PREMIER ISSUE MAGAZINE ISSUE#1 - JANUARY 2021

In loving memory of Sam Ramirez Oct. 6, 1965 - Dec. 12, 2020

FOR LOVE OF THE GAME INSIDE • What is Straight In loving memory ? of Sandy Schuman • Dancing with Fatty Sept. 13, 1951 - Nov. 28, 2020 • Money Pool

• Cue Care • A Matter of Focus • The Spectrum of Force 1 Editors Corner Content Contributors Hello and Welcome to Mary Kenniston - World & National “On the Snap” billiards Champion Pool Player, and one of magazine! The idea for this the founders of the WPBA (Women’s magazine came from my love Pro Billiard Association). Mary was for the game of pool and the inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020 desire to teach more people about it. Philip Capelle - A Nationally The magazine will grow and change as I learn more recognized expert on playing pool. about various parts of the industry and hope that I can He has spent the last 30 years playing, honor my two friends that grace the cover of this first studying and teaching pool and he is issue. They both loved the game so much. Sometimes one of the instructors to be certified by it seems that is all they would talk about :) the Billiard Congress of America. On the Snap is going to have a regional focus on Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky & West Virgina. I will always have a history page in the magazine and will Randy Dininger has been doing feature some of the players from where it all began. cue repair for twelve years, along with playing, buying and selling This being the first issue, I am looking for suggestions pool cues for about twenty years. and articles to run in the magazine, so if you have any ideas, please let me know by email at [email protected]. Anthony Beeler is the 2011-2020 Billiards Instructor of the Decade and is a former BCAPL National Champion. He has numerous top 25 national finishes and is one of only 8 ACS Master Instructors in the world.

Denny Stewart - PBIA Master Instructor - Professional Pocket Billiard Instructor - 36 years Experience - Founder of Ohio Pool School in Toledo, Ohio www.facebook.com/denny.stewart

On the Snap is sponsored by: Buckeye Billiards 8-7’ Diamond Tables 5 Electronic Dart 2-9’ Diamond Tables Boards 2-7’ Valley Smart Great Food & Drink Tables Plenty of Seating! 950 Ashland Rd. • Mansfield, OH

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In loving memory of Sam Ramirez Oct. 6, 1965 - Dec. 12, 2020

Sam. Everyone that knew Sam loved him. He just had that type of personality and a way with people. Sam would go out of his way to help someone in need because he had such a big heart. I met Sam Ramirez when I moved back home from Texas to Mansfield. He was the manager at the Cracker Barrell where I went to work. He was a good manager, if we got slammed, he was the first to come out and start helping to bus the tables and clean up. Years later, when I started playing pool, Sam would often discuss shots with me and help me learn. I am not always an easy student and he knew that. Sam LOVED to play pool - the photo to the right is of us hanging out at Ohio Coin Machine Association State VNEA Tournaments. Sam and his teams always did well in competition. Sam passed away Sat. Dec. 12, 2020 at the age of 55 from Covid19 complications. Sam worked for Alpha & Omega Real Estate as a realtor, part-time at Big Lots, co-owner of Buckeye Thrift and he was also the owner of Sami’s Bar. He had a special love for kids and always bought a lot of toys to give away at Christmas time and for school supplies. Sam was one of my two best friends and will be greatly missed by me and many people in the Mansfield, OH area.

3 Money Pool In November of 2007, the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in Louisville, Kentucky played host to the $20,000 added CSI Qlympics. A star studded field gathered to compete in the BCA, U.S. Open Championship, U.S. Open One-Pocket Championship, U.S. Open 14.1 Championship, and the ever prestigious U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship. Early on Saturday morning I decided to drive north to Louisville and watch some of the world’s greatest players. My intention was to watch the featured Action Report match pitting Earl Strickland against Shane Van Boening. However, when I arrived on the scene, my good friend Samantha Patton and convinced me to enter both the 8-Ball and 9-Ball mini-tournaments. She said it would be a great way to test my skills against some of the world’s greatest players. The 9-Ball mini was single elimination, race to 5. I started out strong winning several matches by significant margins. After winning the final match of the 9-Ball tournament against “Detroit Tom” by a score of 5-2, I found myself in the semi-finals of the 8-Ball event pitted against top ranked touring professional, Louis Ulrich. Louis had just won the BCAPL Men’s Master Big Table Singles Division and had just finished 2nd in the U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship. The match was close and it was only a race to 3. I was on the hill by a score of 2-1 and Louis had just missed an opportunity at a difficult run out. I came to the table with a crucial decision to make.As you can see below, I had the solids and Louis had only the 8-ball left. It was clear that I had to play safe. The problem was how do you defend against the firepower of a world-class player? As I studied the layout my first instinct was to do something simple. I wanted to graze the 6-ball rolling up behind it and the 5, leaving the cue ball at position “A”. However, as I continued to study the layout of balls, I came to the realization that it was the incorrect shot. I kept telling myself, “You can’t let him have a clear kick shot to pocket the 8.” So I surveyed the table for other options.

4 After carefully surveying the table, I noticed that my 2 and 3 ball were positioned near the 8, and could be potentially used as blockers for executing a different type of safety. My new plan was to shoot thinly into the left side of the 6-ball and position the cue-ball two rails onto the other side of the table, leaving it at position “B”. This plan cuts off the upper cushion, which takes the easier to pocket 1-rail kick out of the equation. I would rather have my opponent kick to the short side of the ball with a lower percentage of making it, rather than letting him kick to the long side, which has a higher probability of the ball being pocketed. After I executed the safety, Louis came to the table and kicked to the short side. The 8-ball rebounded off the cushion and broke loose my 2 and 3. This was the only opportunity that I needed to run the remaining balls and win the match.

Looking back, I now realize how important that it is to look for various safety options and to weigh the probabilities of each shot. If I had elected to go with my first instinct and had attempted to play the simpler safety, I very well may have watched Louis kick in the 8-ball and win the game. The movie Money Ball talks about how the Oakland Athletics general manager, Billy Beane, uses percentages over the long haul to win at baseball. Pool is no different. It’s important to weigh all of your options and to always play the percentage. Any time you can gain even a 1 or 2 percent advantage it is important to exercise that option. Even small percentages add up over the course of time.

Anthony Beeler is the 2011-2020 Billiards Instructor of the Decade and is a former BCAPL National Champion. He has numerous top 25 national finishes and is one of only 8ACS Master Instructors in the world. He is the primary author of the ACS National Billiards Instructors Manual and has also authored the book Unstoppable! Positive Thinking for Pool Players. Anthony currently has the highest established Fargo Rating of any Master Instructor. He has won over 300 tournaments and has defeated numerous professional players in tournament competition.

5 What is (14.1) According to Wikipedia - Straight pool (also The idea of straight pool is derived from an earlier known as 14.1 continuous or 14.1 ), is a game game called continuous pool. In continuous pool, that features two players competing on a 9 foot points are earned for every ball that is pocketed. attempting to pocket as many balls When all balls are pocketed, a new rack begins, as possible without committing a foul - one point with the player who pocketed the final ball playing is scored for each object ball pocketed where no the break. As players became skilled in scoring foul is made. many points in a single turn, they would often employ defensive shots on the break to avoid their Straight pool was the primary version of pool in opponent running the 15 balls on the table. professional competition until it was superseded in the 1970s by faster-playing games like 9-ball In 1910 Jerome Keogh, who was a winner of and 8-ball. numerous continuous pool tournaments, wanted to increase the attacking nature from the break In straight pool, the player may attempt to pocket off shot. This new game became known as “14.1 any object ball on the table regardless of color continuous” or “14.1 rack” and would a few years or number, until just one object ball and the cue later be called straight pool in 1912. The 14.1 ball remain, at this point the other fourteen balls refers to the 14 balls that make up the rack, when are replaced into the rack. Play then resumes with one ball remains. The game quickly overtook the objective being that the cue ball caroms from continuous pool and was the primary version of the final remaining ball into the rack, opening pool until eight-ball became popular. the balls and allowing the player to continue the run. The goal is to reach a set number of points determined by agreement before the game. One point is scored for each object ball pocketed where no foul is made. In professional competition, straight pool is usually played to 125 or 150 points, with longer matches becoming more prevalent. Straight pool is played with every shot requiring a designation for both the ball and pocket chosen. Straight Pool (14.1) was a very popular pool game in the United States, and was shown in the 1961 film The Hustler, starring Paul Newman & Jackie Gleason, a movie based on Walter Tevis’s 1959 novel of the same name. A World Straight Pool Championship was held from 1912 until 1990. A current event that is now run by Dragon Promotions, the World Tournament, was first held in 2006 and was won by Thorsten Hohmann, with events at the U.S Open and European Pool Championships. Jerome Keogh invented the game in 1910 6 In straight pool’s first rack, fifteen object balls are placed in a triangle, with the center of the apex ball placed over the foot spot. Traditionally the 1-ball is placed at the rack’s right corner and the 5-ball placed at the rack’s left corner. Other balls are placed at random.

By FoxLad at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48104508

A rack with an object ball to the left of the rest An object ball is to the left of the racked balls. A typical layout for the intragame rack.

Unlike most pool games, the object of straight pool’s standard initial break shot is to leave the In straight pool, skilled players can pocket all of opponent without the chance to pot a ball. This the balls in a single rack, and continue to do so for is known as a safety. All shots in straight pool large runs. On March 19, 1954, Willie Mosconi require nomination, with every shot requiring both set a record high run of 526 points, over 36 racks. the ball and pocket being called before the shot is Mosconi’s record for the highest documented taken. This rule also includes the break shot. Shots run stood for over 65 years. It was finally beaten such as caroms and combinations do not have on May 27, to be called. On the break, either a ball must 2019, when John be pocketed in a designated pocket or the cue Schmidt ran 626 ball and at least two additional balls must balls in Monterey, touch a rail. The failure to accomplish either . It was of these options results in a foul. Fouling the result of a on the initial break results in a penalty loss sustained, months- of two points. In addition, the opponent has long effort to the choice of either accepting the table in break Mosconi’s position, or having the balls re-racked and record. requiring the offending player to repeat the opening break. All other fouls during the game result in a one-point deduction. However, a third consecutive foul at any time results in a loss of 15 points. 7 Dancing with Fatty Written by: Mary Kenniston It was early 1979 and I was living in New Jersey. I had a great job selling Yellow Pages, had a company car & had just moved into my first apartment. I’d been playing pool for a few years, had played and placed high in a few WPBA events and had just discovered the action world. Life was good!

One day, I received an invitation to play in the ‘1979 World Pro-Am. There were to be two events - eight ball and nine ball - single elimination with a men’s and women’s division. The entry fee was high - $600 - a lot of money for those days. However, the entry fee also included a room at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. LAS VEGAS!!! Well, since I was the best female nine ball player in New Jersey, I figured I’d be stealing! I desperately wanted to go and it took me several months of five, ten and twenty dollar nine ball to get my entry fee, plane fare and other expenses together.

The day arrived and I was on my way to Vegas. I couldn’t wait to get there! Finally, the plane landed and I hopped onto the shuttle. Tropicana Hotel - here I come! I checked into my room, grabbed my cue and headed on down to the Minnesota Fats tournament room. “Allen,” I said, pointing to the tables, “What the hell are The tournament was being held in the Tennis Pavilion - these?” a huge room filled with these little tiny pool tables and “Bar tables. Haven’t you ever seen a bar table before?” bleachers to the ceiling. I had never seen such small tables before! Disappointed, I spotted Allen Hopkins across the “No,” I answered, “What kind of phony tournament is this? room and made my way over to him. How come we’re not playing on real pool tables?”

Allen explained that in most other parts of the country, bar tables were very popular and there was plenty of action on them. He told me not to worry - he said I’d play a ball or two better on them because since they were smaller, they were much easier. Well, that sounded good to me!

I was having a ball. I had hooked up with one of my best friends from home, Tommy Halliday (“Staten Island” or “Doc”). He was introducing me to all the West Coast players I had heard so much about - Richie Florence - the promoter of the event, Ronnie Allen, Bucktooth, Keith McCready and then, we heard a shout...

Mary Kenniston at the table 88 “Hey, Doc!!!” Fatty just looked at me and after a long silence, he said, “Hey, Slim! Can you dance?” We turned around and there was a short round man making his Dance?!!! I looked at him like he was crazy! DANCE?!!! way through the crowd. He held out his hand, “C’mon, Slim. Let’s dance.” He kept Tommy started grinning and said asking and I’d say no. It became obvious that he wasn’t to me, “Oh, mannnnnnnn! Here going to take no for an answer. Reluctantly, I took his comes Minnesota Fats! You’re hand, grabbed my cue with the other and let him lead me going to LOVE this guy!” down the bleachers to the tournament floor.

Before Tommy could introduce me, Fats They were playing music on the said, “So, who’s the tomato?” loudspeakers and Fatty danced me all around the empty tournament room I looked around - who was he talking between and around the pool tables. He about? Tomato? was a very good dancer and I had to really pay attention to keep up and not make a Well, it turned out to be me! fool of myself.

As he slowly looked me up As we danced, he asked me how old I was and down, he drawled, “Jersey - I told him. Married? No. First time in Slimmmmmmmmmmmm.” Vegas? Yes. Did I like shows? Yes. Did I like great restaurants? Yes. Well, I was tongue-tied! Minnesota Fats had just called me a TOMATO!!! I “Slim, all I can say is that I sure wish I wasn’t sure whether I should be insulted was your age again! And single! Single in or flattered. Embarrassed, I made an VEGAS!!! excuse and fled. As he talked, his voice got louder, “YOU Finally, it was time for the players LOST YOUR MATCH?!!! IN A POOL meeting and the draw. I saw a few TOURNAMENT!!! women that I knew but didn’t know Mary Kenniston most of them. I drew Sherri Sewell from By now, he was howling! Oklahoma City. We’d play the next day. “YOU LOST YOUR MATCH?!!!!!!!! Match time came - it was the last round before the dinner BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!! break. Sherri and I started to play and if she didn’t have an I’m speechless. open shot, she’d ride the nine! If she had a shot, she’d just run out or combo the nine! Boom, boom, boom...game, set “FUHGEDDABOUDIT!!! Is this the last match you’re and match. I was out of the tournament. Well, to say I was gonna play?!!! Is this the last pool tournament you’re ever stunned was an understatement! I couldn’t believe it! I had gonna play in?!!! There’ll be other pool tournaments!!! built up my bankroll for months to get to Vegas and BAM! YOU’RE IN VEGAS!!! You’re a young, single, good I was out of the tournament! I had hardly had a turn at the lookin’ tomato and YOU’RE IN VEGAS!!! Find yourself a table and I was out of the tournament! guy and have some fun!!! Geez...YOU’RE IN VEGAS!!!”

On the verge of tears, I climbed up to the top of the empty Well, by this time, he had me laughing too. While we were bleachers. Sitting with my Fellini case between my legs, dancing, the room had started to fill up for the evening I rested my head on it and closed my eyes. A short while matches and now everyone was clapping and cheering us later, I felt the vibration of someone climbing up the on. The crowd was chanting, “Yeah, Mare - YOU’RE IN bleachers. It wasn’t until I realized that someone was VEGAS!!! YOU’RE IN VEGAS!!!” nearby that I looked up. It was Minnesota Fats. So...... I did as the Fat Man told me - I found a guy and “Hey, Slim! Whatcha doin’ up here? Why so sad?,” he we tore up Vegas. Oh, and by the way, Sherri Sewell went asked. I burst into tears and told him what had happened on to win the tournament!! in my match, how I’d saved my winnings for months, how Sherri got lucky, how I......

99 In loving memory I met Sandy Schuman in 2013. We both shared of Sandy Schuman a love of two things - Publishing & Billiards. Sept. 13, 1951 - Nov. 28, 2020 Sandy was Owner/Publisher/Editor of Inside English - a small regional magazine covering the game she loved and sharing it with everyone that she could. I have created graphics for over 21 years now. Sandy and I became friends over facebook. I had followed her and the magazine for quite some time as my interest in the sport of billiards grew, when she asked if I would ride over to the US Open 9-Ball Tournament with her. I said I would love too but didn’t have much money, she said that’s ok, and we traded for me to do graphic design work for the magazine. She drove down from Michigan to Mansfield, Ohio to pick me up and we drove to Virginia Beach. That trip was amazing. I had never been to one of the big tournaments. Once we go there and checked in, Sandy was ready to go. Her excitement was contagious and I could see why. There was so much to do and see and people to talk to. Sandy seemed to know everybody who was anybody when it came to Pool & Billiards. She started telling me of the history of this tournament and who was in charge of the whole thing. I met a lot of the Pro-Players that attended & participated. We listened to Mike Massey sing a song from the movie “The Baron & The Kid” and also had lunch with Dave Jacoby. Sandy got him to tell the story of how he began doing cue repair. After all of that we went to the Induction of & Mika Immonen. It was amazing that we were sitting there with all the pros that I had only heard about. Sandy was one of those people that just shined when she entered a room, happy, always smiling and everyone always seemed to know her. My friend, you are so missed.

10 A Mother’s Love More than a mother, Always a friend. Eternal in my heart, A mother’s love will never end. You lived your whole life being late Why so early this one time? Though I think you’d find it funny That you lived to 69. I remember lots of times You rushed to heal a stranger, Keeping them alive, Even when they’d caused the danger.

So many times we chatted AN INTERESTING HOBBY T-Shirts, Tanktops, About so many thoughts. Hoodies, Sports I’ll miss your kindred spirit Shirts, Sweatshirts, And the comfort that you brought. Koozies, Hats, etc. [email protected] You’re with your Ma & Daddy now, please text or email for more info. Auntie Kimmie, too. You can catch up on events missed, 419-569-2549 • 419-709-6463 Since the times they last saw you.

And Babe will be there waiting, U B W A H S R G B F L U N M K Beside the Rainbow Bridge N T A U R E T O N E E O F O K With other pets you’ve loved and lost F A E L N E E R G U T N I S O Throughout the life you’ve lived. F R V R U N L I I E O A S C L The room would glow so brightly, H E A I I K S L L C W Y H O L When a smile lit your face, B V I N L T A P I A K A E N O Without your kind and generous soul, U L G J N L P S N F E L R I C The worlds a dimmer place. S H A K E A U D A N E U A W R Through the uncertainties of life, T O H S A N E S C U L G Y N O In darkness when I couldn’t see, A H A P S R W O O D W A R D D The one thing I never doubted, M M L E O I E Z H O P P E O N I’ve always known you loved me. A A L N J Q T Z N E N O M M I That mother’s love, It doesn’t end, N N E C R A N E I R E H C R A Though you’ve left this mortal plane. T N A H C S U O R M S E Y E R I’ll keep it warm within my heart, E S O U Q U E T H O P K I N S Until we meet again. APPLETON FISHER LEE SHAW I’ll soldier through the years ahead, ARCHER GREENLEAF MIZERAK SIGEL We’ll reunite when my time’s due. BALUKAS HALL MOSCONI SOUQUET Two times over you gave me life, BOENING HOHMANN ORCOLLO STRICKLAND So I’ll live that life for you. BUSTAMANTE HOPKINS OSULLIVAN VARNER by Karen Schuman CRANE HOPPE OUSCHAN WANDERONE FEIJEN IMMONEN PAGULAYAN WOODWARD

Memorial for Sandra Jo Schuman Players Pool Some Famous FILLER LASSITER REYES YOUNG 11 • For Love of the Game • We often think that the reason we play pool is for When you do the competition and the camaraderie. The fun of something for showing off our skills, going head to head with the love of the our friends, and challenging ourselves to see how thing you are good we can become. We don’t often contemplate doing, it becomes the deeper aspects of what playing pool really more than a means or provides to each one of us. hobby, a chore, or something that you have to do. There is a need, a hunger that cannot be totally filled. You keep going back to it time after time, like a moth to a flame.

This is the way that I feel about pool. Don’t get me wrong, I can take a couple of days off from For many, playing pool turns into the pursuit playing, but I will catch myself watching it on of some sense of completion. A pathway for the internet, watching a random match so that those who are looking for the feeling of being I can see how they play. How they stroke, spin good enough. It becomes an outlet for a number and address the cue ball and what their strategy of people searching for the ultimate sense of and layout is so that I can make my game better. acceptance. We see this with both amateurs and professionals. And of course, pool tends to be a great escape and release from the stresses of everyday life. It’s a way to focus, to connect with others, and get one’s mind, for at least a moment, off of any of life’s troubles and chaos.

Sooo... if you know me personally, you know I do a lot of things related to Pool/Billiards. Just cannot seem to get it out of my mind. Yep, now here I go trying to do a small pool magazine. Hopefully this will keep me busy for a while :) - Rosanna

12 A Matter of Written by: Denny Stewart

balls, and for all else you can erase with some focus on your breathing. It will keep you in a lot more games.

Next time when you’re getting ready to practice try this. Concentration is not something that you can force, or control. Matter of fact if you’re Set up a straight in shot to the side pocket. even trying to concentrate that means your You’re going to stop the cue ball when you not concentrating! Fighting the mind does not shoot it. Now once you have decided on what work, you can’t will a state of mind, or we’d tip position and speed you’re going to shoot all be willing dead stroke every time. It just it at, close your eyes and I want you to feel it, doesn’t work that way. What you can do is hear it then listen for it to go in the pocket. Try FOCUS the mind. It works like this, as you it and see and feel the effects of it. achieve focus, the mind quiets automatically. A quiet mind only picks up what is relevant Previously published in Inside English for in the here and now. You get into a state of Sandy Schuman in 2008 relaxed concentration.

When your at the table and going into your PreShot routine, or planning a shot, then executing it, it is relatively easy to focus because your actively engrossed in what you are doing moment by moment. But you are vulnerable between shots, or in the chair.

Something that might benefit you for when you have those stray thoughts of winning, losing, who’s there, what if I miss etc. (basically all chatter) is to focus the mind on your breathing. Nothing is more “here and now” than your breath. It also has a beneficial calming effect. So now you have some tools to keep your head in the game. Focus on the here and now while you’re at the table and running

13 Ruth McGinnis The Queen of Billiards players nowadays - their names are not household words. But during McGinnis’ age this was not the case. You could find plenty of stories about Ruth McGinnis and other pool players in the New York Times.” McGinnis’ game, popular in the 1930s, was straight pool, which is what Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason play in the iconic film The Hustler. (Today, if you walk into an American bar with pool tables, patrons are likely One January day in 1938, a slight, wide-eyed playing 8-ball.) In woman named Ruth McGinnis walked into a pool straight pool, the player hall in Washington, D.C, called the Arcadia, where calls what ball she will six of the district’s most accomplished players try for—stripes or solids doesn’t matter. If she waited to play her. sinks 14 balls in a row or “runs a 14,” she can use McGinnis powdered her hands and picked up her the 15th to start into another rack and continue cue. McGinnis played a straightforward game, not shooting. - From the Smithsonian Article chatting or joking with anyone as she played, the balls clacking cleanly as she cleared the table. The manager teased that he should borrow a bowling ball from the alley next door and paint a big 8 on it, so the men stood a chance. But it was a weak joke. And she beat them all. That was just an average day at the tables for McGinnis, who triumphed in the male enclave of the pool room, earning her the nickname “The Queen of Billiards.” Born in 1910, she started playing in her father’s barbershop at 7 years old: her father kept two pool tables for waiting customers, and a soapbox for tiny Ruth to stand on. Pool was a big deal in those days. “You have to understand that pool back in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s was in a very different space in this country than it is now,” says pool historian and author R. A. Dyer. “Now the sport is relegated to bars and play in leagues, but most prominent pool

14 The Spectrum of Force Written By: Philip Capelle Your success at controlling the cue ball, playing position and running racks of 8-ball or 9-ball is directly related to I’ve developed the scale below to help your speed control. All of the great position players, form you conceptualize the range of possible Willie Mosconi to Efren Reyes, could almost (literally) stroke speeds: stop the cue ball on a dime. Chances are that your game 1) Extremely Soft 6) Medium Hard could benefit from an increased awareness of your speed- of-stroke ‑ that is, how hard you strike the cue ball with 2) Very Soft 7) Hard every shot. 3) Soft 8) Very Hard Occasionally you will need to use a Very Soft (2) or 4) Medium Soft 9) Extremely Hard Extremely Soft (1) stroke. Bear in mind, however, that 5) Medium 10) Break Shots shooting softly can effect the accuracy of your stroke, and subject the object ball to a table roll. At the other end of the spectrum, using hard strokes (7-9) to play position can also cause balls to be missed, and they can make it tough to control the cue ball. Speed 10 is reserved for the break shot, so it is never used for position play. Professional players typically confine their stroke speed to the 3-7 range, but they are fully capable of stroking across the full spectrum of speeds (1-9) when needed. Consider the variety of stroke speeds, and then ask yourself if you have a tendency to shoot too easily or too hard. Can you lag a ball softly into the pocket, or send the cue ball 3 or 4 rails when requested? Experience has taught me that 70% to 80% of all amateurs shoot too hard and that most of their shots are shot in the 6-8 range. If that is your problem, then try the exersize in the diagram. It will help you develop a softer stroke and an increased awareness of the variety of stroke speeds required to play precision position. Set up the balls as shown, using reinforcements available at office supply stores to mark the position of both balls. Using no english, try to leave the cue ball at Point A, then Point B, etc. You’ll need to stroke the cue ball a little bit harder with each successive shot to achieve the desired position. Mark the cue ball’s position on each shot and carefully observe your results.

For more information go online to Philip Cappeles website at https://www.billiardspress.com/ 15 For my carbon fiber shafts I will use a alcohol wipe or a small amount of rubbing alcohol on a paper towel. If I am at the pool room I will use Cue Care a small amount of hand sanitizer on a napkin to Hello, my name is Randy Dininger. I have clean the carbon fiber shaft. been doing cue repair for twelve years, along with playing, buying and selling pool cues for about For wood shafts do not use any of the above twenty years. In this article, I am going to give mentioned methods for carbon fiber shafts. Any you some pool cue tips and tricks about cue care, moisture on a wooden shaft will soak right in and tip care and shaft care. make your shaft feel like an orange peel. Using a dry paper towel will pull quite of bit of dirt and Starting with your cue, it is a good habit to have grime off your wooden shaft. In a pinch I have a durable case to store your cue in. Leaning used PB-Blaster (dry lube with teflon) to make a cues against the wall causes them to warp dirty shaft slick, just until I could get to my lathe and adds un-needed pressure to the joint. to clean and reseal the shaft. If all else fails you -never lean your cue. Whether you play at could always wear a glove. home or in a pool room it is always good to take your cue apart when you’re done and That is all for this issue may the rolls be in favor store it in a case. and shoot straight. TIP CARE Until next time ~ Randy Mushrooming and tip diameter are crucial. Tips are made of leather, On The Snap Magazine is and mostly over use that leather will harden will be an online magazine that will be up and compress. When the tip available for download from compresses it gets a little flatter in on-the-snap.com shape and little wider. Anytime The magazine will however be available you trim a mushroomed tip you for subscription in print version for $21 should reshape it also. Note- a (6 Issues) a year. mushroomed tip is normal. A tip that is a little more round about a Also, if you know of a company that could dime radius will produce more spin/english. benefit from advertising with the magazine, please tell them about it. The pricing is It is a lot easier to pocket balls with a nickel reasonable. radius tip rather than a dime radius tip. SHAFT CARE Rates & Deadlines for Advertising Some people like to have a clean and slick Size Price Issue Deadline shaft while a few like to have a dirty shaft. Directory Ad $25 Jan-Feb Dec 21 Very few like to have the shaft of their cue dirty. Clean slick shafts will glide right Business Card Ad $55 Mar-Apr Feb 21 through your bridge, a dirty shaft will 1/6 Page Ad $110 May-June April 21 produce a small amount of friction. To each 1/4 Page Ad $190 July-Aug June 21 their own, this is all personal preference. 1/3 Page Ad $250 Sept-Oct Aug 21 When I am done playing I wipe the chalk 1/2 Page Ad $300 Nov-Dec Oct 21 from my tips and I wipe the shaft down with Full Page Ad $385 Size Specifications will a towel. This helps keep my shafts clean Inside Back Cover $425 be listed on the website longer as well as keeping the inside of my Back Cover $500 www.on-the-snap.com case clean.