Breaking good on one table horrible on another

B

bobbydee

Active member
So I’ve been practicing my 8- and 9-ball breaks a lot at home on a 7' Wolverine with fast cloth and Artemis rails. Break’s been solid — I rarely scratch and the cue ball never leaves the table.

But yesterday at league (on Valley tables, I think 6.5'), I played two matches of each and only had maybe two good breaks the whole night. The rest were scratches, and twice the cue ball even flew off the table. Total opposite of what I've been doing at home.

I started experimenting — different angles, different English, even just going straight on — and still couldn’t get it under control. Honestly, I was dumbfounded.

Anyone run into this? Any ideas on what’s causing the difference?

As always...thanks!
 
Of course every table breaks differently for a lot of reasons, such as cloth, rails, humidity, ball type and cleanness, and table height.
You have to adjust.
 
Tough to give the reason for the difference, but I was taught that, on any table, you should hit the break at the maximum speed at which you can control the cue ball.

At least as an experiment, try hitting the break a little softer when playing on the Valley tables.
 
bobbydee said:
Yeah I just thought of that and they use those crappy plastic racks where it's hard to get a tight rack. Good call on that one.
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The rack and old balls can be an issue. I’ve played on tables with mismatched ball sets. No good. One thing you can try in 8 ball is not to rack the 1 in front. That ball gets more abuse from 9 ball. It’s a small thing but try racking the 1 in a corner in 8 ball and see if it is better. I did notice on one table recently where the balls racked a little easier with the 1 in front. Those were good quality balls on relatively new cloth though.
 
JPB2 said:
The rack and old balls can be an issue. I’ve played on tables with mismatched ball sets. No good. One thing you can try in 8 ball is not to rack the 1 in front. That ball gets more abuse from 9 ball. It’s a small thing but try racking the 1 in a corner in 8 ball and see if it is better. I did notice on one table recently where the balls racked a little easier with the 1 in front. Those were good quality balls on relatively new cloth though.
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Thanks! Unfortunately loser racks so we never get to rack our own.
 
I would suggest forgetting about the table and all else and looking at your mechanics.

I know you'll swear you're doing everything the same but given your outcomes... probably not. It doesn't take much to dramatically alter your results.

Lou Figueroa
 
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