Potting With Side

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

I'm an Englishman, too, by the way, although I do spend a lot of time in America. I love all cue sports dearly and enjoy competing in as many disciplines as possible.

Good man. The problem with TSF is, they don't appear to know snooker is but a rather small and insignificant part of a broader cue sports picture.

Both snooker and English pool are viewed by the rest of the world as British-centric curiosities, without much wider appeal, whilst snooker and English pool players view themselves as elite cueists and the pinnacle of their sport. As ever, the truth lies somewhere in between, but both sides must experience the other to really know this.

[AndrewGrabham]

Don't worry if your playing pool ey Mr Big shot.................the pockets are like buckets anyway so just smash it and it will go in im sure

or it will collide with another ball altering its physical path transferring energy into another ball bla bla.........for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction..........

id guess the simple answer to the guys original question is that there are too many variables to give you a straight forward answer

hence it comes down to just practice surely??

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

Don't worry if your playing pool ey Mr Big shot.................the pockets are like buckets anyway so just smash it and it will go in im sure

or it will collide with another ball altering its physical path transferring energy into another ball bla bla.........for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction..........

id guess the simple answer to the guys original question is that there are too many variables to give you a straight forward answer

hence it comes down to just practice surely??

Yes - if you have the time. Knowing how balls react when you use side spin is invaluable information. Sure, spend years learning it innately, but what if you're new to the game? What if you have limited access and table time?

Knowledge is power.

[AndrewGrabham]

then you're simply not going to get better

practice is power

but having a basic understanding of how a ball will react when hit a certain way will most certainly help

a rugby ref or any ref would know a certain game inside out...........but that would not make them good at the actual sport??

[AndrewGrabham]

power is power

knowledge is knowledge

practice is everything!

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

but having a basic understanding of how a ball will react when hit a certain way will most certainly help

That is all anyone is suggesting, along with agreed terminology that is not confusing.

But what is it about this that is so threatening? Why does having a specific name for, for instance, throw, yield such paranoia around these parts?

I shudder to think the reaction the person got when he first suggested describing low striking as 'screw'. "B-b-but we've always called it 'striking the white round thing at the bottom with the long wooden thing to make it go backwards' and we ain't for changing! Now, where's me pitchfork?"

[AndrewGrabham]

but........there always seems to be a but :biggrin-new:

[vmax4steve]

Agreed. Cue sports are all about mastery of centre ball (vertical axis). Spin for show, centre for dough.

Rubbish, all the top players use side an awful lot more than you realise, it's impossible to always get perfect position to only use centre ball striking, side is a must to make big breaks.

Anyone interested in actually helping the original poster, or are you all off doing your own thing now?

How does he practice playing side? Should he actually be doing that? If not what strategies should he be employing?

Did it, but if he wants to ignore advice taken from a 6 time world champion, one Mr. Ray Reardon who mentored Ronnie and turned him into a tactical machine..........................

20-30 break players have no business with side spin.

Then they shall remain 20-30 break players.

Thats true but i think its hilarious how a lil question about side can spark all this off haha

It's big shot Tommy, jumps all over any thread that can be linked to Dr. know all Dave, and neither of them can play the bloody game.
Take note of my post, it all works as I stated, no need to know the physical laws that are taking place, just see the results and learn from them. Same goes for you too Biggie, see the results, adjust and learn, it ain't a physics exam, you won't get an A for knowing why you missed, you'll be sat in your seat watching a moron knock the rest of the balls in simply by hitting what he's looking at.

[throtts]

Just been playing around the black and pink with reds. I used side around 40% of the time in one break to keep the cue ball tight to the black. As vmax states, a pro will use side, traces or quite a bit.

[mikeyd100]

Keep experimenting and learning Tommykiid, keep it all simple at first I would say then increase the difficulty as you feel right.
We all get it right and wrong at times.
A shot I like to practise is a straight black on its spot and trying varying amounts of reverse side.

[j6uk]

for the breakoff, snookers and safety exchanges side is used all the time. brek building in the reds, not so much.
less is more

[tedisbill]

for the breakoff, snookers and safety exchanges side is used all the time. brek building in the reds, not so much.
less is more

Sorry, can't agree with that at all.

[focus]

Keep experimenting and learning Tommykiid, keep it all simple at first I would say then increase the difficulty as you feel right.
We all get it right and wrong at times.
A shot I like to practise is a straight black on its spot and trying varying amounts of reverse side.

Every cue and more importantly, different types of tips do different things w.r.t. throw. That's why we have to learn to understand our cues/tips and why most players hate to change cues after a while. All he has to do it attempt the pot with running side or check side until he succeeds (as VMax has suggested). He will automatically learn bit by bit how to adjust the throw for a short, medium and long range pot and everything in between. But that's just for one application of degree of side. With the myriad of degrees, he'll have more learning to do. But no diagrams or formulae are going to help him pot a ball because snooker is experiential, played in four dimension, not on a piece of paper. Formulae have never ever potted a ball. It takes years to learn and understand spin of all types no matter how little time it takes to understand the theory of spin and throw.

[j6uk]

Sorry, can't agree with that at all.

any particular reason

[tedisbill]

any particular reason

Yes. You need side all the time in the balls to tweak position. It's also a lot better to use than side rather than stun in a lot of cases. If you're going to make big breaks consistently, you'll need to be using side in the balls.

You're a good player, and don't think you use it. My guess would be, that actually, you do naturally play with side and don't even realise it.