Play Your Best Pool

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 Practicing and playing speed pool can help improve your game in many ways.

Now there is a new 8 ball tournament format that is being played by both professional and amateur players. It is called the Ultimate Pool League. The match has a time limit of 30 minutes with a 30 second shot limit. At 10 minutes left in the match the shot clock goes to 15 seconds. When time runs out it will be ball in hand to your opponent. I feel that players need to start preparing themselves for competing under this speedy format, because this is the future of the sport. The main reason that many players avoid league and tournament play is because the games and matches just drag on and on. I have played in 32 player tournaments that could not be finished in 12 hours. That is way too long and quite honestly very boring.

Practicing and playing speed pool will improve your game in many ways. First is that your decision making will greatly improve. Most players over analyze the game to the point that they have no flow to their game. As I put it. “Think Long and Think Wrong” When you make a decision on what to do in a game, your first thought is usually 96% correct. So, rethinking and rethinking just hurts your game. Your flow and rhythm of your play and game will greatly improve if you practice shooting every shot in less than 1 minute. When you practice and play with a shot clock, you're going to develop a much better flow and rhythm to your game because you have no choice. I played against a tournament player once that was so slow that he would take over 2 minutes on a straight in shot. He ran a rack one time that took over 20 minutes. He made a ball on the break, so it took over 20 minutes for 7 shots. His game suffered because he never had any rhythm or flow to his play. Start at 1 minute and then go 45 seconds and work your way to a 30 second shot clock. Good luck and enjoy playing faster.