Advice and the Ramifications

When I hear any player ever say, "I can only play well on a bar table," I shake my head at their unfortunate words and then feel so very thankful for some advice in my very early days of playing pool.

Back in the mid 90s when I was breathing and dreaming pool, my professional pool playing boyfriend at the time gave me some amazing advice that has helped me in every tournament I have ever played in since then:  He told me to always practice on a 9-foot table.

I took that advice WAY to heart.

If I was to walk into the pool room to practice and all the 9-foot tables were taken, I'd promptly walk back out and return earlier the next day.

I noticed RIGHT AWAY that I had much more of an advantage in the tournaments I played in - because most were on 8-foot tables.  Playing on a 9-foot all the time, made the 8-foots look pretty "easy."  And I felt comfy on them.

When I would play on bar tables, holy cow!  The table was so much smaller and again I had the advantage from spending all my practice time on 9-foot tables.

In the past 20 years, I only ever practiced on a 9-foot table.  And of course the tables I had in my living rooms over the years were always 9-foot tables.

I found that throughout the years, always practicing solely on a 9-foot table helped me in every single tournament I played in.  Some tournaments are solely on 9-foot tables.  I was ready!  Most tourneys in Texas are on 8-foot tables; still ready!  And the league events and larger tourneys on bar boxes - omg, SO ready!

I am saying all this today to share that some times in your pool journey you may hear a bit of advice that if you incorporate, will help you throughout ALL the years of you competing in pool.  I have a few others of course that helped me, but this is one of the bigger ones.

If you feel super comfy on a bar table, I implore you to step out of your comfort zone to the 9-foot table to practice.  Don't even think about taking the jump to the 8-foot will suffice - instead LEAP right to the 9-foot table to help your game.  Why wait?  I promise in just a few practice sessions that you will feel comfy on the 9-foot table.

Your game will love you for it; your opponents, eh, not so much :)