Should a good player be able to adjust to any type of pool equipment?

J

justinb386

Banned
I am curious if you think that good players should be able to adjust to any type of playing conditions?

Like for example, bad rails, nasty dinged up cue balls, old slow cloth, warped tables, and any other type of poor quality playing conditions that a great player would not want to be in.

Have you known road players that would gamble (or play in tournaments) in any type of conditions, and win most of the time?

Just curious if good players avoid any type of poor conditions at all costs?

I understand that the really great road players (like Chip Compton or Joey Grey to name a few examples) never have to worry about this sort of thing, because all of the places they travel to have really good equipment (or at least decent).

Thanks for any thoughts about this.
 
I wouldn't expect Phil Mickelson to be able to play with junk clubs on an overgrown, poorly maintained golf course.

In the case of pool, if rails don't work correctly or the cloth is awful, I would expect a pro to be able to more quickly compensate and learn, but to play really well? Nope.
 
That was tthe exact analogy I was going to make...

SARDiver said:
I wouldn't expect Phil Mickelson to be able to play with junk clubs on an overgrown, poorly maintained golf course.

In the case of pool, if rails don't work correctly or the cloth is awful, I would expect a pro to be able to more quickly compensate and learn, but to play really well? Nope.
Click to expand...

I was just about to make the same analogy...

A pro golfer shouldn't be able to shoot within even 5-10 strokes of his normal game on a course with 5 inch high grass in the fairways...so why would any sport be different?

Should a tennis player be able to serve at 140mph with a racket with strings that are loose and a couple are broken???

Jaden
 
justinb386 said:
I am curious if you think that good players should be able to adjust to any type of playing conditions?

Like for example, bad rails, nasty dinged up cue balls, old slow cloth, warped tables, and any other type of poor quality playing conditions that a great player would not want to be in.

Have you known road players that would gamble (or play in tournaments) in any type of conditions, and win most of the time?

Just curious if good players avoid any type of poor conditions at all costs?

I understand that the really great road players (like Chip Compton or Joey Grey to name a few examples) never have to worry about this sort of thing, because all of the places they travel to have really good equipment (or at least decent).

Thanks for any thoughts about this.
Click to expand...
The eqmt in Marietta is good. You here yet?
 
Jaden said:
I was just about to make the same analogy...

A pro golfer shouldn't be able to shoot within even 5-10 strokes of his normal game on a course with 5 inch high grass in the fairways...so why would any sport be different?

Should a tennis player be able to serve at 140mph with a racket with strings that are loose and a couple are broken???

Jaden
Click to expand...

In 1966, Jack Nicolaus played our crappy golf course where I am a member and set the official course record of 65 which still stands. This course is a crappy as they get. In the summer, there is little/no grass in the fairways.
 
I didn't say little to no grass...

Sealegs50 said:
In 1966, Jack Nicolaus played our crappy golf course where I am a member and set the official course record of 65 which still stands. This course is a crappy as they get. In the summer, there is little/no grass in the fairways.
Click to expand...

I said 3-5 inch high grass...

Who knows, when Nicolaus was first learning, he may have played on conditions JUST like THAT...

I first learned on Nap cloth, I can still play really good on nap cloth, that doesn't mean you should expect someone who's only played on simonis 760 to be able play as well on nap cloth...

The question was should they be able to adapt to any conditions...the answer is NO, they should be able to play on the conditions they are used to and or have experience playing on.

CAN some players adapt quickly to any conditions? Absolutely...

Should they be expected to be able to? Hell, no...

Jaden
 
justinb386 said:
I am curious if you think that good players should be able to adjust to any type of playing conditions?

Like for example, bad rails, nasty dinged up cue balls, old slow cloth, warped tables, and any other type of poor quality playing conditions that a great player would not want to be in.

Have you known road players that would gamble (or play in tournaments) in any type of conditions, and win most of the time?

Just curious if good players avoid any type of poor conditions at all costs?

I understand that the really great road players (like Chip Compton or Joey Grey to name a few examples) never have to worry about this sort of thing, because all of the places they travel to have really good equipment (or at least decent).

Thanks for any thoughts about this.
Click to expand...

Can they adjust, YES. Will they play 100%, NO.
Sometimes the table layout will dictate the game, for example: you may have to bank a ball because of other balls on either side of it. If the rail being used to bank is bad, it may cause the ball to miss by 6 inches or more.
The better player will adjust by playing more safeties on that example, instead of trying to bank balls. JMHO
 
Should a good player be able to adjust to any type of pool equipment?
Click to expand...

Within reason, yes.

This might be difficult. Look at the cue on the table.

DSC_6951.jpg



And this might be difficult.

pool-table-africa1-640x434.jpg
 
justinb386 said:
I am curious if you think that good players should be able to adjust to any type of playing conditions?
Click to expand...

I would agree. If it was a race to 1 or 2 against a local familiar with the tables maybe that local will have a leg up on them a couple games. However, over time (game or 2) that good player will get rid of that advantage because good players have good fundamentals and that does not change with playing conditions. From those fundamentals they can more easily adjust to the conditions as they know exactly what to expect and when that does not happen they know exactly how to account for it.

It is the very reason you want to have a good and consistent shoot routine all the way up to the follow through. If you miss something or something does not react the way you expected you adjust from that known concrete variable. You can't do that if your all over the place all the time.
 
Sometimes I actually play better on crappy equipment. All of my best golf rounds are always in the rain. There's something liberating about not expecting to do well. I just relax and go, and that seems to make up for bad conditions. I'm sure it's different for pros, but I can't tell you how many times I've grabbed a wrecked cue off the rack and had some really great nights. I've seen it knock better players off their game when things aren't right. Hacks like me sometimes get a little boost. :)
 
The short answer is no, they can't always adjust. The top notch player has an arsenal of shots available to him/her. The worse the equipment gets, the fewer shots they have available to them.

Take, for example, draw and follow. Let's say the cloth has gotten so worn that any draw/force-follow is impossible. The cue-ball simply doesn't grab. Now, the pro might adjust for this and create angles that require center-ball but once he falls outside that spectrum, he's going to give-up the table when he normally wouldn't.

The professional isn't that caliber because they win a game in one inning. They're that caliber because they win 5 games in one inning. If they only win one, their game has been compromised and no adjustment will change that.
 
I think good players have the right to expect good treatment in the form of
reasonable payouts, fair and well-run events, and good equipment.

Their livelihood depends on it, and if I'm doing a job that requires tools,
don't give me a broken-down piece of crap to work with and then say
"it's not that bad, once you get used to it".

The whole point of a tournament is you're playing for a very short time,
usually just one day, and you don't have TIME to get used to it.
Give me decent tools so I can do my job correctly and well.

Players will do their best to adjust when they have no choice,
but if SVB gets beat by some unknown because that guy
is the best in the world at heavy cue balls on nappy cloth...
then both SVB and the spectators kind of got robbed.
 
I think a good player should be able to play in all conditions. That's the point of checking out the equipment prior to competitive play.

The table conditions differ from place to place for the leagues I play in. Some tables have horrible rails, others have torn up cloth that play slow, etc. It's why you shoot bank shots or the spot on the wall shot to see how the table plays and adjust from there.

Same with checking to see if the table has a bad roll to it or not and so on and so forth. Check the table conditions, and adjust.
 
At the end of the day, yes. Anyone else on here that has done the road knows the varying conditions faced moving town to town & hall to hall. Failure to be able to adjust means going hungry or sleeping in the car or on the street as Danny D likes to say. Adjust or go bust
 
I think only mediocre players think that world champions are going to adjust and play phenomenal on tough equipment.
I think strong players are going to be more realistic and think that while they may adjust, they will not be able to play at their best.


Let's bring back Gandys and have all the tournaments on those.
You know...so balls could fly up in the air and hit you in the face or go off the table when hitting the rail with any pace.
Well put icy fast cloth on it and make it unlevel so you can never roll a ball accurately, but instead, have to hit them with some pace.
We'll get someone to stream it, so we can see exactly how terrible pros play, and how well they adjust.

It won't be pretty, I promise you.
 
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