why the big diff between 8 ball vs 9 ?

[justadub]

good luck to you on your continued improvement. i hope you dont go thru what i did when i was raised to a 5. i lost my next 10 matches in a row before i was brought back to a 4. i dont know about your situation but im the most experienced player on my team so im the one selected to play the best on the opposing team . im always playing a s/l 6 or higher and win 56.8% of the time. when i was a 5 i just couldnt get the extra points i needed to beat the higher level players. in the 10 matches i lost i scored enough points to win had i been a 4. guess you could say im a very strong 4 but a week 5. i had one of those real good nights last week beating an 8 pretty bad .i got 17 to his 3. guess i will be moving back up to a 5 after that. i know he wasnt sandbagging because he is my teamate in another division. i just had one of those nights where i couldt miss leaving him sitting in his chair when he wasnt racking lol.

I'm in the same boat, went up to SL5 last summer, and then went 3-10. I wasn't getting killed, just not closing the deal. I changed teams, and after a while my captain started putting me up against SL4s, and I started winning again. (We have enough higher level players that we can do that). Our team is tied for first, so I'm in no hurry to try the higher SLs any time soon. (The current strategy is working quite well!) But next session I need to work that out and take my turn at the SL5's and SL6's again.

 

[BrokeStroke]

I always play 8 ball pretty slow, and always play 9 ball pretty quick. Thoughts?

Just taking a stab at this one.

The thought process is totally different, so maybe you are paying attention to patterns more in 8-ball.

In 9-ball, you know "I have to be here to get to here to get to here."

In 8-ball, your thought process might go like this... "If i go this way, I would have to go around these, aviod this and go there, OR, I can go this way and aviod this problem..."

Just the way you are mentally picturing or playing the game might have something to do with the pace at which you play.

 

[lorider]

I play about a full skill level 8 ball over 9 ball I can't mentally fade the luck factor in 9 ball.



In my opinion, unless you are at a very low skill level there is more luck in 8 ball than in 9 ball. It is very common to see a

decent player get totally hooked on the ball that they were playing position on, but still have a decent shot on a totally

different ball. I would say that this situation occurs substantially more often than a person slops a 9 ball in. 9 ball

makes the player more accountable for their position errors. Furthermore its pretty easy to take most of the luck factor out of 9

ball by not counting early or unintentional 9 balls. There are other reasons that I believe that there is more luck in 8 ball but its

pretty complicated to explain it in detail, but it stems from the fact that you are shooting at different balls from your opponent

(stripes and solids). In other games (9ball, straight pool,one pocket) both guys are shooting the same balls.





This thread also rekindled my interest in something that has been on my mind, so I wanted to ask a question if anyone on here is

kind enough to answer. Is it a problem that I play 8 ball sort of slow and methodical, but I shoot 9 ball at a very quick rythmic

pace? I also seem to play pretty slow when playing on tight pockets, but play a quick pace on loose pocketed tables. Normally

I wouldn't care at all, I am the type of person that believes in trusting instincts and just following what you feel like doing

naturally. lately I have been playing pretty awful though so I have been questioning things more often. It seems that most

great players have the same pace pretty much all the time, yet I always play 8 ball pretty slow, and always play 9 ball pretty

quick. Thoughts?

imo the reason you play 9 ball faster is because you dont have to think as much. you just have to think about each consecutive ball in order and the table is more open. the key phrase in your post is you are " questioning things". sound to me like you are doubting your ability to make shots.

have you had a game or a match recently where you lost and knew you should have won ? your mental attitude is a very important part of your game. you have to erase all negative thoughts and believe you can make the same shots today that you did when you shot your best.

 

[lorider]

I'm in the same boat, went up to SL5 last summer, and then went 3-10. I wasn't getting killed, just not closing the deal. I changed teams, and after a while my captain started putting me up against SL4s, and I started winning again. (We have enough higher level players that we can do that). Our team is tied for first, so I'm in no hurry to try the higher SLs any time soon. (The current strategy is working quite well!) But next session I need to work that out and take my turn at the SL5's and SL6's again.

sounds like we are at a point where we are very good 4s and mediocre 5s lol. in several of my losses i was close to my points but just couldnt get there before they did. the real heartbreaker loss was to an 8 by 1 point. if i had been a 4 i would have won 2 games earlier in my match.

im steadily improving an hope you do also. like i said in an earlier post i dont play any one under a 6 now and my winning % is 56.8%. i think i will be back up to a 5 before the session is over in the next 3 weeks.