One of the last major issues I have left to tackle is that I sometimes hit the cueball too hard. I do this a lot when I'm trying to break up a straight pool rack, especially when I'm playing on bar tables. If I'm not perfect the OB will rattle out.
Is there a rule of thumb for maximum cueball speed, or something to that effect?
Based on my experience, I don't think there can be a universal rule or formula for this because I found different tables to be more or less forgiving of the hard hit.
I think what Niel said (don't hit harder than you need to to accomplish the task) is pretty good advice. It's not really that simple though is it?
I just lost a hill-hill tournament match on Tuesday by hitting too hard and rattling the pocket with just three balls left on the table. I had gotten a little too straight on the third to last ball. I could say I "needed" to hit it that hard to get the position I "wanted". But I forgot the rule that good position doesn't help much if you miss the shot. I should have just pocketed the ball with a smooth easy stroke and taken the resulting position, which still most likely would have been good enough. Left my opponent a 3/4 table length cut shot on the 8 that he could have missed, but didn't.
After the match he asked "Why did you hit it so hard? Could have just ..." He was so right and I felt pretty stupid. We both knew I had the match in my hands.
Problem in my mind was that the smooth easy stroke seemed like it wanted to bring the cue right over to the rail. So that was my (probably incorrect) mental justification for slamming the hell out of it. In retrospect I think it was one of those setups that looked much easier than it really was.
Such a shame because I had made some great shots and some good runouts in the match but because of that and a few other errors in cue ball speed I lost the whole match.
What a sob story. Sorry. Just try to leave angles so you never have to hit it so hard. As you've experienced, some tables are very unforgiving of the hard hit. Give up some position if you have to or think of a different strategy.