Barbox practise table

[Roy Steffensen]

Near my home there is a youth club with a 15 year old Valley 7ft barbox, in bad shape. I have promised to fix the table for the club and do some trickshots and lessons for them now and then, if I can get a key to the youth club so I can practise as much as I want on it. (Only 5 minutes of walking from home)

I am playing all my tournaments on 9ft tables, and will of course practise a couple of times a week on "real" tables.

However, I am afraid that it will might hurt my game if I play too much on the 7ft compared to the 9ft table. If you have any suggestions to what will be the best way to practise on a 7ft to still have progress in my game on a 9ft, please help me out.

Should I focus on drills and 14-1 (small position play), or do rotation-games like 9-ball or 10-ball? Or should I just don't care, and practise on the 7ft the same way I would on a 9ft?

 

[Neil]

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[John Barton]

It won't hurt your game. I had a Valley Barbox and I would just stay in stroke playing 9 ball, banks and rotation on it. I would also practice safeties, touch shots, jump shots, masse' shots.

There are tons of ways to use a bar table to your advantage. Plus you get used to one and then you are ready for ANY bar box action that coms your way.

I shimmed mine up to have 4.5 inch pockets. You should do the same on the one at the rec center. Don't worry about the kids - they won't know or care that you made the pockets tighter. They will still enjoy the table no matter what you do with the pockets.

You will find that once you start doing SERIOUS practice on the bar table then you will see a lot of shots and clusters that you don't think about practicing when you are on the big table but they come up there nonetheless.