TABLE SIZE TO PLAY ON AS YOU GET OLDER.

TABLE SIZE TO PLAY ON AS YOU GET OLDER.

3 pages 6-4-05, 11-21-08, CR, Fast Larry Guninger, all rights reserved. Published in DC, bpn, czm, upp, ppt, flp, btt, rsb.

When you are a beginner you should be playing on bar boxes, 7’ tables with slow cloth and bucket pockets. As you get better find pool halls that have 4x8’s with 5” pockets. You will want to put a home 8’ table in your house to practice on. The table I sell has pockets half way between pro cut, 4 ¾ and buckets 5” which is perfect. Avoid 9’ pro cut pockets, they will only frustrate you. It is important you gain confidence and learn to make and run balls. An easy short table allows you to build that confidence. Just remember the home rec tables are 6” shorter all around than the commercial grade 4x8’s in pool halls.

Once you have obtained those skills and are beginning to run out or run a rack every day its now time to move up to the 9’s. Find some place that has Gandy big G’s with 5” pockets. When you master that, find a gold crown 9 with pro cut pockets. Constantly but slowly keep moving up in table size and find tables with pro pockets which will challenge your aim and new skills.

If your league plays on bar boxes and most of the APA does, but some use 8’ tables then begin practicing on 9’s, the long shots will appear as short shots to you.

When a man reaches 40 the body begins to age and the eyes and the nerves go period. Nobody escapes this. As you lose the skills and the sight of youth you need to accept this and put your ego at bay. There is no way a 50 year old man with 20/50 vision can compete with a 19 year old with 20/10 vision on a 9’ table. On a 7’ table, the older guy has a shot.

You now need to slowly reverse the above process and move off of 9’s into full size 4x8’s, then into home 8’s, then in your mid 50’s or 60’s be totally on 7’ tables for the same reason the beginner did this, so it will not frustrate you. The older senior player can still play a good game on a 7 but most fall apart on the longer 9’s simply because of their poor vision. Nobody escapes the ageing process and you will have to access when you make these retreats in table size.

I have been playing pool now for 60 years and play my best pool on a home 8’ table. There I can run 2 or 3 racks, no problem. I am now struggling badly on the 9’s with the pro cut pockets I am playing on at the UPA pro 9 ball tour in 4 l/2”pockets. I see that now as nothing but a vision test.
The sad part of pool is there really is no senior tour. There is one event a year at Miz’s pool hall on gold crowns which have punitive pro cut pockets, 4l/2x9’s 860 simonis. They have one event a year. There needs to be an actual tour for the old timers and they need to be playing on home 8’s with 5” pockets.

Golf did not retire and run off all of their old stars as pool has recently done. They saved them with a senior tour. They played on short soft courses so they could shoot 69. If they put them on the new courses with the hard belly kids these old guys would struggle to bust 80. Pool needs to copy this. The senior tour became more popular than the regular tour and the senior leading money winner for several years was making more than the regular tour leading money winner.

The majority of pools great players, legends and hall of famers have quit playing on tour simply because they can no longer cash a check that pays their way in and out, the kids now are too good for them and the 9’ tables are too tough for them. I say, bring them back and showcase them. Senior events could be conducted right next to the UPA events in the same location. The tour used to do that with the men and ladies playing side by side. They did this once, they could do it again. Put in Two to four home rec smaller 4x8’s in the back of the room and let the old timer’s and hall of famers play each other there. Two tournaments in one, and pay out decent money to the old timers. The IPT brought them back but again on the 9’ 4 l/2” pockets non of them had a chance and they all went out fast. Now the IPT is gone. If you had Rempe, Sigel, Varner, Hopkins playing each other at the end of the room I would bet a good portion of the room would be down there to see them.
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Pool is being taught wrong by almost everyone but me and a small group who actually know. Very few actually do know and have the knowledge to take you there. Most of what you know and paid for is dead wrong which is why you are reading this now, it did not work for you. You thought it was you. It never dawned on you. You had a bad teacher that did not know. If you want the truth and methods that do work come see me.

All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self-evident. - Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Do not reprove the fool lest he hate you. Reprove the wise man and he will love you. Proverbs 9:8.
Those who seek me seek inside knowledge and receive it from a high end finisher and Grand Master level instructor who can actually play. Those who seek it from big names writing books receive bull crap from a guy who can’t run 3 friggen balls and they get what they paid for. Big time Bull crap that does not work which leads them into paralysis by analysis. They live on the premise that a sucker like you is born every minute and you will keep buying their crap. Come to me, I’ll give you the straight story on every facet of the game.

Power in pool does not come from muscles. It comes from the know how to produce a shot. Most power shots are from advanced knowledge and using acquired special techniques, or secrets to these shots which can be learned by almost any one in time with practice and determination.

Therefore: Knowledge is Power….

Originally quoted by Sir Francis Bacon in Meditationes Sacrae (1597).

Seek out an advanced level teacher, who has this advanced knowledge. Never waste your time or money on beginner teachers. Become a student of the game.
The more knowledge a player possesses, the more power he acquires. The more shots he knows, the more chances he has to get out on you. The more he knows, the more confident he becomes. The more confident he becomes turns him into a champion and a winner.
A beginner in pool is like a golfer playing 18 holes with just one club. I can easily defeat Tiger Woods with my 14 clubs if I make him play with just 1 club. I have many options and shots, he only has a few. When I graduate a student, he has 30 clubs. His quiver is full of many arrows to shoot. There is no shot he does not know about and cannot produce.
The better players are defeating you because they simply know more than you and have greater experience. You are in the 3rd grade, the best players beating you just graduated from College and are about to begin their MBA’s. You can cut this distance down between you two fast with a good coach, study, practice and hard work. It won’t happen by you just beating balls around. It will only happen if you acquire knowledge by expanding your repertoire of shots.
May God bless and peace be with you. May there now be peace between us. If you are a real pool player, then fast truly loves you. May the wind be always on your back and all 9 balls fall.
VENI VIDI VICI, OMNIA VINCIT AMOR. “ Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered, love conquerors all. Yes I really did do it all and you can believe it, or not. If you don’t believe it, C’est La Vie. " Shoot straight, innovate, never give up, just run out on the other guy then there is no way for you to lose.
Either lead me, follow me or get the hell out of my way. Do one of the three please. Come celebrate the wonder of this beautiful game with me and become a student of it.
Be my friend, walk my way, flow with what I teach you and you will soar like the Eagle into levels of excellence you never dreamed possible. Play by feel, not by systems, do not make a simple game complicated. Go with what you know, go with what is natural.
"Winners make things happen. Losers let things happen." In the words of Vince Lombardi, "When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened." Vince said you’ve got to pay the price. Winning is not a sometime thing, it’s an all the time thing. Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing.
Vince Lombardi once said, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of profession or endeavor. FL says: You can choose to be a ball banger, or a student of the game. You can go through life with a high run of 5, or learn how to run racks. The choice is yours, but to become a winner, a champion, you must pay a price for that success. It does not come free.
You must become a happy person. Champions are happy, losers are sad people. You cannot achieve happiness without love. Worldly feelings lead to ties and passions. For everything we acquire there is a price to pay. For every attachment there are freedoms to give up.

You must learn the difference between animal passion and true love. In the end, you lose whatever you love. It is all fleeting. You cannot hang on to anything for long. Everything around you is constantly changing. That is why you experience pain, there is loss. If you do not wish pain of the heart then do not seek love or attachments. The longer you live, the more you lose. To love, means to suffer pain. For some who are lucky in love, they experience more love than pain. Others are not so lucky.

The only other option is to reject worldly possessions, passions, all family ties and live as a monk or priest and seek purity and enlightenment. There can be love in that quest.

Those are the only two paths to happiness. The third one is to become a predator who only takes, who gives no love, and only leaves sorrow in his path. That is the path to hell. When your judgment day comes and your book is read, it is empty of love and that condemns your soul. To free yourself of life's passions and possessions is where total freedom lies. It then puts you on the path of enlightenment which the only way to pure peace in your heart.

An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.

How do you get to Carneigh hall? Practice practice practice...
"Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect"
You must practice with a plan and practice to hit perfect shots. Anything less than perfect is then no longer acceptable.

There are only two types of players. Winners, and losers. As most are losers, that is why it is so easy for the winner to dominate them. If you want to be a winner, you first must learn now to think like one and stop thinking like a loser.

"A single conversation across the table with a wise teacher is worth a month's study of books" - Chinese Proverb
This is a feel game and a mind game. When the mind is pure, pure perfect pool will follow. Perfect pool comes from being taught how to practice perfect. Being in dead punch is the ultimate trip and reward from that. “FL”

God gave us 12 year old Scotch, and a hard Willie with a mission, which IMHO, is total proof he loves us and wishes us to have a good time.

If you can dream it, see it, believe it, you can be it and perform totally out of the box. Then you are a person with no limits who can achieve anything he can imagine that a human body is capable of producing. “FL”

Rack em sausage, Go play fast and loose. Ride em hard, put em up wet, leave the ladies smiling. Live free, die well with your boots on owing no man nothing. May you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you’re dead. In time, it’s all dust in the wind anyway. Don’t take yourself, or anything too serious, just be happy and healthy. Laughter, good whiskey and song is the best medicine. If you have a library, a garden, a good woman and a barrel of Scotch, 4 to 6 good dogs, you have all you need. Be sure to take the time, to smell the flowers along the way.
Aristole said “ Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” People will forget what you did, what you wrote, what you accomplished. People are like Elephants, they will never forget you if you are rude or cruel to them, also, they will never forget you if you are kind and loving towards them. Each person you meet, give them a warm smile and show them the love you have for everyone no matter what their status or position in life is, treat them all the same. Tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us. So live this day, like it is your last one, who knows, it just might be.

Die happy and you lived a good life. God bless American, the land of the free and of the brave

THE POWER SOURCE POOL SCHOOL GOES ON THE ROAD. Email us at fastlarrypool.com to see if the school is coming to your town in the near future. As you can see from last years schedule, we do teach all over the country and were in 40 of the 48 states.

You can take your game to that next level you have dreamed about. Come to our work shop and learn
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who will put up small advance good faith deposits and then no matter
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school any time between January and July 2007. If you bring in five to the school
Then your lesson is free and you are the 6th student at no charge.
The pool schools have sold out for the last three years they have been
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For more details or to sign up and reserve your spot
You may call 770-381-6609 to discuss it.
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The_Woim, on Nov 21 2008, 02:05 PM, said:

Absolutely, Fast Larry! I am completely in favor of an organized seniors tour.

Have you ever thought of spearheading such an enterprise?

I'm not an insider, but I can see that the game of pool as a sport is a mess. There's a lot of backstabbing and double crossing going on. The absence of outsider (non-billiard related) sponsorship is a big clue.

As for table sizes in the home, I bought my table over a year ago. It's a nine footer with 4 1/2 inch pockets - even tougher than the pro cut. If I change tables, I would like to stick with the 9 footer but have larger pockets or move down in size to the old 4 x 8 OS (formerly pro size) which is 46 x 92.

If you asked me at the time of the purchase, I was all hung up on getting the big table with the small pockets - even now I wouldn't mind having a 5 x 10 table (my basement is a little too small for that). A. E. Schmidt is a pool table manufacturer in the St. Louis area and has been family owned since 1850 and they do indeed offer the 5 x 10 size.

The 4 x 8 home rec size is a little too small for my tastes now.

You know what's funny? The amatuer tour I belong to plays on bar boxes and at that size there are no long shots but managing your clusters and defense is much more important. If you're not careful, you can overplay a shot on the barbox where you would have room for error on the 9 footer.

At my last tournament, I had been eliminated after not really showing up mentally but I was playing Mike Zimmerman, he's the TD and also a cuemaker, and we we're playing games of 8 ball for about four hours straight and I looked over at the one 9 foot Gold Crown in the pool hall and, Fast Larry, the thing looked like a golf course.

I'm more frustrated practicing at home on the big 9 footer with overly tight pockets, but it really has sharpened my shotmaking skills. It was a mistake though. I should have went with the 4x8 OS. It's slightly smaller, but still big and attractive. Too much frustration can actually hamper your development as a player. I remember reading a quote from Irving Crane where Mr. Crane recommends that a pool player only play on a tough table a couple times a week because of the frustration factor, and you know what Fast Larry, I'm never going to play at the Irving Crane level!

I think I have a solution. In a couple years when I get the cloth changed, I'll have A. E. Schmidt adjust my pockets so they can be more friendly. It's my pool table and perhaps I would enjoy 14.1 more without all the pocket jawing.

Yours truly,
The Woim

Crane was right, unless you are a full time gambler, or touring pro, triple shimming your pockets is going to lead to total frustration.

Me run another organization or a senior tour, impossible. Could I, sure, no problemo. Would I like to, sure. Give me a 6 figure salary, unlimited expense account, 5 year package and golden parachute and I am in. Hell they can't even get up 25K to run a mickey mouse pro 9 ball event now.

I ran the trick shot tour and world championship from 1995 to 2000 on my own money and got shit on by everyone, the players, the BCA, you name them, they fooked me blind.
Been there, done that. Never again. I put my time and money up once and all I got was grief. I stepped up to the plate once, tried to make a difference.

So I just show up and play on these tours now. Nobody wants any ones input or advice. I write what needs to be done, the people who count, never read this stuff, they don't care.

PoolChat: TABLE SIZE TO PLAY ON AS YOU GET OLDER. - PoolChat