Break shot template rack

[tomatoshooter]

At the end of the day I’ve never liked template racks. I know the rack mechanics like them, and some people for what ever reason. I’m not in either camp.

Wood Triangle please.

Seems like it takes longer to rack with a template than a triangle. The rack should be tighter with the template but that is not guaranteed. If the cloth is in good shape then it shouldn't be too hard to get an adequate rack with the triangle. I prefer drawn lines on the table to the sticker. Apparently there's no place to put the template after removing it from the table because I've seen plenty of matches where they keep moving the template around the rail.

 

[The_JV]

Seems like it takes longer to rack with a template than a triangle. The rack should be tighter with the template but that is not guaranteed. If the cloth is in good shape then it shouldn't be too hard to get an adequate rack with the triangle. I prefer drawn lines on the table to the sticker. Apparently there's no place to put the template after removing it from the table because I've seen plenty of matches where they keep moving the template around the rail.

I'm not sure how much pool you watch, but it's not uncommon to see a ref or player for that matter to take just as long to adequately rack balls with a triangle then it does to play the subsequent game...lol. Not saying that happens all the time but it does happen.

However I will whole heartedly agree that loading balls in a triangle and shoving them into place is a bunch faster then loading a template. That said, based on my limited experience. I'd be willing to bet that if you compared single attempt racks against each other. The template version would win out over the triangle (based on gaps) at a ratio of 10:1. If not higher... ...and that would be on a fresh table without wear. I'd be surprised if the triangle won a single round on a worn table.

As an example: I just played in a little team 8ball tourney yesterday. Only once all day was my template rack not perfect on the first try, and that was due to a dent in the foot spot rolling off the one. Armed with that info, the subsequent rack was bang on. Could have easily chased that dent for minutes with a triangle.

Not sure why the laziness of the players puts any blame on the template for it's storing location. I'm sure there's a table off screen they could put it on if they choose to.

 

[Buzzard II]

All I know is if you break ten racks with a triangle (wood or metal) and ten with a template, the spread is much greater with the template. Ten out of ten times.

As tested by a geezer with arthritic everything.

 

[Fatboy]

Seems like it takes longer to rack with a template than a triangle. The rack should be tighter with the template but that is not guaranteed. If the cloth is in good shape then it shouldn't be too hard to get an adequate rack with the triangle. I prefer drawn lines on the table to the sticker. Apparently there's no place to put the template after removing it from the table because I've seen plenty of matches where they keep moving the template around the rail.

Often times what made the balls hard to rack wasn’t the rack.

Template racks are useless with old wore out balls. Nobody ever mentions that.

Balls first, rack second makes a perfect rack all frozen. (If that’s what your looking for)

The balls were worse down-the 1 ball is usually smaller as it’s always the head ball and gets hammered. Back when pool rooms were busy the balls were mix & match and wore down. So a freezing all the balls was impossible. Slug racks were easy.

I’ve put old sets of wore out balls on a template rack and it’s a mess.

Now that we get new colors and new balls every year it seems. There aren’t old wore out balls around as many places.

 

[Jack Fate]

Often times what I’m used to make the balls hard to rack wasn’t the rack.

Template racks are useless with old wore out balls. Nobody ever mentions that.

Balls first, rack second makes a perfect rack all frozen. (If that’s what your looking for)

The balls were worse down-the 1 ball is usually smaller as it’s always the head ball and gets hammered. Back when pool rooms were busy the balls were mix & match and wore down. So a freezing all the balls was impossible. Slug racks were easy.

I’ve put old sets of wore out balls on a template rack and it’s a mess.

Now that we get new colors and new balls every year it seems. There aren’t old wore out balls around as many places.

Was wondering if the worn balls would be mentioned. This was quite obvious when at my daughters house they were given used balls with their refurbished table . Even with new cloth you couldn’t get a decent rack ( wood triangle)I read somewhere that pool balls got smaller over time ( wear/shrinkage)
I told her this & she got a new set & made a big difference . You could easily see the difference in the way the rack fit.
Now I watch a lot of YouTube pool and seeing the over head camera view of the break & the effect it has on the 9 repeatedly is bothersome to me .
There’s also the removal of the template that needs to be added to the rack time.
For us older folks how many different styles of racks have we seen ?
Somewhat this to me seems to be about the money that’s generated, sponsorships/ sales
And from that aspect it’s good for pool.
Always wonder what the old legends of the game would think

 

[gregcantrall]

The butterfly effect:

(in chaos theory) the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere

The diamond shaped hole produces multiple points of contact between ball, template and cloth. So there's an effect.
The good news is that the effect is more repeatable. With the added variables with cue ball speed spin and incident of contact. Don't forget the atmospheric.
Corey study proved the value in accuracy over power. His study produced results that ruffled feathers. Oh Well.

 

[Jack Fate]

The butterfly effect:

The diamond shaped hole produces multiple points of contact between ball, template and cloth. So there's an effect.
The good news is that the effect is more repeatable. With the added variables with cue ball speed spin and incident of contact. Don't forget the atmospheric.
Corey study proved the value in accuracy over power. His study produced results that ruffled feathers. Oh Well.

Love Cory’s soft break . He killed it at U.S. nationals.
Reminds me of nascar, make something better than the rest & it will be outlawed

 

[tomatoshooter]

Corey study proved the value in accuracy over power. His study produced results that ruffled feathers. Oh Well.

Yeah, 3 balls contacting a rail or whatever it used to be was fine. 3 balls past the head string is dumb. It's probably not that hard on a fast table but it just seems like an extra obstacle to make the game conform to some "standard" instead of letting the players adopt the strategy that works best for them.

 

[telinoz]

What is everybody's fav rack?

Clean pics only, ha ha.

 

[hang-the-9]

Often times what made the balls hard to rack wasn’t the rack.

Template racks are useless with old wore out balls. Nobody ever mentions that.

Balls first, rack second makes a perfect rack all frozen. (If that’s what your looking for)

The balls were worse down-the 1 ball is usually smaller as it’s always the head ball and gets hammered. Back when pool rooms were busy the balls were mix & match and wore down. So a freezing all the balls was impossible. Slug racks were easy.

I’ve put old sets of wore out balls on a template rack and it’s a mess.

Now that we get new colors and new balls every year it seems. There aren’t old wore out balls around as many places.

Standard racks are not great with worn out and mismatched balls either. The Accurack handles mismatched balls better than the Magic Rack, and some of the racks from one to another are better or worse even in the same brand.

The 1 ball size thing is why I never use the 1 as a head ball in 8 ball, although many people I see do that for some reason. I usually tell them they can stick another ball there and explain why.

 

[Fatboy]

Standard racks are not great with worn out and mismatched balls either. The Accurack handles mismatched balls better than the Magic Rack, and some of the racks from one to another are better or worse even in the same brand.

The 1 ball size thing is why I never use the 1 as a head ball in 8 ball, although many people I see do that for some reason. I usually tell them they can stick another ball there and explain why.

I agree, worn out balls are never a plan.

 

[DynoDan]

We keep coming back to the (overlooked) central issue: Namely, is a consistently ultra-tight rack necessarily a good thing? Soon there will be ‘smart’ commercial eightball sets that ‘beep’ a warning when a novice player aims the cueball at his opponents ball choice, thus eliminating fouls. How about ‘smart’ cues, that alert you when your stroke is wavering?
Forget video games. Give me a pinball machine any day.

 

[Fatboy]

We keep coming back to the (overlooked) central issue: Namely, is a consistently ultra-tight rack necessarily a good thing? Soon there will be ‘smart’ commercial eightball sets that ‘beep’ a warning when a novice player aims the cueball at his opponents ball choice, thus eliminating fouls. How about ‘smart’ cues, that alert you when your stroke is wavering?
Forget video games. Give me a pinball machine any day.

Yes pinball!!!!!!

 

[hang-the-9]

We keep coming back to the (overlooked) central issue: Namely, is a consistently ultra-tight rack necessarily a good thing? Soon there will be ‘smart’ commercial eightball sets that ‘beep’ a warning when a novice player aims the cueball at his opponents ball choice, thus eliminating fouls. How about ‘smart’ cues, that alert you when your stroke is wavering?
Forget video games. Give me a pinball machine any day.

The issue is not between tight and ultra-tight but more of the balls being loose, the 9 shooting in the corner and taking 3 minutes to get a decent rack. Plus it's a very good thing to have among the bad players that don't know how to rack at all so when you break nothing moves apart. With a template rack, it's harder to get a bad rack than a good one. One of the worst parts about playing lower ranked players in league is having to sit there wondering how horrible the break will end up being because 1/3 the balls were not touching.

 

[Milkman]

I've had a few of these, and balls definitely deflect when they run over the template after the break, so I'm sure it has a similar effect to the path during the break shot as well. Insignificant compared to the benefits of a consistent, tight rack though.

 

[mistamikel]

I have a few different template racks, the og Magic Rack, Dynasphere template rack, no name ones from aliexpress (cheapest and actually my favorite to use) as well as a regular plastic (from a barbox) rack.

Template racks
You get a tight rack (almost) every time (even with an inexperienced player who's racking) at a quicker time , but with a slight amount (not enough to loose my poo over) of roll if the balls are going at a slow roll/pace.

Traditional racks
Takes longer to get a tight rack.
Inexperienced players can almost never rack the balls proper, and/or takes a long time.
Removing the actual rack causes more problems than actually tying to get them tight in the first place (mostly newer players, or my incompetent ass)

I prefer the template racks overall, just don't be lazy (like me) and remove them right after the break.
Just seems the advantages outweigh the negatives, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Tennesseejoe]

It helps getting the balls tight if you just push the balls up tight, remove your hands, and let them set for 5 seconds before removing the rack. Try it a couple of times. Getting the 1 ball in place first is the hardest part.

 

[Fatboy]

Nothing like a good slug rack when your in a bad spot……I’d never do that in a bar……