Familiarity with a Table

[Bluewolf]

I have a 8ft table at my house, on which I play everyday. Even though I was sloppy in my practice (someting I am changing today), I had gotten to the point that I could make a lot of shots on it

I havent played on the league tables for a month. Those are 9ft, which really should not matter, imo, if a person has a good stroke.

I had a bad day yesterday, but imo that should not matter. What mattered is that I was not making the cut shots that I make easily on my home table.

I have heard that if a person plays on one table all of the time, it messes up their ability to play on other tables. Is there something or truth to this? Because if there is, I need to practice on other tables several times a week.

Laura

 

[Joseph Cues]

Aim this way. Pretend like the pockets are about a foot from the ob. Aim there. It shouldn't matter what size the table is since you are aiming at an imaginary pocket.
Positioning might suffer though as the angles are wider on big tables.

 

[Kerry]

Laura,

I too have an 8' table. I have my pockets double shimmed, so they are fairly tight, but still somewhat forgiving. I play about twice a week at a tournament on nice 9' Gold Crowns with Simonis. I also occationally play on 7' bar boxes. In fact, tomorrow I have APA playoffs for 8-ball and 9-ball, both on 7 footers.

I heard you use the word "should" a lot. I think "should" is a dangerous word to use in pool. For example, "I should make that shot", "I should have won that match", etc. I think we are better off saying what we will do and what we did do, rather than what we should do. For example "I will try my best", "I did lose that match", etc. Anyway, sorry to get off on a tangent there.

Here is a fact: If you hit a table length shot in the heart of the pocket on your 8 footer, it will go right in on the 9'. If you shoot the exact same shot and hit the left side of the pocket but sink it on your 8', you will miss on a 9' table. This is because what you have done is propel the object ball along the wrong angle. This angle will cause the object ball to move off line. The further it travels, the further offline it will go. Thus, on the 9' table, the ball has to move a little more than 1 additional foot to get to the pocket, and hence will be that much further off line. For this reason, a smaller table is more forgiving to a shot maker. If you spend a lot of time playing on an 8' table, I believe your shotmaking will suffer in the long run. Still, it is something you can fix with about a week or two of practice on the 9' table.

I think the position game is a whole different issue. If your speed control is good, I think position on the bigger table is easier, because you have a greater margin for error, and less congestion. I would say that for 8 ball, a 9' table is easiest, and for 9 ball, a 7' table is easiest. Actually, playing 9 ball on a 7' table is almost rediculous, because you really don't even need good position (ok position is good enough), and that is what the game is supposed to be about. There are so many variables that are different for each size table (size-duh, pocket cut, cloth, rail consistency, traffic congestion, etc.). All these variables play in together too, and they play in to your abilities. You build your game around these variables, and to that extent, you will experience difficulties going from one to the other.

My $0.02

KerryM