bsmutz
05-30-2006, 10:54 AM
...and it probably ain't much. Just wanted to pass along another of my experiences. I've been playing pretty much every day for the past two years plus a couple of months (when I bought my pool table). I felt like I've been making progress, though not as quickly as one might hope. I am terrible about doing drills. My usual routine has been throwing out a rack of balls and shooting them in. Then I play 8-ball until I run a rack, then 9-ball until I run two racks, then straight pool. Sometimes I never made it to 9-ball and rarely made it to straight pool. (I know I should be playing straight in most people's opinion, but I've always sucked at it so less frustrating to play the easier games.) Prior to April, I was getting better at running the 8-ball rack but not much better at 9-ball. A little over a month ago, I finally got my snooker table set up. I changed my routine to 8, 9, then snooker or just snooker.
I made a switch several months ago to a cue with a larger diameter tip and continued to use it for both games. While playing snooker one night a few weeks ago, I switched back to a cue with a smaller diameter tip and found I played better snooker with it (better control of the cue ball). I played for a week or so, switching back and forth depending on the game. I noticed that both games seemed to be suffering and finally decided it must be because I was switching cues. I decided to play both games with the smaller diameter. Within a couple of days, my pool game got noticeably better. Last Thursday, I ran the throw out, my 2nd rack of 8-ball, my 2nd rack of 9-ball, and got my highest run ever playing snooker (broke into the 50s, 14 ball run). Then Friday, I ran the throw out, my first game of 8-ball and 1st game of 9-ball. Saturday I just played 9-ball for awhile after running the 8-ball game and found I was running about half of the games I played which is way better than I've ever done before. Yesterday I played 8-ball on the snooker table for a few games with the big balls. I was able to run the rack on my third game. I had a sneaking suspicion that getting the snooker table was going to help my game overall, but I had no idea that it would be so fast and so dramatic. I realize that only a couple of weeks have passed and that really isn't enough time to make a blanket statement, but things sure are looking good from my current vantage point. Just wanted to share what's working for me, YMMV.
I made a switch several months ago to a cue with a larger diameter tip and continued to use it for both games. While playing snooker one night a few weeks ago, I switched back to a cue with a smaller diameter tip and found I played better snooker with it (better control of the cue ball). I played for a week or so, switching back and forth depending on the game. I noticed that both games seemed to be suffering and finally decided it must be because I was switching cues. I decided to play both games with the smaller diameter. Within a couple of days, my pool game got noticeably better. Last Thursday, I ran the throw out, my 2nd rack of 8-ball, my 2nd rack of 9-ball, and got my highest run ever playing snooker (broke into the 50s, 14 ball run). Then Friday, I ran the throw out, my first game of 8-ball and 1st game of 9-ball. Saturday I just played 9-ball for awhile after running the 8-ball game and found I was running about half of the games I played which is way better than I've ever done before. Yesterday I played 8-ball on the snooker table for a few games with the big balls. I was able to run the rack on my third game. I had a sneaking suspicion that getting the snooker table was going to help my game overall, but I had no idea that it would be so fast and so dramatic. I realize that only a couple of weeks have passed and that really isn't enough time to make a blanket statement, but things sure are looking good from my current vantage point. Just wanted to share what's working for me, YMMV.