Something I don't understand about pool

[middleofnowhere]

Jump cues make up for the lack of ability to kick at balls effectively, what happened to those skills?

Actually it has made up for snookering a player and getting ball in hand so easly. While kicking can often be accomplished it usually results in a sell out.

The penelty of ball in hand anywhere on the table is reduclously harsh. It can mean in most cases among good players an automatic loss.

Why, because a player who may even had a potential run out, chose to just push you up against a ball hoping for BIH.

If you remember, before BIH you could push out. So very little kicking skills were even required. So the argument that kicking skills have somehow been lost is not true, they were never required in the first place.

9 ball was played at more skillful and strategic level with pushout. The introduction on one foul BIH ruined the game. Maybe to a degree the jump cue fixed some of that.

 

[realkingcobra]

Actually it has made up for snookering a player and getting ball in hand so easly. While kicking can often be accomplished it usually results in a sell out.

The penelty of ball in hand anywhere on the table is reduclously harsh. It can mean in most cases among good players an automatic loss.

Why, because a player who may even had a potential run out, chose to just push you up against a ball hoping for BIH.

If you remember, before BIH you could push out. So very little kicking skills were even required. So the argument that kicking skills have somehow been lost is not true, they were never required in the first place.

9 ball was played at more skillful and strategic level with pushout. The introduction on one foul BIH ruined the game. Maybe to a degree the jump cue fixed some of that.

Tell that to Earl and Efren!

 

[middleofnowhere]

Tell that to Earl and Efren!

Let's be honest here, Efren is quick to use his 3-C knowledge to snooker a player going several rails behind balls. They all want a cheap runout.

 

[realkingcobra]

Let's be honest here, Efren is quick to use his 3-C knowledge to snooker a player going several rails behind balls. They all want a cheap runout.

And Earl too?

 

[middleofnowhere]

And Earl too?

All.

 

[realkingcobra]

All.

Thats like telling everyone to cries about jump cues being banned...learn to kick the balls people!!

 

[HawaiianEye]

Because it’s another tool on your Arsenal you practice and get good with. It’s no different then golfers having multiple wedges. It’s just the old pool players that destroy the modern game because they have no vision for the future because they are stuck in the past that hate it.

The old pool players made pool.

The new generation wants to make it easier because they don’t have the patience to learn how to play.

They like bells and whistles and shiny objects.

 

[middleofnowhere]

Thats like telling everyone to cries about jump cues being banned...learn to kick the balls people!!

That doesn't even make sense.

 

[skogstokig]

The old pool players made pool.

The new generation wants to make it easier because they don’t have the patience to learn how to play.

They like bells and whistles and shiny objects.

i agree if you mean amateurs playing on barboxes. but if you mean pros the table difficulty has increased with tighter pockets. which is good (except for straight pool).

 

[middleofnowhere]

The old pool players made pool.

The new generation wants to make it easier because they don’t have the patience to learn how to play.

They like bells and whistles and shiny objects.

What do you consider the new generation? Tables were made easier intentionally back in the 60s. If you watch the famous 150 and out by Crane, (you can see it on YouTube), he would have missed a dozen times on almost any table used today in tournament play.

 

[HawaiianEye]

i agree if you mean amateurs playing on barboxes. but if you mean pros the table difficulty has increased with tighter pockets. which is good (except for straight pool).

Tighter pockets dissuade newer players.

The tight tables are too difficult for beginners and less fun.

Pool halls can’t have all tight pocket tables and expect to have lots of lower-level players as their main revenue source.

Pool is no fun to play or watch when even the pros have extreme difficulty running out.

I prefer to see pros running six racks in a burst against each other to watching them play cat and mouse for 20 minutes a game.

If you want to make pool more difficult, add some bumpers and sand traps in the middle and around various parts of the table.

I find it funny when people who can’t string more than a rack or two, if that, in a row want to make the game more difficult.

 

[middleofnowhere]

Tighter pockets dissuade newer players.

The tight tables are too difficult for beginners and less fun.

Pool halls can’t have all tight pocket tables and expect to have lots of lower-level players as their main revenue source.

Pool is no fun to play or watch when even the pros have extreme difficulty running out.

I prefer to see pros running six racks in a burst against each other to watching them play cat and mouse for 20 minutes a game.

If you want to make pool more difficult, add some bumpers and sand traps in the middle and around various parts of the table.

I find it funny when people who can’t string more than a rack or two, if that, in a row want to make the game more difficult.

Even pool rooms that have tables set up for one pocket with a couple of really tight pockets are no good. If a table's too tight you hardly have to play a guy safe, safe is anywhere the other end of the table cuz you can't make anything. The player is no threat to shoot.

If a ball gets close to the pocket it's is easy to get out cuz the pockets are so damn tight. Four and a half inch pockets are fine. Also the shelf as well as how the liners of the pockets are angled are a big thing.

 

[BeiberLvr]

Jump cues make up for the lack of ability to kick at balls effectively, what happened to those skills?

lol at thinking today's players aren't skilled at kicking

 

[David in FL]

Jump cues make up for the lack of ability to kick at balls effectively, what happened to those skills?

There are a bunch of threads on this. Kicking is still important. Jumping just adds another tool to the toolbox.

It also requires better safety play. Safety play now becomes much more than simply put another ball between the cue and an object ball.

 

[The_JV]

In this tournament they had tight pockets and banned the early 10 ball. The focus is on super high level of skill to win the "world championship".

If you botch shape and snooker yourself you can pull out the gimmick cue and bail yourself out. It happened in the hot seat and semifinal matches.

It's the equivalent of the masters golf tournament allowing Mulligans.

agreed... and I'll say it again. Limiting the use of the jump stick to the first shot of your inning would prevent the mulligan and keep intact what I see as the benefits of the jump cue to the game.

 

[Cuedup]

The old pool players made pool.

The new generation wants to make it easier because they don’t have the patience to learn how to play.

They like bells and whistles and shiny objects.

Dont forget to add they also want ball in hand for those easy runouts.

 

[alstl]

What do you consider the new generation? Tables were made easier intentionally back in the 60s. If you watch the famous 150 and out by Crane, (you can see it on YouTube), he would have missed a dozen times on almost any table used today in tournament play.

Irving Crane ran 300 on a 10 foot table. The DCC 14.1 event used a 10 ft table one year and only one player for the entire event ran 100 balls.

If you thing those guys weren't straight shooters you are mistaken. Crane himself said he hated loose pockets because it gave weaker players a chance to beat him.

I don't disparage all of today's players who are obviously straight shooters and some of them have a complete game but many are straight shooters with a jump cue. If they banned jump cues in that event there would have been different players at the end. In the finals Kaci missed a two rail kick. World champion 2021.

 

[middleofnowhere]

Irving Crane ran 300 on a 10 foot table. The DCC 14.1 event used a 10 ft table one year and only one player for the entire event ran 100 balls.

If you thing those guys weren't straight shooters you are mistaken. Crane himself said he hated loose pockets because it gave weaker players a chance to beat him.

I don't disparage all of today's players who are obviously straight shooters and some of them have a complete game but many are straight shooters with a jump cue. If they banned jump cues in that event there would have been different players at the end. In the finals Kaci missed a two rail kick. World champion 2021.

That doesn't change what I said. One needs to only watch videos of old matches to see how easy the tables were.

The poster I was responding to seemed to imply tables were being made easier due to lazy weak players wanting easier conditions. This was the post I responded to. I hope you don't agree with his statement.

Quote:
"Old pool players made pool.

The new generation wants to make it easier because they don’t have the patience to learn how to play.

They like bells and whistles and shiny objects."

 

[gerryf]

Irving Crane ran 300 on a 10 foot table. The DCC 14.1 event used a 10 ft table one year and only one player for the entire event ran 100 balls.

If you thing those guys weren't straight shooters you are mistaken. Crane himself said he hated loose pockets because it gave weaker players a chance to beat him.

I don't disparage all of today's players who are obviously straight shooters and some of them have a complete game but many are straight shooters with a jump cue. If they banned jump cues in that event there would have been different players at the end. In the finals Kaci missed a two rail kick. World champion 2021.

an interesting article about Irving Crane, with more detail than most articles.

The Frail Gray Man with the Strong Pool Cue

Irving Crane, who is one of the best straight pocket billiards players in the world, could be the now slightly aged prototype of the original 97-pound

vault.si.com

 

[jbullerjr]

So if a player hooks himself, he must kick?
What if he is playing shape for the corner but gets shape for the side?
What if he is playing shape for a cut but over-rolls it and a bank is now better?
What if he hooks himself while trying a difficult break-out?

What is the ultimate goal?
Are we wanting it to be where the player must describe the entire run-out before shooting the first shot?

I personally LOVE jump shots AND great kicks, safeties, banks etc...

When a player gets hooked in the middle of a run, pulls out a jump cue, executes and runs out, it is still just one game. It was just a little more exciting.