How do you look at the table? by  Frank  "TheBarber" Almanza ãTricks of the Trade Inc.

 

Minnesota Fats retreats to the wash room exhausted from the all night match he’s in with Fast Eddie. He knows this man has the skills to win and has been proving it all night. “But now it’s my turn,” he thinks to himself as he looks in the mirror. The great Eddie Felson is done, he has shown his butt. Fats proceeds to wash his face and hands, splashes a refresher on his face, fixes his collar, and combs his hair. Feeling confident of a win, he glides back into the poolroom, and the rest, well the rest becomes a classic in movie history.

 

Remember this scene from The Hustler? One didn’t need to be genius to figure out that Fast Eddie was now just another Eddie.  Ever wonder what you might look like at the table? Or more important, what  you really look like at the table? What I mean by this is that you may perceive yourself in a certain way and everyone else sees you different than that.  Who cares?  You should!  Because this may very well determine the outcome of your match.  So now, The Barber Speaks…

 

What you look like to your opponent is very important because it may very well dictate to them, how well they will play against you. The more weaknesses they see, the more confident they the will get; subsequently, the better they will play. The amount of flaws no matter how small they are will take their toll. A bunch of small flaws could be the same total as a few larger ones. Flaws are not only what you do on the table, but also what you do around the table. An observant opponent will analyze you as much as he is capable, to feed his confidence.  Of course, he will only recognize some flaws and not all because most likely he will not see the same ones that he also commits. It may also be that he is wise enough to see the flaws in his opponent’s game and not wise enough to realize that he also commits the same flaws. When we talk about little flaws, or faults, we are talking about such small items like how we hold the cue stick, the grip, bridge hand, level cue, stance, balance, or most anything that is related to your mechanics.

 

You can eliminate a great deal of these flaws just by spending a couple of weeks and dedicating yourself to working out the problems with your mechanics. This is so important because you are handicapping yourself with poor mechanics. You are giving up a spot to your opponent! Get a video or an instruction book on this. Most have a section in the beginning covering these topics. There is no reason why any player, beginner or advanced, should begin any match handicapping themselves. Anything having to do with mechanics does not require special skills or experience, just al little practice. Good mechanics are a necessity for good playing. Get rid of all these roadblocks. As you get better you will eventually realize they are a hindrance and will keep you from elevating your skills to a higher level. Let’s not have your adversaries get the feeling of confidence that will enable them to put their best foot forward. How would you like getting into a footrace without shoes on a rocky road against someone with nice running shoes?  Well you might as well play a pool match without using chalk. That’s what you’re doing if you’re not bringing good mechanics to the table.

 

Keep in mind that the way we:  chalk our cue, stalk the table, walk from shot to shot…well you know what I mean, all the little things we do that are not associated with what we do on the table tells a lot about us. You can bet our opponent is studying all these little nothing things.

 

We now know what the little faults are but what about the bigger faults? The bigger faults are more difficult to identify depending on the observer’s skill level because these faults are more as to what is done on the table. Let’s talk about a couple of the most obvious, shot selection and pocket speed.

 

Rotation games are very simply because the table pretty much dictates to us what is to be done. Shooting the one ball and getting shape on the two ball. Usually there are two or three obvious ways to do this but one most likely is superior to the others. And how do you know which is best? Experience! If its experience, then why is this a Flaw? Well, the more experienced player will recognize it as a flaw even though you may not. The better the player, the more flaws he sees because most likely he has eliminated a great deal of them from his game. It’s understandable that’s why they use pro players to analyze sporting events. Other games like eight ball and straight pool that require good patterns for consistency are more likely to expose more weaknesses, because of the multiple patterns available of which some are superior to others.

 

Another flaw is the power that is applied to any particular shot. All shots should be hit with the proper amount of power; just enough to get the cue ball to do what you want it to do and no more. The exceptions to this is when you need to hit the object ball with a little extra power, just enough to make sure it holds a good line to the pocket. A good line is when object ball will not be affected by table drift or some small foreign object on the cloth, but not so hard that if it rubs the rail it will not go in. All shots have an ideal velocity, this is know as “pocket speed.”  There are times when we need to put much more power than we would like to, for position purposes. On this type of shot our aim must be to the center of the pocket because an object ball rubbing the rail now has no chance to drop.  Granted sometimes we have to hit the object ball much softer than we would like to, but at these times we have no choice. On these occasions we are surely at the mercy of the pool gods.

 

We need to approach the playing field with confidence so that we can project it to our opponent.  If he’s a better player than you are, keep his game at bay as long as you can. It may be long enough for you to win the match.  It’s very important that we realize that what we do and look like at the table is always being observed.  Let’s sum up what we just talked about.

 

Most of the little flaws can easily be erased from your game. Mechanics are so important because they are the items that if applied correctly will stay basically the same throughout your playing career allowing you to develop your skills to their highest level. Improper mechanics will become stumbling blocks that will inhibit you from reaching your potential. The other faults are only faults when your skill level develops to the point that you to see them as a fault. This is where the experience comes in.

                  If you have questions or suggestions for future articles, please email me at dabarbr@hotmail.com  Next month, let’s talk about the game winning shot.