I live about a 30 minute drive to my regular pool hall. Ok, the only pool hall for like 100 miles.
My wife has decided that I can’t drive there daily to practice and I don’t have a table of my own.
So I thought to myself, “hey, I live in a college town and there are 3 bars each with a couple of 8’ barboxes.
I could go practice there”.
The best time for me is 2:30 when I get of work.
Well college kids don’t wake up until mid-afternoon so I have to wait until the bar opens up at 3:00.
But that is still 2 hours before my wife gets off work so I still got time.
Day one I chose “Goofy’s” a small bar with two valley’s each with bowling ball sized cue balls.
I don’t bother ever hitting anything into a rail because, well what’s the point, no telling where it will go from there.
Anyway I work on my fundamentals and order a beer.
I pay cash because it would be way too much trouble to run a
tab on the only person in the bar without holding on to his credit card.
To her credit she did ask if I need another beer when the “white Bocce Ball” got away from me and
caromed of the rail and went in the direction of the bar.
She lifted her head from her cell phone “you doin’ ok?”.
Oh I am great but decided that tomorrow I will try the bar across the street.
Day two at 3:00 I stroll into my “new” practice palace. 3 table here! 1 Valley and 2 other similar to valleys.
I chose the table farthest away from the 2 guys eating lunch and playing pool.
One guy keeps looking at me funny but that’s probably because I have my own cue so I must think I am better than him.
This time I did order my beer first and then went to the table.
Only to turn around and go back to the bar because even though it is a coin op they keep the balls at the bar.
She hands me a box of balls.
Hey, an aramith green logo ball. That’s doable. Well wait a minute!
Why do I have two 6 balls? And two 13 balls? And what the hell is this crap all over the one ball?
Its like a black gummy coating all over it and I didn’t notice it all over the eight also because of the color.
Alright whatever, I am here for fundamentals, right?
So I do my workout routine and pocket all 13 balls. (one and eight still in the box)
I drop the balls for $0.75 and 5 balls come out. Hmmm.
I look at my cue and I look up the little black hole where the balls should be and I look back at my cue.
I gently lean my cue against the wall and grab a bar cue, you know the kind with the slip over the top tip.
I point it to the fore mentioned hole and I ram it home.
I managed to get a few more balls out.
I ram it again with a little finesse and several more balls came out. Golden!
I grab a few and place them on the table, then a few more, then a few more, what the…
I now have 21 balls plus the cue ball and the sticky balls in still in the box.
Well this inspires me to extend my practice session for a while longer.
But the excitement doesn’t last (and my beer was empty) so I returned all 23 ball to the bar
with a promise to return tomorrow.
Day three at the same bar same table, different balls?
Apparently each table has its own set of balls.
I don’t know if the set I have now is correct or if yesterday was
but what the hell there is no black sticky stuff on this set.
So off I go to dive into today’s routine.
Now the wonderful Scott Lee told me that little white paper reinforcements are a great tool when
practicing because you can set up the same shot over and over again.
As I mentioned before this is a college town, well the young men and women that will shape our future
have painstakingly pre-marked the table with all the shot indicators I could need.
They have even marked whole areas for my “zone” positioning. Fabulous!
So I have been getting real good at the shot where todays blue dot cue ball
(at least it is of similar size) is resting on the small tear in the cloth and the
object ball is on the brownish squiggle just past the side pocket.
Seriously working on my Set, Pause, Finish with good results, considering…
I have even isolated a flaw in my stroke that I am struggling to fix but that should be a different thread.
In the days to come I hope to continue my practice routine with positive results.
Even with the equipment challenges I think that the daily practice is way better
than trying to squeeze in a practice routine before my weekly league match.
I am sure we all have run into similar situations as I described here but
I thought it would be fun to share and it is funny to me because these bars are literally
one mile from my home but the conditions have deteriorated greatly since I was of college age.
p.s. A huge thanks to Scott for providing me with the tools to make my practice meaningful. He came to town last November and it was a great experience.
Thanks for reading,
Whitey
My wife has decided that I can’t drive there daily to practice and I don’t have a table of my own.
So I thought to myself, “hey, I live in a college town and there are 3 bars each with a couple of 8’ barboxes.
I could go practice there”.
The best time for me is 2:30 when I get of work.
Well college kids don’t wake up until mid-afternoon so I have to wait until the bar opens up at 3:00.
But that is still 2 hours before my wife gets off work so I still got time.
Day one I chose “Goofy’s” a small bar with two valley’s each with bowling ball sized cue balls.
I don’t bother ever hitting anything into a rail because, well what’s the point, no telling where it will go from there.
Anyway I work on my fundamentals and order a beer.
I pay cash because it would be way too much trouble to run a
tab on the only person in the bar without holding on to his credit card.
To her credit she did ask if I need another beer when the “white Bocce Ball” got away from me and
caromed of the rail and went in the direction of the bar.
She lifted her head from her cell phone “you doin’ ok?”.
Oh I am great but decided that tomorrow I will try the bar across the street.
Day two at 3:00 I stroll into my “new” practice palace. 3 table here! 1 Valley and 2 other similar to valleys.
I chose the table farthest away from the 2 guys eating lunch and playing pool.
One guy keeps looking at me funny but that’s probably because I have my own cue so I must think I am better than him.
This time I did order my beer first and then went to the table.
Only to turn around and go back to the bar because even though it is a coin op they keep the balls at the bar.
She hands me a box of balls.
Hey, an aramith green logo ball. That’s doable. Well wait a minute!
Why do I have two 6 balls? And two 13 balls? And what the hell is this crap all over the one ball?
Its like a black gummy coating all over it and I didn’t notice it all over the eight also because of the color.
Alright whatever, I am here for fundamentals, right?
So I do my workout routine and pocket all 13 balls. (one and eight still in the box)
I drop the balls for $0.75 and 5 balls come out. Hmmm.
I look at my cue and I look up the little black hole where the balls should be and I look back at my cue.
I gently lean my cue against the wall and grab a bar cue, you know the kind with the slip over the top tip.
I point it to the fore mentioned hole and I ram it home.
I managed to get a few more balls out.
I ram it again with a little finesse and several more balls came out. Golden!
I grab a few and place them on the table, then a few more, then a few more, what the…
I now have 21 balls plus the cue ball and the sticky balls in still in the box.
Well this inspires me to extend my practice session for a while longer.
But the excitement doesn’t last (and my beer was empty) so I returned all 23 ball to the bar
with a promise to return tomorrow.
Day three at the same bar same table, different balls?
Apparently each table has its own set of balls.
I don’t know if the set I have now is correct or if yesterday was
but what the hell there is no black sticky stuff on this set.
So off I go to dive into today’s routine.
Now the wonderful Scott Lee told me that little white paper reinforcements are a great tool when
practicing because you can set up the same shot over and over again.
As I mentioned before this is a college town, well the young men and women that will shape our future
have painstakingly pre-marked the table with all the shot indicators I could need.
They have even marked whole areas for my “zone” positioning. Fabulous!
So I have been getting real good at the shot where todays blue dot cue ball
(at least it is of similar size) is resting on the small tear in the cloth and the
object ball is on the brownish squiggle just past the side pocket.
Seriously working on my Set, Pause, Finish with good results, considering…
I have even isolated a flaw in my stroke that I am struggling to fix but that should be a different thread.
In the days to come I hope to continue my practice routine with positive results.
Even with the equipment challenges I think that the daily practice is way better
than trying to squeeze in a practice routine before my weekly league match.
I am sure we all have run into similar situations as I described here but
I thought it would be fun to share and it is funny to me because these bars are literally
one mile from my home but the conditions have deteriorated greatly since I was of college age.
p.s. A huge thanks to Scott for providing me with the tools to make my practice meaningful. He came to town last November and it was a great experience.
Thanks for reading,
Whitey
