REGIONAL POOL MAGAZINE ISSUE#2 - JULY/AUGUST 2021 A Conversation with Johnny Photographs compliments of Tony Fox Photography Archer & Johnny Archer INSIDE • Who was • Dead Stroke • Speed Control • Jr. Pool Ralph Greenleaf University Presents... • A Product of Quality • One Shot • Queen City Decisions at a Time Classic 1 Editors Corner Content Contributors, Welcome to the second issue Writers & Pool Enthusiasts of “On the Snap” Billiards Magazine! A New, Independent Mary Kenniston - World & National Regional Billiards Magazine. Champion Pool Player, and one of the founders of the WPBA (Women’s For those of you who don’t Pro Billiard Association). Mary was know me yet, I am Rosanna Ramirez (everyone calls inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020. me Rosie) the wearer of all the hats for this new project. I have been playing pool for about 14 years now and owe Anthony Beeler is the 2011-2020 all of that to my husband. Billiards Instructor of the Decade He sent me to play in my first tournament where I and is a former BCAPL National was horribly crushed by my Champion. He has numerous top 25 opponent. It took me two national finishes and is one of only 8 years to learn enough to ACS Master Instructors in the world. come back and finally beat that person I played. Randy Dininger has been doing My husband, cue repair for twelve years, along Juan Ramirez, just passed with playing, buying and selling away this May 17th, 2021 from complications pool cues for about twenty years. to the Coronavirus vaccine. He was one of the 1/10 of 1% that had complications to the vaccine and I miss him horribly. In honor of him, I will continue to play and to Philip Capelle - A Nationally promote pool and just do the best I can. recognized expert on playing pool. He has spent the last 30 years playing, On the Snap has a regional focus on Ohio, Michigan, studying and teaching pool. He Indiana, Kentucky & West Virgina. I will always have continues to write, conduct research and some billiard and pool history and will feature some give lessons in New York City. of the players from where it all began. I am always looking for suggestions and articles to run in “Blackjack” David Sapolis is a former the magazine, so if you have any professional pool player with over 40 ideas, please let me know by years of playing experience. He has email at [email protected]. been teaching and coaching players since 1987. He is a former billiard room owner & former police officer for the Peter Burrows played with Willie city of El Paso, Texas Mosconi as a youth in Chicago & then later in a college exhibition. Julie Skripac-Cooper currently lives Following graduation from the Univ. in Cincinnati. She began playing pool of Colorado where he was 3x time with her dad and brothers as an APA winner of the CU 14.1 tournament 2-handicap in 2001 and has slowly in 1968 Peter Pool moved from Chicago to climbed the ranks, now being ranked Maryland. He was Director of the 2006 14.1 World 63rd on the WPBA tour. She has won Championship Tournament and founder and Director many titles over the years, but her of Maryland 14.1 Open which now enters its 15th year favorite was the 2011 Valley Forge as the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship. 8-ball Championship. She takes a lot There is no other game but 14.1 . just ask him. of pride in promoting women’s pool & junior players. 2 Speed ControlNow, set up a thin cut shot or a shot using extreme outside English. Written by: Count the number of diamonds to Mary Kenniston the desired cue ball position and divide by four. Pretty simple, right?!!! To calibrate the table you’re going to play on, test the lag with a medium hit and a fourteen inch follow-through. Unless the table is extremely fast or slow, you should end up on or close to the end rail. Adjust accordingly. Many of you have heard me discussing speed control during my commentary of streamed pool matches. It is especially critical when one has to land in a small area in order to get the correct position to continue the run. I was taught years ago by my late coach, Robert McCullough of Colliding Spheres, an easy way to judge your speed. The general rule for a rolling cue ball is this: one inch of follow-through equals one diamond. If you are spinning the ball, cut the diamond count in half. For extreme spin or a thin cut, divide the diamond count by four. For example, to lag for the break: Count the diamonds the cue ball has to travel: fourteen diamonds - six diamonds up plus eight back equals a fourteen inch follow-through. Then, set up a shot and pocket the ball with a medium hit using outside English. Once again, set up the same shot Another example: using the same hit except this time with extreme English. If coming two rails out of the corner using medium Note where you land and adjust accordingly. outside English, count the number of diamonds to desired ending cue ball position and divide in half. Most tables play with one inch equaling approximately one diamond of follow-through. If there is an adjustment to be made, it usually is a half diamond either added or subtracted from the general rule. For example: If you’re playing on a slow table, the diamond count for the lag is fourteen plus seven equals a seven inch follow through. For a fast table, fourteen minus seven equals a seven inch follow-through. Try it! I think you’ll find it to be very accurate! Good shooting! 33 Become a Product of Quality Decisions! Actress Keri Russell once said, “Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” Over the years, you have probably made enough poor decisions to believe this is true. Why, then, do we associate our playing ability with our physical skill? It’s because our physical abilities are easier to see than our thought processes. The best players in the world are often much more deliberate in the way that they think than amateur players. Professional players build their decision making process into their pre-shot routines. In fact, professionals are masters at separating their thought processes from the physical aspects of executing the shot at hand. So what is the correct decision making process? The first step is to stand far enough away from the table that you can see the entire layout of balls. If you stand too close to the table it becomes impossible to see the relationship one ball has to all of the others. Standing too close to the table often impairs your ability to make good quality decisions. The second step is to separate the actions of your conscious mind from your subconscious mind. One way to do this is by using your chalk as a triggering mechanism. Each time you approach the table you should pick up the chalk as you begin making decisions about how you will attack the layout of balls you are facing. The best way to do this is to pretend that your chalk is your brain (you must have it to think). Make it a rule that you are not allowed to make any conscious decisions or think about anything game related unless you have chalk in your hand. 4 With chalk in hand, you will need to answer the following four questions before you get down to shoot: 1. Which shot am I going to shoot and why? 2. What are the various position routes available for position on my next shot? 3. What speed does the shot need to be struck with to get my cue ball to the desired location? 4. What spin do I need to strike the cue ball with to execute the shot properly? 5. How could I mess this shot up? In other words, if I make a position error, am I better off sending my cue ball a little too far, or am I better off coming up a little short? Or should I not worry about position and devote 100 percent of my concentration into pocketing the ball at hand? Once all of your decisions have been made you should place the chalk back onto the table (or put in in your pocket). This will act as a trigger to your brain that you are now ready to stop thinking and physically execute the shot subconsciously. Once you are down on the shot, you should try not to think about the decisions that you made standing with chalk in hand. Your only job is to execute your plan of action subconsciously with the proper mechanics. If at any time you start to second-guess yourself or any part of the plan you developed, you should stand up, pick up the chalk and start the entire process over again. Being able to stay focused, composed, and maintain a high-level of self-confidence sums up to what great pool players seek to achieve every time they approach the table. When you learn to control your thought process, you can execute the mechanical aspects of the game more precisely. And when the two work together in harmony at the correct tempo, you experience a positive, pure, and effortless performance. Players often refer to this state as “Dead Stroke.” Anthony Beeler is the 2011-2020 Billiards Instructor of the Decade and is a former BCAPL National Champion.