HELP with Breaking

[riding9]

I'm a skill level 9 in the APA and 7 in TAP and i have the worst break in the world and need help. I always here that you have to break with a level cue but I get so much topspin that way. I usually correct that by elevating the back end of my cue and have the tip touching about 2 inches away from the cueball during the practice swing. What advice do you have to help my break?

[Cameron Smith]

If your putting follow on the ball, the fix would be to aim lower on the cue ball and not to raise your hand. Your tip raising before contacting the ball so your not hitting centre ball.

Take a smooth back swing, and follow through with about 60-70% of your power. As you get more in tune, you can increase the power. Focus on a smooth stroke rather than a hard one.

If you are trying to put your body into the break, your breaking stance needs to have most of your weight on your back leg. That way you can transfer your weight forward onto your front leg. Play with your feet position so that your keeping your balance as you follow through.

A final thought, your looking for accuracy on your break. So focus on a full hit on the head ball, if your not getting that consistently then there is a lot of wasted energy.

[Klopek]

I'm a skill level 9 in the APA and 7 in TAP and i have the worst break in the world and need help. I always here that you have to break with a level cue but I get so much topspin that way. I usually correct that by elevating the back end of my cue and have the tip touching about 2 inches away from the cueball during the practice swing. What advice do you have to help my break?
I'm not an instructor but have studied the matter some.

If you're putting top spin on I've found it's usually caused by dropping your shoulder/elbow too early in the final stroke. In other words, your timing is off and the elbow is beating the contact.

You can try moving your grip hand forward if you grip far back on the butt. Maybe a few inches ahead of perpendicular and focus on naturally getting through the cue ball. By natural I mean leave the theatrics for Broadway and just keep that cue low and fast, bridge hand glued to the rail/slate. When you get some control then you can ramp up.

Take my advice with a grain of salt but like anything try it, take what helps and dump the rest.:)

[Scott Lee]

riding9...From the sound of it, you're not contacting the CB where think you're aiming. Work on getting your tip closer to the CB. You want it almost touching, to verify exactly where you are aiming on the CB, on the last warmup stroke. Then you stop your cue at the CB. Then take a slow, smooth backswing, and THROW the cue quickly through the CB (you're gripping it loosely, instead of tightly here...but not so loose that the cue slides in your grip hand). Tight grip is the worst enemy of a good break (just like it is for a good stroke). You do not need to put your body into the break. Work on a consistent, accurate finish of your break stroke. Don't try to KILL the CB. Back your speed off, until you can 'squat' the CB in the middle of the table. To do that, you have aim dead square at the head ball in the rack.

Hope this helps...

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

I'm a skill level 9 in the APA and 7 in TAP and i have the worst break in the world and need help. I always here that you have to break with a level cue but I get so much topspin that way. I usually correct that by elevating the back end of my cue and have the tip touching about 2 inches away from the cueball during the practice swing. What advice do you have to help my break?

[Pete]

Invest in the BreakRak, worth it's weight in gold (if you commit to really practice with it that is)...

Pete

[fsarfino]

One book that helped me with my break was Blackjacks book on 9 ball. You might wanna give that a read.