personal best

JayBates

JayBates

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
we just started up our local tournaments again. 8 weeks every friday, place 1-3 and you are qualified for the added tournament on week 9. i have been practicing more often now because of this. this 8 weeks is 8 ball. BCA rules except no 3 foul rule and you get whatever drops on the break, instead of it being open. anyway, while practicing last night i ran a 3 pack in 8 ball (personal best in 8 ball). 2 balls away from being a 4 pack but had to start with a cluster filled table after my break. the best i have done in 9 ball is a 5 pack on a bar box. probably could not do it again, it was right after they put new cloth down on all the tables and the balls were breaking soooooo good. i was reading the thread about how everyone used to be better than they are and got to wondering. im playing the best pool of my life, im 21 and picked up pool when i got my players on my 19th birthday. a friend of mine said i would probably be an apa 6 or 7. im not sure if that is good or not. i have no experience with any league play bc i live in the sticks of Mississippi. i tried to search for player rankings but couldnt find anything, maybe im searching for the wrong words. what do you guys think A B + C players play like? shortstops?
thanks,
jay
 
acording to sjm....b+ ~ A. i can beat the 6 ball ghost regularly....9 ball is about 50-50....
6's and 7's being top tier league players? i think hes full of it, i dont think i play at that level.
thanks for the thread
Jay
 
midnightpulp said:
Check this thread out:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=77324

Apa 6's and 7's, I believe are top tier league rankings. B+, A. Not sure though.
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There are APA 7's who are C players, and there are APA 7's who are short-stops. I'm a 7 myself, and I think I'm in the B player range. I don't string racks... ever. But give me an open layout, and I am a favorite to get out.

Anyway, a 3-pack in 8-ball and a 5-pack in 9-ball is extremely strong. If those aren't exaggerations, that's definitely A player territory. But that's a big IF in my opinion. I think the number of people who claim to have run 5 racks of 9-ball is probably 5-10 times larger than the number of people who have really done it.

-Andrew
 
Andrew Manning said:
There are APA 7's who are C players, and there are APA 7's who are short-stops. I'm a 7 myself, and I think I'm in the B player range. I don't string racks... ever. But give me an open layout, and I am a favorite to get out.

Anyway, a 3-pack in 8-ball and a 5-pack in 9-ball is extremely strong. If those aren't exaggerations, that's definitely A player territory. But that's a big IF in my opinion. I think the number of people who claim to have run 5 racks of 9-ball is probably 5-10 times larger than the number of people who have really done it.

-Andrew
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lol i do agree, many of the locals have "done it all". no its not an exaggeration BUT they are both on bar boxes. id have to drive an hour to get on a big table. i have played on a 9 foot baybe 10-15 hours in my life, and none of it was pretty. the 5 pack was with perfect layouts after every break. nothing fancy by means of shooting, every shot was just sitting there if you know what i mean.
thanks,
jay
 
Andrew Manning said:
There are APA 7's who are C players, and there are APA 7's who are short-stops. I'm a 7 myself, and I think I'm in the B player range. I don't string racks... ever. But give me an open layout, and I am a favorite to get out.

Anyway, a 3-pack in 8-ball and a 5-pack in 9-ball is extremely strong. If those aren't exaggerations, that's definitely A player territory. But that's a big IF in my opinion. I think the number of people who claim to have run 5 racks of 9-ball is probably 5-10 times larger than the number of people who have really done it.

-Andrew
Click to expand...

Can't agree more.
 
One way to grade yourself is using Joe Tucker's 10-Ball drill. Joe posted the drill in another thread and it's also in his highly praised "Racking Secrets" book and DVD.

The rating system is, of course, still subjective in that not everyone will agree with his letter distribution, but at least it's some kind of standard to go off of. Personally, I have found that I rate lower on his scale than I would be rated in my local pool halls, but there will surely be other local areas that rate people differently from mine.

The idea of the drill is to rack 10-ball, break and take ball in hand. If you scratch on the break, there is no point penalty, except that you must spot any balls that you made on the break. Take ball in hand and try to run out.

If you make the 10-ball early, leave it down and keep running until you miss, scratch or pocket all the balls. Once you miss, scratch or finish the rack, count up the number of balls you made on that rack and that's your score for the rack. (If you fouled on your last shot, don't count any balls made on that shot.)

Play 10 racks. Maximum score is 100 over 10 racks, and the idea is to keep a running average of multiple 10-rack sessions. Here's his breakdown:

Pro ........ 70 and above
AAA ....... 65-70
AA ......... 60-65
A ........... 55-60
BB .......... 50-55
B ........... 45-50
CC ......... 40-45
C ........... 35-40
DD ......... 30-35

Obviously, this doesn't factor in defensive skills which are a part of a player's speed, but this drill can give you a gauge of offensive run-out skills combined with breaking. The drill has been humbling me over the past few months, but at least I have a number that I can try to improve upon.
 
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Neil said:
Has anyone else tried this? I just did, and I was rather shocked. I had several racks with tied-up balls that I couldn't get at. After seeing where I placed on the scale, the scale seems a little off to me. Shouldn't the scores be higher for each category? Any one else agree?
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I felt like absolute garbage after playing it for the first time just a few months ago. I wonder if simply trying something new made me dog it. I don't think I've improved significantly since then, but my score on the drill has tremendously (although still nothing to brag about). I think my 10-ball break has improved though, which makes a huge difference (thanks Joe Tucker).

Some have said it isn't an accurate test, but perhaps that's because not everyone will agree on how good an A player, for example, should play. Of course, any of these tests will vary based on equipment too.

So you found that you scored lower than you expected or higher?
 
as one previous poster mentioned, all these drills are guages of a players offensive abilities. Its good to know where you stand in your ability to run out, but a players true speed is judged as much in how he plays racks which have no run outs available as the racks that are spread wide open. for instance- i consider myself an A player in 9 ball, but i think the biggest difference from myself to an average pro is in the "muck" racks (safes, kicks, kick safes, ect) a good pro is far more consistent in these areas than i am. if the rack is spread open, either one of us is going to get out. JMHO
 
Neil said:
I felt I scored way higher than I should have.
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Wow! Good work. :D

Let me know if/how it changes over time if you decide to keep doing the drill. My best score was over 4x my worst score :eek:, but better players probably won't see such an extreme variation as I have.
 
I'm a strong SL7 in 8B and a frequent divisional top shooter. Running 3 racks in a row is a strong SL7.

If you play against other SL7s and your races to 5 are less than 25 innings total (total match time about 30 minutes), then...IMO, that is a normal SL7 match. A strong SL7 would win 5 games in about 5 innings or less. Unless, you like to play a lot of safeties.

I get tired of running racks. So, I like to play 8B strategically while challenging myself on each shot. During the beginning of a game, I generally look to get my balls nearest the pockets while placing the cue ball in a difficult position for my opponent. This takes creativity to see the shot, and skill to execute it. I find that playing safety shots are more difficult than pocketing balls...but that is because I am trying to freeze the cue ball on other balls.

I won't say my personal best for strings of racks because no one would believe me. Besides, like one member stated....running racks isn't a good judge of skill level. I feel that I am a much more skilled player now, than when I was a B&R artist.
 
Rating

Playing the ghost, or taking cue ball in hand after the break is hardly a test of yourself overall, only of your ability to run balls, unfortunately, there are many more aspects to the sport.

To a real player, getting cue ball in hand after the break, doesn't really count in their books.

Breaking and running consecutive racks like you would in a match is what counts.

3 racks in 8 ball, and 5 in 9 ball would be a B level in my books.
Doing it more than 5 times would make you a B+. That means both of them, not just one of them.

Running 5 or more racks in 8 ball, and 8 or more racks in 9 ball
would be an A level player. Doing it more than 5 times would make you an A+ level player. That means both of them, not just one.

What shows up more in 14.1 than 8 ball or 9 ball is the ability to reason, mental strategy and performance. You could be playing someone in 8 ball and your shooting might appear to be close when your opponent might be head and shoulders above you on his mental game, that's where the defensive end comes in...... Watch out for the ole guys, especially if they say, "You don't know what you don't know".
 
Snapshot9 said:
3 racks in 8 ball, and 5 in 9 ball would be a B level in my books.
Doing it more than 5 times would make you a B+. That means both of them, not just one of them.

Running 5 or more racks in 8 ball, and 8 or more racks in 9 ball
would be an A level player. Doing it more than 5 times would make you an A+ level player. That means both of them, not just one.
Click to expand...

running 5 racks of 9 ball in a row more than 5 times makes you a B plus player....dude you have got to hook me up with the guy you get your drugs from, because that is some good stuff.
 
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