PoolSynergy is a blog carnival where several pool bloggers collaborate each month to write about a common topic.
This month I'm your humble host, and I asked fellow contributors to discuss their thoughts, experiences, and/or advice on what is known in the world of billiards as 'sharking'.
Sharking, in a nutshell, covers a wide range of antics that may be employed to distract an opponent while they're shooting. Sometimes it's visual, such as motion in the line of sight or at the edge of the shooter's peripheral vision... sometimes it's audible, such as a well-timed comment or other sound such as a cough... and sometimes it's mental, such as a comment that's intended to provoke thought well after it's originally made (presumably while shooting).
Of course not every comment, cough, or movement is or should be considered to be sharking. This is an important point, and please take it on board. I've seen more than one person get so hung up on this kind of thing that they drive themselves batty just thinking they're being intentionally sharked when they're not. Pool halls and bars tend to be crowded, noisy, distracting places and you need to be able to cope with that or you'll find yourself limited as to how far you can progress in the sport.
The best pool players have honed their concentration skills to the point that they can tune just about anything out. Take, for example, this video of Efren playing in a noisy, crowded bar:
Or how about this one where Earl runs out while there's still commotion going on after a large bucket full of water fell from the ceiling into the stands:
I guess my overall initial point is that "stuff happens" and the better you can tune it out, the better off you'll be whether the stuff happening is being done to intentionally distract you or not.
On the other hand, I'm convinced that there are players out there with serious ethical and sportsmanship issues who feel somewhere deep inside that they can't beat you without resorting to sharking in some form or another. These are the folks that you need to arm yourself against... while still being mindful that the actions may indeed be innocent.
So what to do? It's a good question, and in my opinion there's no single 'right' answer that covers every situation.
One of the more common distractions I've seen is idle chatting, and more importantly trying to engage you in conversation while you're at the table. Seems innocent enough - after all, pool is often considered a social sport as it's usually done in a (supposedly) social setting such as a bar or pool hall. Intentional or not? It's tough to tell, and I'd tend to say it's usually unintentional... but I know that's not always the case. The best way to deal with this is to simply tune them out if you can. Simply do not allow them to engage you in conversation! Do not talk back to them! Ignore them and concentrate on your shooting.
Another distraction I've seen is the 'table hugger'... the guy who's up at the table chalking his cue or whatever while you're trying to shoot. Again, sometimes this is simply someone with a nervous habit or otherwise clueless about what he's doing. If he's truly clueless, asking him politely to step away from the table or out of your line of sight should do the trick.
Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a little more persuasion to deal with the situation. You might have to be a little firmer with your requests in order to get through. Do your best to keep your cool though! If you let it get to you, chances are it's having an increasing effect on your concentration (and game).
Another option that I've tried with known repeat offenders is to simply mirror them. Whatever they do at the table when you're shooting, do it right back when they're shooting. Don't exaggerate or "one up" them... just match them as closely as you possibly can - and do it in a casual manner too, rather that making a weird "see, I can do this too" expression on your face or something. I've found that one of two things will happen when you do this: (1) they'll say something to you about you doing it, which of course opens up a dialog in which you can politely request that they in turn refrain from doing the same thing... or (2) their sharky actions while you're at the table will magically 'disappear' without comment (and, of course, you should then do the same).
PoolSynergy is a blog carnival where several pool bloggers collaborate each month to write about a common topic.
This month's topic, brought to you by Samm Vidal Claramunt (aka Samm Diep), is 10 Things. Umm, ten of what things you ask? Well, ten of anything pool related said Samm - so I chose to write about 10 Ways to Quiet the Mind... something I've personally been focusing on lately.
If you're not familiar with the term, perhaps you've heard similar terms such as "Zen State" or "Inner Peace" as described in this short clip from Kung Fu Panda 2:
In the movie, Master Shifu goes on to demonstrate what can be done when a state of Inner Peace has been achieved: he delicately catches a falling drop of water... but instead of it splashing on him, he's able to magically keep it intact as it rolls over his hand and arms until he deposits it on a flower while Po watches in amazement. Later in the movie, Po discovers inner peace... duplicating the exercise with a raindrop. Toward the end of the movie, Po harnesses this new-found mastery of Inner Peace to defeat the evil Lord Shen.
That was a fictional (and animated) dramatization, of course, but it's not all fiction. Top performing athletes and artists have discovered that they have to 'let go' of conscious thought controlling their actions in order to achieve their full potential. Consider a lead guitarist performing an intricate solo, for example:
Watch the quickness and accuracy of his fingering as he literally shreds through dozens if not hundreds of perfectly timed hammer-ons and pull-offs in rapid succession. Not a single "buzz" of a miss-fretted string, not a single missed note.
Would this be remotely possible if he was consciously thinking of each individual action he had to do? Of course not. He's on autopilot. He's disengaged his conscious thought from his actions, letting his subconscious mind and body perform.
Watch the expression on his face around the 1:33 mark in the video clip. That, my friends, is Inner Peace.
The same principles apply to many different sports, especially sports that require split-second reactions such as table tennis (aka ping pong):
OK, I slipped some more fiction in here from the movie Forrest Gump, but 'real' table tennis is similar - the mind has to react quickly to recognize the speed and direction of the opponent's volley, anticipate effects of spin on both the path of the ball in air and bounce on the table... then coordinate with the body to properly position the paddle to return the shot - taking into account all the factors such as speed, spin, angle of paddle and so on to get the ball back to the opponent's side of the table.
Again, this is not something that can be achieved with step-by-step instructions from the conscious brain.
Consider another high-speed sport such as tennis:
Here, Federer returns a 140 mph serve from Roddick with precision for an easy win. Those of you who have not played tennis may not fully appreciate what he accomplished. A tennis court is 78 feet long. A tennis ball going 140 mph covers that distance in slightly more than one-third of one second. That means Federer had that much time to recognize the shot, calculate its trajectory, where it would bounce, where it would be when it got to him, position his racket (and body) for a return... and not just any return, but one perfectly aimed at Roddick's feet for a win.
"Immortal" the announcer said... but no, it was very mortal... just Federer harnessing the power of the subconscious mind by quieting his conscious mind. Inner Peace. Zen State.
In the movie Top Gun, one of the many lines that made an impression on me occurred during a classroom review of the pilots' performance earlier in the day. Viper, the Zen-master of the Top Gun school was critical of Maverick's (Tom Cruise) choices during a dogfight. He turned the review over to Charlie (Kelly McGinnis), who continued to question his actions:
"Aircraft one performs a split S? That's the last thing you should do. The MiG has you in his gun sight, what were you thinking?"
Maverick replies "You don't have time to think up there. If you think, you're dead."
And he's right, of course. I can't say so from personal experience (unless you count computer simulators), but I can certainly appreciate the split-second reactions that would have to be made during a dogfight in which two or more jet fighters are performing intricate maneuvers at hundreds of miles per hour.
I can't relate to rolling raindrops down my arm or returning cannon balls like Po did in Kung Fu Panda either, but, being a musician and athlete, I can relate to some of the other examples given above. I lettered on the tennis team in high school, and engaged in rapid-fire net volley sessions on several occasions.
I've also played quite a bit of table-tennis, and even had the pleasure (if you can call it that) of playing against a nationally-ranked player on a fairly regular basis. He worked for me as a software engineer when I lived in Colorado Springs, and regularly hung out with some of the athletes a few blocks away at the U.S. Olympic Training Center during his free time. He kicked my butt 99.5% of the time, but I steadily improved and got to the point where I could return some of his hardest shots by pure reaction... again, by "letting go" and quieting my conscious mind.
Please understand I'm not relating these experiences to say "look at me"... but rather in an effort to endorse books and other materials that discuss this subject. I'm trying to say "I get it," "I've experienced it" and "there's really something to this."
One of my favorite books on the subject is The Inner Game of Tennis. In this book, the author talks about Self 1 and Self 2, with Self 2 being the subconscious part of the mind responsible for peak athletic performance. It's the brash, egotistical Self 1 that needs to be "quieted" in order to let Self 2 perform.
So what does all of this have to do with billiards, anyway? Pool is certainly not a game of quick reactions like most of my examples so far... but it turns out that the part of the brain responsible for peak high-speed athletic performance (Self 2) is the very same part of the brain that's ideally suited to handle the identification and calculation of the myriad of factors involved in shooting pool.
Applying the principles of "Quieting the Mind" will enable a pool player to achieve much higher levels of performance. Is it a magic bullet? No, not really... as with other sports the mechanics, knowledge, and strategy need to be sound - and the muscle memory needs to be put in place through hours and hours of practice... but once you have a handle on those things, successfully quieting the mind will raise your game to a whole new level.
Please understand that I'm not saying that only advanced players should work on this. It absolutely makes sense for beginners and/or intermediate players to be working on it as well. For one thing, it's not as easy as it sounds to master. It takes practice. If you begin working on it now, you'll have a better handle on it when your muscle memory catches up. Also, several of the tips result in an increased awareness... which in turn gives Self 2 more "inputs" related to each shot as your internal catalog and muscle memory is being built.
So... ten tips for quieting the mind...
1. Make final decisions on all aspects of the shot before getting down into your final shooting stance. You'll run across this nugget of advice often and for good reason. Once you're down in your shooting stance, you ideally need to completely surrender the completion of your shot to Self 2, the subconscious mind. Things that you consciously thought about before the shot: where you want the object ball to go, where you want the cue ball to end up, what path the cue ball needs to take, and so on, need to be settled.
2. Focus intently on the object ball as you make your final stroke. Most people go through some eye patterns during the practice strokes... shifting the eyes between the cue ball and the object ball. That's perfectly normal. When it's time to make the final stroke, however, you should be focused intently on the object ball. Exactly where on the object ball might vary a bit from person to person depending on how they aim and so on, but for purposes of quieting the mind, the key is to be focusing intently on the ball. Why? Frankly, part of the reason is it gives Self 1 something to do that's not destructive. It's like redirecting a child to another acceptable activity rather than simply telling them not to do something that's not acceptable.
3. If distracted while in your shooting stance, get back up and regroup. Do not continue with the shot. Get up, deal with the distraction, then go back through your pre-shot routine before getting back into your shooting stance. Perhaps stating the obvious, but it's a good idea to eliminate as many potential distractions as possible before even starting the match. Make sure you're not hungry, thirsty, or need to go to the bathroom. Wrap up text conversations, turn off your phone if possible and so on.
4. Let go of the ego. Remove all judgement from your shooting. All of it. Ego and judgement come from Self 1. If you make a bad shot, there's no need for Self 1 to reinforce that it was a bad shot by scolding yourself or trying to consciously analyze what you did wrong. There's equally no purpose in telling your opponent, your friends, or other rail birds what you did wrong. Self 2 already knows it was a bad shot and just as likely knows what you did wrong - probably better than you do. Perhaps surprisingly, the same advice applies to good shots. How many times have you seen someone fluff a simple shot right after dropping a really tough shot? It's a good bet Self 1 was still in the game doing high 5's, fist pumps, and chest bumps. Note that there's a fine line between judgement and simple acknowledgement. Acknowledgement is OK.
5. Increase awareness of your stroke. Heighten your senses of all aspects of your stroke in a non-judgmental way. This may at first seem counter-intuitive, but it can be done. Again, like #2 above, you're trying to engage Self 1 in helpful activities. Gathering more information for Self 2 is helpful. Trying to judge and/or consciously correct what's going on during the stroke is not helpful. Increase the awareness of your grip and how the butt of the cue stick pivots on your fingers with each practice stroke. Feel the shaft of your cue slide through your bridge. With most bridges, even a closed bridge, a V is formed. Focus on the weight of the shaft in that V... does the weight equally balance between each side of the V and stay balanced throughout your stroke? Yes, it sounds like I'm asking for a judgement here, but that's not the intent. I asked the question to indicate the level of awareness you should be trying to achieve. With the right amount of awareness, you should be able to answer that question, but don't do so in a judgmental way (again, simple acknowledgement is OK). Trust Self 2 to make the necessary course corrections. Similarly, you should be acutely aware of as many other aspects of your stroke as possible including what it felt like when the tip hit the cue ball all the way through your follow through.
6. Increase awareness of your stance. Repeat the previous exercise, only focusing on your stance. Feel the weight on your feet. Is your weight equally distributed between your feet? Your awareness should be such that you can answer that question. Is your stance relaxed and balanced? Is your whole body relaxed? While writing this step, I realized this is an area where conscious adjustment sometimes takes place when first getting into the shooting stance - you're down... you realize your aim is slightly off, so you shift a little bit... which in turn causes an imbalance on your feet. Go ahead and move your feet to correct this! I consider this adjustment to still be "getting into the shooting stance"... and therefore appropriate and necessary. Once you've made any such adjustments, lock them in, fade Self 1 out and let Self 2 take over.
7. Observe your stroke on a regular basis. This departs from some of the other steps in that it's not something you generally do while you're shooting. With some sports it may be possible to watch aspects of your motions in a mirror or something, but I've found that to be difficult to do with pool. The best thing to do is record yourself with a video camera. The most convenient time to do this, of course, is during practice sessions, but make an effort to record yourself during competition as well because you may find you do things differently! Again, the goal here is to observe in a non-judgmental way. Don't rip yourself up with negative declarations like "I've got horrible practice strokes." Observe, acknowledge, correct.
8. Trust Self 2. Once you're down in your stance and turned things over to Self 2, you absolutely must trust that Self 2 is going to come through for you and do the right thing. Any second-guessing or last minute corrections by Self 1 will likely screw things up. If you feel yourself doing this, stand back up and start over.
9. Let the shot happen. Don't make it happen, let it happen. Trying to make it happen is something Self 1 would do. You shouldn't be in conscious control at this point. Self 1 is the control freak. If it seems like Self 1 is still fighting for control (and it will, trust me) beat it back with a stick by keeping it busy doing other things like focusing even more intently on the object ball as previously mentioned. Be like Forrest Gump - "never, ever, take your eye off the ball."
10. Observe the results. Simple acknowledgments, non-judgmental. Did the object ball go where it was supposed to go? Did the cue ball go where it was supposed to go? This is an essential part of the process of feeding Self 2's data banks for future use. Self 2 took in all of the inputs you gave through increased awareness and if something was mechanically amiss, it probably caught it and stored that info away as well.
The Self 2 of an experienced player may very well be capable of resolving the reasons for any variances between actual and expected on its own in most cases. Keep in mind this might not be the case with a beginner because the beginner simply doesn't have the knowledge and experience necessary to explain an unexpected behavior... but that will improve over time as knowledge improves through experimentation.
Good luck beating Self 1 into submission!
Be sure to check out all of the other great PoolSynergy articles listed here.
PoolSynergy is a blog carnival where several pool bloggers collaborate each month to write about a common topic. For those of you in the United States, this time we're offering the additional service of giving you an excuse to procrastinate further on your taxes - at no extra charge!*
* Offer not available in all areas - certain fees and restrictions may apply.
St. Louis Johnny is this month's host and he suggested we write about our favorite cue sports game. I figured the chances were good that the more common games I play (8-ball, 9-ball & 10-ball) would be covered by others and/or pretty well known by the majority of the audience, so I decided to dig a little deeper to cover another game I play regularly for practice: Rotation Pool.
Depending on region or perhaps minor variations in rules, this game is also known by a number of different names including 61, Chicago, Boston, and others. With most of these, the general premise of the game is the same. Since my goal is to give a basic overview, I won't get too hung up on trying to sort out any minor rule differences. There are a couple of other interesting variations I'll highlight later in the article though.
First off, I want to point out that I've never played this game in 'serious' competition such as league or organized tournament. I have played it for money though. Perhaps more notably, I've played it for money in the Philippines! I lost. In fact, I lost a lot.
Luckily, losing a lot in the Philippines in the mid-80's didn't amount to a whole lot. It was probably probably cheaper than going out to a movie today in the U.S., but it was a lot to the guys beating my pants off. If I remember right, a frosty bottle of San Miguel beer was the equivalent of around five cents back then!
Now days, Rotation is one of my favorite games because I use it a lot for practice, and I think it's one of the best practice games going. If you happen to catch me banging around balls prior to a match, there's a fairly good chance it's Rotation.
I don't remember where I first saw the suggestion to use it for practice, but I'm guessing I can attribute it to Max Eberle in some way. The reason it's such a good practice game is that it really forces you to improve your position play while at the same time encouraging more complex combination shots as well as solid safety play. It's like 9 or 10-ball on steroids. As I hinted at above, this game is popular in the Philippines, and likely helps to explain the super human position and kicking skills of players like Efren Reyes.
In a nutshell, Rotation is played with all 15 balls racked as shown. For most minor variations, the important balls are the One, Two, and Three balls in the corners (1-ball at the apex, the other two balls in order clockwise as shown) and the 15-ball in the middle.
Some variations (such as Chicago) additionally require the 13-ball and 14-ball to be in the middle, but most variations do not. The 13-ball ended up in the middle for this picture by random chance.
In most minor variations, the play is as follows: as with other rotation games like 9-ball and 10-ball, the lowest numbered ball on the table must be hit by the cue ball first. Again as in 9 or 10-ball, the object ball can be pocketed directly or used indirectly to pocket other balls with combo, carom, or billiard shots. The scoring is a bit different than 9 and 10-ball... in those games, the ultimate goal is to sink the 9 or 10-ball. In Rotation, points are accumulated for each ball pocketed - one point for the 1-ball, nine points for the 9-ball, fifteen points for the 15-ball and so on. The goal is to reach 61 points (explaining one of the AKAs for the game listed above).
The value of 61 is simply the total number of points available (120) divided by two, plus one (or 120/2 + 1 for the mathematically inclined). It is possible to tie, with both players getting exactly 60. In the rare case of a tie, players generally start over again.
One handy thing about Rotation is that it can easily accommodate more than two players. For three players, the race would be to 41 (120/3 + 1) and for four players, the race would be to 31 (120/4 + 1).
As you get some experience with this game, you'll discover that the scoring can make the strategy interesting and maybe even a bit counter-intuitive. You can work your butt off and run the first ten balls through the heavy traffic of the early stages of the game, for example, and only accumulate 55 points. A miss on the 11-ball leaves five balls on a relatively open table to your opponent, which could very well result in a loss. Therefore, the scoring encourages using tougher shots to sink higher numbered balls when possible... and it also tends to encourage a lot of safety play in the early going as well. All of these factors push your skills to the limit - which is why it's such a good practice game.
If keeping a running total of points while shooting sounds more like work than play, there are at least two variations of the game that come to the rescue: Simple Rotation in which you merely count the number of balls pocketed (with the winner being the first person to sink more than half of the balls - eight). Or Eight-ball Rotation, which is played similarly to 8-ball... one player shoots the solid balls in order and the other player shoots the stripes in order. As in 8-ball, the goal is to sink the 8-ball after sinking all of your balls. For this variation, the 8-ball is racked in the middle instead of the 15-ball.
For your viewing pleasure, the below video is an exhibition match of Rotation between Efren Reyes and Ronnie Alcano (race to four). You may not have seen this match unless you've specifically searched for Rotation matches, but there's a good chance you've seen at least one shot from the match if you've searched for anything like "Efren amazing shots." There's a multi-rail kick shot around the 2:00 point of the second video that I've seen numerous times elsewhere.
I apologize for being a little slow to press on this one, but the 21st Annual Andy Mercer 9-ball tournament was a couple weeks ago (Mar 25th-27th) and I've got some video that I'm finally getting around to uploading.
Why the delay? I'm glad you asked because it's a perfect lead-in to a brief rant about a total pile of crap video package - Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD. I bought it on a bit of a whim last fall thinking it'd help me with another video I was working on at the time. I've used other video packages over the years (Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects and Ulead (now Corel) Video Studio) and were generally happy with them... but this one was sitting there on the shelf at Best Buy, was inexpensive, and I recalled hearing a couple decent things about it so I grabbed it.
Worst software purchase in a long time. Maybe ever.
The things I tried to do with it should have been pretty darn simple. Import a video, drop it on the timeline, do a little minor editing, size it and format it for YouTube. Render. But nooOOOoOoooo... the brilliant Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD developers didn't think we wanted to hear the audio recorded by the camera by default (even though it shows an audio track being dragged to the timeline). Or maybe they couldn't figure out how to read the audio format from my camera or something. Either way, I don't care. I read the help file a bit. It said I might benefit from a separate audio editor and suggested another Sony package that magically integrates with this POS video package. F-that.
It also suggested some other audio editors that might work, some of which were downloadable, so I went that route with a freebie that I've used before. Even with the audio editor, it was a painful experience. I had to chop several segments out of my interview in order to get the time down to the 15 minute YouTube limit and somewhere along the line, this POS video package lost sync between video and audio so it looked like I was watching an old-school Godzilla flick. I was pissed beyond belief and rapidly running out of time against a hard PoolSynergy deadline.
Fast forward to last weekend. I had these videos on my camera, and knew I needed to get them posted. I was bored. I couldn't see very well due to recent LASIK. Trying to think of things I could do to be halfway productive while still halfway blind, I decided to try working through the step of chopping up the videos into YouTube-sized chunks. I mistakenly assumed the settings from the previous editing session of the interview would still be intact and I'd actually have audio included with my video. I rolled through all seven video segments (several hours of rendering time). Fail. They rendered without audio again. And my vision was bad enough that there was no frigging way I felt like digging through the help files to figure out how to fix it again. Fool me twice, F.U.
Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD is no longer on my computer or in my life.
Last night and today I did what I needed to do with relative ease using Windows Live Movie Maker (free).
On to the Andy Mercer tourney. This is an annual tournament here in Las Vegas intended for "A" players. I don't know off the top of my head what the precise definition of an "A" player is, but I know I'm not there yet... so this is a tournament I watch for now. There's a similar tournament for "B" players at the Rum Runner on the previous weekend - the Doc Hill memorial. I considered entering that one, but had other obligations this year. I plan to enter next year.
The field is limited to 64. Format is: 9-ball, full double elimination, unhandicapped, winner break, rack your own, race to six. The purse in this tournament is sizable, with $6,000 going to the winner this year.
The above frame grab from my video shows synchronized final four shooting by the father-son dynamic Dominguez duo... Oscar on the near table and his father Ernesto on the far table. Ernesto won the Andy Mercer in 2010. There was at least one other father-son duo in the tournament: Emroy and Ray Skenandore.
Anyway, on to the videos. First up is the hot seat match between Oscar Dominguez and Shane Van Boening that was already in progress by the time I got my domestic kid duties done and made my way over to the Rum Runner:
Second video is part two of the hot seat match. In the last game of the match, SVB gave Oscar not one... but the last three balls! Quite the touch of class and show of respect for Oscar if you ask me (or maybe SVB just wanted to get back to the practice table sooner than later). Either way, I thought it was cool.
Video three shows Shane Van Boening practicing on the near table while Ernesto Dominguez and Walter Glass play on the far table.
With video #4, we're down to a single table featuring Ernesto Dominguez duking it out with Shane Van Boening to see who earns the right to take on Oscar Dominguez in the final.
One of the more under-appreciated shots of the tournament (in my opinion, anyways) happens at 10:30. Ernesto sinks the 2-ball and draws the cue ball more than the length of the table off of the head rail and side rail to get perfect shape on the next ball (the 3-ball I think?).
Surprisingly, the very knowledgeable audience barely blinked. You can hear a single person clap, but that was about it. Yet of all the shots I saw at this tournament, this is the one that stood out to me as one I simply can't do at this point in time. I can do banks, kicks, jumps... sure, not as accurately or consistently as these guys do (or I'd be on the other side of the camera) but I can do them. I have a pretty darn deadly curve shot. I can draw that far... even farther. In fact, I've drawn two table lengths before (to scratch in the corner pocket, unfortunately... sigh).
But I doubt I'll be drawing that farleft-handedas he did anytime soon. I bow to Ernesto for that one.
Video #5... part two of Ernesto vs. SVB.
Video #6... part three of Ernesto vs. SVB..
Video #7 is unfortunately a short one because the battery on my camera died... but it's the first few minutes of the first set of the finals - Oscar Dominguez vs. Shane Van Boening.
So there you have it... another year in the books. Shane Van Boening took first, Oscar Dominguez second, Ernesto Dominguez third, and Walter Glass fourth.
I have a confession to make: I have dirty balls. Mine are nowhere near the worst case I've seen or heard of, mind you... but they're dirty nonetheless and I'm looking for a good solution.
Surfing around the Internet a bit, I ran across some promising home-built contraptions like this one and added building such a thing to my "to-do" list:
The problem is, my "to-do" list is huge and growing... and with various other things on the near horizon for me, I don't see it getting much smaller anytime soon. I needed an interim solution. So I pondered and pondered... and the thought of putting my balls in the dishwasher kept coming to mind.
I didn't act on that thought right away. I asked a few friends if they ever tried putting their balls in the dishwasher. I got some strange looks and wisecracks from that question, but the answer was generally the same - that they hadn't and they never heard of anyone attempting to do it.
I searched a bit on the Internet, but didn't really find anything on the subject. I admit I didn't dig really deep - mainly because some of the links that were coming up were a bit disturbing, to be honest.
So I thought about it a little more - what's the best case scenario? Well, my balls could come out nice and shiny clean and I'd be all happy that I found an easy, readily available way to clean my balls for years to come.
Less than best case? Well, I suppose it just wouldn't work. Dirty balls in, dirty balls out. Back to waiting for the YouTube solution to bubble up to the top of the "to-do" list.
Worst case? I figured worst case would be something like my balls exploding in the dishwasher or something, I dunno. That was the best I could come up with anyway. Now, I honestly didn't think exploding balls was a likely scenario, but it's not like the balls are stamped "dishwasher safe" yanno? Even if they didn't explode, I figured there might some possibility of them warping or the core shifting in some way or something. All of my balls (at least the ones I'd consider putting in the dishwasher) are good quality Aramith balls, so I had more confidence in them surviving the process than I would have if they were made out of other materials like polymer or polyester.
After the APA Regionals in Phoenix, I had a test subject. I bought a magnetic Aramith cue ball some time ago so I could spend some time practicing with it prior to competing in tournaments that would use that type of ball (like APA Nationals, or in this case Regionals, based on my previous experience at the same venue). Practicing with the ball prior to Regionals, I discovered that it seems to have a higher affinity for chalk than the other cue balls I normally use (Aramith Pro Cup and Aramith Red Circle). With the cue balls I usually use, it's pretty easy to wipe the chalk off with a towel or whatever. With the magnetic version, not so much. At least that's been my experience. I'm not sure why... the balls are made by the same company and supposedly out of similar materials... maybe the surface treatment is slightly different.
Anyway, after a couple of weeks practicing with the magnetic ball before Regionals, I ended up with a thoroughly spotted ball desperately needing a good cleaning.
I loaded it into the dishwasher (top rack) and ran it through a normal cycle. I'm happy to say it didn't explode, warp, or anything like that. Unfortunately, it didn't get clean either. Some of the surface grime might have washed off... but as you can see, there are plenty of chalk marks left on it.
I wish I had taken a 'before picture' for comparison purposes, but I honestly don't think the 'before' and 'after' pictures would have been very different. Both pictures here are 'after' pictures taken from slightly different angles.
I'm not sure if you'll be able to tell from the pictures, but there are spots from at least three different types of chalk on the ball. The bright blue spot near the top of the ball on the upper picture as well as the bright blue spots at the 11 o'clock and 5 o'clock positions in the lower picture are from NIR Super Professional Chalk. The black spots near the 1 and 2 o'clock positions are from Black Master Chalk. I use the black Master Chalk when I'm breaking with one of my standard 'house' cues (as I often do when I'm too lazy to pull my break cue out of my bag). If I'm using my regular break cue, I normally use NIR on it as well. Most of the lighter blue spots are probably NIR too, although there might be some Blue Diamond mixed in here and there.
So there you have it. If you ever wondered whether your dishwasher might solve your dirty ball woes... chances are it won't.
Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to my edition of...
This month, I'm the host for Volume 15!
Even as I originally proposed this month's PoolSynergy topic back in September, I knew that it'd be best to reach out to someone else who had more experience and success with pool in a team environment. The plain fact was that I didn't (and still don't) have a whole lot of experience with pool from a team perspective.
Through my own observations and experience in several other team sports, I was well aware that a coach (or captain) can make or break a team. We've seen time after time that some coaches manage to mold a group of average players into a championship team while other coaches fall short... despite having more individual talent available to them.
Being the leader of a team is more of an art than a science. You need to know the sport well, of course... the rules, the strategies, and so on but I think that's the easy part; the part that many people can learn (although it's clear some don't put in the effort to do so). The hard part, in my opinion, is to bring the players together as a cohesive unit to properly execute the strategies. This is where psychology and sociology come into play. Team dynamics.
As a coach or captain, you need to know your players' personalities, capabilities, and needs. Every player is different. Some like to be cheered on, some don't. Some perform better under pressure than others. Some play well against players of the opposite sex and some don't. Some will openly tell you when they're not confident with a situation and some won't. Some of the players who tell you they're not comfortable with a situation will kick butt in that situation anyway... while others will leave you wishing you heeded their warning. Some players need more warm up time than others. Some are fine with going up first, some aren't. These are just a few examples of the many, many factors that a good coach or captain will be 'tuned' into - and don't expect your players to tell you their thoughts or even the truth about some of these things. I'm not suggesting they'd intentionally lie to you (although some might in certain situations), but their perception can differ from reality. By all means, get their input as appropriate, but that alone will rarely be the only factor on which you base a decision.
I believe the 'art' side of coaching is very difficult to teach or learn in the usual sense, but developing an awareness of subtle factors like the ones I mention above is a good step in the right direction. Great coaches often know their players better than the players know themselves and use that knowledge to lead their team to success. The very best coaches extend this 'sixth sense' beyond their own team to players on opposing teams as well.
Anyway, back to my original point about wanting to seek out wisdom from others who have been successful with pool teams, I'm very fortunate to have access to a few folks in the local Las Vegas area that fit that description. I was extremely fortunate that a real gem amongst those folks, Sondra Friestad, agreed to spend some time discussing her thoughts on the care and feeding of a championship team:
In-laws visiting and you need to sneak off to the back room now and then to unwind? Kids banging mercilessly on their new toys in a sugar-induced frenzy? Wife still giving you crap about the raw turkey because you thought you set the timer for three hours to remind you to baste it but instead you set the timer to turn ON the oven in three hours?
Go ahead, lock the door and relax. Here's 13 hours of Efren Reyes vs. Earl Strickland at Ridgway's in Hong Kong (1996). Bite-sized 10 minute segments. 9-ball. Winner breaks. Race to 120. $100,000 winner take all.
Wow, it's been two whole weeks since my last post. It's amazing how quickly time flies when you're sick and your computer is dead. But it would take more than that for me to miss the special first anniversary edition of PoolSynergy, so I loaded up with a triple dose of Nyquil, booted my daughter off her computer and here I am! Her YouTube, Daily What, and U.S. Government homework can wait... it's MY turn damn it, and I built this computer in the first place - so HAH!
Now I have to hurry up and madly hammer this out before the Nyquil kicks in and I ZzzzZzzzzzz.
For this month's edition of PoolSynergy, John chose to go with the theme of "Three Tips" and after he very nicely explained to me that he was talking about three hints and not three tips such as the Moori, Tiger Sniper (my old favorite), and Tiger Onyx (my new favorite) I wandered off into my corner to figure out what I could possibly write about. Something GOOD. I mean "don't miss your shots," "don't scratch," and "don't hook yourself" seem kind of obvious (and short).
OK, I admit those were my backup plan in case I had to do the whole article from my iPhone. But I've commandeered a real computer so I'm going to do three real tips! And since I also listed my emergency backup tips, you get a sweet 2-for-1 deal on tips today and it's not even Black Friday yet!
Alright, the Nyquil is starting to kick in (which will be my excuse for any lame humor that appears in this post) so I need to get back on track. It actually took me awhile to come up with the three tips I was going to cover. Most of the other authors jumped on good ones before I could stake my claim (be sure to check the others out) so I had to dig a little deeper. I pondered some about what made me ME... and realized that I tend to use unique, creative shots more often than a lot of others do. While others get perfect shape shot after shot and sink everything (yawn), I'm the one who screws up shape just so I can pull some jaw-dropping crazy shot out of my ass. And then, of course, while the thrill is still fresh in the crowd's mind I miss an easy straight-in shot on the money ball and slink away to my chair. Or at least that's the way it seems during some matches.
But it is true that I use unique shots at times. Most of them aren't rocket science but as I mentioned, I often don't see them used when the opportunities present themselves to other players. Of course... once you know a shot and have practiced it a bit, it's easier to recognize the opportunities when they come up. It's like the old adage "when you have a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail."
So without further ado, here are the three shots I've selected as being not quite so typical but definitely handy when the situations arise.
The first seems like a no-brainer but I'm amazed at the number of people who will gladly trade off an easier straight-on shot on the current shot for much poorer position on the following shot. Take a bit of time to practice off the rail shots, they're not that tough!
Slightly less obvious, but very handy nonetheless is the Ticky shot. Again, it really isn't a very difficult shot to do with just a little bit of practice.
Being able to roll a ball in after another ball can be extremely handy! I've used it numerous times to drop my ball in after an opponent's blocker ball, or dropping in two of my balls in one shot, or even in game winning situations. Again, this really isn't a tough shot once you get a feel for it with a little bit of practice.
A slightly different approach is required when your object ball is close to the blocker ball.
And there you have it, three handy shots to add to your repertoire if they're not already there. Shoot straight, and kick some butt out there people!
As mentioned in a previous post, I fell prey to the three foul rule at a local 10-ball tournament a few months ago. I'm glad it happened when it did and in the manner it did, because it raised my awareness to the rule in general. It was a "learning experience" that really wasn't too harmful in the end... I won the overall match anyway, and ended up finishing in the money in that tournament. But any time I run across something "new" like that I do my best to learn from it.
The three foul rule wasn't entirely new to me. I was aware that it existed in some leagues and some formats but given that my (relatively short) pool career had been sheltered in a single league that did not enforce the three foul rule, I'd never really seen it in action. I breezed over it in the book(s) and at the time didn't appreciate that it could be used as a pretty deadly weapon. To his credit, my opponent exploited my naivety at the time with a very good play. There was a nice wall of balls that he hid behind and it didn't occur to me that the right answer was to just take a foul and blast the balls apart to reduce the possibility of a subsequent (fatal) foul.
Knowledge is power, of course, and I'm fairly sure the same thing won't happen to me again... at least in the same manner it happened last time.
I recently ran across an outstanding video showing the three foul rule in action. There is a ton of good knowledge throughout this short clip with both players showing aspects of three foul rule play as well as some very good and informative commentary. Enjoy...
Engineer, father, pool player on a quest for pool excellence. Historically, I've succeeded in achieving what I set out to do and pool is a good match for my overall skill set so I have no doubt I'll get there... one step at a time.
. In this book, the author talks about Self 1 and Self 2, with Self 2 being the subconscious part of the mind responsible for peak athletic performance. It's the brash, egotistical Self 1 that needs to be "quieted" in order to let Self 2 perform.
, 
and 
) and were generally happy with them... but this one was sitting there on the shelf at Best Buy, was inexpensive, and I recalled hearing a couple decent things about it so I grabbed it.
some time ago so I could spend some time practicing with it prior to competing in tournaments that would use that type of ball (like APA Nationals, or in this case Regionals, based on 
and 
). With the cue balls I usually use, it's pretty easy to wipe the chalk off with a towel or whatever. With the magnetic version, not so much. At least that's been my experience. I'm not sure why... the balls are made by the same company and supposedly out of similar materials... maybe the surface treatment is slightly different.
. The black spots near the 1 and 2 o'clock positions are from 
. I use the black Master Chalk when I'm breaking with one of my standard 'house' cues (as I often do when I'm too lazy to pull my break cue out of my bag). If I'm using my regular break cue, I normally use NIR on it as well. Most of the lighter blue spots are probably NIR too, although there might be some 
mixed in here and there.
, 
(my old favorite), and 
(my new favorite) I wandered off into my corner to figure out what I could possibly write about. Something GOOD. I mean "don't miss your shots," "don't scratch," and "don't hook yourself" seem kind of obvious (and short).
and 
. Another good resource for different types of shots is Dr. Dave's excellent 
