Mighty x drill leaving mark on cloth

Bob Jewett said:
I think the best way to prevent this is to not do the Mighty X. It's too repetitive.

Find the shots that you have the most problem with. Practice those but don't practice a single fixed shot. Have a little variation on each one, whether it's distance, angle, cue ball position.
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I disagree with you on this one.

I think the mighty x is a great drill for beginners, who are working on their stroke, or in my case, I like to end a practice session with the mighty x if I do position drills for small areas. I tend to start slow rolling shots or lose my follow through a bit while trying to finesse one or the other shot.
A few stop, draw and follow shots, help me to find my stroke again.
 
a little variation is good in the case of the X drill. Line up object balls a ball apart going toward the side rails. You do the same drill as the X but the angles change. It helps to have the same number of CB’s as OB’s. It avoids having that familiar X worn into the cloth.
 
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Here is a variation on the X that I like. Typically on the follow shots I shoot all from the kitchen. All shots will be straight in shots.


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iusedtoberich said:
One solution is you can put a strip of masking tape on the shot line and shoot over it. As a bonus, you can see if the stick lands on the line when finishing the stroke.
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That's a neat idea. I'll be giving this a try. The tape might mess with the natural speed of the cloth. but for the purposes of practicing my stroke straightness it should be ok.

Black-Balled said:
If you use it, it looks used.

I say don't sweat it, it is an earned scar.
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Love this perspective. Maybe I'm too worried about this. Still, I'd like to do what I can to respect the equipment and minimize wear when possible.

JCraig said:
The track marks on my table when doing the Mighty X were due to chalk. I was able to vacuum them out.
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I tried the cloth brush and that didn't help. The track mark is also white, while the chalk and cloth I have are blue. But I don't want to rule this out, and I'll try a hand vacuum when I get one. I've seen a bunch of people advise against vacuuming cloth though.
 
SlateMan said:
Vacuum, then wash with warm water and just a tad bit of Woolite. I've had the X come and go often on my Simonis 860.

Best of luck...
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burn marks don't vac/clean out. the heat where ball touches cloth , as high as 450deg according to Simonis, causes the dye to flash out of the fibers.
 
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Make sure your cue ball does not have any nicks, cracks, etc... All your balls for that matter. Those rough edges can really burn up the cloth with repetitive drills like that. Won't prevent it, but will slow it down considerably, at least in my experience.
 
Badpenguin said:
Make sure your cue ball does not have any nicks, cracks, etc... All your balls for that matter. Those rough edges can really burn up the cloth with repetitive drills like that. Won't prevent it, but will slow it down considerably, at least in my experience.
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not really. where the ball touches the table it gets super hot, over 450. slight imperfections in the surface won't increase/decrease that. just the nature of the beast. i was surprised when i found out how hot the contact patch is. a rolling ball is not an issue but sliding balls like stun/draw shots really get hot and burn off the color dye. crazy.
 
garczar said:
burn marks don't vac/clean out. the heat where ball touches cloth , as high as 450deg according to Simonis, causes the dye to flash out of the fibers.
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The X drill is leaving a long X on his cloth, that is not burn marks, that is dirt from the balls. When you break, or masse or smack the crap out of the cue ball, you get a burn mark in a tiny little spot. You don't see a trail of the ball on fire burning the cloth all the way down the table.
 
hkpoolguy said:
That's a neat idea. I'll be giving this a try. The tape might mess with the natural speed of the cloth. but for the purposes of practicing my stroke straightness it should be ok.


Love this perspective. Maybe I'm too worried about this. Still, I'd like to do what I can to respect the equipment and minimize wear when possible.


I tried the cloth brush and that didn't help. The track mark is also white, while the chalk and cloth I have are blue. But I don't want to rule this out, and I'll try a hand vacuum when I get one. I've seen a bunch of people advise against vacuuming cloth though.
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What cloth do you have installed?
What ball set are you using?
How often do you polish the balls?
What are you using for a polisher?
What cleaner/wax are you using to clean the balls?

All of these things will have an effect on cloth wear.
If you are using a cheap polyester ball set, that's the problem.
If it is a phenolic set, but they are dirty, that's the problem.
If you have too much polish on the balls, that's the problem.
If you don't have a good polisher, and the balls don't have a glossy luster, that's the problem.
 
hkpoolguy said:
I'm a big fan of the mighty x drill (long straight stop, draw, and follow shots across the diagonals of the table). I put donut stickies on the cloth to ensure the balls are lined up straight.

After shooting a few hundred shots over a few days, I've noticed a faint white streak starting to appear on the cloth, right along the diagonal lines where I'm doing the drill. this isn't chalk and I can't get rid of it using the table cloth brush. I'm pretty sure it's a burn mark.

Has anyone else run into this issue doing drill shots along a consistent line on the table? and if there might be some way to prevent this?
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Any repetitive shots or drills in which you start with the balls set up in the same position is going to create tracks and burn marks on your cloth, regardless of what kind of cloth you have on your table.
 
Would using a cloth under the cue ball help to not get burn marks?
I know some pool rooms Have you do that when you break
 
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You should see some of the tables here in China. Not just the old X, but it's like an abstract artwork after a while. I got a picture of one I will try to find. I usually take a picture of tables that have been used more for practicing than playing.

I would say try to mix it up a little bit. I practice a lot on one particular table, and I often practice a particular shot 10-20 times prior to every solo session or game (OB less than half a centimeter from the bottom of the long rail, about half way up it, CB on or behind the line at the top, a ball width from the rail - punching it down into 4" pockets. If I rattle most of them, and make 5 I'm happy. If I make 10 or more, I'm going to obliterate anyone I play that day)

It's a great shot for getting you feeling like terminator, but after a while, I notice that the marks left on the cloth made the drill easier. Whether it was an aim assist, it grooved the cloth or simply placebo. I don't know...
 
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I have had the same experience doing the Mighty X drill a lot. I think the marks are primarily chalk/dirt lines accompanied by some minor burn marks. You can minimize the chalk marks by often vacuuming or gently cleaning on those lines - I have the Simonis X-1 cloth cleaner and it does a great job in just a couple swipes. As others have said, if you continue to use the same exact diagonal setup position - you can’t avoid the marks. So vary your diagonal setup by as little as a half of an inch - just enough that it’s not going over the same exact spots. You can vary this setup many times by moving just a half inch or a little less. If you do all that and eventually still get prominent tracks on the cloth, it will probably be time for new cloth.
 
pt109 said:
Playing straight pool will do you more good.
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Kinda depends on what he needs wok on, no? I played a ton of straight pool back in the day and I found it to help almost every part of my game. You don't, or rather you shouldn't, get a lot of work on long draw and follow shots practicing straight pool. They come up often in rotation games and the Mighty X has helped me a lot with those shots.
 
SlateMan said:
The X drill is leaving a long X on his cloth, that is not burn marks, that is dirt from the balls. When you break, or masse or smack the crap out of the cue ball, you get a burn mark in a tiny little spot. You don't see a trail of the ball on fire burning the cloth all the way down the table.
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I must be doing it wrong then...though I have figured out how to eliminate the roll-off.
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