I watched almost every single match of the World Cup of Pool, and over that many matches you see trends and subtle differences between the teams. One thing that I noticed, and this is something that will help players who participate in Scotch Doubles tournaments, like the BCA Pool League Scotch Doubles Championships this summer, is that the teams that played with the greatest amount of obvious mutual trust were the teams that went farther in the tournament.
Trust is a big issue when it comes to Scotch doubles. You have to trust the other’s ability and decision-making in playing position and playing shots. When I have played with my wife Gail, if she got a little out of line with the position she left me, it never phased me in the least. I just tried to make the best shot I could with the shot that I was faced with. And vice versa. You have to know that about your partner.
In the World Cup of Pool, I noticed that some players who may be considered slow when they play singles, had obviously practiced with the shot clock. That’s important because as a team you want to play with a similar rhythm. You don’t want one slow player and one fast player. Pace is important. I noticed with the Austrian team that Mario He and Albin Ouschan both took the shot clock to the end on most shots. But one player never told the other what to do. They played really well together, and you could tell they’ve spent a lot of time playing as teammates. That’s one of the reasons Austria won. Conversely, I noticed a few other teams, like the Philippines, with which one player would disagree with the other or shake his head when the other player left him poor position or missed a shot. You never want to do things like point with your stick where your partner should have left the ball. That affects both of your play going forward. I thought Sky [Woodward] and Shane [Van Boening] played great together. But even in the final match, Sky missed a critical 1 ball, but both players trusted the decision.
Obviously, it’s easy to say you have to trust your partner. But if you prepare properly, you can develop that trust. When Gail and I would practice, I would sometimes intentionally miss position, and we would talk about how to proceed. It is a way of sharing information and the thought process, and that helps you going forward. We both agreed ahead of the tournament that if the shot was anything less than 80 percent, we would play safe.
That said, it is also important that the team have a leader when certain situations come up. It’s not always easy for the partners to put their egos aside, but it’s important. You have to go into the tournament knowing that you win as a team and lose as a team.