Splitting the pack

[Rane]

Basicly I don´t play to a standard where splitting the pack is necessary (it opens up along the way by means of the white and other balls beeing out of control ). But I have tried a little practising on splitting the way the pros do it. I thought it was deep screw with a little side, but it didn´t work for me at all, so can anyone tell how to do it.

[matt01]

hi

If you on the right side of the blue(bulk side) you should hit the cue ball low, but not too low and depending on the angle ,some or even no side is required. Many players hit the cue ball to low.

[Rane]

If you on the right side of the blue(bulk side) you should hit the cue ball low, but not too low and depending on the angle ,some or even no side is required. Many players hit the cue ball to low.

Thank you Matt. I was more thinking about splitting from the black. I have seen especially O´Sullivan make a huge impact with what seems to be medium cuepower, but even hitting the balls very hard I got nothing out of it.

[matt01]

hi

The pro tables are very fast. It is very easy to split the reds on those tables. On "normal" tables its more difficult. I myself have struck the cueball very well at times to split the pack off the black without much success. Three tips - don't hit to low (you must stun the cueball and not screw the cueball) ; try to hit the outside half of the triangle of reds and not in the middle where the reds are dencely packed together ; there must be no tension in your grip ,even when you hit the cueball very hard.
Good luck and happy potting mate

[Rane]

Than You again Matt. I´ve learned a lot from this. I guess sometimes there is also some side involved in the shot. I have seen a shot on youtube where Neil Robertson mi****s the pack, it ends up as a bananashot along the diagonal instead. I guess there must have been some side involved in that shot.

[matt01]

Side can be used or not. It depends on the angle of the shot and where you aim to hit the pack of reds.

[davyp26uk]

Than You again Matt. I´ve learned a lot from this. I guess sometimes there is also some side involved in the shot. I have seen a shot on youtube where Neil Robertson mi****s the pack, it ends up as a bananashot along the diagonal instead. I guess there must have been some side involved in that shot.

Not necessarily. If you hit a ball about half ball with real deep screw you will still get the banana effect without using side.

[apa147]

Half ball blue and hit the white with screw and as much power as you can control. This means the white won't have time to grip and arc so you should hit the pink full ball, screw off it and stay in the middle of the table, and the reds should split well. No side is required or recommended.

[apa147]

To split off the black it's important to know which side of the table is best depending on the situation of the reds. This will come from practice and experience. Screw into the pack with medium pace and don't use any side as you could stick to the reds. It's all about the quality of the strike, if you can hit the white sweetly it will rip through the reds without needing full power.

[Theguywithaplan]

Side is never really required for a banana screw. Side is mainly for impact on the cushion, the vertical axis affects what takes place on the cloth.

[scoo24]

If I wanna screw into the pack off the black, this is what I do = I try to visualize what will happen if I screw into a certain red and how the rest of the reds will be affected, then I decide how low I wanna hit the cueball depending on the angle, and finally I will forget about the reds and focus on potting the black after hitting the spot I chose cuz what good will it do me if I split the pack nicely having missed the black!? With a little luck, the scenario I visualized will happen more or less as I predicted. Sometimes dislodging one or two reds from a tight bunch is much better than being stuck touching or almost touching a red with no pot on.

Hope this helps

[cueman]

I always found on club tables that splitting the pack of a black is tough to get a good split. You are better off going up for the blue and screwing down into the pack. If you have to split off the black I tend to stun into the corner of the pack, the benefit of this is that the cueball doesn't stick and you should develop two or three reds. Screwing directly into the middle usually causes the white to stick and very few reds being dislodged.

[Blondie]

Hey guys,

...and to split off the black, I don't use any side at all, with pace, just screwing into the pack, and depending on how the reds are positioned, may sometimes use stun as well.

Lol...xx

[Rane]

Thank you everybody. I got much wiser and I have to try your recommendations. As I mentioned in the first post, it´s only of curiosity because it so rare for me to be in a position where I need to split the pack from a black ball, so there is a lot of other shot I should practise instead.

[MikeWooldridge]

nothing wrong with any of the comments but you've all missed the crucial, i'll say it again, crucial, element - you must have decent fast cloth.

when you hit that pack with top, screw, whatever, you need the cloth to be fast. so if you hit the pack in the right spot the balls will open up like you've never known...