If you take breaking and offense seriously, racking the pool balls tightly is a good pro strategy you should implement. You can form a firm pool rack by tapping and, in effect, hindering the play options of your opponent.
Tightening a pool rack by tapping is a superior rack building method than placing and then setting with a traditional wooden rack.
Here’s how to rack the pool balls tightly:
Place the balls in a diamond or triangle-shaped rack, supporting them with your thumbs and fingers.
Slide the whole assembly of balls on the pool table cloth to their final resting place. You can place your fingers in the spaces between the billiards and the rack to prevent them from rolling.
Move the balls in the rack to a position where the space around them is equal distant from three sides of the pool table.
When the cue ball is at the right spot, remove the rack and twirl it around your index finger like how a gunslinger twirls his Colt in Western films. If you are ambitious, you can give it a good spin, let it flip into the air before catching it with one hand and putting it away.
The above are the four steps you should master to rack pool billiards tightly.
Use Markers to Rack Pool Balls
You can also use markers to set each ball in place on the table. However, if you are playing on a public table, it’s highly likely that there won’t be any markers to guide you. The chalk line-like markers are rarely used on public tables because some players find them visually distracting during play. However, if you know how to rack the balls using the wood or plastic rack and them tapping them together, you won’t need the markers.
Your first line of defense in a pool table game is racking the balls tightly together. When you have the right rack, your opponent will struggle to sink balls consistently after the break. On the other hand, if your rack is loose, the balls can be easily scattered.
