to give up. On 7ftrs it is all luck of the break that decides the winner. On 9fters you have a little more of a chance, its not so easy for the lower skilled player to make balls.

There is really nothng you can do but hitem and hope, you cant soft break, you cant roll out, you cant use a jump cue. That pretty much leaves nothing but luck I'd say, great game.

My best advice is just play and try not to let the B.S. bother you. (I know is hard to do. Its worse if you care about your team) or get out of the apa (if your a real 9 you got better things to do with your game and the apa dont want your skill they just want your money) join a real league, for good players like the BCA.. Tap isnt bad, they just dont have as much to offer as BCA..
 
Be great is they would stop 9 ball and make it 10 ball!

Everyone donw here looks at me silly when I rack 10 ball......... They never seen it before lol
 
I also disagree

btoneill said:
To be honest I like that APA has removed the push-out after the break. IMHO the push-out is rarely executed properly by your average to low level players. Giving an SL1-4 the ability to do a push-out is just going to confuse them and cause them to make stupid mistakes that higher level players will be able to take a lot of advantage of.

Remember, the goal of the APA is to make pool enjoyable for recreational players and to make it accessable to new players. Things like the push-out is confusing to most new comers as they have never seen it in their recreational playing. From what I have seen the APA is doing a pretty good job in bringing in new players and allowing them to enjoy the game. As there are such a small number of SL8/9's changing the rules to help them would impact 90x as many people as it helped. To be honest, IMHO I don't think the APA is worried about losing SL8/9's due to the rules, but they are worried about not bringing in new players. IIRC it's something like 1% (possibly less) of APA players are SL9...

I just like to look at APA as a great way to get myself out to play pool every week, drink beer, and hang out with friends. I think a lot of people try to look at it as something else, and thats when they get frustrated with the rules...

Just my $0.02...

Brian
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I think the push out is a lot easier for a novice to grasp than the double hit
issue

Giving up BIH to a higher player right from the break is extremely costly and most teams do "throw off" on the higher players. Even with a coach a 1 rail kick shot is still a very low percentage for a new player - anything more complex than that is probably zero percent.

Of course a more skilled player will make better use of the push but I think if the lower player could at least avoid giving up BIH than the higher player still has to earn the rack instead of getting a gift.
 
9-Ball Safety Break (APA)

Beware_of_Dawg said:
Not to doubt you... just curious...

"BREAK ON THE OPPOSIDE SIDE OF THE GAPPED BALL"
WOuldn't this be a contradiction of Tucker's Rack reading advice?


YES IT DOES!!! I received the Tucker's Racking Secrets on a DVD for Christmas. I can quickly look at the rack for the gap without too much trouble but players do ask if the rack is ok when I do this. This creates a little discomfort with the player.

When I play in open tournaments I do look at the rack closely but APA its not worth the trouble with the less skilled players (4s, 5s, 6s). When you tell them they don't know how to rack the balls the get mad (alot of less skilled players don't know how to properly rack a 9 Ball rack).
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One reason I quit APA 9 ball

I was always made to play the lowest possible skill level on the opposite team.

I had to make like 78 balls or something before they made 14 ? It was crazy, because I couldnt push out after the break.

IMO, it was too Gaffed up for me to win.

Ken
 
TWOFORPOOL said:
Beware_of_Dawg said:
Not to doubt you... just curious...

"BREAK ON THE OPPOSIDE SIDE OF THE GAPPED BALL"
WOuldn't this be a contradiction of Tucker's Rack reading advice?


YES IT DOES!!! I received the Tucker's Racking Secrets on a DVD for Christmas..
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Ok, so that I understand... the original advice that you gave about breaking opposite of the gap was a misunderstanding and after seeing the Tucker DVD you have changed that to break with the gap?

and Im not slamming you, I also was told break with the gap at one point and I did quite successfully at times... after seeing the DVD I changed my opinion about the break completely... is that the case for you now?
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Here's my advice...

Quit APA.

The rules sound stupid to me. No push out?? Someone else told me that each ball is a point or something like that *rolling my eyes*. If the league is setup in such a way to make you want to safe break in 9-ball, quit it.
 
SpiderWebComm said:
Here's my advice...

Quit APA.

The rules sound stupid to me. No push out?? Someone else told me that each ball is a point or something like that *rolling my eyes*. If the league is setup in such a way to make you want to safe break in 9-ball, quit it.
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I did.

Ken
 
im a apa 8 here in louisville and have found that sometimes that i have to move around and find the right spot. i had to play another 8 couple weeks ago and couldnt make a ball on the break where i usually break from. now mostly i do make a ball or two on the break and run but this night i couldnt. i kept looking at the rack and seeing what he was doing to it and couldnt find it. so the score was 64 him and 59 me and me breaking, so i decided to break head on with a little below center and medium stroke and made two on the break and run out to win. he really thought he had me here and i proved him wrong. i have been known for having a great break because i have really worked on it so much. so experiment and it will come i promise
 
The jump cue part is simple to understand, bar owners do not want SL1-4's pulling out a $100 jump cue thinking they can jump a ball and destroying their cloth...

As for the comment made about people waking up in a puddle of their piss and drool... There are people who play in APA here in Charlotte who I would not be surprised if that is real concern for them every morning... There are still many times you have to explain cue ball fouls over and over to some of the lower ranked players... No one ever said you had to be smart to try to hit a few balls around a table...

As for the comment on doing a clean hit on a frozen cue/object ball, I think I've only seen once where someone actually called someone out on them doing it wrong, I've seen it done wrong and not called many times, because that seems to be a rule that people don't understand properly pretty well across the board on many skill levels...

Brian
 
btoneill said:
As for the comment on doing a clean hit on a frozen cue/object ball, I think I've only seen once where someone actually called someone out on them doing it wrong, I've seen it done wrong and not called many times, because that seems to be a rule that people don't understand properly pretty well across the board on many skill levels...

Brian
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If the CB/OB are frozen, you can just shoot through them, right? Is it different in league?
 
Beware_of_Dawg said:
TWOFORPOOL said:
Ok, so that I understand... the original advice that you gave about breaking opposite of the gap was a misunderstanding and after seeing the Tucker DVD you have changed that to break with the gap?

and Im not slamming you, I also was told break with the gap at one point and I did quite successfully at times... after seeing the DVD I changed my opinion about the break completely... is that the case for you now?
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YES IT IS!!! I learned something new!!! Although my old way did insure that the balls broke very well. As you know you have to follow Tucker's DVD instructions closely or you can get a slug rack breaking on the same side as the gap.
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9 Ball APA

Ken_4fun said:
I was always made to play the lowest possible skill level on the opposite team.

I had to make like 78 balls or something before they made 14 ? It was crazy, because I couldnt push out after the break.

IMO, it was too Gaffed up for me to win.

Ken
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You have to go to 75. I'm a 9 in 9 Ball and play all different skill levels (1 thru 9) and I generally lose one match per session (usually I win 12-1 in matches). You just have to learn not to shoot up in the air and play safe like the pros do (see my comments earlier in this thread).
 
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