What offensive/defensive strategies do you prefer?

Push&Pool

Push&Pool

Professional Banger
Silver Member
By "strategies" I mean what kind of general approach to a match do you usually have? There are countless strategies which could be described here, so I'll narrow down the choice to the 2 general offensive and 2 defensive ones:

Offensive:
1. Risking pocket for always getting better position for the next shot
2. Risking accurate position when necessary to maximise the chances of pocketing the OB

Defensive:
1. Playing a good defensive move when needed, like a safety, without the intention of pocketing anything
2. Attempting to pocket a difficult OB, but making sure the CB stops on a safe position if you miss

I pesonally mostly use second offensive and first defensive approach. What about you?
 
Push&Pool said:
By "strategies" I mean what kind of general approach to a match do you usually have? There are countless strategies which could be described here, so I'll narrow down the choice to the 2 general offensive and 2 defensive ones:

Offensive:
1. Risking pocket for always getting better position for the next shot
2. Risking accurate position when necessary to maximise the chances of pocketing the OB

Defensive:
1. Playing a good defensive move when needed, like a safety, without the intention of pocketing anything
2. Attempting to pocket a difficult OB, but making sure the CB stops on a safe position if you miss

I pesonally mostly use second offensive and first defensive approach. What about you?
Click to expand...

In the words of Luther Lassiter, "Never leave the table on a miss".

In my words, "Don't pass up a good offensive shot to play safe". The object of a safety is to beat the other player to a shot. If you already have a good shot, do something with it. Playing safe and praying for hangers is not a good strategy and there is no guarantee that even with a great safe you will see a shot any better then you just passed up. Every time the other player comes to the table he can beat you. Especially in a short rack game like 9 ball.

As Mosconi said many times, "I never got beat by a guy sitting in the chair".

I am of the opinion that the more aggressive player all things being equal will usually win. The overly cautious player may just prolong his inevitable loss. This is true even in one pocket. The aggressive player running balls will always beat the scared player who does nothing but run 1 and play safe.
 
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In what I hope will be my most succint post to date:

If both the shot and the position are tough, play safe.
If both the shot and the safety are tough, shoot for your hole.
 
Be aggressive and take an extra moment before approaching ball # 5 in your run out. If ball # 5 in run out is going to just be something else off the table for your opponent and your trying for a miracle finish, then lay # 5 by a pocket or rail that is another blocker for your opponent to deal with, increase your odds or as I give the sign to my team mates holding fingers around my wrist of the other hand, meaning, I still have a pulse, that's the best move, extend the game, go into extra innings. Even if you don't end up winning the game, but, advancing your chance to get to 6 or 7 balls off the table, you've helped your team mates. We really don't believe that a loss with six or seven balls off the table really hurts our team if we lose a game. The ones that start to hurt is only downing 5 or less. You got to know when to back off and use that fifth ball in your run out to your percentage advantage in my opinion. Maybe others see it differently, but this option has allowed to plenty of hardware on the wall and mantels. Interesting post, can't wait to see what other players opinion's are. I have great friends who I shoot against and they are balls to the wall and try anything, three rail shots to anything with a possibility, and they get it done fairly well. However, back some years, this intimidated other teams, but, now, with the whole new generation of smart players, they just play a safe back. So....... guess it comes down to the old " how do you feel at the moment " thing. Great Post
 
VIProfessor said:
In what I hope will be my most succint post to date:

If both the shot and the position are tough, play safe.
If both the shot and the safety are tough, shoot for your hole.
Click to expand...
A lot of pool is risk and reward. If you play a safety that may be high risk, even if it works you can still lose. You don't win the game with a safety, you turn the table over to your opponent and hope for the best and anything can happen from there. Another thing to remember with taking the shot, even if you mess up you will not necessarily lose the game, but you did have a chance to win and may still win.

You have to keep what I am saying in the proper context though, nothing is written in stone. You make a lot of these decisions on the fly but you need a basis by which to make your choices, a theory that you play by that you trust. I learned this lesson when I first playing 1 foul ball in hand many years ago. I thought I was a master safety player and it worked quite well, against weaker players who I could count on selling out to me. Once I began playing better players I found all that safety play did nothing for me as they strung racks of 9 ball getting out from everywhere. Unless I could get out every chance I got and keep them away from the table I was dead.

What I discovered was, I was a much better player then I gave myself a chance of being. I also discovered this from years of owning a pool room and watching players play everyday. Most don't know how good they could really be if they just were not so scared of losing. Once they learn how to win they overnight may jump up several speeds. It was always there they just never gave themselves a chance.
 
Push&Pool said:
Offensive:
2. Risking accurate position when necessary to maximise the chances of pocketing the OB

Defensive:
1. Playing a good defensive move when needed, like a safety, without the intention of pocketing anything
Click to expand...

^^^^ these for me, most often, but it depends of course
 
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