As far as your overall game plan to run balls is concerned, weigh the possibilities of playing too cautiously early on in the game. Are they really likely to run the table out every time you miss? Truly? Think back over your career and you’ll realize (hopefully) that the times they moved ahead to wipe the whole ball run off the table was mostly when you tried to play an offensive stroke and missed, leaving them something easy to shoot.
On the other hand, it’s rare for you to shoot a defensive shot on purpose, early in the game when many of the object balls remain on the playing field yet miss it so poorly that they easily brush past you to run all the balls, right?
Let’s use the Socratic method and answer your question with another question, to stimulate your thinking (and mine also). If your subtext question is “Shouldn’t I stretch to try and make a terrific ball run, before they run out the table?”, my response is “Rather than make one or two then miss, shouldn’t you maximize your chances now and play safe?”
If you do play safe, they are often locked to where you were mentally, will try to run down all the balls, and probably miss. You can also maneuver for position by looking ahead several strokes for a safety, running one or two balls and then playing safe, defense being the point of the exercise to begin. Whittling down the table is often incorrect strategy for 8-Ball but hardly ever for 9-Ball.
The ultimate question is thus, “If I try to run balls, this many, far out of my comfort zone, am I better served sending my opponent a shot they’d hate to play?” Most players feel running the balls constantly in 9-Ball is the hallmark of a champion, and it isn’t, even at the pro level. Winning the game is, no matter how many defensive strokes have been played.
Q. Isn’t there more room to size my opponent at a top level?
There is more room to allow for differences, but as per the above, you are still as we said, playing the table and not the opponent. Look at it this way, take the opponent from the imagined unfeeling robot who “runs every table they look at” (these do not exist in mortal flesh) to an opposing gambler instead.
You’re playing in competition, you “have to” run balls from the 3-ball through the 9-ball, and they offer you a $500 bet, even money, that you cannot run! You can run consistently when there are fewer balls on the table, as you’ve described already, and so you decide to keep your money.
You would fear offering them the same bet as the balls lie because they are a stronger player than you on offense (or a stranger you have not seen play pool before). You don’t want to offer them the same bet, but you might consider shooting a lock safe next, and then offer them the $500 even money they cannot run the table from the defensive stranglehold you have in mind. Get it?
Yet another way I might convince you to play safe is to ask, “If they are much stronger on offense or unknown on offense, should you adjust your game by putting yourself under more pressure still, by attempting a larger ball run than normal?”
I can remember losing many times by “going for it,” but can hardly ever recall playing defense with a bold attitude and remembering later that I played less than my best game. In other words, a part of my best effort is to thoroughly review defense before most every stroke taken.
Q. How do I conquer my fear?
Take some time today, and each day of practice before the big tournament, to shoot defense. Play a ball run of all nine balls by yourself, only shooting the balls into the pockets when no defensive possibility(s) looms. Yes, it should take you a long time to finish the rack. Build added defense into your brain and forget that you’ve been nervous before on offense.
The next time we practice together, (or you and I play 9-Ball, dear reader) I’ll make you play defense on every stroke, and you can watch how often (little) I can run away with the game. It must be seen to be believed, and especially with a strong player like me, modest as I am. You’ll get your share of chances at the 9-ball, and likely more than your share, if you keep an eye on defense until you run balls tailor made for your personal “command center” of however many balls are “automatic” for you for the win.
