Mirror Mirror article in BD
- Thread starter Neil
- Start date
Here is the diagram. To kick at the ball near the side pocket, place your stick over the cue ball and with the tip even with the object ball. The spot on the far cushion your stick points to should be even with half way between the object ball and the tip
Neil is suggesting to go to the other end of the table and point back towards the cue ball, with the tip even with the object ball again. Adjust until the cue passes over the cushion at the half-way point again.
Neil, I think your way is easier for most shots, but the problem I see is that you need to somehow keep in mind the spot to shoot towards as you walk back to the other end of the table. That's sometimes hard to do unless there is a convenient mark, such as a diamond, available.
For System Sid, I think you still need to do about the same arithmetic. If the target is at 2.75 and the cue ball is 2.5 diamonds from the corner (X2.5 in the article's diagram), you have to come up with 7 (or 6.875). If you renumber the short rail in multiples of 2.75, you still have to interpolate between 5.50 and 8.25. One way to handle that problem is to call the target 3 (instead of 2.75) and then you have to interpolate between 6 and 9, getting 7.5. Reduce that a little (about 10%) to get a little less than 7. At some point the corrections are smaller than the basic errors in the simple numbers on the long rail that I pointed out in the article.
It's good to do the calculation correct to 0.5 or better on the end rail target numbers which is 1/20th of a diamond or about 1/4 ball. In the simple System Sid numbering, the 3.5 spot on the long rail is off by 10% from the ideal geometric value.