Video: How to Rack Pool Balls

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Learn how to rack pool balls from a billiards expert in this free instructional video.

Comments

mass1 Nov 01, 2008
Please beware, this guy doesn't know what he is talking about and theres quite some mistakes also in his other videos. There are official rules as of how to rack and the way demonstrated here is wrong because it would give the full balls a higher chance to get potted than the stripes. Not good obviously.
mass1 Nov 01, 2008
Please beware, this guy doesn't know what he is talking about and theres quite some mistakes also in his other videos. There are official rules as of how to rack and the way demonstrated here is wrong because it would give the full balls a higher chance to get potted than the stripes. Not good obviously.
evuser16269 Aug 02, 2008
Maybe you sure indicate that what you are teaching is NOT the official way to rack for eight ball. The official way, as per practically every sanctioning body for billiards states that the eight needs to be in the center with a stripe on one corner and a solid on the other. At a tourney, all this about where the balls are supposed to go would get you laughed out of the pool hall.

Video Transcript

Hi! I'm Michael Lamendola with expertvillage.com, and today we're going to shoot some pool. Okay, so here we are at the other end of the table. This is where the rest of my balls are at. Now, we've got 15 balls here that number from 1 to 15. Now, balls 1-7, these are called solids. Mainly because they're solid. Balls 9-15 are stripes. That leaves lonely little 8 ball. 8 ball is the 8 ball. It doesn't go with solids, doesn't go with stripes, it's its own little club. I'm going to show you how to rack the balls so you're going to have a good break. I'm going to do so by racking them for 8 ball, which we'll talk about later. This is your rack. Usually you'll find it somewhere underneath the table, hanging on the wall. Look around, it's there. You place it on the table and all the balls go in. Now, when you're 8 ball, one thing to remember is that the 8 always goes in the center and the 1 always goes up front. Otherwise, what you've got to do is go around the perimeter and go solid, stripe, solid, stripe. I'm doing that right now. There. It doesn't matter what these 2 balls are, as long as you've got alternating balls along the rack. Now, it's very important that the rack be tight. Otherwise, when you break the balls won't go anywhere. To get a tight rack, bring them forward. Usually there's going to be a little dot right here. It kind of shows you where the 1 ball goes. We're going to pretend there's dot right there. 1 ball goes over the dot, and then with your hands holding onto the rack, push the balls forward so they're forced forward. If you can see, when you've done it right, there's going to be space at the bottom of the rack. Now, here comes the pressure part. You've to take off the rack without moving the balls. Do so by lifting up on the back and pushing forward. Now, you know you've done a good job if the balls along the perimeter are all touching. If there's a space, like say a ball has rolled liked that, not good. Let's try it again. Tighten it up, push the rack forward, and you've got a tight rack. Now you're ready to break.

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How to Rack Pool Balls

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