Is breaking a full rack of balls damaging my hearing???

Maniac

Maniac

2manyQ's
Silver Member
I've just started noticing this a couple of months ago, first on the home table and now even at the poolhall that whenever I break a full rack of balls, there is a noticeable feeling in my ears that is hard to describe. It is a quick, sharp pain that almost feels like a vibration effect going on in my inner ear. It makes me twinge a little bit. Very uncomfortable. I was wondering and appealling to all AZB'ers if anyone knows what decibel level the breaking a rack of balls puts out and if anyone else has ever had this problem or has any concerns about it?

I'm wondering if I should start wearing earplugs when I play (at least when I break).

Any comments or information would be greatly appreciated!!!

Maniac
 
i have always plugged my ears when someone else i breaking and it hurts my ears, they are sensitive. I dont have great hearing, its average or a bit less than average. Since I dont break hard I dot have a problem when i break
 
sometimes

Sometimes when i play a guy who breaks real well it hurts my ears. After a while the pain increases then seems to travel down to my wallet area...
 
I wonder the same about the sound of wind passing my ears when I ride my bicycle. It gets kinda loud.

I think we are both safeish
 
Gotta love when they break right as your putting the triangle back in the table and your head is right next to the rack.

PLEASE WAIT TO BREAK AFTER I HAVE STEPPED AWAY! lol.
 
Exactly the same thing happened to me a few years back.
I even played for a while with ear plugs.
Soon after I developed tinnitus,(constant ringing in the ears).
Funny thing is, now the break doesn't bother me as much.
 
motic said:
Gotta love when they break right as your putting the triangle back in the table and your head is right next to the rack.

PLEASE WAIT TO BREAK AFTER I HAVE STEPPED AWAY! lol.
Click to expand...

Danger of flying cue balls too :frown:

Lay your cue on the table while you are racking then they can't break until you pick it up and walk away
 
motic said:
Gotta love when they break right as your putting the triangle back in the table and your head is right next to the rack.

PLEASE WAIT TO BREAK AFTER I HAVE STEPPED AWAY! lol.
Click to expand...

That's when, in your fit of trying to get out of the way, you fling -- and I mean f'ing HARD! -- the rack triangle at your opponent, like a frisbee. When you suspect your opponent is going to smash the cue ball as soon as you lift the rack, curl your hand at the top of the rack's apex, and grip like a frisbee as you begin to lift it. As soon as you lift -- and your opponent wallops the cue ball -- fling your wrist at him and go for center mass, stepping away from the table with both arms outstretched as if you're surprised he hit the cue ball so soon. RESULT: The rotating corners of the spinning triangle will definitely bruise the sternum or any arm bones that are flung up in a defensive posture.

When the breaker shouts "WTF?!?" at you, make like you yourself were surprised and show how it was a reaction to get out of the way -- almost like if while falling you throw out whatever's in your hands so that your hands are free to stop your fall.

They'll only do that a couple of times -- getting hit by the spinning triangle like a Shuriken each time -- before they get the message to allow you to step away from the table.

-Sean <-- yep, has actually done this, and had the backing of others in the place who were also p*ssed at the antsy breaker
 
motic said:
Gotta love when they break right as your putting the triangle back in the table and your head is right next to the rack.

PLEASE WAIT TO BREAK AFTER I HAVE STEPPED AWAY! lol.
Click to expand...

Next time you play somebody who does that, bring your cue to the table when you rack and leave it on there until you are done. Then pick it up, leaving the tip on the cloth until you are well out of the way. Pisses them off, but they have to wait for your cue to clear the rails before they hit the CB.
 
Maniac said:
I've just started noticing this a couple of months ago, first on the home table and now even at the poolhall that whenever I break a full rack of balls, there is a noticeable feeling in my ears that is hard to describe. It is a quick, sharp pain that almost feels like a vibration effect going on in my inner ear. It makes me twinge a little bit. Very uncomfortable. I was wondering and appealling to all AZB'ers if anyone knows what decibel level the breaking a rack of balls puts out and if anyone else has ever had this problem or has any concerns about it?

I'm wondering if I should start wearing earplugs when I play (at least when I break).

Any comments or information would be greatly appreciated!!!

Maniac
Click to expand...

Maniac:

Don't know what to tell you other than you should make an appointment with your family physician about this, or at least mention this at your annual physical.

You may have the beginning symptoms of tinnitus (where loud sounds cause actual pain like this -- the constant ringing in the ears follows in later symptoms). Or some other hearing disorder.

A breakshot is loud, yes, but I don't believe it's of a decibel level that should cause physical discomfort. Being in the vicinity of a gunshot without hearing protection, yes. Being in the vicinity of a cherry bomb, M-80, or BlockBuster blast without hearing protection, yes. But a pool breakshot? I'm not so sure.

Get it checked out. The worst that can happen is that you wasted some of your time in your doctor's waiting room. The best that can happen is that you caught something before it becomes much worse.

-Sean <-- experiences a significant drop in the ability to hear in the 400Hz range (as shown in audiograms) due to being around 400Hz electrical power in the US Navy for so many years
 
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See Earl "The Squirrle" Strickland


This should fix all your problems!!!!!!!!!!
 

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sfleinen said:
-Sean <-- experiences a significant drop in the ability to hear in the 400Hz range (as shown in audiograms) due to being around 400Hz electrical power in the US Navy for so many years
Click to expand...

Sean, I remember when I could walk into a customers home and "hear" the TV set running with no volume on. The 10K horizontal oscillator would drive me nuts (OK, it wasn't a drive but a short putt but anyway....). Now with Tinnitus in both ears rather than one, can't hear it anymore.

Like some other posters, I leave my cue at the table till I'm finished racking. Even when it's "rack your own".

Lyn
 
Maniac said:
It is a quick, sharp pain that almost feels like a vibration effect going on in my inner ear.
Click to expand...

I think you're describing a little ear discomfort, which is different than actual ear pain (the later is the result of >125dB noise, the former is an indication that you're getting close to the damaging range). You also mention that you don't break hard enough to cause the discomfort, which implies you're even farther away from the noise source (when your opponent is breaking). Given that situation I wouldn't worry about it too much.

A break would have to be exceptionally loud to cause hearing loss due to a number of factors: 1) extremely short exposure to the noise (less than 1 second), 2) distance from the noise, 3) mid frequency range of the break (higher frequencies are more damaging than lower ones). The noise would have to be over the 120dB level, and I would guess that it would have to be quite a bit over that level due to the factors I listed above. As a point of reference an alarm clock is 80dB. The difference between 80dB and 120dB is 10000 times more power, and perceptively to humans a 120dB noise is 16x louder than an 80dB noise.

I think at the end of the day you have to realize people have been playing pool for a long time. If the break was causing hearing loss then people with the most exposure to the loudest breaks, professionals, would develop significant hearing loss long before any amateur.
 
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