Question Re: player skill level

[rebelchris]

i live in a relatively rural area of mississippi. my town of about 3,000 has not had a pool hall (as i call them) since i was a teen (now 36 y/o). i now have a table at my house which i play with a friend about once per week. i have really found a renewed interest of late. i have looked around the internet and have found some rating scales that seem to range from 1-12. I bet others would agree that the rating scales seem somewhat vague. if im playing an 8 ball rack by myself, just shooting out the balls in any order, i average missing 2-3 times per rack. i know there are plenty of other factors involved when playing an opponent, such as their defensive skills, but just wondering if there is another scale or you're opinions re skill level when playing alone such as i described earlier. thanks for the replies. peace

 

[Jaden]

Typical skill ratings are based on rotation...

i live in a relatively rural area of mississippi. my town of about 3,000 has not had a pool hall (as i call them) since i was a teen (now 36 y/o). i now have a table at my house which i play with a friend about once per week. i have really found a renewed interest of late. i have looked around the internet and have found some rating scales that seem to range from 1-12. I bet others would agree that the rating scales seem somewhat vague. if im playing an 8 ball rack by myself, just shooting out the balls in any order, i average missing 2-3 times per rack. i know there are plenty of other factors involved when playing an opponent, such as their defensive skills, but just wondering if there is another scale or you're opinions re skill level when playing alone such as i described earlier. thanks for the replies. peace

Rotation games like nineball are usually used for skill rating because proficiency is usually easily transferable to other games and it's easier to determine skill by playing the ghost and determining which ghost level you can beat.

I would take a guess that if you miss 2-3 times playing eightball on average, you are probably a C player.

A good idea of how you play can be gotten by playing the skill challenge that AZ used to do called the drivermaker tournament.

It gives a good all around skill level and the levels that are listed for it are pretty accurate.

Jaden

 

[dr9ball]

Have you considered trying to play the ghost in 9 ball or 10 ball?

You break the balls take ball in hand and try to run out if you miss the ghost wins one. Play races to 10 to figure out your percentage against the ghost.

If that's too tough start with 3 balls and when you beat the ghost add a ball. Loose to the ghost take a ball away. When you can consistently beat the 6 ball ghost I'd say you're a decent C Player.

You might also enjoy playing 14.1 or "straight pool" work on regularly getting through the first rack and making the break ball while opening up the rack. Shoot for a run of 15 then work your way up to 50. Then go incrementally up from there as your skills develop.

A run of 50 is very good and I'd estimate a strong B player. A run of a Hundred is excellent and rare. A run of 200 + is legendary.


Perhaps a more simple version of this would be to play 10.1 to work on your patterns with out as many clusters to break. Still shoot for running 50 if you decide to play this way.

The main thing is to have fun. If you really want to see where you stand. Go into a room in another town where you don't know anyone and ask someone to play for a moderate sum. Or go play in a regional or national level tournament preferably one that isn't handicapped.

Wishing you fun and success in your pursuit of Pool Excellence.

 

[rebelchris]

thanks for the replies. i will try what yall describe here. i am really WAY out of practice in comparison to my "earlier years." i have to sadly say i will probably never return to where i used to be due a child on the way, job, responsibilities i didnt have, etc.. but man, i really am digging the game again. i am actually digging cues as much as the game now. what i find now is that i can shoot as good as i once did every now and then, but not consistent at all. this of course is due to lack of playing daily as i once did. pool is a truely beautiful game. i have only found a few things in life that i can get in the zone or "lost in". one being running, two being tennis, and then pool. i tend to get obsessed with things and a return to my younger years of pool has brought back a true interest. thanks for the replies.

 

[pwd72s]

Enjoy your home table...that's the key, really...having fun!

 

[desertshark]

YouTube Fargo. It seems to have a good idea behind ranking. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems to be pretty easy to learn and has a way to rank yourself for your own knowledge.

 

[rebelchris]

on an outside note... i live about 2 hours from erwin cues; mike/scott erwin. of course mike erwin (the father) passed away back in october and now his son, scott is carrying on the business. i drove the 2 hr trip from houston, ms to the erwin shop and met scott. i can't begin to tell you the impact it had on my interest in pool. scott erwin has a passion for for his craft/cue making, that just simply shined. he "held me hostage" for 3 hours; showing me the shop, talking about exotic woods, deer he had killed, and pictures of his father (i held back the tears a few times). If you didn't know, his father was one of the very early custom and repair guys in the meucci business; back when they were Original. I will not share too much, but it was VERY interesting to see the affiliation in equipment, etc from the old days of meucci. scott worked with his father since his early teen years and is now 39 If anyone wants a truly custom cue from a GREAT family tradion of cue makers, i would highly recommend Erwin cues.

 

[Pjaze]

None of these systems take into account how hard your table is

I swear the pockets on my table are possesed by the devil

 

[rebelchris]

None of these systems take into account how hard your table is

I swear the pockets on my table are possesed by the devil

im glad you said that. i used to shoot on coin operated bar tables and was pretty good. now i shoot on my home table, which i think is 1 foot larger, and the pockets spit my balls out. i swear, i cant begin to tell you how tight my pockets are. it is not a "great name brand" table (its a manchester), but my pockets are rather resistant to any forceful shot.