APA needs to step it up

[trob]

Jude,

Look into the TAP league, all of there national tourneys are played on Diamonds. They also go to a different city every year for nationals, which is better than seeing Vegas every year. IMHO.

I have to Vegas enough personally ... it would be nice for nationals to move around a bit.

 

[lorider]

It seems like every year you have some one ....sometimes more ...complain about the tables in Vegas. then you usually have around the same number come on here and say they had no issues with the tables. I talked to a guy this weekend at tri cups who won the 8 ball doubles ....for the second year in a row. With a different partner this time I believe. He said he had no issues with the tables.

I am not doubting the op found a table or 2 that had issues. Kinda hard to believe every table was perfect. Like some one else said...bring it to their attention and it may get fixed.

Not saying the op is wrong with his opinion about using diamond tables but I just dont get why people are always complaining about apa not using diamonds. Why ? Is diamonds all you play on in your local apa league ? If not then why complain they are not using diamonds at nationals ?

Diamonds may help a higher level player at nationals that are used to diamonds but its going to do nothing but hurt lower level players that play on nothing but valleys.

We have one venue that has all diamonds and we just happened to hold our 8 ball tri cups there this weekend .

My 8 ball team is a travel team and we played there exactly one time Las session. 16 week sessions. That was the only time 3 of my players have ever played on diamonds. I kept preaching all weekend to hit soft. The only team that beat us just coincidentally use this venue as their home base. Nothing like home field advantage I guess.

It took all the way to the finals before my two 3's grasped the concept of hitting soft with one of them beating a 5 by 2-2 and the other beating a 4 by 2-2. Their opponents never seemed to adjust to the speed and kept rattling pockets and over running position. Time outs are a 3's best friend also . :smile:

 

[droehe]

I've always assumed APA runs their tournaments on Valleys as this is the most common table used in APA league matches. Plus they are a lot cheaper than Diamonds (About half the price new and a lot less used.)

Either way I agree given a choice I'd definitely prefer playing on 7' Diamonds in the BCAPL events. They are generally very consistent and feel and play just like the 9' tables do. Playing on Valleys always feels weird in comparison even if they are properly setup and maintained. I should note that I did play in the APA Master's last year in Vegas and did not notice any problems with the tables myself beyond the basic design/build issues of a Valley.

My understanding is there is a business relationship between BCAPL and Diamond Billiards so because of this it may not be likely they would change APA to Diamond too. I had heard in the past the APA used to use Diamonds, does anyone know if this is true?

If my memory serves me, in 2003 we played on Diamond tables...

 

[justadub]

Diamond and BCAPL had a common owner. That’s no longer the case.

Mark Griffin is no longer involved with Diamond? If I recall correctly, that was the reason APA went away from using the Diamond tables...

 

[APA Operator]

Golf is definitely a precision game but it only involves one ball. Pool’s multi-ball nature places precision at a premium. A common cut shot can require accuracy at +/- 1/32 of an inch. The difference between perfect position and being hooked can be equally small margins. I believe most people think pool is challenging enough without introducing golf-like challenges. I think if you polled most players, dead rails, cheap balls, unlevel tables would lose every time.

Some of those are the 'standards' that would probably remain. The best players won't play golf with a cheap ball either, although they don't pay for balls anyway. Dead rails I would equate to unplayable bunkers or patchy grass in the fairways. An unlevel table, however, is an artificial standard that I think might eventually be accepted if the unlevel spots were intentional, or if players could get out of the mindset that the playing surface needs to be constrained to a single horizontal plane. Similarly, if the rectangular standard were relaxed there would be no such thing as a "standard three-rail kick" - every kick and bank would have to be read, not hit according to some system. It would put a premium on creativity in shotmaking, which I believe would make pool more watchable and might attract advertisers. But as in golf, too much slope or too many angles can render a course overly punitive, making it impossible for even the best players to play a decent game.

Then there are other possible effects. Races would likely get shorter, the break might become less of a factor, and a single ball lucked in probably wouldn't send your opponent into a tirade. Things like that might be good for the sport too.

Oh, and 1/32 of an inch is a chasm in golf, especially when played at the highest level.