Help with Pool Experiment / Part 4

David Marcus

David Marcus

"not bad,for a blind man"
Silver Member
Need your help again...part 4

I would like to test a theory with the help of my fellow AZers. My theory is based on the premise that ranking a player as an A,B or C is at the very best subjective depending on where your own playing level is and just as importantly how you "perceive" your own playing level to be.
I would also submit that depending on where in the country or in the world that you play weighs in to your "regional ranking" system. Is an A player in Chicago the same as an A player in the South or vice versa?
Thirdly the question is whether you can accurately judge a players level simply by watching a brief sample of them playing or practicing?
I'll be very curious to hear what each of you think. Please watch the video below and post on this thread the level of player you think you are watching. Please try to stick to straight whole letter grades for the sake of this exercise.
Thanks in advance for your assistance in this experiment.

http://youtu.be/kX6-o5zEE2c
 
Last edited:
I have come to this conclusion.......Crocs give a pool player certain powers. This is why I ONLY wear them while playing pool. They must be worn without socks for this power to be transferred throughout the body.

Good shooting.
 
David Marcus said:
Thirdly the question is whether you can accurately judge a players level simply by watching a brief sample of them playing or practicing?
Click to expand...

I think that you can easily separate players into 3 groups fairly easily and quickly (assuming player being watched is (IS) playing at skill level): A) way better than I am, B) Competitive with me, C) I can beat them.

I could tell Darren Appleton was way (Way WAY) better than I am in less than 2 minutes.
I can tell league players are in catagory B or C in just a couple of strokes, and in catagory A in less than 5 minutes.
 
Follow up question please...

Start @ 7:25, examine the layout and tell me if you would have done things differently?

Would you have pushed, played safe or what? :confused:
 
David Marcus said:
Start @ 7:25, examine the layout and tell me if you would have done things differently?

Would you have pushed, played safe or what? :confused:
Click to expand...

The bank on the 1 was a good offensive choice, there were a couple of safes from there for somebody who doesn't like the bank. The rest of the rack was a cosmo. I like drawing the 7 as opposed to going forward, you could have hit the 8 and stuck, rack over. But a good out with a nice starting shot.
Chuck
 
we need to know the conditions to judge a player.

For instance, there are A players and even some shortstops that when playing on hard times table 1 look like B players at best.

Jaden
 
David Marcus said:
Start @ 7:25, examine the layout and tell me if you would have done things differently?

Would you have pushed, played safe or what? :confused:
Click to expand...

I agree with some others, no way I would push but attempting a bank there is only slightly better than pushing IMO. It looks (which watching on film can be deceiving) that you could have played safe via shooting 1 short of side pocket and down off bottom rail and hiding 1 behind the 9,4,3 and possible cue ball behind the 5. That's what I would have tried anyways.

Good Luck
 
Your correct in your evaluation that rating some one is subjective according to the competition. The player in the video if compared to a pro would be a C player imo. Getting to the 7 was abc pool after the "roll out" but not getting to the 8 was C play. On the other hand it looked like he was just banging balls so how good is he really.
 
David Marcus said:
So, even though the player runs out, it's still the wrong shot?? :confused:
Click to expand...

The wrong shot is the shot you will go broke shooting...

If the make on the bank is 50% and it's not shot as 2way with that layout you are even money shooting it to run out... factor in the fact you could get safe if you miss maybe 10% of the time you are now 60% shooting the shot....

If there was a safety that was pretty much a lock down and could be executed 80% of the time... Like following and sticking to the 5 while rolling the 1 down the table you then factor in your oppoenet getting lucky 10% of the time and you are 70% winner for shooting the safe....

With those percentages the abnk is the wrong shot... However safe players die broke too and the one ball cross may be something the player felt was a 90%er and the player also might not be 80% on that type of safety lagging onto the 5 ball.... In that insatance it would not be the wrong shot...

I would bet that watching professionals shooting that rack that there would be a huge majority of them who shoot the safe... Thats why I would rate the player on the video as a C if they would shot that under fire... This was for fun so I'd likely have fired at it as well.......

Overall the player has pretty good control and touch but the tempo and PSR are a give away along with the missed shots being shot before even settling sollidly on the shot line and dwelling on the shot long enough to execute... either the player is A) goofing off or B) A recreational player who loves the game but doesn't have to pay for judgement lapses very often because he doesn't get into the grease....

The biggest give away was the speed up when the rack was about to be ran.. You could see the tempo increase just watching the 8- 9 so it apers to me that running racks is still not super common to the point that the player doesn't have a physiological response to the event....

The bridge work does look good so that would tell me the player has some time in and might grind like a B if they tighten up but I don't see it from the short clip.....

Chris

Nice rack template btw =)
 
David Marcus said:
So, even though the player runs out, it's still the wrong shot?? :confused:
Click to expand...

It can be..... Lol
You got out, so thats all that really matters. That said, the bank on the 1 and getting position on the 2 with that table lay is probably a 2-3 out of 10 kind of shot. Mainly because of the 5 ball which you almost hit. With a little more right, you could have even hit the pile and stuck etc etc. Lots of stuff could have gone wrong.
So yes, the bank was a good offensive shot, but there were a few different safes that were higher percentage with less problems attached.
Chuck
 
David Marcus said:
So, even though the player runs out, it's still the wrong shot?? :confused:
Click to expand...

Yes.

This is exactly what I meant in your second thread when I said you think this game is about pocketing balls. A vast majority of people think this game is about pocketing balls. The fact of the matter is that this game has very little to do with pocketing balls.

You can't hear Jimi.
 
BIH at 12:25 don't think I would have played it from there.

Play to the middle bag shorter distance and avoid using the rail and hitting the black.
Would offer a better degree of control imho.
 
David Marcus said:
So, even though the player runs out, it's still the wrong shot?? :confused:
Click to expand...

What the others above said. Just for kicks, the next time you're at the table, shoot that shot with that layout 10 times and let us know how many times it went in. Two to 3 times? With the cue ball flying, how many times did you get open on the 2 after making the 1? How many times did you leave the 1 open for your opponent after missing it? Wouldn't you think a simple safety would have been a lot safer?

If I were your opponent, I would want you to take that shot all day.
 
David Marcus said:
So, even though the player runs out, it's still the wrong shot?? :confused:
Click to expand...

Yep....because of the bank shot, waaaaaaaaaay to much traffic up/down and a scratch also comes into play with the upper l/h corner. If I choose to bank the one I'd rather play shape below the two ball, that way I could control the bank angle better with draw ''too much traffic and cue ball movement with the run out at 7:25. If I took the safe route because of the score or my opponents skill level, I'd of froze him on the ball by the one. The shot that I liked was utilizing draw with a small amount of low left, carom off the ball by the side pocket and draw three around to the long rail for the two stopper straight in for the three ball. The pic appears to show the carom in the side to work, because of the speed needed to draw three around comfortably.
 
The shot most talked about in this thread for those who haven't watched the video.

Capture.JPG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top