Myth of Learning to Play on a Large Table
As I mentioned earlier, I grew up learning to play on a 9’ regulation table and to be honest, I love them. To play well on a 9’ table demands a complete knowledge of pool. Not only do you have to be a great shot-maker, but you also need to understand ball patterns, angels and cue ball manipulation, to mention just a few. But the real key to playing well on a 9’ table is this: you have to learn how to control the speed of the cue ball so it gets close to the next ball you’re planning to shoot. A 9’ table has a lot of playing surface and if you fall asleep, you can leave yourself with a shot that’s more than 7’ long. Even professional players don’t want these shots because they can miss them.
Today, I play golf and this is a good analogy. If you have a 20’ putt what you want to do is to hit the ball within a foot or two of the hole for a “tap in” (if it doesn’t go in). What you don’t want to do, is to leave yourself a five footer because all golfers know that anyone, even professionals, can miss five foot putts. What good pool players do, and why they make the game look so easy, is that all they typically do is leave themselves “tap in” shots, and they can do that because they have great control (touch) of the cue ball.
What most people think, is that if they can make a shot on a larger table, then when they play on a 7’ table they can make more shots. This is true. If you can make a long shot on a larger table, it stands to reason that you can make the same shot easier and more often on a smaller table. However, shot making is really not pool. I’ve known a lot of great shot makers who really weren’t accomplished pool players. Sure, they have a good eye and can make a lot of hard shots, but they have to be good shot makers because they don’t have a good understanding of how to control the cue ball and they keep leaving themselves hard shots. I loved playing these people because much sooner than later they would miss and I would run out the balls and win the game. Of course being a good shot maker is an advantage and make no mistake, good amateurs and professionals are very good at making hard shots, the difference is, they don’t leave themselves a lot of them. In fact, most good players don’t miss a shot because it’s hard, they miss it because they are trying to manipulate the cue ball with “English” (spin) and speed of the cue ball which dramatically makes the shot more difficult.
Essentially, what pool boils down to is leaving an easy shot, with the proper angel so you can position the cue ball to make the next shot with the proper angel to make the third shot. Believe me, it’s harder than it sounds, but that’s pool.
So what does all of this have to do with playing well on a large table and transferring that skill set to a smaller table?
Essentially, they are two different games. To play well on a large table, a person must have a greater knowledge base of how the cue ball gets around the table and the player needs great control of the speed of the cue ball so they can get close to their next ball for an easy shot. Playing on a 7’ table is much harder because the playing surface is much smaller. Balls are everywhere and it’s hard to avoid hitting them, and they tend to form into small clusters of 2-3 balls that need to be broken apart. Because the playing surface is smaller, to play well on a 7’ table requires a much greater degree of cue ball control, while playing on a 9’ table requires and great deal of cue ball speed.
Of course, cue ball speed is part of cue ball control but when I speak of speed, I mean the actual distance (in feet) that the cue ball needs to travel to set up your next shot. On a 9’ table, it’s not unusual for the cue ball to travel 5-6 feet to set up your next shot. Hit the cue ball too softly and you leave a long (and miss-able) shot. Hit the cue ball too firmly and you’ll roll past your next ball and many times, have no shot at all. On an league eight ball table, what I mean about cue ball control, is that the player hit’s a lot of “stop” shots (where the cue ball hit’s the object ball and stops dead), “draw” shots (where after the cue ball hit’s the object ball it then backs away from the ball), small “follow” shots (where the cue ball follows forward) and “one rail and out” shots (the cue ball hits the object ball, bounces into a cushion and back out again). You use these “cue ball control” shots more often playing on a smaller table because, you usually can’t allow the cue ball to roll all over because you’ll bump into other balls. This forces the player to approach the game differently by allowing the cue ball to roll as little as possible.
For those of you who are golfers or at least have an understanding of the game, let me give you an analogy which perhaps, will give you a better feeling of what I’m trying to say.
Take two young players, both starting to play golf. One player learns on a normal golf course (regulation) while the other plays exclusively on a par 3 course (7’table). The player who learns on a par 3 course spends all of his time hitting high iron shots, chipping out of rough, hitting out of greenside bunkers and putting. The player who learns on a regular course needs those skills, but he also needs to learn to hit: driver, fairway woods, long irons and how to hit out of trouble. It’s fair to say that the latter player is overall the more accomplished player but it’s of no help whatsoever if you’re playing in a par 3 tournament/league against people who have played exclusively on par 3 courses. And here’s the point… if the majority of golf you’re ever going to play is on a par 3 course, it is actually a disadvantage to waste time learning to hit drivers and fairway woods when you should be working on those aspects of the game you’re going to actually need.
In conclusion, over my lifetime, I’ve know and played against many of the top professional players of my era, and these people are phenomenal 9’ regulation table, “for the money” players. I’ve also played against a few people like the “par 3” player above and they are so good at playing on a smaller table, they are almost unbeatable. In fact they are so good, most professional big table players want nothing to do with them.
The bottom line is this. If you want to become a pro, buy a 9’ table. If you just want a fun game of pool that helps you get a bit better so you can beat your friends or play better in your 8 ball league, you are much better served buying the same size table (league tournament size) you normally play on.
Here’s a good tip on how to get better and do it faster. Primarily, this is a for a single player to practice, but it also works well with two players.
Take a piece of paper and number down the side 1-10. Now, rack up all 15 balls (no, the one ball does not need to be in front, and the eight ball doesn’t need to be in the middle). Now, break the balls apart. Pull out any balls that go in the pockets and place them back on the table. At this point, you can now shoot any ball in any pocket with the object of making as many balls as you can before missing. Once you miss, count up the balls you made, write it down, then re-rack the balls and repeat. When you do this 10 times, I think you’ll be amazed at how low your average is.
This game does a number of things. It improves your general “ball pocketing” power and it starts to teach you “pattern play”, or how to run the balls off in the easiest way. And, it begins to teach you cue ball control and how to get the proper angle on the next ball. It also does one other thing that I feel is very important. By keeping all of your averages, it will actually show you how much you’re actually improving. I imagine most people can’t average four balls in a row. For league players it is of course going to be higher, but I think that even they’d be surprised at how low they are. For a professional, they will run all 15 balls virtually every time. Try it and see how you do.
The other game to play is “six ball”. For those of you that know what “nine ball” is, this is just an easier version.
Take the balls numbered one - six and rack them with the one ball in front and the six ball in the middle of the back row. Now, break the balls, and any ball that goes in a pocket, let it stay there. The object is to shoot the balls in numerical order, and if played by two players, the person who makes the six ball is the winner.
Playing six ball will dramatically improve your shot making skills because you’ll have a lot of harder shots and it will teach you how the get the cue ball around the table. When your skill level rises to the point that six ball is boring, then switch to nine ball.
Practicing playing eight ball is just a waste of time. I could write an entire page on why, but just take my word for it. If you only play the two games above, I guarantee you, that the next time you do play eight ball you’ll see a lot of improvement. If you just practice playing eight ball, sure, you’ll get better, but the increase in skill will be so slow you probably won’t even notice it.
As much as I don’t want you to practice eight ball, I know many of you will so I’ll give you one very good tip that should improve your game immediately.
To play pool well, you have to learn to plan ahead. That’s really all that pool is, but when playing eight ball, it also helps to plan in reverse. This is what I mean…
When it’s your turn to shoot, take a minute and try and figure out the order in which you’re going shoot the balls. But when playing eight ball, what you want to do is figure out what the “key ball” is. The key ball is the last ball that you shoot before the eight ball and you want to find one of your balls that, if you make it, will leave you an easy shot (keys) on the eight ball. Once you find this key ball, now go ahead and try and plan your run, without using the key ball. However, as you start to improve, you can move back a ball and find the “key ball” that sets up the final “key ball.” Once you get good at finding key balls, you can actually figure out how to run the entire rack by just backing up the key balls. Sort of like planning how to run the balls off in reverse. If you work on this, you’ll win a lot more games.
Today, I play golf and this is a good analogy. If you have a 20’ putt what you want to do is to hit the ball within a foot or two of the hole for a “tap in” (if it doesn’t go in). What you don’t want to do, is to leave yourself a five footer because all golfers know that anyone, even professionals, can miss five foot putts. What good pool players do, and why they make the game look so easy, is that all they typically do is leave themselves “tap in” shots, and they can do that because they have great control (touch) of the cue ball.
What most people think, is that if they can make a shot on a larger table, then when they play on a 7’ table they can make more shots. This is true. If you can make a long shot on a larger table, it stands to reason that you can make the same shot easier and more often on a smaller table. However, shot making is really not pool. I’ve known a lot of great shot makers who really weren’t accomplished pool players. Sure, they have a good eye and can make a lot of hard shots, but they have to be good shot makers because they don’t have a good understanding of how to control the cue ball and they keep leaving themselves hard shots. I loved playing these people because much sooner than later they would miss and I would run out the balls and win the game. Of course being a good shot maker is an advantage and make no mistake, good amateurs and professionals are very good at making hard shots, the difference is, they don’t leave themselves a lot of them. In fact, most good players don’t miss a shot because it’s hard, they miss it because they are trying to manipulate the cue ball with “English” (spin) and speed of the cue ball which dramatically makes the shot more difficult.
Essentially, what pool boils down to is leaving an easy shot, with the proper angel so you can position the cue ball to make the next shot with the proper angel to make the third shot. Believe me, it’s harder than it sounds, but that’s pool.
So what does all of this have to do with playing well on a large table and transferring that skill set to a smaller table?
Essentially, they are two different games. To play well on a large table, a person must have a greater knowledge base of how the cue ball gets around the table and the player needs great control of the speed of the cue ball so they can get close to their next ball for an easy shot. Playing on a 7’ table is much harder because the playing surface is much smaller. Balls are everywhere and it’s hard to avoid hitting them, and they tend to form into small clusters of 2-3 balls that need to be broken apart. Because the playing surface is smaller, to play well on a 7’ table requires a much greater degree of cue ball control, while playing on a 9’ table requires and great deal of cue ball speed.
Of course, cue ball speed is part of cue ball control but when I speak of speed, I mean the actual distance (in feet) that the cue ball needs to travel to set up your next shot. On a 9’ table, it’s not unusual for the cue ball to travel 5-6 feet to set up your next shot. Hit the cue ball too softly and you leave a long (and miss-able) shot. Hit the cue ball too firmly and you’ll roll past your next ball and many times, have no shot at all. On an league eight ball table, what I mean about cue ball control, is that the player hit’s a lot of “stop” shots (where the cue ball hit’s the object ball and stops dead), “draw” shots (where after the cue ball hit’s the object ball it then backs away from the ball), small “follow” shots (where the cue ball follows forward) and “one rail and out” shots (the cue ball hits the object ball, bounces into a cushion and back out again). You use these “cue ball control” shots more often playing on a smaller table because, you usually can’t allow the cue ball to roll all over because you’ll bump into other balls. This forces the player to approach the game differently by allowing the cue ball to roll as little as possible.
For those of you who are golfers or at least have an understanding of the game, let me give you an analogy which perhaps, will give you a better feeling of what I’m trying to say.
Take two young players, both starting to play golf. One player learns on a normal golf course (regulation) while the other plays exclusively on a par 3 course (7’table). The player who learns on a par 3 course spends all of his time hitting high iron shots, chipping out of rough, hitting out of greenside bunkers and putting. The player who learns on a regular course needs those skills, but he also needs to learn to hit: driver, fairway woods, long irons and how to hit out of trouble. It’s fair to say that the latter player is overall the more accomplished player but it’s of no help whatsoever if you’re playing in a par 3 tournament/league against people who have played exclusively on par 3 courses. And here’s the point… if the majority of golf you’re ever going to play is on a par 3 course, it is actually a disadvantage to waste time learning to hit drivers and fairway woods when you should be working on those aspects of the game you’re going to actually need.
In conclusion, over my lifetime, I’ve know and played against many of the top professional players of my era, and these people are phenomenal 9’ regulation table, “for the money” players. I’ve also played against a few people like the “par 3” player above and they are so good at playing on a smaller table, they are almost unbeatable. In fact they are so good, most professional big table players want nothing to do with them.
The bottom line is this. If you want to become a pro, buy a 9’ table. If you just want a fun game of pool that helps you get a bit better so you can beat your friends or play better in your 8 ball league, you are much better served buying the same size table (league tournament size) you normally play on.
Here’s a good tip on how to get better and do it faster. Primarily, this is a for a single player to practice, but it also works well with two players.
Take a piece of paper and number down the side 1-10. Now, rack up all 15 balls (no, the one ball does not need to be in front, and the eight ball doesn’t need to be in the middle). Now, break the balls apart. Pull out any balls that go in the pockets and place them back on the table. At this point, you can now shoot any ball in any pocket with the object of making as many balls as you can before missing. Once you miss, count up the balls you made, write it down, then re-rack the balls and repeat. When you do this 10 times, I think you’ll be amazed at how low your average is.
This game does a number of things. It improves your general “ball pocketing” power and it starts to teach you “pattern play”, or how to run the balls off in the easiest way. And, it begins to teach you cue ball control and how to get the proper angle on the next ball. It also does one other thing that I feel is very important. By keeping all of your averages, it will actually show you how much you’re actually improving. I imagine most people can’t average four balls in a row. For league players it is of course going to be higher, but I think that even they’d be surprised at how low they are. For a professional, they will run all 15 balls virtually every time. Try it and see how you do.
The other game to play is “six ball”. For those of you that know what “nine ball” is, this is just an easier version.
Take the balls numbered one - six and rack them with the one ball in front and the six ball in the middle of the back row. Now, break the balls, and any ball that goes in a pocket, let it stay there. The object is to shoot the balls in numerical order, and if played by two players, the person who makes the six ball is the winner.
Playing six ball will dramatically improve your shot making skills because you’ll have a lot of harder shots and it will teach you how the get the cue ball around the table. When your skill level rises to the point that six ball is boring, then switch to nine ball.
Practicing playing eight ball is just a waste of time. I could write an entire page on why, but just take my word for it. If you only play the two games above, I guarantee you, that the next time you do play eight ball you’ll see a lot of improvement. If you just practice playing eight ball, sure, you’ll get better, but the increase in skill will be so slow you probably won’t even notice it.
As much as I don’t want you to practice eight ball, I know many of you will so I’ll give you one very good tip that should improve your game immediately.
To play pool well, you have to learn to plan ahead. That’s really all that pool is, but when playing eight ball, it also helps to plan in reverse. This is what I mean…
When it’s your turn to shoot, take a minute and try and figure out the order in which you’re going shoot the balls. But when playing eight ball, what you want to do is figure out what the “key ball” is. The key ball is the last ball that you shoot before the eight ball and you want to find one of your balls that, if you make it, will leave you an easy shot (keys) on the eight ball. Once you find this key ball, now go ahead and try and plan your run, without using the key ball. However, as you start to improve, you can move back a ball and find the “key ball” that sets up the final “key ball.” Once you get good at finding key balls, you can actually figure out how to run the entire rack by just backing up the key balls. Sort of like planning how to run the balls off in reverse. If you work on this, you’ll win a lot more games.