Ine Helvik

Preparing for tournaments can be difficult. Especially if you do not know what to expect. That is what happened to the western players last year when CBSA made a contract with Leqi cloth for the next 5 years. We just have to adapt and that is not easy!

When the Cyclop balls was introduced to our tournaments I bought a set to be prepared both for the colors and for the difference in the hit. This year they have introduced a new cue ball with one red dot and off course I have updated my Cyclop set with that. I even bought the official CBSA tournament cloth from Leqi and will fit it on a practice table very soon. For those of you that thinks that it should not be necessary to refit a table for a tournament preparation, YOU ARE WRONG:) Believe me, this cloth is so slick it is almost impossible to control the balls when you are not used to playing on it. It is no where near the Simonis 860 we play on in the Eurotour, or 760 or the Gorina or the Z9 or the Elitepro. It is totally different from all cloths we use in Europe so for me this is essential. Same for the Cyclop balls. I just have to do my budget for the WC a little different, I have to include some equipment…

BUT, and this is a big but… I have important tournaments in Norway and also a Eurotour coming up and they all use 760, 860 and the Aramith Super Pro TV balls. Also with the Eurotour being 8-ball I need to play a lot of 8-ball so I get into the mood if you know what I mean. I see 8-ball as a state of mind:) Same with straightpool, whereas 9-ball and 10-ball do not give you many options and is “easier” to play. But… I have to practice the different breakshots in 9-ball. I play with three different rules and they all need to be practiced…..

• In Norwegian tournaments we have breakbox and three point rule. This also applys for the EC.
• In the ETs we have 9 on the spot and three point rule.
• In WC I hope we have the three point rule so the softbreak is excluded, but I do not know yet:) I do not think we will have any additional breakrules, but you never really know until you are there and attend the players meeting.

It is not easy to find enough time between tournaments for the optimal preparation, but I do my best. I find it strange that we have so many different challenges though. With so many different rules per discipline and different equipment we really need to be able to adapt. The player that does not adapt quick enough or good enough will loose because of it. There is no more “blaming it in the table” because the tables are different every tournament and it plays the same for both players. Same with the balls and the cloth. The only difference is that some players are more prepared than other, like the Chinese in China:)

So, I will receive my new training diary from my friend Olav Skrudland soon and I will make sure to include all these different rules, disciplines and equipment in there and try to get the optimal preparation for all tournaments. Wish me luck:)

Ine:)