To my surprise, that may just be the case. I play 8-ball and the APA fall session started up this week and I decided to join a team again. I took the summer session off because at the end of the spring session I was playing just awfull. I am an APA6 and I was losing to 3's and 4's. I had lost the desire to win, couldn't run two balls in a row, I had given up before I ever got to the table. It got so bad that I didn't even show up for the last match of the session.
After that I took about a month off from the game, I didn't even pull my cue out of it's case to look at it. During that time though I had decided to buy a pool table so I could practice at home and come back stronger than when I left. I sold my furniture to make room for the table [I am single, I can do that] and bought a sweet 9' Gandy Big "G", slapped some Simonis 760 on it and have been playing on it ever since. I did drills, practiced my mechanics and against my roommate when he was in the mood. The table plays well as long as you don't try to over power the pockets, the rails are consistant and the cloth is fast as hell. I didn't get the pockets shimmed cuz I wanted it to be fun for everyone to playon but it is still a hard table at times. Well after months of playing on it I saw what I felt were modest improvements. I fixed some stroke flaws but in my opinion I wasn't making the progress that I wanted to see.
Well a couple of weeks ago, a former teammate and another friend convinced me to go up to the pool hall with him and shoot some so I did, and to my suprise I did more than just hold my own, we weren't playing for money but I think I lost all of 3 matches that night, and we were there for about 4 hours. Needless to say, I was shocked, but I figured he wasn't playing all that well. Thing is, they recovered the table and shimmed the pockets, I wasn't used to nor expecting that but I played fairly well. We went back a week later and I was still playing well, this time he was playing better and kept up with me, until we switched to straight pool, which I also play, it took him a while to get the hang of that.
Anyway, I went to the hall on Wednesday to join a team. I got picked up by a team that needed a high ranked player and was pulled to play the second match. I was playing an APA5 so it was a 5-4 race. He won the lag because I wasn't used to the new rails they installed, they were very lively. The frist game went down to the 8-ball, he missed it, I ran my 2 and out. The next game I got the 8 on the break, then I won the next three, no break and runs, but low innings for sure. I couldn't belive it. It felt so good to be out there again and winning with authority again.
I learned that I don't suck, but my table is impossible to play on. So far it seems that my plan to improve my game has worked. We'll see as the season progresses.
After that I took about a month off from the game, I didn't even pull my cue out of it's case to look at it. During that time though I had decided to buy a pool table so I could practice at home and come back stronger than when I left. I sold my furniture to make room for the table [I am single, I can do that] and bought a sweet 9' Gandy Big "G", slapped some Simonis 760 on it and have been playing on it ever since. I did drills, practiced my mechanics and against my roommate when he was in the mood. The table plays well as long as you don't try to over power the pockets, the rails are consistant and the cloth is fast as hell. I didn't get the pockets shimmed cuz I wanted it to be fun for everyone to playon but it is still a hard table at times. Well after months of playing on it I saw what I felt were modest improvements. I fixed some stroke flaws but in my opinion I wasn't making the progress that I wanted to see.
Well a couple of weeks ago, a former teammate and another friend convinced me to go up to the pool hall with him and shoot some so I did, and to my suprise I did more than just hold my own, we weren't playing for money but I think I lost all of 3 matches that night, and we were there for about 4 hours. Needless to say, I was shocked, but I figured he wasn't playing all that well. Thing is, they recovered the table and shimmed the pockets, I wasn't used to nor expecting that but I played fairly well. We went back a week later and I was still playing well, this time he was playing better and kept up with me, until we switched to straight pool, which I also play, it took him a while to get the hang of that.
Anyway, I went to the hall on Wednesday to join a team. I got picked up by a team that needed a high ranked player and was pulled to play the second match. I was playing an APA5 so it was a 5-4 race. He won the lag because I wasn't used to the new rails they installed, they were very lively. The frist game went down to the 8-ball, he missed it, I ran my 2 and out. The next game I got the 8 on the break, then I won the next three, no break and runs, but low innings for sure. I couldn't belive it. It felt so good to be out there again and winning with authority again.
I learned that I don't suck, but my table is impossible to play on. So far it seems that my plan to improve my game has worked. We'll see as the season progresses.
