Pool Etiquette
We all know the basic rules but
in order to be complete, here is a brief summary.
When
it is your shot, shoot.
When it is not your
shot, be quiet, in voice and motion.
When it is not your shot, stay away from the table.
When it is your opponent’s turn, sit down and shut up. If
you have been playing regularly with someone for less than ten years and you
know that person’s last name, you’re probably talking too much. If you make any
move toward the table while your opponent is shooting you have just conceded
that game. We know of course that we do not talk to our opponents during a
game.
Know this, unscrewing you cuestick without advising your opponent you want to
change shafts
or reaching for the rack before game is finished, wining ball not yet pocketed,
are both considered
concessions and loss of game.
As an observer, refrain from any movement that may be in the direct line of
sight of a player that is about to make a shot.
When it is your opponent’s shot and you’re sitting there
watching quietly, you have as much use for a piece of chalk as a doctor might
have for a book entitled, “Fair Pricing Practices.” As you give the table back
to your opponent, dig deep and find it in your heart to leave the chalk with
it.
If you play on tables with drop pockets here are the steps
to the breaking/racking dance. The player breaking retrieves the balls from the
two side pockets and the corner pockets at the head of the table and rolls them
gently to the player racking, who will pick the balls out of the corner pockets
at the foot of the table. Nothing looks stupider than two players circling the
table and bumping into each other.
Pool is a tough game that is played in close contact with
the opponent. The same rigors and challenges exist for everyone and we must
play in consideration of that fact. So the last, and perhaps most important,
rule of etiquette is sportsmanship. Learn to accept victory and defeat with
equal grace and to congratulate your opponent honestly regardless of the
outcome.
The practice table is sacred ground and I have yet to see
a player working on long shots while sporting a sign that says, “I’m lonely and
only pretending to look interested in pool.” When someone is practicing, that
person is thinking and studying in addition to shooting and deserves the utmost
respect and privacy. And if you’re one of those guys that walk up, uninvited,
to bother women while they’re practicing, open that little zippered pocket near
the top of your left sleeve. It holds a cyanide pill for you to swallow in case
you’re captured by the enemy. Just eat it now because you’re such an ass that
the enemy has no use for you either.
To Guest Book link