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ebster’s defines etiquette as: “the manners and ceremonies established by con-vention as acceptable or required in social relations.” In other words, every form of human interaction has unofficial rules to live by. Pool is no exception.Let’s first talk about your space around the pool table. When you head into the billiard club to play pool, you’re actually renting the table and the space around it for a set period of time. By space we mean the area around the table a player needs to comfortably examine or execute any shot. Nothing is more irritating than to be looking over a critical table situation when suddenly someone walks between you and the table. A close second is when you’re down on a shot and someone decides to walk by or bump the table just as you’re ready to shoot. Give your fellow players a break by giving them space and courtesy. They’re paying for it.
Play with a friend or practice partner? Here are a few golden rules:
Don’t grab the chalk as you leave the table. Your partner might need it before you do. If you feel the need to chalk your cue while sitting in your chair, keep a piece there, or, if you must, attach it to one of those chalk-on-a-rope things you can still find in your local pro shop.
When you use chalk, don’t place it face down on the table. The residue is left on the table to be wiped up by your and your partner’s clothing.
This applies to more serious match-ups: When a player makes a great shot, you don’t need to make an immediate loud announcement of the fact.
Chances are they’re focused and preparing for the next shot; don’t interrupt their preshot routine. Either wait until the end of their turn at the table and say, “Nice shot on the seven,” or tap the butt of your cue lightly on the floor a few times in the time-honored tradition of the legendary players.
Years ago they called sharking “gamesmanship.” Today there’s no place for either term in our sport. Sharking is a bush league tactic, plain and simple. There are many forms of sharking: blowing your nose, roughing your tip with your cue tip shaper or scuffer, yawning loudly, standing in front of the shot, talking to a friend while your opponent is shooting, dropping your cue on the floor, moving around in your opponent’s line of sight, chomping on ice cubes—the list goes on and on. In short, any sudden movement or noise—or constant subtle moves and noises—are shark-ing techniques when done intentionally. Those committshark-ing them unintentionally will catch on soon enough when they run out of practice partners.
If you must resort to sharking to gain advantage, we suggest you practice more or just concentrate on your game. If you try to shark your opponent and it doesn’t work, it will only hurt your game and your reputation.
Be a good sport. For instance, players know when they touch the cue ball by accident. Be honest; call the foul on yourself. It’s amazing how good karma comes back around your way. You also know when you make a bad hit on an object ball.
Admit it. Otherwise, the short-term gain you might enjoy will cost you in the long run.
A little honesty and integrity goes a long way on the pool table. When a situation arises and you’re not sure of the most sportsmanlike response, use your common sense. Ask yourself how you would like to be treated as a player, and then act accordingly.
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Etiquette at the Pool Table
a slower pace, waiting for the object ball to come into focus, or waiting for that last shred of doubt to leave us. Don’t worry if you’re geared toward one extreme or the other, or if you’re in the middle. It makes no difference in the quality of your play whether your personal rhythm is fast or slow. What does make a difference is that you remain consistent and that you’re true to your natural rhythm.
We’ve seen great players with no practice swings. They simply put a hand on the table and pull the trigger. On the other side of the spectrum, legendary players have used as many as 10 warm-up swings. What these players have in common is that they did the same thing every time.
Here are some steps to use to find your own rhythm and create good timing:
1. Line up as many balls as possible along the headstring.
2. Get into your stance to shoot the balls one by one into the corner pocket.
3. First, look at your target (the corner pocket); then take three practice swings before you shoot the ball directly into the pocket.
4. If three swings feel uncomfortable, try two or four.
5. If those swings still don’t feel comfortable, try one or five, and so on, until you feel natural in your approach and neither rushed nor slowed in your attempt to pocket the balls.
After you’ve established your rhythm using these steps, set up shots on the pool table and practice maintaining the same pace on every shot. If you discover you’re taking more time on more difficult shots, you need to scrutinize your shot before you’re in your stance and swinging at the ball.
When you’re looking for your rhythm, you might find that you’re influenced by music playing in the background. To learn the purest sense of your rhythm, it’s best to first find it without music. Once you’ve found your rhythm, you’ll quickly learn what kind of music augments your game and what interferes.
Of course you won’t always have a choice of music playing in the background, especially in billiard clubs. Some professional players have favorite tunes that match their rhythm to combat this problem. When they’re playing in a match, they hum the tune (to themselves, of course) to maintain their own sense of rhythm, no matter what’s going on around them. This has also proven to be helpful when you’re playing someone whose rhythm is vastly different from your own. For instance, if you tend to play at a brisk pace, and you’re playing an extremely slow, methodical player, when it finally becomes your turn at the table, you’ll likely jump up and shoot too quickly, as if counteracting the effects of the slower pace. Others tend to match the pace of their opponent, playing slower, which can be equally damaging.
Keeping your own rhythm in your head, even while sitting in your chair, prepares you for your turn at the table.
Once you have found your rhythm, timing comes into play. As Forrest Gump was so wisely told before he picked up a table tennis paddle, “The key to this game is to never take your eye off the ball.”
Lucky for them, table tennis players need only to look at the ball and where it’s being directed. Pool players have it a little tougher. You have a cue ball, an object ball, a target pocket, and a target area of position at which you want your cue ball to arrive. This gives you more items that can distract your attention from the task at hand. For proper timing, look at the object ball and its intended path before you get down on the ball. Also decide where your cue ball will go before you get down on your shot. Once in your stance, you might need to look briefly at where your cue
stick is approaching the cue ball, especially in situations requiring extreme english.
Now it’s time for you to use your own personal number of warm-up swings before you execute the shot. (For more advanced players, this step is second nature, requir-ing no thinkrequir-ing at all.) Take a slight hesitation on your final backswrequir-ing to help your final focus on the object ball.
The only time we recommend looking at the cue ball last instead of the object ball is when you’re developing your power break, which we’ll discuss at length in chapter 4. Looking at the cue ball last in any other shot situation often results in lost sight of your target, a poor follow-through, and difficulty in controlling the speed of the cue ball.
You’ve found a place to play, selected your equipment, and learned the fundamen-tal skills you need to manipulate your cue stick. Your shooter’s checklist of these fundamental skills is worth checking back on regularly; they are at the core of your success as a player. But for now you’re ready to move on to the fun stuff—pocket-ing balls with deadly accuracy!