Adjusting to different conditions quickly?

P

predator

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Last 9ball tournament I played had a brand new cloth. Warm up time was just one set of balls, no more allowed. Playing on a new cloth was a shock for me. I know most guys absolutely love it because balls go in easier, but 99.9% of my pool time I play in a room with no AC, lots of humidity, slow cloth with high friction and somewhat tight pockets. That's what I'm used to.

On these fast tables with new cloth I couldn't control the cueball at all. Yes, I ran out a few thanks to looser pockets, but my position play was a either off or total fluke. My safeties were terrible sell outs. It was so frustrating because I could clearly see how much easier those tables were in fact compared to those in my home room, but I just couldn't use them properly because they were complete opposite of what I'm used to. By the time I sort of adjusted, I was on the one loss side already.

What can one do to adjust quicker to unfamiliar conditions? I'm talking strictly tournament play here, hence very little time to adjust. Getting to tournament site a few days earlier is not an option...
 
predator said:
Last 9ball tournament I played had a brand new cloth. Warm up time was just one set of balls, no more allowed. Playing on a new cloth was a shock for me. I know most guys absolutely love it because balls go in easier, but 99.9% of my pool time I play in a room with no AC, lots of humidity, slow cloth with high friction and somewhat tight pockets. That's what I'm used to.

On these fast tables with new cloth I couldn't control the cueball at all. Yes, I ran out a few thanks to looser pockets, but my position play was a either off or total fluke. My safeties were terrible sell outs. It was so frustrating because I could clearly see how much easier those tables were in fact compared to those in my home room, but I just couldn't use them properly because they were complete opposite of what I'm used to. By the time I sort of adjusted, I was on the one loss side already.

What can one do to adjust quicker to unfamiliar conditions? I'm talking strictly tournament play here, hence very little time to adjust. Getting to tournament site a few days earlier is not an option...
Click to expand...

This is just part of the price we pay as things go along. Eperience!!

That is one advantage road players have. They move around and play on different equipment each day. They watch other games and figure the table out pretty quickly just by watching. They then instinctivlely pick it up.

I had a table in my basement and about wore it out the first year. I really improved that year, but, only on that table. Pretty soon I had to start getting out more and promising myself not to practice on the same table consecutive days.

It just takes time. Not the answer you wanted I'm sure.
 
I suggest lagging for about 2 to 3 minutes. This will allow you to get a feel of the speed of the table, and it will lock in your muscle memory.

The majority of shots are lag speed. Use this lag speed as a gauge or baseline.
When you are playing, think about the distange the CB will travel with lag speed, and either take a little off, or add a little to get your desired outcome for each shot.

Every table has a different lag speed.

What really gets tricky, is when someone leaves the door open, and the humidity comes in, and before you know it, you can't make a ball to save your life. Or if they turn the Air Conditioning on, and it's super cold. It will change the speed of the table, and also change the rebound angles of banks/kicks.

Playing with different cues will have different speeds as well. Light weight cues tend to slow down the CB more than heavy cues. Soft tips tend to slow down the CB more than hard tips.

There are some tips that are rated by speed (e.g. Moori slow, or Kamui fast).
 
I agree with both of the previous post.

It takes a lot of play at different spots to not let the adjustment from table to table be a big problem. Sometime players just cant get to different locations all the time(family, work, kids ect). But i think that is the biggest way to over come the adjustment factor.

So if you dont have a lot of time to practice. Then your best bet is to do what okinawa77 said. Just drilling balls into the pocket wont help you get used to the table speed. Or also hit balls at speed into the hole. to adjust a little.

I pretty much just said what the other to guys did. But either way, i agree:p
 
Adjusting to brand new felt is very difficult, but I think there are a few things that may speed up the process.

I find that the most difficult adjustment to make on brand new felt is adjusting to how the spin takes effect, and that the speed is not as big of an issue. Drawing and following the ball are going to be effortless on new felt, so even minor differences in the speed of stroke and the tip's contact point will result in major variances in the final resting point of the cueball. In contrast, the effect of side-spin off of the cushions is going to be diminished somewhat, which means that running spin won't carry the ball as far, and that reverse spin won't alter the cueball's direction as much as it would on worn felt. In addition, high-english "spinouts" are going to be much easier to achieve (whether intended or not) on new felt.

With these things in mind, my strategy on new cloth that I've not had the time to adjust to is to minimize my cueball movement as much as possible, and to get the cueball rolling (as opposed to sliding) as quickly as possible. Pocketing balls is easier on new felt, so you may be better off taking a slightly harder shot if it means a much simplified position route, and a rolling ball will behave very similar on new felt as it will on worn felt, but a ball that's sliding will behave much differently. I will also look for opportunities throughout my matches to sort of "feel out" the felt. I may, for instance, shoot a heavy spin shot if the ball I'm shooting is a hanger and the next ball doesn't require precise position, just to get a feel for how much spin does what.

Those are also the things I'd focus on during the hour I had to practice. Shooting varying-length draw and follow shots at varying speeds is a critical first step toward helping you to get a feel for the properties of the felt. Next I would shoot some spin shots straight into the rail to determine what effect side spin is going to have on the new felt. Shooting a few stock 2, 3, and 4 railers is also a good idea, since kicking accurately can be extremely difficult on new felt. Finally, I would shoot several high english hold shots (or "hai karate" shots as Danny D. calls them) to see what spin/speed combo is required to create the hold effect. It's frustrating when you cut a ball in close to the rail, hoping to make the cueball come all the way back downtable, but instead accidentally hit the "sweet spot" and end up frozen to the rail because of the high english hold effect.

Hope that helps,

Aaron
 
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You need time on new cloth in order to get used to it. There's nothing more to it than that. It's like a tennis player always playing on grass and then switching to clay. There's a lot of new information to process and there's no quick way to go about it.

The best way I can describe what I mean is the way a ball slides on new cloth EVEN after the second or third rail. When you've gotten a few hundred hours on the stuff, you quickly process the differences but if you've never seen it before, watching the cueball will give you a headache the first few hours!
 
From a banger......

The best argument for watching your cue ball paths...is your question here. Time to watch the archives of some really smart and strong players to watch the movement of whitey. Good cue ball paths allow for a lot more margin of error, at least until you dial in. JMO

td
 
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