Effects of English on Object Ball?

[nutscrewsandbolts]

Hi,
This is my first post in this fine forum. I've been gathering information from everywhere to help my game. I'm a below average player with regular breaks of 15 - 20, and my maximum is 40. I keep practising standard routines at my local club, paying a lot of attention to my cue action.

I have been practising potting the colours from their positions and i always end up pretty high on the black such that it is a blind pocket shot. I was practising yesterday when a fairly decent player observing me decided to give me some advise. He told me to always hit blind pocket shots with top english (or follow).

Now as I understand, top and bottom are for cue ball positioning after contact with the object ball and left and right are for positioning after contact with a cushion. I know that side spin will have a throw effect on the cue ball, but it should not affect the path of the object ball once the cue ball has contacted it.

So to summarize my question, no matter where I hit on the cue ball, as long as the cue ball contacts the object ball at the same point, the object ball will go down the same line. Am I correct in assuming this?

Thanks.

[poolqjunkie]

I though it is a blind pocket shot when you are low on the black, not high...am I missing something here?

[Forman]

Hi,
This is my first post in this fine forum. I've been gathering information from everywhere to help my game. I'm a below average player with regular breaks of 15 - 20, and my maximum is 40. I keep practising standard routines at my local club, paying a lot of attention to my cue action.

I have been practising potting the colours from their positions and i always end up pretty high on the black such that it is a blind pocket shot. I was practising yesterday when a fairly decent player observing me decided to give me some advise. He told me to always hit blind pocket shots with top english (or follow).

Now as I understand, top and bottom are for cue ball positioning after contact with the object ball and left and right are for positioning after contact with a cushion. I know that side spin will have a throw effect on the cue ball, but it should not affect the path of the object ball once the cue ball has contacted it.

So to summarize my question, no matter where I hit on the cue ball, as long as the cue ball contacts the object ball at the same point, the object ball will go down the same line. Am I correct in assuming this?

Thanks.

yes you are exactly right in everything youve said.

I would just disregard the advice the player gave you, ive had some similarly odd advice from a player at my club he told me when your potting a ball to the left always use a tiny bit of left had side and when potting balls to the right use right hand side and ive seen this player make breaks over 50

[Forman]

I though it is a blind pocket shot when you are low on the black, not high...am I missing something here?

I agree, low on the black is a blind pocket shot, although dont the commentators always refer to the black end cushion as the top cushon?
i can see how its easy to get confused

[Robert602]

yes you are exactly right in everything youve said.

I would just disregard the advice the player gave you, ive had some similarly odd advice from a player at my club he told me when your potting a ball to the left always use a tiny bit of left had side and when potting balls to the right use right hand side and ive seen this player make breaks over 50

Are you sure he didn't say/mean the other way around? A lot of players, including pros, use 'helping side' - that's left hand side when cutting a ball to the right and vice-versa. It's 'helping' because you can aim to hit the ball thicker which at least feels like you have slightly more margin for error (providing you're very comfortable playing with side) and allows you to hold the white better.

[Forman]

Are you sure he didn't say/mean the other way around? A lot of players, including pros, use 'helping side' - that's left hand side when cutting a ball to the right and vice-versa. It's 'helping' because you can aim to hit the ball thicker which at least feels like you have slightly more margin for error (providing you're very comfortable playing with side) and allows you to hold the white better.

he definitely said left side for left cuts and right side for right cuts

you said using left side when cutting a ball to the right allows you to aim to hit the ball thicker, shouldnt you be aiming thinner because the cue ball will be thrown to the right?

[nutscrewsandbolts]

I though it is a blind pocket shot when you are low on the black, not high...am I missing something here?

Well I did consider the pocket near the top cushion to be higher... but i did mean a blind shot.

I have seen some players applying bottom left or bottom right for shots that will not take the cue ball anywhere near the cushion. And it's always bottom side... never top side. Any comments on that?

Thanks for your reassurance Forman.

[Forman]

Well I did consider the pocket near the top cushion to be higher... but i did mean a blind shot.

I have seen some players applying bottom left or bottom right for shots that will not take the cue ball anywhere near the cushion. And it's always bottom side... never top side. Any comments on that?

Thanks for your reassurance Forman.

Ive seen players do this as well, normally of an average to poor standard, i could be wrong but the only explanation i can come up with is that they misunderstand the effect using side will have on the shot.

the only time i use side when potting a ball is if i want to effect the angle of the white ball coming off the cushon for positional purposes.
I cant think of any reason you would want to use side when potting if the cueball isnt going to hit a cushion as the side isnt going to have any effect and will only make the pot more difficult

[moglet]

The search facility works quite well now and this subject is not difficult to find, it was discussed exhaustively.

http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...de+object+ball

[Forman]

The search facility works quite well now and this subject is not difficult to find, it was discussed exhaustively.

http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...de+object+ball

youre right it has, although that thread is pretty confusing.
That thread is more of a debate about wether it is possibe to change the path of the cueball off the object ball using side.

i think the original poster is was more interested in wether he should be trying to use side to control the cueball when its not hitting a cushon or should he simply stick to using top or bottom.

[poolqjunkie]

.

I have seen some players applying bottom left or bottom right for shots that will not take the cue ball anywhere near the cushion. And it's always bottom side... never top side. Any comments on that?

Thanks for your reassurance Forman.

You get more "stuff" on the ball when using bottom. Top side does not cause as much squirt and the effect is less profound.

With bottom side you can kind of swerve the cue ball on these cushion shots, while with top the cue ball does not curve that way.

I think the original poster was asking if plain top will make blind pocket balls easier to pocket. If that is the question, then I think the answer is no. But if you keep your cue level you will always find the tough shot a bit easier than trying to make them with the cue hitting down on the ball. So, I am just guess perhaps that is why someone suggested to use follow rather than bottom on these type of shots.

The way I look at it is that of you keep missing these shots, you should set them up and practice them over and over again until you own the shot. Sometimes you need to make them with bottom, sometimes with top, and sometimes with something else so you need to be comfortable doing them all--which can only be achieve if you keep repeating the shot until you can see where to hit it right away and make them consistently.

[nutscrewsandbolts]

Thanks a lot for your replies. I suppose my doubts have been cleared.

[stephenm2682]

i always thought regardless off hitting a cushion or not that side has an effect on the cueball.