9-Ball
Topic: Rating systems

Not sure if this has been on here before but anyway here it is. I have found it a good way of rating your game.

Also it may be interesting if people post there scores.


     Many great ways to measure your game exist. In order for a rating system to be accurate it must show you long term results. You never would want to measure your game in just one game of pool. It would not give a realistic impression for the better or worse than is real. Depending on your favorite game here's a couple of options if you are playing or practicing by yourself and want to be able to measure your own improvement of your performance. Measure and log your results each day you plan and watch yourself develop as a better player. Otherwise its hard to notice when you've really improved.

Straight Pool.

Rack up a game of straight pool and run 10 racks of balls out.. Only count misses and scratches 1 pt each. The higher your score you worse you did. You will shoot 150 balls in this drill and is a good way to measure your long term ball pocketing ability. Connecting the racks together in straight pool is challenging. You may burn up several misses just to break up the balls. Slop shots are not allowed and are counted as misses.

Amateur will make 90+ misses / scratches in this drill

Top ranked Amateur 20-40 misses / scratches

Professionals 2-10 misses / scratches

A perfect score is possible if you can run 150 in straight pool

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9 ball

Break 10 racks of nine ball and run as far as you can each rack. If nothing goes in on the break start with ball in hand on the 1 ball. When you miss stop and re rack the balls and start over. Give yourself a point for each ball made and add up your total score and divide by 10 . This shows you your average run and will give you perspective for how well you stay in line and pocket balls.

Amateur 2-3 ball average run

Top ranked amateur 4-7 ball average run

Professionals 8-9 ball average run


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Money won is twice as sweet as money earned

With the 9 ball routine. If you pot a ball on the break, but are not on the next ball how would that work as this does happen to professionals and would affect the average.

Ball-in-hand? It's a good question!

Yeah not sure about that one, but i think it should be played with ball in-hand if you don't have a clear shot on first ball after break.

In 9 ball you cant make any saves because it affect avereges. So you have to be very offensive if you have clusters. OR?

Just played 10 racks and had 3 run outs (2 with ball in hand after potting nothing, and one was a proper run out). Twice potted 7, 2 potted 6, 2 potted 4 and a poor attempt potting just 2. So total of 63 balls for an average of 6.3. Quite happy with that. On one rack had a situation where two balls had to be split and missed them so can get quite tricky.

Blimey craig, I don't think I have ever seen you run a rack, let alone 3!!

cueman - it's easy in practice, but when I am playing you there's so much pressure that I crumble. Still, if u want to lose another £10 or £20 next Wednesday then let me know.


Admin edit: Removed expletive.

Played 10 racks, had 2 run outs and couple where only 2 potted as next balls needed to be split and it just was not going to happen from shot on 1 ball. Still got 51 so 5.1 per rack think i can do better if i get a bit of luck on the break.

Also had a go at the straight pool and got 22, think i may get a bit of a kicking at the GB9 Tour but i got a few weeks to improve.

My Son Louis had a go at the straight pool 10 racks and got 2 misses and run 111 straight so i def need some practice i think.

I find with straight pool I keep thinking too much about opening clusters and don't concentrate enough on the pots, which hurts my runs. Great game though I'm playing a lot more now in the build up to Feb 1

going to be great, i have the same problem Mal. I either try to open clusters too early when there is a few balls on the table left that really i should be potting first, or i pay too much attention to opening the cluster and lose my focus on actually potting the ball