Towards the end of 2019 I was convinced by a bunch of friends to join their pool league team on Wednesday nights. I was a total beginner, trying to learn all of the basics and fundamentals to play 9 ball. It was a bit of a rough beginning filled with a ton of nerves and matches lost. I worked myself down to a skill level (SL) 1, but through a lot of coaching and studying and practicing I managed to get my first win. We had gotten an 8 ft. Gold Crown pool table for our basement and I continued to practice and try pool drills, all while working on my stroke. I won and loss a few more times and then in 2020 covid shut down the world including league. What a time to have a pool table in your basement.
The endless "stay at home" weekends turned into pool practicing weekends, which truly turned my game around. We were having a lot of fun while I was racking up hours on the table. When league started back up for a few months, I felt like a different player at league. Before the shutdown I had a losing record with 5 wins, 10 losses. After shutdown, I had 6 wins and only 1 loss and I had moved up to a SL2. From there we had another shut down for about three months. When we restarted again I landed at the top of the MVP boards for 9 ball with a final record of 8/9 for the Fall 2020 session. Our team placed in 1st and scored a ticket to regionals.
Come the Spring 2021 session, I was convinced again to join an 8 ball team on Mondays. I came in as a SL2 and after a win my first match I got bumped up to a SL3. While still being a SL2 in 9 ball, I ended the session with a 5/8 winning record. Our 9 ball team qualified for playoffs and we get to see how that shakes out yet this week and next. While already being qualified for regionals in 9 ball, our focus was primarily on 8 ball. Playing a different game, I ended my first session with a 3/8 record but the team made it to playoffs. We had our first playoff match last night and won huge, punching our ticket to regionals with the 8 ball team now as well!
Regionals will be held the end of July, so the whole team is looking forward to those matches and trying to get as much table time as possible until then. The winner of both 8 ball and 9 ball will each get tickets to Vegas to play in the World Championships; the ultimate goal.
Below are my top patches I have earned over the past couple years. Our team had a clean sweep in 8 ball the other week. Earlier this session I got a 9 on the snap and then a Rackless match in 8 ball. My proudest match to date is a 20-0 win in 9 ball that I had this session. I look forward to collecting more patches, practicing and improving my skill and most of all shooting with our teams. It has been a way more rewarding experience than I ever could have imagined, and I can't wait to play with both of our teams at regionals in a month!
No comments:
Post a Comment