mdc said:

I do not interpret Fels’ advice as “slow roll” every shot. He’s saying stop hitting the balls too hard, if you are, which many do. They’re called “bangers” for a reason. There is a speed not so slow as to risk roll off and not too fast as to rattle the ball.

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This is correct.

There is an optimal speed to hit object balls to maximize pocket acceptance.

This is something that I rediscovered many times and kept forgetting, even though I knew about this advice from many sources. The thing that really made it stick for good was when I decided to choose to think about perfect object ball and cue ball speed "as a complete solution" during my practice strokes, rather than anything else (like only cue ball position, or aiming for example). This ended up gluing everything together and the result was an excellent stroke with perfect tip position. It also allowed me to hit object balls much softer. I ran over 70 balls.

I think it takes much more mental energy to think about perfect ball speed, as compared to tip position and aiming, which may be why it is so elusive for players. I think that it is the missing "glue" that brings everything together.

This thread is about "Drills to correct your alignment"... and I think the drill should be to practice thinking about perfect speed during your practice strokes which will indirectly fix your alignment as a consequence.

garczar said:

Thanks bro. The amount of guessing can get brutal. We all do it to some extent but some live by it. I know some about this stuff but you are in another league sir.

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Obviously I have to give credit to the people I know that were part of the businesses in question whether it's a worker from Adam back in the 80s/90's or the people involved at the beginning of Karella. I think I said this before, but one of my biggest regrets is that I lived a few miles from Richard Helmstetter in his later years (Carlsbad, CA), and I dragged my feet on interviewing him. There's a lot of missing information that if he still had the mental capacity, I could have filled those gaps so that all of the guessing based on rumors could just stop (yeah, right). But by the time I got my ass in gear, his assistants said he was mentally not capable of having any discussions and interview.

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I got in touch with him. He confirmed he built the cues but does not build anymore. That’s too bad.

cuefeene said:

Why

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He speaks the truth.

Lassiter said you have to play well and get lucky.

R.I.P. Frank. A true gentleman.