Shy but wants to play

skiergirl55 said:
Oh, it's not just that, justadub. It's spending $6 to shoot 2 games......against the same person......and waiting all night to do it. I waited 3 hours tonight to play and it was over in about 15 minutes. I won both games too easily (I am definitely not a 3, but how do I change that? I can't.) It's just not worth it.

Even if I got better, it's not worth the wait, and I find it frustrating. I enjoy BCA, and I think I'll stick with that. While you only play one game per person, you play them on rotation, so you play everyone. I may never play the other team members at all on APA!

And I am not fond of the opposition smiling and shooting while accidentally slopping them in. :nono:
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All valid points. If you aren't having enough fun to justify it, and you have other options, more power to you. At least you saw it for yourself, instead of going with other peoples opinions.

(For what it's worth, I do believe you wouldn't stay at a SL3 for very long, much to the chagrin of your captain.)

Continued good look and good shooting.
 
skiergirl55 said:
Just a quick reply as I drove 900+ miles today and have 700 tomorrow (going to IoWAY, oh YAY), and I'm tired......

The APA dictates your handicap/level. My pool buddy Gene hasn't played for a while and they brought him back in at the level he was at 3 years ago! No choice in this. You can't just get what you want (everyone would be a 3! haha).

There's other ways to shoot pool other than being frustrated once a week. I'm still passing. Maybe I'll try TAP, too.:cool:
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Only partially true. If you are ranked as a 3, but you believe your actual skill level should be a 4, you can ask your LO to raise you up, and it will happen. I have done it, not only for myself once, but for other members of my team who I honestly believed were under ranked.

And under extreme circumstances, you can petition the league to lower a handicap. A couple of years ago, I had a vision problem that required me to wear an eye patch for a few months. As you can imagine, this created some unique problems playing pool, as I had very little depth perception. I got a note from the eye doctor, sent it to the LO, who forwarded it to St Louis, and my handicap was lowered one level for the duration of my treatment.

Steve
 
Hi Skiergirl-

As for drills with shooting over a ball I recently saw a good one. Line up 8 balls against one of the short rails. Then directly in front of those 8 balls put 8 more balls so they are frozen. Then practice shooting all 8 balls into the far end corner pockets. This builds up your comfort level for shooting over a ball as well as lets you work on getting a good solid bridge. I do a similar drill using all 16 balls frozen to the rail to get over the fear of miscuing when shooting a ball frozen to the rail. Just fire the balls into the far end of the table corner pockets split left and right pockets. I just fire the object ball in the hole no cue ball. I then do the same drill but use the side pockets. I learned these drills from the ProSkill Drill series of dvd's. I took a private lesson with Dominic Esposito at the Super Billiard Expo and he showed me these drills. Good luck in your game!
 
Oh, Holy Hell, this is the kind of drill I NEED, and hate at the same time! Well, sometimes what is good for you is not fun for you, eh?

I won last week's match. I played another 3, and whadya know........I played this guy before about a month ago! What, I've already played all the people in the league I'm going to? Grrr.

Anyway, it was overheard by one of my team mates that this guy was boasting that he could beat me. Nothing gets me going like arrogance in a pool game. It's my thought that the best players are more humble than boastful.

I didn't say a word, just gave him good sportsmanship (Have a good game, etc), then I let him get the first game (race to 2, let's drag it out and make it interesting), then whooped him the next 2. He was crying to his team mates afterward with every excuse in the book. Wah.

Next time, don't brag that you can beat someone before you actually do it. Lesson learned.
 
As the post turns....

This week, it was a stupid match and I had no chance of winning. I'd been sick for 3 days with muscle aches, super headache, stomach cramps, fever, etc........and I thought about just staying home from pool.

My coach decides to put me up against a strong 6 (and a 9 in BCA 9-ball), and we were on 9 foot tables. Well, on a good day I might have taken a swing at it and got a game, maybe 2, out of the 5 he needed to win. We were short and without me, we would have had to forfeit. He knew I was sick, but he said, and I quote, "All you have to do is win 2 games." Evidently he thought I was feeling normal or the fact that I was sick wasn't going to effect my game.

Not a snowball's chance in hell of winning the way I was feeling. I couldn't lean over the table without feeling like passing out. I lost very quickly. I played second, but had to wait for my ride, who they delayed playing until 10pm. I slept most of the time lying down in a booth: sitting up was not an option. :(

It was a long, miserable night.

Let's hope next week goes better.
 
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This week, on 9 foot tables, I played another sl3, race to 2, again, not much of a race, won both games.

I'm not getting much value out of this league. I like the people on my team immensely, that's not the problem. I just don't like the APA format. Aside from playing people 'on my level', it seems like no one is really 'into' pool all that much.

I asked the guy I beat if he'd like to play for fun, split the table costs (quarter each). He said, No, he's done for the night. What.....2 games and you're all good?:confused: I played my team mates a few games, but they were more interested in drinking beer and going out for a smoke than shooting pool. An empty table and no one wants to play!:confused::confused:

It costs me $3.25 per game to shoot, plus a $30 membership fee (spread out over the weeks we play, it's an additional $1.50 per game, so it really costs $4.75 for each game I shoot).

I can play 19 games of pool just playing with my friends (and challengers to the table) for the cost of 2 games of APA pool. Do we get money back for this? I'm not sure.

Folks, I'm done with APA after this session. Time to move on, nothing to see here.
 
skiergirl55 said:
I'm not getting much value out of this league. I like the people on my team immensely, that's not the problem. I just don't like the APA format. Aside from playing people 'on my level', it seems like no one is really 'into' pool all that much.
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That's really odd. Is this a traveling league? If so, I think you will find more pool fanatics at in-house pool leagues. The ones I've been in tend to have 6-16 (5-person) teams, non-playing team members, plus friends and rail birds.
 
There are 6 teams on this league and we play at 3 different venues. Rail birds? Not a one.

Normally, the tables are all taken by our league and other leagues. One bar has 9 tables, and they are usually full of other league players, because more than one league plays per night.
 
skiergirl55 said:
It costs me $3.25 per game to shoot, plus a $30 membership fee (spread out over the weeks we play, it's an additional $1.50 per game, so it really costs $4.75 for each game I shoot).

I can play 19 games of pool just playing with my friends (and challengers to the table) for the cost of 2 games of APA pool. Do we get money back for this? I'm not sure.
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Your team should get point money back but I don't think I ever got more than about 70 bucks and then split that between 8 teammates...
Don't count on much.

I don't play APA anymore but I do think it has its place in our area. It allows many people to play that might not be able to compete in the other leagues, handicapped or not.

If you find yourself a good APA team in a good division then you could have a real good time. The trick is to find the right combination.

Good luck,
Whitey
 
Ahr, thanks Whitey, but I don't think this one is it.

'G' got into it last night with a barmaid who was on her 'off' night shooting on her league. One of her drunken teammates continually bumped into 'G' while he was shooting. After 5 times of this, he said something (I would've gone off about the 3rd time I got bumped while shooting!), and she tore him up one side and down the other.

It turned into a big ugly scene. Both our team and our opponent's team were aggravated by these other teams (who were not playing us, but standing within 3 feet of our table), but what can you do when you tell the owner and all you get are blank looks and not even an apology? The owner is looking at us while we're explaining the problem, the barmaid is drunk and saying 'F Off' all the time, and I'm thinking, "I don't need this shit while I'm trying to play pool."

We're done playing there for the season, thank God. There's no place for that in pool. I'm thinking a call to the league operator is in order.
 
Update on last week, the liquor commission was called also. It seems the barmaid was ON DUTY, drinking and serving peeps at the same time as telling the customers to F off. Nice.

This week, at another venue, I played a 2. I'm still a 3. I won all 3 games, but I tried to take the hardest shots first. She was a lucky accidental shooter........she'd leave me no shots about 50% of the time. So it was kinda fun trying to get position and stuff.

We start another league next month. 9 ball this time.

I'm probably boring all of you, and should end this thread. All opposed?
 
No, actually

I enjoy your thread and your adventure into the Pool world, while marking your progress in the sport.
 
skiergirl55 said:
Update on last week, the liquor commission was called also. It seems the barmaid was ON DUTY, drinking and serving peeps at the same time as telling the customers to F off. Nice.

This week, at another venue, I played a 2. I'm still a 3. I won all 3 games, but I tried to take the hardest shots first. She was a lucky accidental shooter........she'd leave me no shots about 50% of the time. So it was kinda fun trying to get position and stuff.

We start another league next month. 9 ball this time.

I'm probably boring all of you, and should end this thread. All opposed?
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I like the updates. It's cool to follow your progress. My vote is to keep doing them, if it isn't a pain for you.
 
It's not a pain, but it seems so narcisstic. I'm not one to toot my horn.

With that said, it is interesting (to me, at least) to read the first few posts in this thread. I've come a long, long way from too shy to walk into a pool hall/bar alone to running my own BCA team. I'm more confident and my game has improved immensely. I still suck, only not as badly.:grin-square:

One rack at a time.....one rack at a time.:cool:
 
Suck is a relative term, Bonnie. I play a pretty good game of One Pocket, but if I were to match up with Scott, Shannon, Alex, Shane, or my good friend J.R., just to name a few, I would suck like a Hoover Deluxe.
Keep things in perspective and play those who are equal to, or better than yourself. It makes you work harder. :)
 
I practice with only people 2-4 levels above me. I'm super comptetitive and I enjoy the chase immensely, so pool is a super good sport to feed that addiction.

I think you can never be 'too good' or 'the best' in this game. There's always someone better than you. Even the pros have competition.:thumbup:
 
keep posting . Consider this - you still receive several responses whenever you post . Those are just the people who feel they have something to add - how many others are lurking silently?
Here's a little game to play with yourself : look at your thread on the index page and follow over to 'views' . Record the number every week , and you'll get an idea of how many people you're entertaining . People are still responding to this thread after all this time , while literally thousands of other threads have died off . . .;)

13,219 as of today . . .
 
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