Practice on tournament or club table ?

[Starsky]

Hi all,
If given the chance what would you choose to do solo practice on , club or match cut pockets ?.
I have an option of both at my local club , I can see pro’s and con’s with both .

What would be your choice and why ?

[trains]

i'd only play or practice on pro tables as i never played snooker for the social or pleasure aspect , purely just to model my game on the pro's , so for me no point wasting time or money on anything else , spent far too much time debilitating myself on irrelevant tables ( for me ) in the past , didn't realise there was such a big difference until i finally caught on at the q school , going back to club tables for me would just be like groundhog day i think the term our american friends use , haven't played for a few years though , its no big deal to go amiss .

[mikee]

I'm not sure what club pockets are any more really as they vary wildly from table to table ,I would practice on the best condition cloth and rubber ,and the table that runs the best. Steel cushions are always slightly better as the bounce is more consistant ,this dosen't always mean the table is faster though .My tables pockets are cut to w p b s a standards in the middles ,the corners are a couple of mill over sized ,this allows for natural wear of the cloth to being taken in to account so shots along the rail at pace can still be made quite easily .Most of the club tables I know or play on have massive middle bags ,compared to mine they are massive anyway .Before anyone says you can't get hold of the official templates ,my table was serviced last month and the fitter had some templates from World Snooker 2005/6 season which is as far i'm aware pretty much the same as they are now ,the middles were bang on with the corners slightly over sized ,no undercut on the nose of rubber and the slate falls in the right place .Unless your turning pro anytime soon just practice on the best conditions you can .Tables that won't take shots along cushions and spit balls out of the middle bags when hit true and in to the back of the plate are confidence killers ,you are then playing a game harder than to pro's play .Tell us a bit more about the tables at your club and how they are kept ,and how they differ .

[Starsky]

Thanks for the replies .

Trains , I thought that might be the case with yourself tbh

mikee,

You raise some interesting points and it’s a personal preference thing I guess . I was interested to see what the forum members would do in that situation

My club has all Aristocrat tables with varying degrees of quality.

As you say every table is different which I don’t mind as I’m not looking to turn pro or anything. I’ve started to practice on what was one the clubs match tables from yesteryear . The pockets are cut smaller and I’ve noticed I’m not as consistent as when playing on the other tables as would be expected . The table itself I like as it’s fast which I prefer and in decent condition for the club .

To me the positive of practicing on a tighter table is when you go and play on more generous tables after. Also hopefully it will make me concentrate a bit more .

The negative as you mentioned could be if it starts affecting my confidence missing more balls.
Im mainly practicing with an eye to trying to get my game back after a very long layoff from playing so lack of confidence in my game is a bit of a hurdle at the moment.

[mikee]

Something I used to do playing in the leagues years ago on a table I didn't know was to throw a ball at pace down the rail and see if it went in ,even if the pockets look small ,if the table takes them ,the its ok to play those type of shots .We had no warm up ,just two frames each and straight in ,playing on all sorts of tables .When you look at the game its a 12 x 6 playing area with a load of round balls ,and its the same for both players .

[Mark187187]

I play on whatever's available. Prefer bigger pockets if that's an option, I don't play for unnecessary punishment, and would rather knock a few breaks in.

[Starsky]

Thanks for the input.

I should have added I’m playing solo most of the time at my local club . I tend to play people at different venues but most of my time is spent solo due to my shift work.

[Cue crafty]

Hi Mate, for me it used to make sense to play on both, of course where the opportunity arose. That was because you can get comfortable playing on your favourite table in your club... where you know the vary in bounce, the weight on shots etc etc. A couple of times recently ; ) I have played in different venues and struggled to produce the form i was expecting. Firstly its easy to put this down to a below average day. But in all honesty, its just the same as a golfer who calls them self a 12 handicap but only play on their own local course.... for me a true 12 handicap can play to that handicap on any similar length course.

So bottom line is, if you play (or did and hope at some point to continue) in local league at different clubs, I think its essential to play on both, but even better, just lots of different table when the situation arises.

I played in a local snooker yesterday, first time id been back to this one in a year or two and it took me three frames to adjust. Probably because i was stubborn for the first two frames and didnt want to compromise the way I play at my local. Truth is most mortals need to default, to a match play mentality and take no pot for granted when they play on a new table.

[itsnoteasy]

I would pick the pro table but it depends what level you are and what you want out of the game. If you are a beginner it can be very frustrating playing on tight pockets, also if you just want to have a knock and pot some balls , no harm in playing on the bigger bagged tables. If you want to Improve and get the most out of whatever ability you have in the game, play on the best table you can.

[Danger Steve]

If just having a knock about I’d probably stick to the standard club table rather than attract attention to myself playing on a pro table? If wanting to get into league snooker then it makes sense I suppose if you have the chance to mix it up and play on all the tables available so as to not get used to any of them...

But if there was a pro star table sat empty, then why the hell not!! Go for it!

[Starsky]

Thanks guys for all your opinions, I find it interesting to hear what you would do in a similar situation.

Im going to just mix it up at my club with a view to solo practice on the tighter table and then play people on other tables or preferably at other clubs .

[inevermissblue]

At the end of the day it's about how you feel. Do you want to make a bona-fide break or do you want to make breaks knowing you're not limited by the tolerances a pro pocket table would offer?
Either way, you're still playing. Snooker in its essence is a difficult game, so are the numerous drills you can run through, especially if you play solo. So I guess it's about availability as much as anything.

[Starsky]

Thanks for your input INMAB .

I think the level you play at makes a difference on what you would do as well.

[bluenose1940]

This has all made for some interesting reading. i didn't realise that there is a difference in the sizes of pockets. How much difference does there tend to be? Am I right in thinking that a full size table is a full size table whatever, i.e. exactly the same size so why would they make the pocket sizes different?

I've always been under the impression that tennis courts, badminton courts, dart boards etc. etc. etc. are all a standard regulated size, whether played on by amateurs or pro's so why would a snooker table be any different?

I can fully understand the differences in the quality of cloths used. What about the cushions, is there any difference in the height of these between a club table and a tournament one?

Sorry if these seem seem like silly questions/points.

[Danger Steve]

Hey Bluenose...

The Star tables as used on TV use their own pocket templates to set the pocket sizes and are signed off by world snooker as far as I’m aware. These ‘pro pockets’ tend to be tighter than a standard club tables because the standard of player is much greater. Club tables also have an undercut on the rubber at the start of the pocket openings, which actually make the pockets even larger and it helps direct the ball into the pocket, all pro setup tables keep the square profile nose of rubber all the way to the back of the pocket, which makes the pocket less likely to accept power shots which aren’t perfectly struck! Also the slate falls on pro tables are slightly further into the pocket and they tend to have an almost square edge rather than the more rounded edge found on club slates.

Cushion heights can vary fractionally but this is more to do with the table fitter and how accurately they position the blocks which the rubber is glued to. However the only difference here is the bounce from the cushion, if the cushions are too low the balls will bounce upwards and if too high they don’t react off the cushion as good as they can. The sweet spot is just above centre contact between the bottom of the rubber nose and the snooker ball.

These days I think more clubs are going towards tighter pockets with a full rubber profile as some members prefer to have a proper test of their ability and want to have a table close to those on Telly!!. Could be wrong though? The last time I was in a club was about 10years ago...