Some Fun 9 Ball Caroms

[rackmsuckr]

I won a tournament last night (race to 2 on bar boxes, 9 Ball) with a few caroms and thought I'd share.



This first one, I was playing my husband, Mike Zimmerman, and had to draw to the back side of the 9 to make it. I won the next game too. Later in the finals with him, I played safe on the 1 and ran out, then broke and ran for the win.





This one was a little far out and I had to hit the ball a little fuller to make the billiard.





This one, I had to go THROUGH the ball to get to the right contact point on the 9. I didn't like the back cut combo and figured I would at least separate the balls if I didn't make it (but I was pretty confident since I play a lot of carom games :grin.

 

[rackmsuckr]

A few more

These are other fun caroms I've made.



This one is hit almost full with a lot of right english and low with follow through. You don't want to draw it, unless the object ball is off the rail. I've made a lot of these shots. Some people don't see them.



This is basically the same shot, low left.



This one high left.



This one I used high right.



This one had a little running english. I didn't make the lines exactly right, as it is hard to connect the lines with your finger on an ipad. This app is a pretty cool app with some limitations. I do need to resize the pictures in the future.

 

[rackmsuckr]

A couple more

These were really fun.



This one I made when I took second at the BCA Regionals Grand Master Challenge 9 ball round robin last year. I had won the 8 ball Grand Masters earlier in the year. Someone had played safe on the one. I immediately saw that the 9 was wired if I kicked the one off the back side of the 6 (left back edge if you are looking at it from the cueball side). It shot in like an arrow!



This one came up in league. He missed the 3 ball and it went around the table and totally hooked me. While he was chuckling at his marvelous luck, I saw the opportunity to go off the back side of the ball and bingo...he stopped laughing! The exit path is wrong, as it was very fine and when you draw the lines with your finger on an ipad, it obscures the balls, so I just left it, but you get the idea.

 

[Black-Balled]

You borrowed that one from Neil, didn't you?

 

[stljohnny]

That show with the 1 and 9 on the short rail - i made a shot similar to that just a few weeks ago in league. http://youtu.be/QEElqPfcQVo (after a few safety back'n'forth's the guy left it).

I've tried those caroms to send the cueball a rail or 2 into the 9, but never make them.

 

[michael4]

These were really fun.

This one came up in league. He missed the 3 ball and it went around the table and totally hooked me. While he was chuckling at his marvelous luck, I saw the opportunity to go off the back side of the ball and bingo...he stopped laughing!

Nice vision, nice shooting, and good diagrams, thank you.

I would not be laughing if someone made these shots on me either

 

[rackmsuckr]

You borrowed that one from Neil, didn't you?

Huh? Absolutely not. I don't even know what he's done. I can have my opponent post on here that I did it during the tournament. It may have been streamed live at the time as well, but I think they were filming on the other 2 tables, only panning to us occasionally.

If you can direct me to this shot of Neil's, I would love to see it. My buddy, Cindy Sliva used a variation of this kick carom on the 8. She did a great job and I watched it online about a month ago.

 

[Snapshot9]

Where

do you get the Pool Layout Memo? They look simplier than Cuetable, and they don't 'hang' up my system when paging past them.

 

[rackmsuckr]

do you get the Pool Layout Memo? They look simplier than Cuetable, and they don't 'hang' up my system when paging past them.

It's an app on iTunes. I googled to see if it was available for a computer, but I didn't see one. In fact, your post actually showed up on the search! Wow, that was fast. But if you have an iPhone or iPad it works. Not sure how accurate the drawings could get on an iPhone.

Looks like it originated in Japan? There are several YouTube vids that I saw in the search. It is way simpler than Cuetable, but doesn't have as many features. You just drag the balls where you want on the table, and connect with the lines. You can have unlimited undos, and save to your camera roll. Then you transfer to your computer and resize them there. It doesn't let you show what English you applied or what speed to hit.

 

[3RAILKICK]

Cool shots

Hi Linda-

thanks for sharing these cool shots.

It's satisfying to see the basics of 'tangent line' made more useful, as you have shown.

Sounds like you play 3c? Can you share anything with us about aiming or visualizing cb path 'going through' a ball on the way to caroming into the 9b?

I ran into you at DannyK's several years ago. I think you were travelling on business and were in the area near Angel stadium. Aunty Dan was in attendance as well, IIRC.

You play well, and all of these illustrated shots further demonstrate that.

Take care

 

[rackmsuckr]

Hi Linda-

thanks for sharing these cool shots.

It's satisfying to see the basics of 'tangent line' made more useful, as you have shown.

Sounds like you play 3c? Can you share anything with us about aiming or visualizing cb path 'going through' a ball on the way to caroming into the 9b?

I ran into you at DannyK's several years ago. I think you were travelling on business and were in the area near Angel stadium. Aunty Dan was in attendance as well, IIRC.

You play well, and all of these illustrated shots further demonstrate that.

Take care

I do play a little 3c, but don't profess to be an expert there. I know 3 railers pretty well from just about anywhere on the table. In fact, before a match, I will send the cueball around 3 rails so i know how the table is running, short or long. If you like this thread, you can check out the 8ball tip thread that I contributed to.

I'm not sure who you were, but I had a great time there at Danny K's.

Anyway, to address your question, you first need to assess the weight of your cueball in relation to the object balls. A red circle, being lighter, is going to deflect wider. A black dot or green squiggle is going to follow straighter, so you have to play with it on your own time. A tournament is not the time to practice them, lol.

Everyone has run into this shot at one time or another, but probably not realized the application of it. In other words, you shot an almost straight in shot with follow, didn't make it, but scratched. It's the same principle.

If you have a heavier QB, then follow this rule of thumb that I made up from practice. I don't really know if there are other instructional things addressing this shot because I learned it about 35 years ago.

Take your cue and line up the middle of the ball you want to carom off of and the cueball. This forms one line. Then line up the the cue ball directly to the pocket. This forms the second side of your 'V'. Intuition tells you that you should split that angle in half, as the path you want your QB to follow, when in reality, it's only about 1/4th to 1/3. If you have a red circle, it can be even less than that.

The skinnier the V, or the lighter the cueball,, the straighter you have to go through the QB.

You also want to roll through these shots, as opposed to poking or jamming, which will make the cueball go wide. I shoot these with follow, as that makes it follow through straighter as well.

To practice, start with what would normally be about a 30-40 degree cut to the pocket because it is a wider follow through shot and is easier to calculate.

Also, be aware that there are shots that are going to send your object ball to the rail and come back into the QB (double kiss) before the QB can clear the path. You'll start to recognize those.

I play a carom game where you take all the balls off the cueball. This will teach you some of these through shot caroms. I will try to make a diagram and post it when I get back to my computer.

 

[rackmsuckr]

Or maybe I should do a video?

 

[rackmsuckr]

So here are 3 examples of how I aim these follow-through caroms. The solid black line is where I send my cueball, using follow. Let me know if you have any questions and how you are doing on them in practice. You will start to love these.

 

[3RAILKICK]

I like the overall idea of the 'shoot through' the ob to play the cb at the 9b. Seems like you can get separation of the cb, and ob in case the 9b doesnt drop.

Too many times, I try to combo the 9b and miss, leaving another combo available with the same ob that didn't clear out of the area.

Thanks-good stuff to consider

 

[ShootingArts]

Video!

Or maybe I should do a video?

Some grreat stuff! We(I'll speak for all of us:thumbup want video.

Always fun to have your opponent set you up because they didn't see something. An opponent had me locked up pretty good with not much to shoot at except two "unplayable" balls near his side pocket. A solid whack into one and the natural tangent line pocketed the other ball for me, almost impossible to miss once seen but he didn't consider I might play a carom that far from my pocket. Few people consider tickies either, noticed you play those.

Hu

 

[jrt30004]

thanks for posting those! keep 'em coming.

 

[rackmsuckr]

I like the overall idea of the 'shoot through' the ob to play the cb at the 9b. Seems like you can get separation of the cb, and ob in case the 9b doesnt drop.

Too many times, I try to combo the 9b and miss, leaving another combo available with the same ob that didn't clear out of the area.

Thanks-good stuff to consider

Yeah, if you're comboing, make sure to hit it firm so it doesn't hang for your opponent if it doesn't go. Also, this shot is good for when the combo is blocked with a ball in between.

 

[rackmsuckr]

Some grreat stuff! We(I'll speak for all of us:thumbup want video.

Always fun to have your opponent set you up because they didn't see something. An opponent had me locked up pretty good with not much to shoot at except two "unplayable" balls near his side pocket. A solid whack into one and the natural tangent line pocketed the other ball for me, almost impossible to miss once seen but he didn't consider I might play a carom that far from my pocket. Few people consider tickies either, noticed you play those.

Hu

You're so cute!

Yes, seeing opportunities that others might miss, and getting creative, that's my fascination with the game!

 

[rackmsuckr]

Here's the one Cindy Sliva used last year, the one I saw from a streaming video a couple months ago. BTW, Cindy won the Triple Crown at Regionals this year.