Category Archives: Features

A look at the world of cue sports

The perfect gift for all pool players this Christmas..!!

Now you can give 8BallCoach.com Membership as a gift.  The perfect present for any pool player who wants to improve their game

It can be very difficult to find a good gift for a pool player.  Most players will already have a cue, and having spent a long while getting used to it will not want to change it – even if it is an expensive gift!  Unlike many other sports, there is not a vast array of gadgets a player needs, or any special clothing (believe me, no player wants to turn up to a tournament wearing a waistcoat knitted by there Grandmother!).

So what can you buy the pool player in the family for Christmas?  Well, I am happy to report that I have a solution!  Once a player has all the equipment, what could be better than giving them full instructions on how to use it?

My online coaching website, 8BallCoach.com is the most comprehensive guide to the game of British Pool ever produced. The content is approved by the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF), The English Pool Association (EPA) and the Universities Pool Council (UPC) – the content forms the basis for the official coaches training courses I run at the 8 Ball Academy.

The lessons are in the form of online streaming videos, all presented by me.  I explain every aspect of the game – everything from building the correct stance, to shot selection and tactics.  There are three levels of course available on the website, suitable for all budgets and ability.

As a gift, 8BallCoach.com is for life, not just for Xmas!  Those that join the website, get lifetime membership so that they can learn at their own pace, and review the material as many times as they like until they understand each lesson.  In addition, the gift of knowledge can never be taken away.  Cues may get broken, or even stolen; lessons learnt you can use forever.

There is nothing better than getting results, and 8BallCoach.com can help players win consistently for the rest of their playing career.  For pool players, what could be better gift at Christmas?

To give 8BallCoach.com membership as a gift this Christmas, visit the gift page here.  We can then activate an account for whoever you nominate.

Alternatively, for an extra special treat, contact us for details of a 1-2-1 training day with me.  These are strictly limited due to my busy schedule, so get in quick to avoid disappointment.

The famous “Ball in the Mouth” gallery

When the new look stevedaking.com launched earlier this year, we transferred a lot of the content over to the new website, but somewhere along the way, we lost the famous “Ball in the Mouth” gallery.  This is a collection of pictures I have taken of the lucky volunteer who helps me out with a trickshot during some of my shows.  It’s all good fun!

I seem to have mislaid a big batch of the pictures, but I do have the start of the first gallery. Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to announce – Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, I give you the return of the famous “Ball in Mouth” gallery.

Top 10 Ways to spot a pool hustler

It's a dangerous world out there. If you walk into the wrong place, you could get eaten by a shark!  Maybe not eaten, but you could lose a huge amount of cash if you don't have your wits about you and you fall victim to a professional hustler.  To help keep you out of trouble, I present this simple list of things to look out for when invited by a stranger to shoot a few frames.

Look out for people playing in hats

The Top 10 Ways to spot a Pool Hustler

  1. They are not drinking as much as you, but appear more drunk.
  2. They moan very loudly about their bad luck when they miss a shot
  3. They are from ‘out of town’
  4. They offer you one more game – a chance to get all your money back
  5. They seem to know a lot about giving head-starts for someone who just started playing yesterday.
  6. They set the balls up very quickly.  A hustler doesn’t want you thinking too much between frames.
  7. They tell you they have just won the lottery and decided to take up pool for ‘fun’
  8. ‘Fun’ turns out to be playing for £20 a frame
  9. They are wearing a trilby hat
  10. They tell you that their name is ‘Jeff’, but the barman calls them ‘Sharky’

Running a Pool Competition

A group of friends want to hold a pool competition to find out who is the best on the green baize, to make up the numbers they would like to open the entries to anyone.  Being the most organised of the group, you offer to run the event.  It should be straightforward, shouldn’t it?

In theory, yes.  In reality it is never that easy.  A pool competition can easily go wrong for the inexperienced organiser, so to save embarrassment, we offer here our top tips on tournaments.

Format

Before you do anything, you need to decide on the format for your event.  There are literally hundreds of options.  Singles, Doubles & Team events.  8 Ball, 9 Ball & Straight Pool.  How many frames is it over?  Is it played on one night or over several weeks?

We will discuss formats in more detail in future articles.  For the time being, let us assume our event is a Singles Competition, best of 5 frames, played on a single evening.

Time and Date

When and where.  Is the venue suitable, has it got enough pool tables to get through your event in the timeframe?  If you are using more than one table, are they of equal standard?  If the standard of tables varies you will have arguments about who plays where – much of the art of running a competition is heading off the arguments before they start.

Entries

To play your competition, you are going to need players.  It’s usually a good idea to set a minimum and maximum number of players for your event.  There is no point running a competition for two players, and if you have too many you won’t get through all the games in an evening.  Best of 5 frames, you need to allow an average of 45 minutes a match so you need to work out how many matches you have to get through on the available tables, or you might not get to bed!  (or have an argument when your semi-finalists need to get home to theirs!)

The standard of entries may be something you might worry about.  Is your competition invitation only or is it open to everyone?  Are professionals allowed to play?  You need to state any entry restrictions clearly on the entry form

How are you going to get your entries?  You could get fancy entry forms printed (then you have to distribute them).  Are you going to announce the event on the internet and put the word out via email or social media?  Are you going to put posters up in the venue?  If it’s a big event you want to do all of these things, and allow yourself plenty of time before the event too.

Entry Fees and Prize Money

There are lots of options here.  You need to set your entry fees at a level to pay for the prize money.  A popular method of doing that is the ‘all in-all out’ format.  All the entry money collected is paid out as prize money, and usually split in percentages between those who reach the later stages.   Another approach is offering Guaranteed Prize Money.  That means that you pay out the prize fund no matter how many players turn up.  This should encourage entries as players know it’s worth making the trip as the prize fund will be paid out no matter how many turn up.  If only one player makes it, then he gets the lot!  Obviously the downside is you can lose a lot of money this way, so you want to set your Guaranteed Prize money at a reasonable level, usually around 25% under the entry fees you would take for a full turnout.   So if I said a maximum of 32 players at £10 entry fee each, I might set a guaranteed prize fund of £250.  If you do decide to set guaranteed prize fund, you must pay it out whatever.  Even if you do get a handful of players turn up and you are faced with making a loss, pay it out anyway or those players will never trust any event you run in the future.

As a player you should always beware of events that advertise Guaranteed Prize Money (Subject to Entry) – this means nothing!

Table fees

If you can persuade the venue to donate the table time then you could advertise free table for the event, the venue may then profit from drink and food sales.  Alternatively, you could still have your players pay for the games and this could be your fee as organiser.

Where players have to pay for the table time, a popular method is to split the fees, or alternate the cost of each frame.  Another good method is to have the losing player pay for the match they have just lost.  That means everyone in the event (other than the winner) pays for one match, and one match only.

Playing and tournament rules

You need to announce or publish on your entry form what playing rules you will be using for the event.  It’s a good idea to use a set of rules published by one of the sport’s governing bodies – that way players traveling to the event will know what the rules are before they make the trip.  It’s no good playing the special rules you have in the pub when new entries don’t know what they are.

You need to set any tournament rules too.  Is there a dress code?  What happens when a match takes an excessive amount of time?  By thinking through what might go wrong and writing down what action you will take in the rules before you start, you can save a lot of arguments later on. If you are producing entry forms, it’s a good idea to have a space where the entries sign to acknowledge that they have read and accept the rules.

Running the event

The first problem is getting the draw done.  Get this wrong and you might end up with three players in the final – we have seen this happen more than once.

Many organisers get confused between byes and preliminary matches and make a mess from the start.  Trouble is you generally don’t find out until the later stages that it has all gone wrong.

The easiest way is to forget any talk about preliminary matches and concentrate on the byes.  Basically you need your entries plus your byes to equal a binary whole (2,4,8,16,32,64 etc). 

So if you have 23 entries, you need to stick 9 byes in the draw to round things up to 32.  If you then want to talk about prelims, then 9 of your players will go through to the first round, leaving 14 players to play preliminaries – from those 7 will go through, join the 9 and give you 16 players… great hey?

This works however many entries you have, just round up the byes to the next binary number.  51 entries?  64-51 = 13 byes.   8 entries?  8-8 = 0 byes.  65 entries?  128-65 = 63 byes.  Simple!

The next problem is to avoid byes playing byes in your preliminary round.  Your competition would still work out, but a lucky player might get a bye in a later round to everyone else.  The easiest way is to put the byes on the draw sheet before you start, that way you can make sure that they are split up evenly throughout the draw.  The usual way is to put a bye at the top, then one at the bottom.  Then add a bye to the bottom of the top half, followed by the top of the bottom half.  Continue spitting the draw this way until you have all your byes in place, and the draw out your players straight down the sheet, filling in the gaps top to bottom.

Paying out prize money

Once you get to the latter end of your competition, then you need to pay out the prizes.  If it’s cash, then it’s a good idea to get the lucky winners to sign something to acknowledge that they have picked up the money – a scribble on the draw sheet will suffice for most events. If you are running a bigger event, then you might want to create a collection sheet for players to sign.

That is certainly enough information to get you started promoting your own pool event.  I could probably write a whole book on the subject, but the topics covered here will help you avoid the major pitfalls, and run a smooth event.  The main thing is – think about everything that can go wrong and have a rule, a policy, or at least some idea of what you are going to do when things don’t work to plan.

Local events like these are the lifeblood of the sport, so even if you have never thought about running an event before – I urge you to get out and give it a go. It’s a great way to meet new people, socialise and to promote the sport.

 

Exactly how much does a red spot weigh?

My collection of Spotty
and Plain Cue Balls

The World 8 Ball Pool Championships takes place each summer, and every year there is a discussion about the use of the ‘Pro Cup’ cue ball in the competition.  The ‘Pro Cup’ ball is like a normal cue ball, except it has six red spots, which should make the game better viewing, as spectators can see the spin that the players apply to the ball.

They were first introduced in the World Championships in 2006 when the event was sponsored by an online pool game, improveyourpool.com.  Ever since then, when the World Championship comes around (it’s the only event on the calendar where the spotty white balls are used), you will always find pool players discussing how the ball changes the game.

The argument goes that the ‘Pro Cup’ ball weighs three grams more because of the red spots, and this means that the balls react differently to the spin and the course of the ball is altered after contact with the object ball.  Personally I have always believed this to be nonsense, why should the small pieces of red plastic compound weigh any more than white plastic compound?  They could weigh less.  Who weighed the spotty balls and declared that they would play differently in a game?  If there is extra weight what would it do to the cue ball?

Well after a discussion at this year’s World Championships, I decided to investigate further myself and draw my own conclusions.  I have to say, I was surprised by what I discovered.

I have a collection of cue balls that I have accumulated over the years.  For many shows a new set of balls is required, so I have loads of sets stored in my shed.  I am waiting for someone to come up with a good use for used pool balls so that I can recycle them in an environmentally friendly manner – when I finally retire I could spend my time making paperweights out of them …

A Pro Cup Cue Ball getting weighed

Anyway, this means I have some cue balls to study.  More recently, I have accumulated some Pro-Cup spotty cue balls which I have used for coaching events.  So I figured a good experiment to get to the bottom of this issue, would be to weigh a batch of each type of cue ball and get some facts.

I have eight Pro-Cup balls, so I randomly selected a sample of eight plain cue-balls and got the scales out – see the results below:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Av.
Plain Cue Ball 107g 97g 94g 95g 107g 96g 95g 95g 98.25g
Pro-Cup Cue Ball 97g 98g 97g 97g 97g 96g 97g 99g 97.25g

I think the remarkable thing about this experiment is not just that my sample of plain cue balls averaged a higher weight, but the huge variety in the weight of the plain cue balls.  I guess the reason for this is that they have come from many different sets that I have picked up over the years, and they have all had some use.  I am sure some would have had the odd gram of chalk stuck to them, and some will have been bashed against some pub wall due to some over enthusiastic breaking.

On the other hand, my ‘Pro Cup’ balls have all been manufactured in the last few years, and they will have all come from the same factory, I can’t be sure about that with the plain balls.

So what’s does all this tell us?  Well it’s something I hadn’t anticipated when I thought about weighing the balls in the first place.  I think the one thing we have learnt is that because the weight of the plain cue balls varies so much, then it is pointless to be bothered about the extra weight that red spots may or may not add to the cue ball.  While my sample wasn’t very large, it points to the conclusion that the issue isn’t as straightforward as it would first appear. Given my tiny sample, red spots may actually be lighter!

The way you hit the ball will do more to change it’s positional path than a little extra weight

While I am sure that a slightly heavier cue ball may affect the path the cue ball takes after contact with an object ball, I don’t believe that a few grams either way can make that much difference.  None of the cue balls I weighed were heavier than the object balls I put on the scales, both reds and yellows came in at an average of 116 grams, so in all cases the cue ball is lighter – and that fact alone must alter the path more than anything else.

On top of that, there must be many other factors that affect how the balls move around the table and positional play, to a much greater degree.  The condition of the cloth, the humidity, the grade and age of the rubber in the cushions – all these things have the potential to interfere with the progress of the cue ball and it’s interactions with the other balls on the table.  The biggest variable will be how you are hitting the cue ball on any given day.  Just a trace of spin has a big effect.

Conclusion:  The spotty ball might weigh more than the one you are used to, but then again there is strong possibility it may not.  Probably best not to worry about it and concentrate on some consistent cueing because that will influence the cue ball more than anything else.

A final thought:  If the different coloured plastics used in pool balls have different weights, wouldn’t American Pool Balls with their spots, stripes and numbers be weighted off center and roll in a curve?

How to level your pool table

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The British style pool table is smaller and lighter than other billiard tables; this means that it can be knocked out of level through regular use.  Some billiard tables have many ‘levelling points’.  As well as the legs, there are screws to adjust how the slate is supported.  With the British pool table the only thing that is adjustable is the legs, so that should make it fairly straightforward to get the table level.

Adjusting the table leg height

The ‘traditional’ approach to levelling the table is to use a spirit level and carefully adjust each leg until the slate is level in all directions.  Most table fitters will level the table lengthways first and then level across the table at both ends, the overall affect should be a straight table.  It’s a good idea when putting a table in a new location (or if you get in a mess when levelling at any time) to start with the legs screwed in fully and extend the legs where required.  It’s better than starting with the legs midway and running out of room to go up or down.

There is a problem with the spirit level approach. I have seen tables that appear to level according to the ‘bubble’, but drift out when you play a ball across the bed.  This can be due to a few factors – the nap of the cloth or the way the slate is supported.  When players demand a level table, what they really want is a table that plays like it’s level.

In all the hundreds of pool exhibitions I have performed in pubs and clubs, I rarely found a totally straight pool table.  Most tables will have an area where the ball is prone to drift.  It might not be as obvious as running the ball softly length of the table, it might be along one cushion, or near a particular pocket.  While most of the time it’s easier to accept a small deviation in one corner than attempt a full level, occasionally I run into pool tables that need some urgent attention.  If I am due to perform a show, then I don’t have long to set up – I can’t spend too long levelling the table.  So I developed a quick method of getting the table in shape – no spirit level required!

The first thing to do is to build up an overall picture of what the table is doing to begin with.  The best way of doing this is to play a soft shot from each corner to the opposite corner pocket.  Do this from each pocket in turn.  This should give you all the clues you need to enable you to adjust the correct leg (or legs).

Just one example of how a table might run out.  The principle is the same which ever way the table is rolling.  Hit the ball four times, get a picture of which corner or end is too high and then make small adjustments raising the legs that are too low, before trying again.

To adjust the legs, you can use a spanner on the nut just above the foot. You might be able to do this without lifting the table. When adjusting the legs, I use a unit of ‘one half turn’ per leg. 

A table jack is a useful piece of kit

If you don’t have a spanner available you can lift the table with a table jack, and rotate each foot by hand.  If there is no jack available, you can get someone to lift an end of the table, this is certainly not recommended – there is a whole host of health and safety issues involving bad backs and trapped fingers – and dropping the table even a short distance will permanently damage the screw threads on the feet. 

After each adjustment, play the four shots corner to corner and see what affect turning the legs has had on the table.  It might take you half a dozen goes to get the table rolling straight in all four directions – but the game is to check the roll, make the adjustments, and then check again.  Make no large adjustments in one go, adjust – check –adjust.

Once you have your four diagonals running straight and true, then the rest of the table should fall into place.  If it doesn’t then it might be that the slate is not properly supported underneath and either is raised to much in the centre (the balls will repeatedly roll into the cushions) or the sides are higher (the balls roll out from the cushions). You really don’t want to get into putting additional packing under the slate if you can avoid it.  It’s worth bearing in mind that a careful brush and iron can make a difference to how the balls run in a particular area of the table.