A nice way to say "Get the &*%$ out of my line!"

[MinnesotaSlim]

Playing lower end league here in town, you don't see too many people with good pool manners. They are always talking too loud or dropping sticks while you shoot, and there are even a few guys that will make sure they stand in your line of sight during ever shot. You can ask them to stand to the side, but the next time you get to the table they seem to be even worse.

What do I have to do to get these people to respect other players?

Slim

[shojingod]

Depends on how big the guy is or how good you are with the jump shots.

Jump the cue ball right at him. After getting a cue ball in the head I doubt he will be standing in front of your shot in the near future.

I believe you tried the nice way allready.

You ask once, you ask twice, you ask three times.

Then you send the cue ball somewhere.

I hate to even mention this, but there is a way to prevent rudeness that has proven effective in my hands. If they are in your line of site, jack up and fire the cue into their chest. Get up and say "sorry man, you made me nervous."

Just kidding (well, almost). Once a guy grabbed the chalk from under my chin as I was breaking. During my break I kick up my back foot and follow through allong the table with my body. Anyway I go ahead and fire away and end up throwing my body into the annoying nit, body checking him to the floor. I looked down at him and said, "sorry man, I didn't see you there." Needless to say, he stayed in his chair everytime I shot.

Really the only thing to do is grin and bear it. Learn to tune out the distractions, no matter how bad it gets. Typically, better players give more respect, but you got to take them as they come. Remember to be a champion, you must act like one. Ignore the nits.

Rodney

[rackmup]

Had a guy doing this to me last night...simply told him to "move".

It worked.

It helps that the other four members of my team cumulatively weigh over 1000 lbs!

Ken

The methods I've used:

1) Hit the shot as hard as I am able while still trying to make the shot (the get their attention and scare the *!$% out of them method)

2) Take about ten minutes or so to study the table, bend over to shoot, and then stand again and study the table for a while longer (the put them to sleep method)

3) Go over to where they are standing to examine the shot (the displace the fool method)

4) Politely ask them to move (the maybe they don't know any better cause they were born in a barn method)

Each technique has worked and failed. Your mileage may vary.

Steve

The best advice I can give is borrow my 13-year-old son. He rests his chin right on the rail above the called pocket and tells me what a horrible leave I left myself and what a hard cut it is and that he doubts it'll even go. After making a few 8-balls against him, you won't even notice the other team. In otherwords, practice with sharking until you can tune everything else out...then it doesn't matter what your opponent does.

I'll be polite about asking someone to move only once. I'm not so nice about the second time around. I've told my own teammates (and occasionally opponents)it's considered good pool manners to step away from the table when you're opponent is shooting.

There was one occasion when the teammate of the the fellow I was shooting against stood about a foot and a half away from the table and not only would not move when I asked him to, he even coached his player on a couple of shots without taking a timeout. I told nicely a couple of times, "The table is for the shooters and I think you are probably distracting BOTH of us. Please back away." I said this to him 3 or 4 times and the guy still wouldn't move. His teammates just grinned at what he was doing. He finally got so annoying one of my teammates gave him the option of moving away from the table and hushing up or being forcibly removed and possibly having his jaw wired shut. Not the most diplomatic way of going about it, but it got the desired result. The guy sat down and stayed quiet for the rest of the match.

[Rod]

Well you got to remember this is league. Some people
don't know any better but most do. I rarely let that stuff
bother me, I just get focused and play and block them out.
Only one time that I remember, and this guy was hyper,
never cared for that, and I didn't like him. I motioned with
my finger to go sit down. He didn't so I just stared at him.
Finally he moves off to the side a little, which was ok,
but I didn't want to let it go. Just starting to have fun here. So I went back to my table sat down and lit up a cig.
He is standing over there staring at me, the fun part is
that hyper players just can't stand being on ignore.
He finally says, are you going to shoot? I calmly said yea
as soon as you get out of my line and sit down.
No one said anything for a short time, he is still staring
at me, fuming by now, and finally a guy on his team says
come on sit down and let the guy shoot. It was and easy out
and I wanted to make an example out of him.
Of course he never shook my hand and ignored me. Two
of his teammates apologized for him later, which I accepted.
Pretty sad when one's friends have to apoligize or
make excuses for a player on their team.
BTW, no offense to anyone hyper, calm or inbetween,
it's a poor attitude that can or will upset anyone.

Slim,

I also play "lower end league" a couple nights a week. The incidents of rudeness only happen once every couple months but that's too much for me. Monday night in an 8-ball league I had a cut shot down the rail on the 8...a shot I should make 98 times out of 100. My opponent is standing over my pocket jingling his quarters in his pocket. I should have politely asked him to knock it off, took a sip of beer, re-chalked my stick and made the shot. Instead I let him distract me and I missed. Well I ended up beating him the next 4 games and won the match but in retrospect I should have nipped it in the bud right there and I would have won 4-0 instead of 4-1.