Tight pocket table practice

hobokenapa

hobokenapa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm looking to get some practice in before the US Amateur tournament. Last week in our 9-ball League, I played on a very tight pocket table, probably the tightest I've ever played on. This got me thinking ... should I do as much practice as possible on this table? It is bound to increase my accuracy, but I found I needed to adopt a much more defensive game in a match because running out was so hard, and shots I'd do in a tournament you just cannot do on this table (forget about hitting the rail before the pocket at medium/hard speed). So shots I'd use in a tournament, I would not even be attempting on this table.

I guess I should practice on this table (running out/drills/14/1) when on my own, but not play matches there?

Any thoughts ... ?
 
Do It.

I have a buddy that I started teaching a lil about two years ago. He has taken it the rest of the way (books, videos, etc.). 6 months ago he got his own table. He put new rails and felt on it. He shimmed the pockets way down and rounded the corners a bit. It is the hardest table that I have ever shot on. We have been playing at his house for a while, and getting frustrated by not making run outs and BR's. We recently went to a 40 person tourny with normal tables. He took 4th, and I did decent. Shooting on a table with tight pockets will make you bear down and focus on the shot at hand. You will start hitting center pocket everytime. Once you get used to doing this, you will go to a normal table and you will feel like you cannot miss. I have always been a decent player, but last week I played in a competitive league night. In 4 games I had two Br's. I scored 40 pts and only gave up 2 pts (10 for each win, opp gets points for balls they got off the table). For me I think it is working great. I suggest playing on a tight table as often as possible for drills, and games against friends. Just my thoughts.
 
interesting question. i can see the dilemma, if u practice on the tight table you will probably end up slow rolling a lot of balls and changing your style of play. on the other hand if you try and keep your attacking style stroking the ball in comfortably with a bit of conviction, you'll probably miss a lot more and that will naturally lower your confidence missing balls.

soooo, that said, how about some sort of half-way house. maybe practice ball in hand running out say only five balls. easier to do and will allow you to perhaps keep your style of play and pocket the balls confidently, with slightly easier positional play.
 
5 years ago I would have said to practice on the tight table, but my opinion has changed somewhat.

I am with "worriedbeef" in that you will adapt your game to those conditions, which may be to your detriment when you move to the softer, smaller table. You will find yourself a fish out of water when you begin to play under the unfamiliar conditions. You need to practice under the conditions you expect to perform under.

You will find your opponents using shots you won't be accustomed to using, such as shooting shots in off the rails (you've learned to not shoot that way asyou would jaw them on the tough table). This is a powerful tool in position play as you can significantly change your contact point and still make the balls.

I always have to tell myself to turn off the stroke when going from big table to small table. Working the CB on the small table will get you in trouble quick. You'll be kicking at balls while your opponents are running out.

With all that said, you shouldn't avoid working out on the tough table, just don't do it exclusively. Use it to hone your pocketing ability.
 
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mosconiac said:
With all that said, you shouldn't avoid working out on the tough table, just don't do it exclusively. Use it to hone your pocketing ability.
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i second that, well said.
 
Agree with the "some of both" folks

I spent about two to three hours a day over six days a week practicing on an old snooker table with the deep shelves and tiny pocket holes. This was different than the tables I have seen lately that have the slate cut to swap rails and be a pool table.

Shooting these tight tables daily definitely increased my aiming and banking ability a ton. However without playing nightly on more common tables my I would have lost my feel for those rails and pockets.

If you shoot only one table for a long time, it takes as long to adapt to other tables as if you had made a major shaft or tip change.

Hu
 
Tim,

Congrats on making it to the US Amatuers!!

Yeah the above poster hit the nail on the head, you don't want to take yourself out of your normal routine. I'd split time on different tables, to get that seasoning. But if you do play on a tighty it will make you bear down a bit more. Try adding an extra stroke or two before you shoot. Also, you don't want to frustrate yourself and then go to a tournament. One of the posters above said to run a couple balls....that's perfect advice, throw out 5 balls and the 9ball and run them out. You want to go down there thinking you are a run out player. Also about safety play...that's a huge item to have in your arsenal, to me, that's how games are won, with great safety play you can foul them out as well as open up the table to make it a much easier run out. I regularly practice safeties, just locking up the ball as close as possible.

When I played in the US Amatuer in Atlanta I called and found out what type of tables they have, the balls they use and the cloth. Find out if they use the 3 foul rule as well as allow jump cues. If they use jump cues, you might have to really tighten up any safety play

Good luck to you! I hope you win, you deserve it.

Christian
 
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You don't need a tight pocket table to improve your aim; you just need to be more disciplined about how you practice. One way to do that is to choose a part of the pocket to aim at - center, left or right. I often practice by calling out the pocket facing I'm trying to hit (left or right) and re-shooting the shot if I miss it (even if I pocket the ball). This is also a good technique for practicing at pool halls with bucket pockets.

pj
chgo
 
hobokenapa said:
I'm looking to get some practice in before the US Amateur tournament. Last week in our 9-ball League, I played on a very tight pocket table, probably the tightest I've ever played on. This got me thinking ... should I do as much practice as possible on this table? It is bound to increase my accuracy, but I found I needed to adopt a much more defensive game in a match because running out was so hard, and shots I'd do in a tournament you just cannot do on this table (forget about hitting the rail before the pocket at medium/hard speed). So shots I'd use in a tournament, I would not even be attempting on this table.

I guess I should practice on this table (running out/drills/14/1) when on my own, but not play matches there?

Any thoughts ... ?
Click to expand...

I like what playing on tight pockets did for my game, but it took years. I practiced playing the ghost on tight tables.

It will improve your accuracy but may not help you win more on sloppy tables.

In order to improve on tight equipment, I had to literally address every component of the game. Less play in the bridge, the grip, no head or body sway movement, a smoother stroke, etc. I even moved my head backward a few inches to see more of the cue.

Here are some tips:

- don't try to cheat the pocket. If you need angle, create it with stroke. You can use your stroke to do the same thing. Cheating the pocket on a tight table is inviting mistakes.

- be careful. Really think through your position to make sure you are playing the best shot and angle for the situation. You really have to lay the table out in advance.

- don't be intimidated. If you start cinching every shot or slow roll everything you are defeating the purpose you are practicing for. Stroke freely but accurately.

- play enough angle to get natural shape instead of playing "kind of" shape and using a bunch of spin. A smooth stroke played at a medium speed with less spin is a lot more likely to be accurate. I like tables that require finesse. Playing angles also eventually makes you a better shot maker.

- respect the tight pocket. Even a small amount of spin can throw the aim off of a tight pocket. Use spin judiciously when you must.

- don't shoot until you're ready. The hardest part is to mentally make that connection to the pocket. When you're actually shooting, you should be confident of your aim.

- walk the table. On a tight table, blocking balls are bigger, so you have to look to check the paths carefully to make sure you have clearance to the pocket.

Tight pockets reveal flaws. If you adjust to a tight table, eventually you will realize that playing on large pocketed tables is great for the ego but not for your game.

Chris
 
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I would personally advise you NOT to do much runout practice on an uber-tight table if you are just looking to tune up for an event. If you are trying to tune up, use the tight table to practice pocketing balls only, and keep it to shots that can hit the back of the pocket (not up the rail cuts). Otherwise you will be robbing yourself of angles that you can use to get out on a normal table that will never work on a tight table. Frustration ensues, and you get down mentally going into a big tourny.

If you were looking to take your game to a whole different level over a longer period of time - I would say play exclusivly on the tight table - and then only gamble on that table!
 
Irving Crane used to recommend two days a week on very tight pockets, with the remainder of your practice on tables comparable to those on which you usually compete.
 
sjm said:
Irving Crane used to recommend two days a week on very tight pockets, with the remainder of your practice on tables comparable to those on which you usually compete.
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i think lassiter recommended just the opposite of this, play on a looser table to allow you to freewheel and get in rhythm. My table is right in the middle and im really happy with it....(4 1/4" pockets). I started to shim my table up but its tight enough it wont take every shot, but loose enough that i can run out and its not spitting back everything but a perfect shot.
 
Playing on tight pocket tables all the time is the ONLY way to continue improving at a certain point IMO. Like Tate said

"In order to improve on tight equipment, I had to literally address every component of the game. Less play in the bridge, the grip, no head or body sway movement, a smoother stroke, etc. I even moved my head backward a few inches to see more of the cue.
"

I am still refining my style after months of practice and I am learning new things every day.

Eric.
 
This is really great stuff guys. many thanks. I'm already getting excited about going to Atlanta, and starting to plan out a practice routine. Hopefully focusing on this tournament will also bring about a longer term benefit of getting my game up to the next level (running 70s at 14.1 rather than 30s and 40s).

I do have a further question related to pocket sizes.. now if two balls exactly fit into a pocket, then it is 4.5" right? The tightest table would be around 4" and the loosest around 5" ? Is "standard' size around 4.5-4.75" ?

-Tim
 
hobokenapa said:
I do have a further question related to pocket sizes.. now if two balls exactly fit into a pocket, then it is 4.5" right? The tightest table would be around 4" and the loosest around 5" ? Is "standard' size around 4.5-4.75" ?

-Tim
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Pretty much, yes. The average I see is about 4 3/4. What happens is, if you get used to a certain size pocket, anything smaller seems too small, and anything larger seems too big.

Pocket size is not all that matters. The cut is very important. If you get on a table, a quick check is to simply place a ball about 1" off the short rail and 18" from the corner. Shoot it hard into pocket just inside the point. If the ball drops, then it's right. If the ball rattles back out, you have to be very careful to not fire your rail shots!

A word of caution. Don't expect much on a tight table in terms of straight pool. This may sound strange, but I don't find playing 9 ball on a tight table very difficult compared to playing straight pool on a tight table. Straight pool has a lot of situations where large side pockets are a blessing and you have no choice but to cheat the pocket. Plus blocking balls are huge on a tight table leaving no room for fudging. Combo's and so forth have no room for error. The break shot alone on a tight table makes a big difference in straight pool.

I would say a 30 ball run on a table with 4" corners and 4.5" sides is the equal of 50 to 60 balls on a table with 5" corners and large sides. In fact, if I recall, Earl himself said right here on the boards that on a 4" table his runs were 50, 60 or 70 balls. He would be in the 100's a lot with big pockets. I don't consider a 50 ball run on a loose table to be a huge feat, but I consider a 50 ball run on a tight table an accomplishment - and a considerable amount of carefully planned work.

Chris
 
I prefer practising on tight pockets as often as possible.

Why? Because it makes you play more correct. You NEED to play the runouts as simple as possible. You can't do anything fancy, so you will learn to do it easy for yourself.

After a while you get used to the table, and it's easier to do those long hard draw shot with tons of english.

If you practise all the time on tight pockets, then play tournaments on looser tables, you will play better. Mostly because the pockets are bigger, but also because you have learned to find the correct patterns.

Good luck with your game
 
Interesting thread.

One argument against practicing on tight equipment only if you generally compete on looser tables is that it can make you conservative in certain situations. An example is a straightish shot up the long rail in which you might be tempted to stun out off the rail. This is a much better percentage play on a loose table than on a tight table, but if you practice on tight equipment alone, you'll probably be more conservative than you need to be when you compete.

Another argument against practicing on tight equipment only if you generally compete on looser tables is that it can obscure your view of the percentages. On a tight table, you can give up a little more on the push, and some of your offense/defense decisions should be tweaked for the equipment. Similarly, on a tight table, you'll need to cinch the next ball or the next angle in situations where it is unnecessary on the looser table.

To put it simply, there's nothing particularly simple about this subject. As we've seen in the excellent posts in this thread, both tight pocket and loose pocket practice have their place.
 
I have had 4" pockets on all my tables and my GCI will also have 4" pockets.

No matter what size pocket the table has, you have to adjust your game to the table. Tight pockets require a little more finesse and good position play. Loose pockets allow you to fire balls in and cheat the pocket for shape.

I also agree that it is good to play on tables with tight pockets and tables with larger pockets. That way, you get used to various conditions.

Russ.....
 
cmsmith9 said:
Tim,

Congrats on making it to the US Amatuers!!

Yeah the above poster hit the nail on the head, you don't want to take yourself out of your normal routine. I'd split time on different tables, to get that seasoning. But if you do play on a tighty it will make you bear down a bit more. Try adding an extra stroke or two before you shoot. Also, you don't want to frustrate yourself and then go to a tournament. One of the posters above said to run a couple balls....that's perfect advice, throw out 5 balls and the 9ball and run them out. You want to go down there thinking you are a run out player. Also about safety play...that's a huge item to have in your arsenal, to me, that's how games are won, with great safety play you can foul them out as well as open up the table to make it a much easier run out. I regularly practice safeties, just locking up the ball as close as possible.

When I played in the US Amatuer in Atlanta I called and found out what type of tables they have, the balls they use and the cloth. Find out if they use the 3 foul rule as well as allow jump cues. If they use jump cues, you might have to really tighten up any safety play

Good luck to you! I hope you win, you deserve it.

Christian
Click to expand...
Very sound advice. I would take this man's advice any time. He beat a guy for his front 2 teeth.
 
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