question about bridge hand on the break

jimmy91988

jimmy91988

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hey guys. I have a question about when breaking. Generally when I break I like to have a close bridge hand. I bridge on the rail though and a local told me that that isn't right. Does me bridging on the rail have any effect on the break at all? Thanks in advance.
 
jimmy91988 said:
Hey guys. I have a question about when breaking. Generally when I break I like to have a close bridge hand. I bridge on the rail though and a local told me that that isn't right. Does me bridging on the rail have any effect on the break at all? Thanks in advance.
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The further away from the rack you break from, the more time the cue ball has to loose speed before it hits the rack.

I'm assuming you are talking about the back rail, and not the side rail where many players like to break in 9-ball.
 
The less elevation you have, the better. It's hard to say from your description, but is your cue touching the rail with your finger looped over top of it, or is part of your hand between the rail and the cue like a normal closed bridge, but on the rail? If it's the latter, then you're elevating more than necessary, and that's going to result in much higher risk of flying the CB off the table. If it's the former, then that can definitely be an effective way to break, and in fact quite a number of pros use that kind of break.

-Andrew
 
jimmy91988 said:
Hey guys. I have a question about when breaking. Generally when I break I like to have a close bridge hand. I bridge on the rail though and a local told me that that isn't right. Does me bridging on the rail have any effect on the break at all? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


Are you bridging on the short (end) rail or long (side) rail? Many break off the side rail in 9 ball. I don't think you'll find many quality players breaking off the end rail though. It's too far away as the prior poster mentioned, you'll sacrifice power and accuracy.
 
hang-the-9 said:
The further away from the rack you break from, the more time the cue ball has to loose speed before it hits the rack.

I'm assuming you are talking about the back rail, and not the side rail where many players like to break in 9-ball.
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Lazar, Thats only if you have a girly break like yourself:thumbup:
 
KoolKat9Lives said:
Are you bridging on the short (end) rail or long (side) rail? Many break off the side rail in 9 ball. I don't think you'll find many quality players breaking off the end rail though. It's too far away as the prior poster mentioned, you'll sacrifice power and accuracy.
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This said pretty much everything I was going to say. I break in the box, at the point where the first diamond on the end rail meets the first diamond on the side rail, on the right side of the table. I find that breaking from the end rail leaves me with either too long of a bridge, or too far of a distance between the cue ball and the head ball. And breaking from the side rail has always felt awkward to me, just a personal preference.

Keeping your cue level is crucial so as to keep the cue ball on the table as well. With that in mind, a lot of people tend to elevate the back of their cue when they break from a rail. Experiment from different places in the middle of the table, and find a place that is comfortable and garners results.
 
jimmy91988 said:
Hey guys. I have a question about when breaking. Generally when I break I like to have a close bridge hand. I bridge on the rail though and a local told me that that isn't right. Does me bridging on the rail have any effect on the break at all? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

End rail or side rail? A lot of people bridge off the side rail, especially in 9 ball for the cut break, trying to pocket the 1 ball in the side. Not many bridge off the end rail.
 
You know, I've always wondered about this too. I do side rail for 9b, and you see pros do it too, so that's not my concern. I mean 8b back rail breaks.

I got used to breaking that way before I knew it was "wrong" and to me it feels a thousand times more comfortable. Even if your hands are dry, they will never be as perfectly smooth and frictionless as the rail. And I don't loop over the cue, just keep fingers to the left and right of it. Even less friction.

Probably I lose some important vertical accuracy (tip may hit too high sometimes) but I really feel like I can smack 'em harder this way.

How much speed could you possibly lose on a 20+ mph break, just by having the ball 18 in. further way? And if I really can hit 'em harder, doesn't that offset it? Can I ever get the accuracy of a closed loop bridge breaking off the back rail?
 
CreeDo said:
You know, I've always wondered about this too. I do side rail for 9b, and you see pros do it too, so that's not my concern. I mean 8b back rail breaks.

I got used to breaking that way before I knew it was "wrong" and to me it feels a thousand times more comfortable. Even if your hands are dry, they will never be as perfectly smooth and frictionless as the rail. And I don't loop over the cue, just keep fingers to the left and right of it. Even less friction.

Probably I lose some important vertical accuracy (tip may hit too high sometimes) but I really feel like I can smack 'em harder this way.

How much speed could you possibly lose on a 20+ mph break, just by having the ball 18 in. further way? And if I really can hit 'em harder, doesn't that offset it? Can I ever get the accuracy of a closed loop bridge breaking off the back rail?
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I really don't think you will have the same speed and accuracy (<-- this is also very important on the break) shooting with the cue on the back rail. Does the cue-ball hop around the table most of the time when you break? You may not loose a ton of speed, but I bet you can aim better with the ball 18" closer. This is, like everything else, dependant on the person, but I will have to say "most" people would be better off breaking from the spot. I have seen many lower level players (not saying you are one) break from the end rail because when they try to break with a regular bridge, their control goes to hell. They use the rail as a support.

I see you are in NE, if you are near central MA or RI, send me a PM, we can get togther and go over the stuff.

Anyhoo, easy to figure out which break is the best, watch a pro tournament and count how many people break off the back rail.
 
CreeDo, I feel like accuracy is more important than power, even in 8 ball. A medium-hard hit directly onto the head ball will spread the rack as much as you need it to spread. That being said, a lot of people are probably sacrificing that accuracy by hitting with a bridge like the one you described. Less experienced players probably miscue more often, or pop the ball off the table, or just plain miss the head ball because their focus is power.

I use a closed bridge on the break, and between keeping my hands clean, and keeping my shafts clean, I never have had an issue with friction. (WOW, that can be interpreted as something so much dirtier than it is meant to be).
 
Sorry I forgot to mention that I'm breaking from the side rail in 9 ball. So it goes rail then hand then cue inside a regular closed bridge. The cue ball does hop up a little but stays in the center which is why I've been doing it this way. When I break with the cue resting on the rail I feel like I have less control for some reason. Thanks for all the help guys.
 
jimmy91988 said:
Sorry I forgot to mention that I'm breaking from the side rail in 9 ball. So it goes rail then hand then cue inside a regular closed bridge. The cue ball does hop up a little but stays in the center which is why I've been doing it this way. When I break with the cue resting on the rail I feel like I have less control for some reason. Thanks for all the help guys.
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If I'm reading your post correctly, you are elevating the cue by NOT resting the cue on the side rail on this particular break. You're truly giving up a decent bit by driving the CB (partially) down into the slate.
 
jimmy91988 said:
Sorry I forgot to mention that I'm breaking from the side rail in 9 ball. So it goes rail then hand then cue inside a regular closed bridge. The cue ball does hop up a little but stays in the center which is why I've been doing it this way. When I break with the cue resting on the rail I feel like I have less control for some reason. Thanks for all the help guys.
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Thanks for the info, this nullifies most of the posts in your thread now :D:eek:

Your cue would be elevated too much for a straight hit on the cue-ball if you have another finger rasing it off the rail. Try a few different finger bridges on the rail, you will probably find one that feels pretty solid. There are a couple that I have used, the good ol' one where you make a upside down V with the index and middle finger and the one where you bridge up against the side and a bit inder the rail with the index finger making a hook going around the stick, almost like a fully closed bridge. The V method would make for a fairly loose bridge though, especially for a break.
 
CreeDo said:
You know, I've always wondered about this too. I do side rail for 9b, and you see pros do it too, so that's not my concern. I mean 8b back rail breaks.

How much speed could you possibly lose on a 20+ mph break, just by having the ball 18 in. further way? And if I really can hit 'em harder, doesn't that offset it? Can I ever get the accuracy of a closed loop bridge breaking off the back rail?
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It really doesn't matter where you break what's ever comfortable and doesnt matter close or open bridge, just know one thing is that the acceleration is maxed out at the futhest point of the stroke so you want the distance between your bridging hand and the cue ball to be the greatest. But you dont want it to be too far that you loose control. Also you want to make sure that you contact the cue ball with a even cue not angled and make sure your gripping hand is very very loose when you make contact.

When i break it seems like i dont do this but all changes i do are after contact with the cue ball. so after i make contact i start the kill shot(angle the cue), i tighten up the grip, and then i might lift my body up to continue the follow through
 
just remember one basic rule

if your hand is on top of the slate the cue is on top of the hand, if the hand is on the rail then the cue is under the hand laying on top the rail.

This maintains the correct angle of the cue stick when aiming for shooting, which is basically level.

IMOP when you are jacked up on a shot your not aiming anymore, your imagining....and thats much more difficult.
 
As long as your cue ball is not flying off the table, then I wouldn't be concerned. If the back of the cue is too elevated for the speed of your break, the cue ball goes flying.

Chris
 
hang-the-9 said:
The further away from the rack you break from, the more time the cue ball has to loose speed before it hits the rack.
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Interesting: I would have thought that the further away from the rack that you break, the more time the cue ball has to ACCELERATE on it's way to the rack. Remember, the cue ball starts at zero speed at time of initial impact.
 
8Ball48043 said:
Interesting: I would have thought that the further away from the rack that you break, the more time the cue ball has to ACCELERATE on it's way to the rack. Remember, the cue ball starts at zero speed at time of initial impact.
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But due to the force its hit with, and the friction it incurs, it probably reaches max speed before contacting the head ball (on a nine foot table). Unless you can hit it 30 mph, I don't think you're going to run out of room for the cue ball to get to its max velocity. Just my opinion, I can't back any of this up with science. I hated science in school.
 
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