Wooden Rack - The Secret Art of Rack Mechanics

F

FeelDaShot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I love the wooden triangle rack but the outcome is way too dependent on the racker. The mechanics of racking are super complex and the skills/tricks are still widely unknown, especially among amateurs. You probably all know that Joe Tucker released some racking secrets but that was 20 years ago and now his tricks are mostly obsolete and/or just scratching the surface. There's a whole ocean of racking knowledge out there that he didn't address at all. Let me give you a little background so you know where I'm coming from:

At one point in my life I was pretty obsessed with learning how to wire the wingball in 9-ball. I asked a local pro for a lesson and he directed me to Joe Tucker's Racking Secrets DVD. I bought both of his DVDs and studied them to death. However, I still wasn't very good at making the wingball and I would just waste a lot of time trying to rack.

So I ran into Mike Dechaine and I paid him A LOT to teach me everything he knows about racking. He spent a few hours with me and expanded way more on Joe Tucker's material to teach me which balls need to be froze and how certain gaps affect the break. This was really eye opening stuff, but I still could rarely get the balls racked as tight as I needed to. So again, I wasn't satisfied or effectively making wingballs.

Finally, I took one more lesson with another pro, whose name I promised not to ever reveal. He taught me many more things. Mostly helpful tips but some super shady stuff too, like using slight of hand to create an intentional gaps in certain places (which is 100% cheating and I will never use). But most importantly, he taught me HOW to rack. Not just how to read the rack, like the other guys. He physically showed me a racking technique that gets the balls super tight, even on bad tables. It's a pretty cool technique that I use every time now, regardless of whether I'm racking for myself or my opponent.

At this point, I stopped my quest for racking secrets. The shady stuff really turned me off and I felt gross just knowing those tricks. But at least, I knew how to rack super tight, how to read the remaining gaps really well, and some shady things to watch out for. Which was my goal in the first place.

A few years later Dr Dave released a video where he used paper to create gaps in the rack and study the outcomes. No offense to Dave, but based on my limited racking knowledge, this video was missing a ton of info. It's not really Dave's fault, he tried his best but the racking tricks out there are just very rarely shared, even among the pro players. As an example, I remember at one point Mike Dechaine telling Karl Boyes he would teach him how to rack for $10,000. Obviously, he didn't do it lol but it shows how highly sought after this info is.

So, where am I going with this? Well, have you ever heard the expression, "you don't know, what you don't know"? The refs, the promotors, the fans, probably everyone reading this, and 99.99% of the pool community as a whole don't know crap about racking. And they really don't know what they don't know. This is troubling. If you don't fully understand something, it's unlikely that you're going to be able to properly regulate it.

So Matchroom's solution is a neutral racker. But how can a neutral racker, truly be neutral? How much should the netural racker know about rack mechanics? Should the neutral racker be ignorant to rack mechanics and just rack as tight as possible? Or should the neutral racker be extremely skilled in rack mechanics and rack to produce a certain neutral outcome? You need someone who won't rack too well and also won't rack too bad all while keep things fair for both players. How can this be possible? I don't see how. I can show you two equally tight racks, one good, one bad. To the untrained eye, you would have no clue which is which.

So how tight of a rack is acceptable? Which balls need to be frozen for the rack to be acceptable? How tight is too tight? How loose is too loose? Clearly some type of standards or minimum requirements need to be established.

Whether we like to admit it or not, racking is a skill. Just like jumping or anything else in pool. As a pro, I wouldn't want anyone else racking for me. Just like I wouldn't want anyone else shooting a jump shot for me. The outcome is far too important to leave up to a third party who really can't be neutral, no matter how hard they try.

I don't know what the solution here is, but a neutral racker is deeply troubling. No two racks are the same, no two rackers are the same, and no racker is truly neutral. And unfortunately, the people making the rules, don't know, what they don't know.
 
FeelDaShot said:
... He physically showed me a racking technique that gets the balls super tight, even on bad tables. It's a pretty cool technique that I use every time now, regardless of whether I'm racking for myself or my opponent. ...
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If it is really true that you know a way to rack "super tight, even on bad tables," why don't you or the "pro, whose name I promised not to ever reveal" go ahead and inform the world how to do it. Sure, I understand why you and he might not want to talk about the "super shady stuff," but why not inform others about a racking technique that might help reduce the number of bad racks in this world. Is it because you view the "secret" as an advantage in rack-your-own matches, and you don't want others to be able to give themselves tight racks?
 
AtLarge said:
If it is really true that you know a way to rack "super tight, even on bad tables," why don't you or the "pro, whose name I promised not to ever reveal" go ahead and inform the world how to do it. Sure, I understand why you and he might not want to talk about the "super shady stuff," but why not inform others about a racking technique that might help reduce the number of bad racks in this world. Is it because you view the "secret" as an advantage in rack-your-own matches, and you don't want others to be able to give themselves tight racks?
Click to expand...
I have no problem teaching it. It's just too hard to explain through text and it's something you would probably have to see to fully understand. Regardless, here it goes:

1. Place the rack and form the balls in a diamond shape like you would normally.
2. Place both of your thumbs on the back ball, each middle finger goes on a wing ball, and your pointer fingers fall into place on the balls in the second to last row.
3. Once the balls are in position, vibrate/pump your fingers pretty fast and loosely without applying much pressure to the balls. You want them to rattle around against each other semi-loosely.
4. After a second or two of vibration the balls will all start to move/vibrate together in unison. As soon as this happens you stop and let the balls fall into place.
5. Usually the head ball will roll off a little and most of the remaining balls will freeze together.
6. Now, note where the head ball rolled off to and move the whole rack so that the headball is centered on it's new location.
7. Now repeat the whole process again from the new location.
8. Use a few extra iterations as needed until all of the balls fall inward on to one another and most are frozen.

During the whole process you're keeping your fingers and the balls very loose. You aren't applying much pressure on the balls other than just a little forward pressure to keep them all grouped together within the rack. You're just loosely pumping. releasing, and letting them fall into place in unison. When they come to rest they tend to fall against one another so the rack just comes right off without any balls moving.

It takes a little practice at first but it's amazingly easy once you get the hang of it.

To better understand, maybe think of it as just getting each ball to quickly rock back and forth, once they all start rocking back and forth in unison you let go. Since they were all moving together, and they all stopped getting rocked at the same time, they will generally all have the same reaction as they come to rest and freeze together.
 
FeelDaShot said:
I have no problem teaching it. It's just too hard to explain through text and it's something you would probably have to see to fully understand. Regardless, here it goes:

1. Place the rack and form the balls in a diamond shape like you would normally.
2. Place both of your thumbs on the back ball, each middle finger goes on a wing ball, and your pointer fingers fall into place on the balls in the second to last row.
3. Once the balls are in position, vibrate/pump your fingers pretty fast and loosely without applying much pressure to the balls. You want them to rattle around against each other semi-loosely.
4. After a second or two of vibration the balls will all start to move/vibrate together in unison. As soon as this happens you stop and let the balls fall into place.
5. Usually the head ball will roll off a little and most of the remaining balls will freeze together.
6. Now, note where the head ball rolled off to and move the whole rack so that the headball is centered on it's new location.
7. Now repeat the whole process again from the new location.
8. Use a few extra iterations as needed until all of the balls fall inward on to one another and most are frozen.

During the whole process you're keeping your fingers and the balls very loose. You aren't applying much pressure on the balls other than just a little forward pressure to keep them all grouped together within the rack. You're just loosely pumping. releasing, and letting them fall into place in unison. When they come to rest they tend to fall against one another so the rack just comes right off without any balls moving.

It takes a little practice at first but it's amazingly easy once you get the hang of it.

To better understand, maybe think of it as just getting each ball to quickly rock back and forth, once they all start rocking back and forth in unison you let go. Since they were all moving together, and they all stopped getting rocked at the same time, they will generally all have the same reaction as they come to rest and freeze together.
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I do everything stated except the vibrating part, I apply firm, even pressure while also trying to press down on the balls (if needed) so they settle into the cloth.

If I am at a bar and they have those crappy plastic racks that like to flare out at the top then flip it over, this way the angle is putting a downward force on the balls so they settle into the cloth.

I have never had anyone complain about my racking and I've never considered cheating. I don't think the concept of "all the balls should be touching" is too much to comprehend, if it is, then you're cheating. Pretty easy in my book.
 
Chili Palmer said:
I do everything stated except the vibrating part, I apply firm, even pressure while also trying to press down on the balls (if needed) so they settle into the cloth.

If I am at a bar and they have those crappy plastic racks that like to flare out at the top then flip it over, this way the angle is putting a downward force on the balls so they settle into the cloth.

I have never had anyone complain about my racking and I've never considered cheating. I don't think the concept of "all the balls should be touching" is too much to comprehend, if it is, then you're cheating. Pretty easy in my book.
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The vibrating part is the whole technique lol. Regardless, I'm glad your technique is working! I've just found that way too many people don't see small cracks between balls and they THINK they have them all touching. Especially older folks with bad eyes. Even the smallest cracks matter...a lot!
 
FeelDaShot said:
The vibrating part is the whole technique lol. Regardless, I'm glad your technique is working! I've just found that way too many people don't see small cracks between balls and they THINK they have them all touching. Especially older folks with bad eyes. Even the smallest cracks matter...a lot!
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If playing a serious match I will sometimes take a peak at the rack. From my basic understanding gaps in the front three will affect the spread and gaps in the back three will allow the 9B ease out towards one of the corners.

If playing for fun and someone is struggling to get it right I just tell them "that's good", I don't care about gaps, I just want to get as many games in as possible.
 
Chili Palmer said:
If playing a serious match I will sometimes take a peak at the rack. From my basic understanding gaps in the front three will affect the spread and gaps in the back three will allow the 9B ease out towards one of the corners.

If playing for fun and someone is struggling to get it right I just tell them "that's good", I don't care about gaps, I just want to get as many games in as possible.
Click to expand...
I don't know anything about the front three gaps causing any layout changes. But your close with the 9-ball tracking. Here a couple gaps around the 9 that are super important to know:

1. When racking for your opponent, you need to make sure the 9-ball is frozen to the two balls behind it. If there is a gap, the 9-ball will move into the gap and start tracking toward the nearby corner. Not good!
2. To prevent a slug rack, make sure the 9-ball is frozen to the two balls above it. Having a gap between the second row balls and the 9-ball will create a complete slug.

I'm pretty sure most people already know these two. But if not, here ya go...
 
I once knew a great player (could play with almost anyone) and he could rack those ball so damn tight, he would just shut anyone's break down. I played in some ring games with him and he would get so pissed at me for the way I racked. For a long time, I thought it was just my imagination / perception, but I watched him rack for years. I'm not sure how he did it, but it worked.
 
fjk said:
I once knew a great player (could play with almost anyone) and he could rack those ball so damn tight, he would just shut anyone's break down. I played in some ring games with him and he would get so pissed at me for the way I racked. For a long time, I thought it was just my imagination / perception, but I watched him rack for years. I'm not sure how he did it, but it worked.
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It sounds crazy, getting racking lessons of all things lol, but you should have asked for a quick lesson. Racking tight is important.

I play with a guy all of the time who can't rack to save his life. He always wants to play "opponent racks" which is basically like me giving him a spot lol. He just can't figure it out and doesn't want to learn a new way to rack. I just smash them hard and hope for the best...which rarely works out well.
 
FeelDaShot said:
I don't know anything about the front three gaps causing any layout changes. But your close with the 9-ball tracking. Here a couple gaps around the 9 that are super important to know:

1. When racking for your opponent, you need to make sure the 9-ball is frozen to the two balls behind it. If there is a gap, the 9-ball will move into the gap and start tracking toward the nearby corner. Not good!
2. To prevent a slug rack, make sure the 9-ball is frozen to the two balls above it. Having a gap between the second row balls and the 9-ball will create a complete slug.

I'm pretty sure most people already know these two. But if not, here ya go...
Click to expand...


Yep, that's exactly the knowledge I have, and not much more, regarding racking.

EDIT: The spread meant a slug rack.
 
FeelDaShot said:
It sounds crazy, getting racking lessons of all things lol, but you should have asked for a quick lesson. Racking tight is important.

I play with a guy all of the time who can't rack to save his life. He always wants to play "opponent racks" which is basically like me giving him a spot lol. He just can't figure it out and doesn't want to learn a new way to rack. I just smash them hard and hope for the best...which rarely works out well.
Click to expand...

My good friend is in his mid 70's and he likes to give a loose rack once in a while. I'm still not sure if it's on purpose or not but he did grow up in Detroit and hung around people who hung around The Rack, if that tells you anything.

I razz him about and we just chuckle, I just consider it me giving him weight.
 
The template has changed racking……I bought a Delta Elite rack thinking it was the best to use.
Whether it is seems to have become an academic question. Templates just rack tighter & better.
 
The fundamental problem is that 9-ball is broken::
a) it is too highly dependent on the mechanics/physics of the rack and the balls
b) too highly dependent on the energy of the CB when it impacts the rack
c) a game with too few strokes per rack/game/frame
d) but is perfect for TV because you can put a commercial between each rack/game/frame

The problem is not the mechanical realization of the pattern of balls waiting to be broken.
 
FeelDaShot said:
I love the wooden triangle rack but the outcome is way too dependent on the racker. The mechanics of racking are super complex and the skills/tricks are still widely unknown, especially among amateurs. You probably all know that Joe Tucker released some racking secrets but that was 20 years ago and now his tricks are mostly obsolete and/or just scratching the surface. There's a whole ocean of racking knowledge out there that he didn't address at all. Let me give you a little background so you know where I'm coming from:

At one point in my life I was pretty obsessed with learning how to wire the wingball in 9-ball. I asked a local pro for a lesson and he directed me to Joe Tucker's Racking Secrets DVD. I bought both of his DVDs and studied them to death. However, I still wasn't very good at making the wingball and I would just waste a lot of time trying to rack.

So I ran into Mike Dechaine and I paid him A LOT to teach me everything he knows about racking. He spent a few hours with me and expanded way more on Joe Tucker's material to teach me which balls need to be froze and how certain gaps affect the break. This was really eye opening stuff, but I still could rarely get the balls racked as tight as I needed to. So again, I wasn't satisfied or effectively making wingballs.

Finally, I took one more lesson with another pro, whose name I promised not to ever reveal. He taught me many more things. Mostly helpful tips but some super shady stuff too, like using slight of hand to create an intentional gaps in certain places (which is 100% cheating and I will never use). But most importantly, he taught me HOW to rack. Not just how to read the rack, like the other guys. He physically showed me a racking technique that gets the balls super tight, even on bad tables. It's a pretty cool technique that I use every time now, regardless of whether I'm racking for myself or my opponent.

At this point, I stopped my quest for racking secrets. The shady stuff really turned me off and I felt gross just knowing those tricks. But at least, I knew how to rack super tight, how to read the remaining gaps really well, and some shady things to watch out for. Which was my goal in the first place.

A few years later Dr Dave released a video where he used paper to create gaps in the rack and study the outcomes. No offense to Dave, but based on my limited racking knowledge, this video was missing a ton of info. It's not really Dave's fault, he tried his best but the racking tricks out there are just very rarely shared, even among the pro players. As an example, I remember at one point Mike Dechaine telling Karl Boyes he would teach him how to rack for $10,000. Obviously, he didn't do it lol but it shows how highly sought after this info is.

So, where am I going with this? Well, have you ever heard the expression, "you don't know, what you don't know"? The refs, the promotors, the fans, probably everyone reading this, and 99.99% of the pool community as a whole don't know crap about racking. And they really don't know what they don't know. This is troubling. If you don't fully understand something, it's unlikely that you're going to be able to properly regulate it.

So Matchroom's solution is a neutral racker. But how can a neutral racker, truly be neutral? How much should the netural racker know about rack mechanics? Should the neutral racker be ignorant to rack mechanics and just rack as tight as possible? Or should the neutral racker be extremely skilled in rack mechanics and rack to produce a certain neutral outcome? You need someone who won't rack too well and also won't rack too bad all while keep things fair for both players. How can this be possible? I don't see how. I can show you two equally tight racks, one good, one bad. To the untrained eye, you would have no clue which is which.

So how tight of a rack is acceptable? Which balls need to be frozen for the rack to be acceptable? How tight is too tight? How loose is too loose? Clearly some type of standards or minimum requirements need to be established.

Whether we like to admit it or not, racking is a skill. Just like jumping or anything else in pool. As a pro, I wouldn't want anyone else racking for me. Just like I wouldn't want anyone else shooting a jump shot for me. The outcome is far too important to leave up to a third party who really can't be neutral, no matter how hard they try.

I don't know what the solution here is, but a neutral racker is deeply troubling. No two racks are the same, no two rackers are the same, and no racker is truly neutral. And unfortunately, the people making the rules, don't know, what they don't know.
Click to expand...
I can change the outcome of a magic rack by picking the slick or the matte side up. Also different templates rack differently. I find Accurack to be the most neutral rack, emulating a well racked triangle rack.

I'd really love to learn how to rack better with a triangle, but I'm always wary of the rack mechanics so generally go with a template if playing unknown players.

The other annoying thing is when the spot has a huge wore out place or divot. I've started carrying tefco spots in my bag and I'll replace them if they are too bad. The owner okayed this.

EDIT: We have a "house rule" that you can look at the rack (it's opponent racks) but you can't ask for them to re-do it. Careful observation teaches you things about little gaps and how to counter them.
 
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