Week 2: The Table Strikes Back

Before we begin this post I have an issue I would like to address. When I posted my first blog post, I received some great, inspiring posts with suggestions and words of encouragement in my billiards journey. That was great, and I thank you for that. However, some people commented that I could use billiards to hustle people and win money, to which I say what is wrong with you? While I am broke (Seriously, I can't even buy personal copies of books I've already read. Is life even worth living?) the goal of this blog is to serve as a wholesome space to learn billiards, not to hustle people. For shame…

Please keep commenting though....I don't
want to be that person with no BBF's

Anyways, now that I've finished calling you all out, let's turn the attention to me and my recent failures. I say most recent because there has been a string of many incidents that I'm sure will one day come back to haunt me, but I would like to focus on a specific one that almost convinced me not to play billiards and switch my topic. This horrendous problem that plagues my waking hours all stems from the table itself, and I feel the impact of this to this day. The table has it out for me.

                                            

Okay okay I get it, you think I'm insane, but I'm not kidding. Over the course of the first week alone, I have sustained 3 cuts, 8 bruises, and 2 cues to the stomach all at the hands of the table. At this point, I injure myself somehow at least twice per game, and I haven't even started playing the real games yet. I think that might be the scariest part of all. I have come to this conclusion because there simply isn’t anything else that could have caused this. What’s that? It’s probably my lack of athletic skill and inherent clumsiness you say? Of course not….but anyways, the table has it out for me, so if I disappear, you know who to blame. 

                                            

So now we've finally arrived at the part of this blog post I've been dreading: the research I barely did. If you don't care about this part, please feel free to skip to the next creative Disney gif, but stay tuned if you're interested in the logic behind pool. Let's just get this over with, and talk about math. I despise math and everything that comes with it, but now we're here, so I guess we'll just have to deal with that. This week my goal was to learn vocabulary (which I already complained about earlier this week so I won't bore you again) and how to break and aim, so there really wasn’t much research to do, but I did find some fantastic videos to help. Fair warning, one does involve PBS in conjunction with math, so watch at your own risk.

This will link you to the PBS article!

So the other thing that I found while learning to break and aim are these cool sets of diagrams that show you where to aim, where to hit, and all the paths that the balls will follow as a result. I'll include some of them here, but they aren't all too hard to find on the internet.

                                         
                                          
                                          

This is linked to the website for more info!

So this was cool, and it involved less math so I preferred it to the PBS video. Over this week I learned that while the speed of which you hit the ball is important, the velocity and placement of the ball is even more valuable in pool. Plus, I also learned the fact that should have been obvious to me, that where you hit the pool ball has an extremely large impact on where the ball will go! By making a mistake on this I learned how to jump shot, but it was also probably the number one injury causer of the week, so it's a real double edged sword.

This is going to be a long few weeks

After this train wreck of a blog post, you're probably all waiting for the reflection, if only because it means my blog post is almost over. Well congratulations, you've made it. Looking back, maybe I need to wear extra layers or use a protective bubble wrapped cue to ensure I don't injure myself anymore than I already have. From here on out (or for the next week), my goal is to learn how to play the basic billiards game of 8 ball using the skills I've painfully obtained over the course of this week. Hopefully in the grand scheme of things I can begin to correctly call my shots and determine how to decide which ball to hit into the pocket, but probably not (if you don't know yet I’m not very good at billiards).

Overall I don't know all that much, but I'm looking forward to learning it. Thanks for checking in again!

                                    

Update: Billiards is actually hard??

I'm not going to lie, when I first decided to learn billiards, I thought it was going to be pretty easy. After all, I have some prior experience and a table at my disposal to play whenever I want, so it can't be that bad, right? WRONG!

Honestly is there ever a bad time for a West Wing gif? I think not

                                   

Billiards is actually super hard! I hate math, and there is way more math involved than I had originally expected, so we can add that to the list of things that my family is better than me at, and to the list of losses I have taken over this week. (Spoiler Alert, it's a long list)

                                  

Anyways, my failures in math isn't why you're here, so let's get back to the point. This week started off well, and I found a super cool quizlet with a bunch of terms to help me learn the vocabulary, and I immediately copied it and passed it off as my own. (Disclaimer: plagiarism is wrong) However, I quickly realized that studying 183 terms that more or less say the same thing is not fun at all, and actually overall kind of sucks.

                                   

Besides that absolute torture that was learning these vocab words (I'm still not convinced I know them all), I also got to watch some pretty awesome movies on the subject. This was much more fun that the studying, and I may have gotten some actual enjoyment out of that, so thanks for the recommendations!

Hopefully one day I can get this good, but probably not. 

That's all for now, but don't worry, I have plenty of struggles and failures to talk about in my post later this week. I look forward to seeing you then!


Oh, and by the way, if you'd like to feel my pain and study the quizlet, here it is!

Why in the World Would Anyone Ever Want to Learn Billiards?

To begin this long journey, I would like to divulge two close-kept secrets about me as a person. First, I am extremely competitive and have a slight issue with getting anything less than the best, and second, I have absolutely zero athletic bones in my body. Soccer, basketball, ping pong...you name it, I can't do it. As of now, you may be wondering why I’m airing my personal issues on a blog about billiards, to which I say I’m getting to it. The reason why my inability to accept defeat ties into billiards is because this is essentially why I chose to do it – so I can win.

I will admit that originally I had considered other topics such as shorthand and knitting, and all of those things would have been extremely useful and a gratifying hobby. However, neither of those things allowed me to win anything, and especially I know that neither of them would allow me to win in a sport. My family plays billiards as a way to connect during our free time, and every one of them is an all-star…except me. Ever since I was old enough to pick up a cue, I have been soundly beaten. To this day, I can say that I have most likely never won a billiards game on my own merit. This fact that has definitely stuck with me. Therefore, my main goal in learning this skill besides my actual interest is to finally turn the tables and win a game for once.

How will I do this you ask? Let me explain. First, you have to start with the basics as every beginner knows. Then comes the more interesting things. Over the duration of this journey, I will learn how to play 8 ball, 9 ball, and Cut Throat billiards. I will tackle this feat by going in depth into each game for one week, using the last two weeks to perfect my skills and then learn trick shots such as the English spin or even the Jump Shot. My goals in doing this is obviously to win, but also to learn the games and how to estimate the proper angles needed as well. This can be measured by my ability to successfully play and/or win each game by the rules, and by showing that I can identify certain mistakes made in context with the rules as well. As for trick shots, this can be measured by the degree to which I can execute them. 

Now, onto the actual executing of this plan, which I admit I haven’t thought enough into. First, I would like to thank Kyla as she has volunteered to suffer along as I learn the game, and will most likely have to deal with my intensity (I apologize in advance). I have a pool table in my basement, so I am completely equipped to learn the game in and of itself.

To finish off what I know will end up being the first of many blog posts, I will reflect on what I have done so far and what is left to go. Considering that I haven’t officially started yet, we’ll have to settle for only looking to the future. To be completely honest, the part of this that I am most looking forward to is Cutthroat billiards, half because of the name and half because it is a multiple player game. Cutthroat involves three players and takes about twice as long as your average game of monopoly, so it is a serious investment of your time. However, that only makes winning the game that much better.

An informational link on Cutthroat Billiards

If you’ve read to this point, congrats! Hopefully, you consider it time well spent.