Balls on the rail

[straud13]

Pool halls in my city are disappearing by the day and the last hall that had 4.5/9 9-ball tables is now gone, the only remaining halls in the area have snooker tables. I like snooker but there are selodmly anyone to play and its way harder than 9-ball, especially balls on the rail. I have only been playing for a few weeks but need help.

In 9 ball if i have to shoot a ball down the rail assuming the area i need to move to requires it, i put check siding on the cue ball, this tends to allow the object ball to roll in the direction of the rail keeping it from straying, in snooker with the rounded pockects it seems to bounce the ball out of the pocket everytime. Is there a trick to potting balls on the rail at pace with the rounded pockets?

[Son of Cliff]

:snooker:

Pool halls in my city are disappearing by the day and the last hall that had 4.5/9 9-ball tables is now gone, the only remaining halls in the area have snooker tables. I like snooker but there are selodmly anyone to play and its way harder than 9-ball, especially balls on the rail. I have only been playing for a few weeks but need help.

In 9 ball if i have to shoot a ball down the rail assuming the area i need to move to requires it, i put check siding on the cue ball, this tends to allow the object ball to roll in the direction of the rail keeping it from straying, in snooker with the rounded pockects it seems to bounce the ball out of the pocket everytime. Is there a trick to potting balls on the rail at pace with the rounded pockets?

The only way to pot these type of shots is to hit the object ball and the cushion at the same time :snooker: if you use side then you must allow for the turn of the white, not very easy for even the best of players

[bongo]

Also, when playing balls down the rail at pace, the ball can usually hit the pocket and stay over it.

You should hit the ball and the cushion when the object ball is touching the cushion.

It is still perfectly possible to hit this shot at pace, Mark Selby did it the World Championship. But you need to be accurate or the ball will wobble more in the jaws and not go in, it can slide in without any wobble when played slowly.

Hope this helps!

[miscuehamburg]

I would try a bit running side instead of check

[bongo]

I would try a bit running side instead of check

In my opinion, you don't need to use side for thus shot, side will complicate the shot becuase of the push off.

Why are you using side? You say because it stops the OB from coming off the cushion, can you explain?

[Watford]

Oooo a pro player told a mate of mine that on tight pockets side helps a frozen ball into the pocket! Is it something to do with reducing throw!
Can't remember which side though!
It was years ago and I play them plain ball myself and on a uk pool table (that I mostly play on) the white is smaller and that changes thing again which reduces throw. I've heard Jason Twist (the pro pool player)talking about this.

On a North American pool table the pockets are so big, you can hit a frozen ball from one end of the table into the pocket using a brush handle and golf ball for a white!

[bongo]

Well I see this thread going from help on potting balls going down the cushion and turning into a discussion on Transmitted Side to the object ball!

[straud13]

It is all about transmitted siding. When you put check siding on an object ball frozen to a rail the object ball takes on the opposite spin which then rolls in the direction of the pocket preventing the object ball from catching the nap and rolling away from the rail. When the object ball reaches the pocket it is spinning the wrong way (away from the pocket) this isn't a problem on a nine ball table because the square pocket deflects the ball into the pocket, on a snooker table the rounded pocket deflects the ball into the opposite bumper and out of the pocket. Running siding is the key to this shot, you need to hit it at pace to avoid the nap taking the ball away from the rail though.

I realized while practicing this weekend that unless a shot is a straight stun shot I put some kind of siding on every single shot. I suppose this is why great snooker players can easily transition to 9-ball but seldomly do you see great 9-ball players transition into great snooker player. It is a habit I am going to have to try and break.

[miscuehamburg]

In my opinion, you don't need to use side for thus shot, side will complicate the shot becuase of the push off.

Why are you using side? You say because it stops the OB from coming off the cushion, can you explain?

It is something I read somewhere and tried by myself. A touch of running side really helped me. Not only the side transfered to the OB s helpfull, but also the slight throw makes aiming easier. Of course, plain ball striking is what an adequate coach would advocate.

[SebastianZ]

Both Plain ball and check side CAN pot this kinda balls, from my own experience, check side does make the pot easier, however position of the cue ball is easier to be judged by plain ball.

[gettingbetter]

The Cliff Thorburn coaching book talks about playing these shots with side too.

Cliff gives three reasons as to why checkside assists in potting balls in this type of situation and one of the reasons was transmitted side which Cliff actually said he didn't believe. The other reason which I tend to agree with is that using checkside, the cue ball will swerve slightly getting 'behind' the object ball which makes that pot easier.

[Krypton]

if you play every once in a while, and try to get a few more of the pots along the rail, you might try running, check or no side at all - everything can be made, but needs slight adjustments in aiming and getting used to. i know players potting them with checkside, and others who do it with running.

but if you want to train them, and play on a regular basis - in other words, if you want to put some time in learning the rail shots - then you should keep practicing them using NO SIDE AT ALL.

first reason: keep the game simple, avoid side whenever possible

second reason: once you've really mastered these pots, you can still go further by now adding side, both check and running, to control the cueball better, if necessary. you'll be more flexible.

[Terry Davidson]

First of all, there is NO SUCH THING as transmitted side unless the balls are really dirty (which I suppose would be the case in a lot of clubs).

Get a set of pool balls and take one of the striped ones, like the 11 ball which is easy to see, put it on the baulk line with the cueball on the baulk line a foot behind it and see if you can get that 11 ball to spin but of course you must hit it straight along the baulk line to the cushion.

I have both a snooker table and a pool table at home and I tried this little exercise. First of all, it was difficult to hit the object ball straight because of the cueball 'throw' but once I got that I couldn't transmit any side spin to the object ball at all, no matter how much siding I put on the cueball.

I also tried making the object ball a little sticky and that worked like a treat and on a slow shot with a lot of side I did manage to transfer some spin to the object ball.

Use centre-ball striking with balls along the cushion to keep your aiming consistent and not having you judge cueball 'throw' by using running side to 'help' the object ball into the pocket.

Terry

[saddler79]

Ive practiced this shot with running side and plain ball striking and found running side to be a lot more successful.
For some reason i thought this was always the way it was coached.

Now i read that check side may be the way to go. Centre ball striking from now on me thinks

[perpetualboredom]

I'm with the doubters.. they might have shown in ultra slow motion minute amounts of side transfering from ball to ball... but in practical terms its not going to effect the shot. As has been said here, get a striped pool ball and have a go yourself, I think it's one of snookers urban myths.

I think when people claim check or running side helps, it's psychosematic(sp?) You feel it helps, play the shot more confidantly and it drops in. I also think a lot of players have a natural tendancy to hit the shot thick, so when they hit with running side the throw on the white corrects their dodgy aiming a little.

Plain ball every time for me.. hitting the object ball correctly is much more important than trying to spin it in off the jaws.