Dave, that clip is a good one to sit with, because my first instinct watching Filler was the same as a lot of guys here, take the shorter kick and just make sure you hit it. Then Poolmanis made me rethink it. On slick new cloth like that, I have missed more one-rail kicks than I care to admit, the cue ball just slides and slides and I am past the ball before I know it.
What sold me a bit on the three-railer was his point about a too-full hit still leaving a safety most of the time. At my level in Hamilton, that matters more than the make percentage, because I am not making that kick very often either way, and leaving my opponent a shot after a thin miss is what actually loses me the game.
freds, your numbers put it plainly too, 95 percent to hit it one rail and maybe 10 percent to make it, against 75 and 20 the long way around. Dave, in the tests you ran, did the medium-speed one-railer leave Filler a worse leave when it missed than the three-railer did, or was the miss pretty much a sell-out either way?