And I have had the opposite experience. I found I could switch from the 9 footer to the barbox easily and vice versa. Maybe that just means I play equally bad on both but in every league I have ever played in I have been one of the top shooters around. Even in Fort Collins Colorado which has some REALLY good players I was up there with most of them and I played primarily on the big table and only on the bar box for league or league tournaments. That is to say I never practiced on the barbox.
John:
One thing I gather from your post (as verified by your "17th in the nation one year in the BCA Open division" comment below) is that you're talking 9-ball on a barbox. When I made my original post above (the one you quoted and responded to), I was talking 8-BALL. Big difference, my friend. Personally, I find 9-ball on a barbox to be easier than on the big table. I won't go as far as saying small-rack rotation pool on a barbox is "child's play," but I will say that, like you, I ran over people in my area playing small-rack rotation pool on a barbox. And these were strong players as well -- not your average bar banger.
Put all 15 balls on that table, in those close quarters, and only be able to shoot at the solids or only at the stripes, and maneuver around the congestion. And, try not to commit the grand faux pas of 8-ball, which is to run "most" of your category of balls, miss (or stitch yourself), and leave your opponent in a position where the table is a veritable turkey shoot -- he/she can shoot at anything he/she wants, with almost impunity, and have the ability at every turn to safe you if he/she wants -- because you only have one or two balls on the table. The ol' "one ball hell" as it's known in 8-ball circles.
*This* is where the comments about congestion, precise positioning of the cue ball (especially when it's a non-standard cue ball -- e.g. overweight/oversized, magnetic, et al.) come into play. It's not small-rack rotation pool; rather it's full-rack 8-ball.
Later I did own a couple barboxes and I had the pockets tightened up on them. But this was after my league days were pretty much done and I only had the barboxes because I got them cheap enough and they were easy to move around. And I used to mess around on them and practice once in a while.
Barboxes are great for that -- having one nearby to smack a few balls into pockets, to keep in stroke.
I just always felt that pool is pool and that the biggest danger to playing on a bar table was taking it for granted that it was easier to play on.
That was the whole point of my post, John -- the "chewy center," if you will. That was what I was getting at when I admitted, freely and publicly, that after I got back in stroke in a big table environment after a 14-year hiatus, that I thought I'd "string rack after rack" in that "toy" bar table environment, and I, in fact, had a rude awakening coming to me.
At least I admitted that I made this mistake, and took the corrective measures to make sure I never make that mistake again. I'm certainly not one of these "fault-proof keyboard Olympians" we find here on these boards.
Nowadays, if I don't say so myself, I play a decent bar-table game. Probably an indicator of my bar-table play is that I took down the
Greenfields 2009 End-of-Year Open 9-ball tournament held on this past New Year's Eve.
(I visit my folks in Denver, Colorado, every year around the holidays. I never take my cues with me, because it's such a pain to travel with them. Plus, I feel that my playing ability shouldn't have to be "bolted to the hip" of my personal cues, so I shoot with a "Wall-abushka" that I pull off the wall whenever I can. This time at Greenfields was no exception -- I pulled a house cue off the wall and played the tourney with it, against players that came from miles around to play in this tourney, some from as far away as Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, etc. I snapped it off, and I can tell ya, there were some very unhappy midwesterners, upset that this happy-go-lucky Guiness-drinking "New Yawka" came in from out of town and took this tourney with a house cue.)
As for the side pockets. I don't really know what to say there. Buddy said in his book that he doesn't play for position on the side pockets. In league matches I and my teammates have made some sick outs shooting into the side pocket so I think that the level of play might be high enough now that players don't have trouble with the side pockets.
One thing to consider why Buddy never played for position on the side pockets, may be the reason I already cited -- that the side pockets are POISON unless one has a lot of familiarity shooting at them from off angles. The corner pockets on a barbox are a lot more proportionately sized, and forgiving, than its side pockets.
And, from my side of things, once I realized all these things peculiar to the bar-table, I made it a point to not look like a fool again -- to never make the assumption that I'd "string racks" on it sight-unseen. I practiced intently on side pocket shots, and even "invented" my own version of 1-pocket where the shots are played into the side pockets, for shot practice reasons on the barbox. It worked. I now feel very confident about planning my runout strategy with side pocket shots.
Lately, I've been playing more snooker than pool, and I've in fact re-architected (if that's a word?) my stance and fundamentals on snooker fundamentals. Remember the earlier poster who made the analogy of "put a snooker player on a bar table and watch what happens"? That is actually true -- I can't explain to you how profoundly accurate the game of snooker will make a player. It elevated my game, that's for sure.
For the record in case anyone wants to know, I did finish 17th in the nation one year in the BCA Open division out of something like 800 player in 9 ball playing on Valley Barboxes. This was done while I was also running the Instroke booth in between matches. I finally ran out of gas at midnight after being awake since 6am that day, with my first match at 8am. So I can play, a little. Although it's getting to be a little less each year
For the record, John, I'm an Open-class player, and I play on the Tony Robles/Predator Open/Pro 10-ball Tour. I will also be playing in the Super Billiards Expo Open 10-ball Professional Players Championship. So I'm no banger either.
And, although I'm getting older (I'll turn 44 this March 6th), I have a lot of lost time to make up for with that 14-year hiatus I took. As a matter of fact... [speaks in an Al Pacino-like gravely voice]
"I'm just gettin' started!" :thumbup2:
-Sean
