Fatboy said:
Jay I havent hit the balls like a C player in years (except a few days this time last year when my back was bad).
All I can say is that a B player would probably be running 2-3 racks of 14.1, something like one out of every 5-10 attempts. That's just a very general stab, but if you can't get close to that, then you're not a B.
This is not specifically addressed to you, but I think, in general, many players have unrealistic expectations about their game. This just means that people often feel or believe that it is within their ability to consistently make shots and play position that they cannot.
The problem is that most of us watch the pros in person or on television, or perhaps Accu-Stats, we see the good players at our local room, and they all make it look so easy. They make it look so easy we lose sight of how crushingly difficult the game actually is and we become disappointed with ourselves when we can't do this simple thing. Personally, I recall watching Willie Mosconi run 1000 and I literally rushed to the pool hall thinking, "Well, that's so easy, anyone can do that!"
Another side of this same issue is that in practice, in the absence of distractions, we set up our easiest and favoritest shots, on our preferred table, and fall into a selective memory trap, remembering the shots we whip in (with BIH), forgetting how many times we missed it or blew the position.
So the next time someone is "running racks," pay closer attention. Are you really breaking and running out? Or, are you just spreading the balls around the table with no clusters, no balls on the rail? Are you starting with an easy BIH? And, are you really doing all the good stuff consistently? After all, think of all the shots you'd have to have mastered to do it repeatedly. It's one thing to bust them open, sinking a bunch of balls, having a wide open spread, and being perfect for your first shot. It's another for the balls to bunch up, with a couple on the rail, and a long thin cut to start off with
Sooooo, I really have no idea of how you play. That's something every player has to determine for themselves by taking a good honest look at their game.
Lou Figueroa
