Look for this thread and you will understand various measurements re table tightness. "Table Difficulty Factor (TDF) for measuring table "toughness"
Another way to measure... Straight from Diamond... http://youtu.be/lG9CqK95U2E
Look for this thread and you will understand various measurements re table tightness. "Table Difficulty Factor (TDF) for measuring table "toughness"
Personally, I do think tight pockets will help your game. It will unquestionably help improve your accuracy, and by not being able to cheat the pocket you will be forced to rely more on english to achieve cueball position, therefore helping to improve your accuracy and consistency when using english.
When you learn to hit center pocket consistently on a 4" pocket, then move to a table with the bigger pockets, you should be able to hit every quadrant of the larger pocket more accurately, helping you to "cheat the pocket" with more precision and control.
The room I play out of has Diamond Professionals with 3 different pocket sizes throughout the room, 4.5", 4.25", and 1 table with 4". When I spend a few weeks practicing on the 4" pockets, then play the weekly tournament on the other tables, I feel like a monster. A lot of the guys who only play on the standard pockets don't fare as well.
Now Bill, I'm talking about practicing only, on a tight pocket tablePool is all about confidence.
Very tight pockets destroy confidence.
Do the math.
I have a Diamond pro with very tight pockets.
Every day when I practice straight pool I run 60 or more 2 or three times.
My run is most often ended not by a missed ball, but by a ball hit inside a pocket that does not go. That is just not fair. Speed should not keep a ball from staying in the pocket. If it is hit in the pocket it should stay in.
Those of you that think tight pockets are the way to go simply don't play well enough to appreciate what it takes to play really well.
Bill S.
Do they help your game? I've never really had much time on a tight pocket table and understand that it will help your accuracy among other things but is it a true test of your game? Opinions and observations?
There are that many rooms that have tighter pockets where you have seen it many times and different places? Where are they?
If you put in the effort to get better you can pocket the ball rather than opt out with a safety. The smaller pocket doesn't destroy the availability of position play or anything else. You just have to do everything more accurately.
Pro golfers don't play on "regulation courses". The rough is grown out, the tees are moved back, and the holes are cut in challenging spots. I guarantee that the course the pro's play on during the tournament are a hell of a lot tougher than the every day set-up for the club members. I've worked in golf course maintenance for most of my working life.
If we did what golf does, it would be just fine. Golf adjusts the playing surface to make the game more challenging. We already do some of that now by going from a 7' bar box to a 9' regulation table. We can use a slow thick nappy cloth or a super fine fast cloth. A lot can be done with cushions to make things different. Golf never shrinks the hole and we should not either.
What you folks don't understand is just how fragile any sport's success and popularity is. One small change can destroy a sport. Pool became popular because of what it was. This trend to make pool harder by shrinking pockets, calling balls, adding a ball to nine-ball, and going to 10' tables, all added togeather, is taking it's toll. Pool is evolving itself right into a corner (a smaller and smaller market).
In this thread we read the opinions of Luther Lassiter, John Brumback, Buddy Hall, and Bill Stroud (a fine player in his own right). You aspiring players can't get better advice than this.
Practicing on tight pockets does not improve your pocketing skill on looser tables. It simply limits your ability to cheat the pockets when you need to.
It is much easier to go from loose to tight pockets. Just move closer to the center of the cue ball.
As I said before. Lassiter was the best tight pocket player of his era and he practiced on 5 1/2 inch pockets every day to develop rhythm.
Bill S.
I was just in Olathe the other day, stopped in at Shooters, and really enjoyed playing the ghost on a fairly tight table, 4 1/4 inch pockets or so. I am fairly confident in saying that when you have a table that has a characteristic to slow you down and concentrate more on speed and accuracy it will help you achieve a better game. I would not enjoy the game as much if all tables were like that, but did enjoy it because of the challenge I had with my game. The best part of that session was the confidence I had on that table, not the other way around, it is easy to dismiss a miss because of tight pockets but what do you say when you continually run out on one?
I play on a Diamond Pro-Am with 4" corner pockets and the standard Diamond shelves and pocket angles that some people think are so hard. If I freeze two balls on the rail and tap with the cue ball it goes down the rail and drops instantly. Someone in the 'pocket dimensions' thread brought this up earlier. If you hit it and it didn't go in you didn't hit it accurately enough. It's not rogue pockets or gremlins that caused the miss. It was you.
I'm not saying that soft tables should be decommissioned. I'm saying that a reputable pool room should have some harder tables and not just soft tables. And I'm saying that the pros should be playing on harder tables.
How is it possible to practice pocket cheating in tight pockets?...
Tight pockets narrow down position play, something that doesn't fit into pool.
Pool is played in smaller tables compared to Snooker for eg, thus smaller position areas which require a different kind of precision and that is part of the game's beauty. There is English pool which is a specific game played in specific conditions and has nothing to do with the rest of pool games.
Pool pockets shouldn't be too easy nor too difficult, that's it.