Aloha all,
For the last year or so, I've been playing on tables with Simonis 860 and VERY lively rails and it seemed my game was struggling a lot of the time, even after hitting the balls around for a few hours once a week.
I thought I knew one of the reasons and it turned out to be correct. After playing so many years on "old-school" tables and then quitting for MANY years, I never got accustomed to the "new-school" playing conditions. My stroke was "conditioned" back when you had to "let the dogs out" on a lot of shots and that is a "WHOLE" different stroke than bunting them around the way they do today.
Long story short.
Yesterday, I picked a table that was recently recovered but it had old-school-style cloth on it. I walked in and hit a couple racks before my usual playing buddy came in and I broke and ran the first two racks without ever hitting a ball on that table before.
It took a LOT more effort to move the ball around the table, but the table may be the "truest" table that I've played on in there. I never saw a ball roll off or a ball come off of the rail "funny".
I think going from the fast table to this table comepletely worsened my buddy's game instead of making it get better, like mine was. He doesn't have the "stroke" to handle all the "power" shots it takes to get around the table. My position play was getting better and better each game, because I could finally somewhat "control" the table, instead of it controlling me.
It was a pleasant change to actually be able to fire balls into the pockets and "float" the cueball instead of having to plink it around like pachinko balls.
Bring back POWER POOL!!! That is what made pool EXCITING!! When you see somebody power-draw a ball lengthwise up and down the table a few rails on a SLOW table then it makes it a bit more impressive to me. That is NOT to imply that all my playing was IMPRESSIVE yesterday, but it brought back memories of the way pool was played many years ago when conditions weren't the "same" as today.
In edit: One thing else that stands out a LOT more on a slow table is the break. If you can break, make a ball, and control the cueball all in the same process on a slow table, you have a hell of a lot of advantage over somebody without a "power" stroke. I was killing my buddy on the break...I was making 2 and 3 balls sometimes and controlling the cueball in the middle of the table the majoritiy of the time. He was having trouble just making a ball on the break...you had to hit them HARD to make them spread.
For the last year or so, I've been playing on tables with Simonis 860 and VERY lively rails and it seemed my game was struggling a lot of the time, even after hitting the balls around for a few hours once a week.
I thought I knew one of the reasons and it turned out to be correct. After playing so many years on "old-school" tables and then quitting for MANY years, I never got accustomed to the "new-school" playing conditions. My stroke was "conditioned" back when you had to "let the dogs out" on a lot of shots and that is a "WHOLE" different stroke than bunting them around the way they do today.
Long story short.
Yesterday, I picked a table that was recently recovered but it had old-school-style cloth on it. I walked in and hit a couple racks before my usual playing buddy came in and I broke and ran the first two racks without ever hitting a ball on that table before.
It took a LOT more effort to move the ball around the table, but the table may be the "truest" table that I've played on in there. I never saw a ball roll off or a ball come off of the rail "funny".
I think going from the fast table to this table comepletely worsened my buddy's game instead of making it get better, like mine was. He doesn't have the "stroke" to handle all the "power" shots it takes to get around the table. My position play was getting better and better each game, because I could finally somewhat "control" the table, instead of it controlling me.
It was a pleasant change to actually be able to fire balls into the pockets and "float" the cueball instead of having to plink it around like pachinko balls.
Bring back POWER POOL!!! That is what made pool EXCITING!! When you see somebody power-draw a ball lengthwise up and down the table a few rails on a SLOW table then it makes it a bit more impressive to me. That is NOT to imply that all my playing was IMPRESSIVE yesterday, but it brought back memories of the way pool was played many years ago when conditions weren't the "same" as today.
In edit: One thing else that stands out a LOT more on a slow table is the break. If you can break, make a ball, and control the cueball all in the same process on a slow table, you have a hell of a lot of advantage over somebody without a "power" stroke. I was killing my buddy on the break...I was making 2 and 3 balls sometimes and controlling the cueball in the middle of the table the majoritiy of the time. He was having trouble just making a ball on the break...you had to hit them HARD to make them spread.
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