Shot Clock In League Play??

sbpoolleague

sbpoolleague

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Has any league operator successfully introduced a shot clock into league play? If so how did you do it?

We have a lot of teams averaging 16 min per game of 8-ball, when 10 is the ideal. Matches that should be over at 9:30 go past 11pm and everyone involved gets pissed.

Looking for any strategy that will speed up play. Thanks.

Chris
 
Well truthfully it's not up to the LO, all you can do is provide the structure and guidelines. It's up to the Division Reps & Team Captains to enforce those rules and guidelines regardless of what they may be. Plenty of people complain about issues but don't want to ultimately be the bad guy when it comes to enforcement.

~Black Cat~ :cool:
 
Is it the actual games taking 16 minutes or is it people going outside to smoke, chatting, bathroom breaks during the game, etc.

Usually speeding up the players actually getting to the table and starting matches helps, and breaks happen between matches not during.

Also - are you sure they're actually starting league night on time?
 
sbpoolleague said:
Has any league operator successfully introduced a shot clock into league play? If so how did you do it?

We have a lot of teams averaging 16 min per game of 8-ball, when 10 is the ideal. Matches that should be over at 9:30 go past 11pm and everyone involved gets pissed.

Looking for any strategy that will speed up play. Thanks.

Chris
Click to expand...

16 minutes for a game of 8 ball? You need a shot clock.
 
sbpoolleague said:
Has any league operator successfully introduced a shot clock into league play? If so how did you do it?

We have a lot of teams averaging 16 min per game of 8-ball, when 10 is the ideal. Matches that should be over at 9:30 go past 11pm and everyone involved gets pissed.

Looking for any strategy that will speed up play. Thanks.

Chris
Click to expand...

Get a chess clock. There have been threads on this and an article or two.
 
In our (BCA sanctioned) league, you can choose to put someone on the clock if they play slow. In my experience this is not the way to go. It just promotes bad feelings because it's seen as a punishment, with either the slow player being so slow that they make everyone else angry, or the player calling for a shot clock being an a-hole and doing it just to shark, or (usually) both. IMO if you're going to do it it has to be there all the time, but I've never seen a league do that.
 
Matt...APA has had a standard shot clock rule in effect for many years...60 seconds, which is plenty of time. :grin:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

BRussell said:
In our (BCA sanctioned) league, you can choose to put someone on the clock if they play slow. In my experience this is not the way to go. It just promotes bad feelings because it's seen as a punishment, with either the slow player being so slow that they make everyone else angry, or the player calling for a shot clock being an a-hole and doing it just to shark, or (usually) both. IMO if you're going to do it it has to be there all the time, but I've never seen a league do that.
Click to expand...
 
One thing we did to speed things up (with 4 player teams) was to use two tables. Agreed to by everyone beforehand of course.
 
Have not read any posts, but I wish there was a shot clock! No reason for pool leagues to take so long unless your just trying to find the bar. You can do that after playing if you want, and yes I like my drinks as much as the next guy. It shouldn't take 3 minutes to attempt a bank shot.
 
I ran a BCAPL league for a decade or so with a one minute per shot rule. Each packet received an inexpensive kitchen timer that I bought from eBay in bulk along with instructions to use it.

My rule was any team could ask the other to be put on the shot clock but both players had to go on it. (One guy on my team insisted he wanted to be on the clock as a way to get the other team to do it and not sound like an a-hole.)

The result was that the shot clocks were rarely used as the threat usually kept people on time. There were at least 2 teams every session that were horribly slow and when they played each other, I would talk to them and say, "Don't make me put you guys on the clock, myself but I will if X games aren't completed by X time." That usually worked.

I love the idea of chess clocks. Looks like they sell for as little as $10 online.....

Brian in VA
 
Lots of leagues wont let you use 2 tables until after 10pm because they want to keep you at the host location spending money.


flyrv9 said:
One thing we did to speed things up (with 4 player teams) was to use two tables. Agreed to by everyone beforehand of course.
Click to expand...
 
Scott Lee said:
APA has had a standard shot clock rule in effect for many years...60 seconds
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to that rule? I have seen shot clocks talked about in the rules of some individual APA leagues, but I have never seen an official APA guideline for use of a shot clock.

BCAPL uses a 45-second clock if necessary.
 
I am thinking of peanalizing both teams if matches are not complete within 2 hours. That would be 120 minutes to complete 10 games of 5-8 ball, 5-9 ball. 2 man partners. Its usually the same team that causes the slow play, but shot clock and reason are a pain to administer. We play 5 point per game so maybe I would penalize 10 points, 5 per team, out the the total 50 for slow play.
 
Local VNEA has an exaggerated slow play rule. First one is a warning, then you are on a shot clock of 60 seconds for the rest of that match or it's a foul.
Does the sped up play affect player development?
 
Blaine B. said:
Local VNEA has an exaggerated slow play rule. First one is a warning, then you are on a shot clock of 60 seconds for the rest of that match or it's a foul.
Does the sped up play affect player development?
Click to expand...

This might work well in an in-house league or a tourney that has referees. But what about a traveling league where players ref themselves?
 
sbpoolleague said:
This might work well in an in-house league or a tourney that has referees. But what about a traveling league where players ref themselves?
Click to expand...

A chess clock takes care of those problems and eliminates other problems with the traditional pool shot clock.
 
Bob Jewett said:
A chess clock takes care of those problems and eliminates other problems with the traditional pool shot clock.
Click to expand...

Ok I'm intrigued about the chess clock. Have you ever used one in league play? Do the players touch the clock or are teammates designated as clock keepers? What time to you start a player out at? 10 min, 12 min, 15 min?

I know I have been involved in safety battles in which neither player took a long time shooting, but we played a bunch of safeties and the game took 30 minutes. If a chess clock were used in this case, both players would have run out of time, but obviously one would have done so first. In this case, do you think it would be fair to have one winner and one loser? Maybe each team could be given one or two 5-minute extensions to their chess clock per match.

I can see this as a solution, however I would really like to hear from someone who has actually used it on the pool table.
 
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