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Pool Table Playing Tips
for
beginners, or those wishing a new look
Forward
These tips are either for
beginners at pool or for those wishing a new look at it, taking it more
seriously. Even though I have played pool for 40 years, I now ask
myself if I really did. I most likely "pushed balls around the
table and sometimes got lucky". While it was a lot of fun,
the results seemed very random. Taking a more serious look, I am
finding a number of things that I was doing wrong and could do better.
Now I wish to share what I am finding. Of course, a good pool
player may find this information too limited. For those who are
more experienced, you may find the following link helpful:
http://www.easypooltutor.com.
I have. For those wishing to start off at the beginning, I would
suggest reading the below and then trying the "easy pool tutor" web
site.
Some terms and definitions are located at the end of
this article. Here, the term "object ball" is the ball that you
wish to go into a pocket using a cue ball to hit it there.
Shooting Straight
Many of us who just grabbed a cue stick and starting
shooting always assumed that we shoot straight. But do we?
If one does not shoot straight then spending a lot of time aiming and
setting up a shot will be lost since we are really not shooting in that
direction anyway. Some things to look for:
pool grip - Right handed pool players usually
shoot with their right hand and hence "grip" or "guide" with their left.
In this case we are referring to the grip or guide hand which for right
handed players is the left hand, or the right hand for left handed
players. Look at the grip you are using. It must be loose
enough to ensure the cue stick can move through it. However, it
must also be tight enough to ensure the cue stick can only go one
direction. Practice a few cue stick strokes through your grip and
ensure that the cue stick is not wandering and going different ways
through your grip.
arm movement - I have heard some say that one
should only move the hand and lower arm and not the upper arm.
But in any case, arm movement certainly influences shooting straight.
Put an object on the table such as a drink coaster or a piece of paper
about the same size. Try to shoot the cue stick right over it
straight as you would in a shot. See if the cue stick goes
straight by watching its image over the object. If it does not,
adjust your arm movement to where it is both comfortable and the cue
stick is going straight. Some suggest practicing shooting the cue
stick into the neck of a bottle. I find a rectangular object under
the cue stick head is good enough for me to see. How will
you know when you start shooting straight? Shots across the table
with a lot of "green" (felt) in the path of the shot will be made more.
One must shoot straight (or be lucky) to make a long shot across the
table. Practice and re-checking your stroke from time to time is
worth while.
what to watch when shooting (and miscues) - The
pros may say something different here since pool shooting is more
automatic for them. But for a person who is like a beginner like
me it matters a lot what I watch. If I am shooting a short
distance and shooting lightly, then I watch the cue ball and the spot on
the ball I am targeting at the same time - usually from as level to the
table surface as I can get. However, if I am shooting very fast
and breaking, I find much more chance of miscuing. I therefore set
up the shot lining up the cue stick, cue ball and point on the rack to
hit. However, right before making contact, I concentrate on only
the cue ball and cue stick alone. This seems to prevent miscues on breaks -
at least for me.
Better Aiming - Taking Your Time
This one I also find very important. To be
simplistic, playing serious pool means taking it seriously - on every
shot. I find that if I think I am just having fun that I want to
aim quickly and just be done with it and shoot. To be sure, one
can sometimes aim quick and adjust the difference from hitting the
object ball straight or sending it to the right or left. However,
pool often requires much more accuracy than that. Often a general
direction is just not good enough to sink the object ball.
We need to locate the exact point on the object ball where it
needs to be hit. One can even go behind the object ball directly
with a cue stick and look for where the exact right place to sink it
would be. It is of course good if that spot is near the
ball number since then you might have a reference such as "center of the
number" or "left circle edge of the number" or the "white area between the
circle and the left number" or something like that. But if not,
you basically need to keep your eye on the exact point. Then if
you shoot the cue ball at that exact point, and try to ensure that you
shoot straight and follow through you will have a better chance at the
shot. Yes, this does require concentration. If your
concentration breaks and you are no longer sure of the point on the
object ball to hit, one should line it up again before you shoot to
prevent a wasted shot.
Shooting the center of the cue ball at the target point on the object ball
works best for straight ahead shots. See "angle shots" below.
There is a tendency on easy shots to say "I know how to do this" and
then shoot fast without lining up or shooting straight. That is
how we miss the easy ones. In a similar sport, many golfers - even
the pros - make the same errors on easy shots by not treating them with
enough respect.
There is a tendency on hard shots to say "I cannot make this
shot, so let me just shoot and get to an easy shot". Of course if
we do that on hard shots, we never get practice on making the tough
ones. Yes, it is almost like work - but hopefully fun work.
One must take their time to have a good chance at the shot and also to
improve. When you begin to make the hard shots, you start to
convince yourself that it is possible and will automatically try more on
them the next time.
One example of this "hard shot avoidance" is a desire from some of us
to "break as second time" if there are no easy shots around. While
that might work for some, I have never found that a good option.
Most of the time since the balls are not tightly packed, the "second
break" does little good. It also seems that if a ball goes in a
pocket that it often can be the cue ball itself. So, not much gain
to trade for a wasted shot. I do believe that trying for a
difficult shot either around the pack or in an open spot in that pack
has a much better chance of success. Trying a difficult shot and
trying hard seems to beat a random shot almost every time. One
exception to this might be in combining a shot. If you are good
enough to sink a ball and also use spin to get the cue ball to break up
a group of balls, then it might be quite worth it. Note that in at
least one pool game that when shooting the last object ball on the
table, that the other 14 balls are racked. The pool player can
then sink the 15th ball and "break" at the same time. This is
similar thinking.
"Measure Twice, Cut Once"
Carpenters sometimes use the expression "measure twice, cut once" to
emphasize that planning can save a lot of grief and extra work later.
They set a good example to follow. After you have lined the object
ball up in your sites and are ready to shoot and are watching the cue
ball and the object ball, ask yourself "if what you are seeing makes
sense" a second time. For example, if you know the object ball
must go to the right somewhat and yet what you are seeing is a direct
line up of the cue ball and the object ball - then you know something is
wrong. Time to line up the shot again from the beginning.
Angle Shots
Angle shots - that is - hitting the object ball with the cue ball on
an angle, start out much the same as a straight-ahead shot. The first step always is to
find the spot on the object ball where if it is hit there, it will go
into the desired pocket. That much stays the same. What does
change on an angle shot is that the center of the cue ball is not
necessary the point on the cue ball that will strike the object ball
first.
Consider two extremes. The first - a head on shot - where the
cue ball, object ball and pocket are lined up - is the easiest to
understand. In this case it is the center of the cue ball that
must strike the right target spot on the object ball to drive the object
ball into the pocket. Now, let us consider the other extreme.
Let us consider the maximum angle shot that the object ball could be hit
with. This is one that will make the object ball go almost at a right
angle (almost perpendicular, almost 90 degrees) when hit by the cue
ball. Now in this case, notice that it will be the very side edge
of the cue ball that must strike the right spot on the object ball.
So on an angle shot, the part of the cue ball that will strike the
object ball will be somewhere between its center and its outer edge that
is closest to the object ball direction. One must approximate
where the point of contact will be on the cue ball that will hit the
object ball. For example, if the angle desired is about half way
between a straight ahead shot and the maximum right angle shot, we could
say that we want the object ball to be hit at 45 degrees. 45
degrees is a geometry expression. But think of it as an in-between
angle shot. In this case, the part of
the cue ball that needs to strike the object ball would be about halfway
between the center of the cue ball and the edge of the cue ball facing
the desired direction of the object ball.
Actually in this 45 degree case, it would be slightly more than
halfway to the edge of the cue ball. For Geometry students (others
may not like this section) the distance on the cue ball between the
center and the edge will actually be the "sine" of the angle.
Hence the amount of "cut" or position of the cue ball hitting the object
ball will be even a little bit more than one might think. If the
amount of desired angle is 0, then the sine of 0 is 0. That means
that there is no angle nor adjustment and therefore simply hit the
object ball with the center of the cue ball. For a 45 degree
angle, the sine of 45 degrees is about 0.7. So that means the spot
of the cue ball to hit the object ball is 70% of the way from the center
of the cue ball to the edge of the cue ball - as you look at the cue
ball behind it. My apologies again, to all who do not like
geometry.
How best to line up and approximate this angle shot? It is best
to get down as close to the table surface as possible, and then view the
point of the object ball that needs to be hit, and also approximate the
spot of the cue ball that would hit the object ball at this angle and
line them up.
Another approach to lining up for an angle shot is to again first
find the target spot on the object ball that would send it to the
pocket. Then imagine a straight line back of the object ball in
line with the pocket and visualize the spot one-half ball width in back
of the object ball still in line with the pocket. If you can
visualize this spot, this spot is the spot to aim for with the center of
the cue ball. This is another approach. This approach works
since this is the location that the cue ball must end up in to make the
shot. Use the approach
that works best for your visualization.
A Common Angle Shot Problem
If you are trying to hit the object ball on an angle, and instead it
goes mostly straight ahead, one of the possibilities is that you may
have lined up the center of the cue ball with the point on the object
ball that needs to be hit. Since that is not likely the point of
the cue ball that will hit the object ball first, the object ball will
go more straight ahead than on the desired angle. If this happens
to you, try to practice different angle shots estimating where on the
cue ball to line up the spot on the object ball.
Going Too Far on Angle Shots
Now that you know that on angle shots, it is not the center of the
cue ball hitting the spot on the object ball, it is of course possible
to over-compensate and have too much angle. You will see this if
you are cutting the ball too hard and it slices and has an even larger
angle then desired. Sometimes a little bit of compensation goes a
long way - particularly on long shots across the table. For long
shots, a little bit of angle of course can translate into a large change
of direction - so a little may go a long way. Practice. Try to
ensure that you have a plan for each shot - on how to line up the cue
ball with the object ball. Then remember your strategy.
After your shot, try to notice if you had cut the ball too hard or if it
was the opposite and had not enough angle. And then that
information may help you estimate better on your next shots.
Practice
A fun practice and one that you might learn from is to not play pool
at all but just set up practice shots. An easy one is just to set
up perhaps 4 object balls near you, and then practice hitting them into
the same pocket - by hitting them directly with the cue stick and not
using a cue ball. First a close corner pocket. Then a side
pocket. Then a pocket across the table. And then try bank shots by
hitting the object ball directly. This practice will help show you
if you are shooting straight with your cue stick - which is very
important - and will also show you where the target location is for
object balls both for straight shots and bank shots.
After this, one can practice using a cue ball along with an object
ball. Try angle shots and approximating the right angle for the
cue ball to hit the object ball. Try shots where the cue ball is
against the rail (not easy) or "in traffic" (around other balls).
Try several of the setups that can cause you difficulty in the game.
Have you seen the movie "Color of Money" with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise
as pool hustlers? A good movie. Note that Paul Newman -
who plays "Fast Eddie" - practices some basic shots when he wants to
improve quickly and does not just play the normal games of pool to
improve.
English, Spin, and Draw
Putting "English" on the cue ball or spin can be a great tool.
The pros do it for many reasons, including leaving the cue ball in the
right spot for the next shot. But even if you are a beginner,
there are two cases of "English" or "spin" that can be very helpful.
Head-On Scratch Shots - If the cue ball and the object ball
are lined up directly with a pocket at first it might look like a great
shot. However, that shot is ruined if the cue ball follows the
object ball into the pocket. For these shots if you hit the cue
ball just a little lower than mid point on the cue ball (about one cue
tip downward) you can put spin on the cue ball that should stop it
from following the other ball into the pocket. This shot is a good
one to practice. If one hits the cue ball too low, one might
"miscue" and miss hitting the cue ball solidly at all. If one hits
the cue ball too high, they might in fact put top spin on the cue ball
sending it into the pocket behind the object ball.
Object Ball on Rail - if the object ball is on or close to a
rail, sending it into a pocket ahead of it may be improved with a little
spin that gets it to "hug the rail". If you hit the cue ball a
little to the side where the rail is - then when the cue ball hits the
object ball it should transfer the spin. The spin of the cue ball
will be "away from the cushion." However when the spin transfers
to the object ball, it will reverse and be "to the cushion". That
should help the object ball hug the rail and find its way into the pocket. Of
course the tough part of this shot goes beyond getting the right spin.
One must also ensure that the cue ball connects with the object ball at
exactly the right spot to make the shot happen. Some practice on
this is again a good idea.
Bank Shots
Some will find bank shots easier than others and may see the angles
better. But if the pool table cushions are good, physics tells us
that the angle the ball hits it will be the same size as the angle it
reflects off in the other direction. ("Angle of incidence equals
the angle of reflection"). Beginners may find it easier
to try and determine the right angle and then the right place the object
ball must hit the cushion by using a cue stick. If one uses a cue
stick held over the table with one end at the pocket you are aiming for
and the other end at the cushion you need to hit, you might be able to
visualize where the object ball needs to hit to make the same angle.
Then when you see that spot, then you can determine the spot on the
object ball that you need to hit with the cue ball. Again, this
takes much practice. But after you sink a few bank shots, you will
prove to yourself that it can be done. Pros of course do not use
cue sticks to visualize the shot. They are good
enough to use the "diamond" or "circle" markers on the pool table rails
and visually line up the shot in their mind.
Note that any spin on the cue ball - right side or left side, or
upper (follow) or lower (draw) spin can influence bank shots. Only
use spin on bank shots if you are sure that that is what you want to do.
Setting up the Next Shot
Yes, the pros often look several shots ahead. I would not add
this complexity until one masters the above. However, using "spin"
(or "English" if you prefer that word) on the cue ball and how hard you
hit the cue ball could help set up for the next shot. But as
always in sports - one must complete the current action right before the
next one counts.
What if you are not a pro and looking ahead is new for you? I
find that most of the time that when I can run a number of balls in a
row, they are near each other. Therefore shooting accuracy to keep
the run going, taking time in accurate aiming, and follow through of the
cue are most important and the shot does not need to be forceful at all.
Of course adding this with just a little wisdom about which ball to go
for next and where the cue ball would best line up are helpful. So
for us new people, often gentle, accurate shooting, taking time on aiming and a
little thought can go a long way.
Shooting Hard? or Shooting Softer With Follow
Through?
I find that for most shots, at least for a beginner like me, shooting
softer but with follow through and trying for accuracy is much better
than shooting hard. Shooting softer can be a help for us - it
might give us more chance for shooting straight since we are moving the
cue stick less hard, and it may also help set us up better for the next
shot. By a better set up for the next shot I mean that often most
of the balls are on the same side of the table. Shooting softer
often tends to keep the cue ball near another interesting shot - even if
we did not plan it.
The only two times I tend to shoot hard are for breaks, or
secondarily when the cue ball is on the wrong side of the table for the
next shot. In this second case, a classic example of when shooting
hard is good is when you are shooting a object ball dead ahead into the
pocket (possible scratch shot) and you also want the cue ball on the
other side of the table when done. Then hitting the cue ball low -
to create a "draw" back to you, and hard should sink the
object ball if
you have aimed correctly and send the cue ball nearer your next shot.
Pool Table Quality
The most important attribute of a good quality table is in what it
does not do. It should not have inadequacies that cause the player
to have to do extra work to compensate for it. So a good table is
one that offers no surprises and that the balls roll straight and the
cushions are live such that bank shots are as expected as well as other
table attributes.
Buying a Personal Pool Cue
The best argument I have heard for owning a personal pool cue is
consistency. If one owns their own cue and carries it to pool
games, they will not have to worry about different weight cues that also
act differently. It is one less item to worry about as one tries
to improve. As with pool tables, some of the cost of a cue is in
its basic quality and some of the cost is in its pleasing design.
A good store should be able to advise on both.
Perspective Changes
I do find a few mental changes when taking pool more seriously.
The "fun" changes. No longer does one feel the same when they make
or miss shots, since one can now guess why. So, alas, one leaves
the world of "hey, whatever happens its okay and this is just fun".
After a bit, there becomes an expectation that you should be able to
make some shots. And yes, there may be a frustration when you miss
an easy shot and know that you should have spent more time aiming.
But it is not all bad. Now some of the enjoyment comes in watching
yourself get better, even making shots that you thought were previously
well beyond your skill level. Basically one is turning pool from a
pastime into a real sport. How do I feel about this? It is
definitely a different feeling, but actually more fun and I find myself
being even more drawn to my next game. Hope that you enjoy the
game also.
Terms Used Here
Most people likely know these terms or can guess my usage, but here
are some I've used:
- Bank Shot - Hitting a cushion with either ball and using
it while making a shot to reflect the ball in another direction
- Cue ball - the white ball that one must hit to send it to
the object ball that one wishes to move
- Draw - putting lower "spin" on a cue ball to draw it back
in your direction after it contacts the object ball
- English - a term often used for putting spin on the cue
ball and transferring it likely to a object ball
- Follow - Top spin on a cue ball - that might cause it to
"follow" an object ball mostly in the forward direction
- Object Ball - the actual ball that you are objecting to
send into a pocket
- Rails - the edges of the pool table - often wood covered
on the inside with cushions
- Scratch - sending the cue ball into a pocket accidentally
- generally this causes a loss of your turn
- Scratch Shot - a shot that has danger of sinking the cue
ball into a pocket
- Spin - Causing the cue ball or other ball to spin
sideways or vertically as well as travel forward
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