I'm having trouble making the cueball slide for stop shots and for when I want to take advantage of the tangent line. More often than not, the CB would just start rolling before it hits the OB.
Any advise on the best way to improve on this would be appreciated
THANKS!
also... the shot you are getting is one of the "critical shots in pool"
it's called a draw drag and it is THE best way I know of to kill a cueball on the far rail on long shots.
so you have 3 shots... the draw shot.... the stop shot... and the draw drag shot... they are all the same shot...
you can get any of those 3 effects on any given shot...
once you control the slide zone and can make the ball slide where and when you want.. you have mastered all 3 shots.. if you are sliding at contact you get a stop shot.. if you still have backspin at contact you get a draw shot.. if you lose slide and start to roll before contact you have a draw drag shot.
all 3 of them are concoctions of tip position and stroke speed..
it ain't easy and takes practice.. but they are all the same shot...
I can draw the CB just fine except for those long straight ones (have to improve my stroke for that)
And the kill shot (drag) I'm able to do but not always at will (a bit more practice and touch).
It's really just making the cue ball slide. It always end up rolling unless the OB is only a couple of diamonds away. I guess it's one of those "touch" shots I have to learn through trial and error.
But in summary here is what I gather from you guys:
long shots: use the drag shot to kill the draw on the cueball if I don't want to hit the cueball harder.
And if I want to take advantage of the cueball's path along the tangent line I might have to hit the CB harder and hit it more centre right?
There's a fine line between what most players believe is 'center' (on the edge of the CB), and what is really center. Because of perceptual error, most players aim 1/4" - 1/2" above where center is. This is because our eyes are always several inches (at least) above the table...even when your chin is on the cue. Try aiming a little bit lower on the CB, for your close shots (1-2 diamonds), with a fairly soft stroke. More distance than that will require shooting the CB with more speed, or adjusting your aim lower, so that you put draw on the CB. The draw runs out just as the CB reaches the OB, so that you get a stop shot, but the OB softly drops into the pocket.
I think a specific drill will help a lot more than trying to analyze what's happening. Try diagram 3A on page 10 of http://www.sfbilliards.com/basics.pdf
You will need to read some of the verbiage on page 6 to see what's required by the drill, but basically you are shooting a stop shot that leaves the cue ball overlapping the ghost ball from a distance that is automatically adjusted to your ability.
Another technique that may help you get a feel for speeds and distances below center on draw shots is to use a stripe as the cue ball and put the stripe horizontal. Watch the stripe spinning backwards as it goes down the table and note when it "turns over" as the draw goes to zero and follow sets in. That instant is when you must hit the object ball to get stop (or stun, which is stop at an angle).
Yes, when there's a lot of distance between the balls, hitting higher - but still below center - can be more effective than going really low on the cueball. It all depends on how hard you're stroking it and the condition of the cloth. The reason is that the cueball gets there quicker and this more than makes up for the initial reduction in backspin from the higher hit.
