Speed Control: The Secret Ingredient

while I forget about it too much for my own good, the secret of speed control is hugely influenced on how much energy is being transferred to object ball, for example, if you are striking 30 % of object ball, the cue ball will still be moving with the other 70% of energy. Jerry Briesath explains it well in his instructional dvd
 
Speed control is one of those "feel" things that must be learned through trial-and-error experience, but there are ways to speed up the learning process. An important one (for learning many "feel" things, not just speed control) is to choose specific targets and consciously compare your results with them. To reinforce the lesson you might even "coach" yourself (silently or aloud) about what to do differently.

pj
chgo
 
Speed Control

Patrick Johnson said:
Speed control is one of those "feel" things that must be learned through trial-and-error experience, but there are ways to speed up the learning process. An important one (for learning many "feel" things, not just speed control) is to choose specific targets and consciously compare your results with them. To reinforce the lesson you might even "coach" yourself (silently or aloud) about what to do differently.

pj
chgo
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Speed Control is a feel thing that you have to match stroke with distance and to that end a friend of mine showed me this simple drill and I do it before I play so if I decide to hit a shot that I know is going to cause the cue ball to run I will know fairly close how far its going to run.

From the spot 3/4 table length to the rail I call 1

" " " beyond that rail to the middle of the table is.....2
" " " beyond the position of 2 to the rail is .......3
" " " beyond the position of 3 to the middle of the table is 4
" " " beyond the position of 4 to the rail is 5

Position 1 and 2 almost have to be done with a very short stroke beginning with 3 through to 5 can be fully stroked

Total distance covered here is 2 and 3/4 table lengths. I found this very useful and I don't like drills but this simple speed control exercise seems to be enough to get some familiarization going so you have something to be in touch with as you develop your feel to match your visual and stroke information.

If you know these speeds and can repeat them then when the ball needs to run you will have a handle on what speed to give the shot.
 
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A lot depends on what type of position you are playing as to how speed sensitive the shot is. Meaning, if you are moving the cb across the line of the shot, speed is far more important than coming in on the line, or close to being on the line of the shot (leaving the correct angle you need to get to the next ball)
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The more position routes you know, the easier it is to play 'line' position predominately. There will of course be times where this is not an option, but I've seen several lower level players screw up a run because of the position route they chose, carried a smaller margin of error.

Bob Byrne talked about zone position in some of his material. It is for those times when you cant come in on the line of the shot. Typically the zone gets wider (think of a V shape as a starting mental image) the farther away from the ob you get, and the zones narrowest point is typically closer to the ball. As you can imagine, if you look at the wider portion of the V, the margin of error is greater at the point of the V. This is of course crossing the line of the shot, so speed becomes more crucial.

And on the shot you diagrammed, a little low left and a soft hit will pocket the ball and leave a good shot on the 9. No rails needed. ;)
 
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336Robin said:
Nice one Colin.
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You'd love my plan B then Robin, for when I'm really in the mood to bash'em good!

This shot is actually quite predictable as it checks off the last rail... almost impossible to hit it too hard. The key is tons of right english, dead center CB height. 3 Cushion players will be very familiar with this pattern as they use variations of it often.
 
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ktrepal85 said:
There is nothing to what he said. A player who has mastered his speed control is not forcing anything. He is just comfortable enough with the shot that he knows he can land the cue ball up close. A weaker player such as Patrick Johnson does not have confidence in his speed control so he would leave himself a long shot because he is too scared of over rolling position.
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That came off really douchey man. Do you even know Patrick? How do you know he's a weak player or not? Just because his opinion differs from your own does not mean in the least bit that he's a weaker payer.
 
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The key to speed control is playing proper angles and understanding positional zones that allows for reducing the margins of errors and using the rails properly. When you master these aspects of the game, you don't need to rely on cue ball speed control very much except for positions that requires rolling the ball or a little draw shot and those are so easy to do that it's a non issue..
 
Lately I've been playing a lot on a 5x10 Diamond. Speed control becomes glaringly obvious on that table. Shots you typically take for granted on a 9 footer you can't do on the 10'.

I find myself paying far more attention to fundamentals on that table (speed, alignment, stroke, stance etc).
 
sebroy9 said:
The key to speed control is playing proper angles and understanding positional zones that allows for reducing the margins of errors and using the rails properly. When you master these aspects of the game, you don't need to rely on cue ball speed control very much except for positions that requires rolling the ball or a little draw shot and those are so easy to do that it's a non issue..
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Good point!

The best player I see regularly, former pro snooker player and multiple big tourney titles in pool games, is frustratingly conservative in positional play.

I say frustrating because when I watch, I'm thinking I'd try to get closer or to a more perfect angle, but he just keeps giving himself a shot and backing in his potting. Needless to say, he pots out more often and fouls a lot less than I do.

There's a kind of risk v reward aspect to positional play, and when one pots and positions very well, they can reduce the risk and increase the reward with smart and safe positional decisions.

Colin

FWIW: I appreciate ktrepal starting threads like this, even if he is a perhaps prematurely bombastic and arrogant. A little back and forth barking can be entertaining at times and in the process, some good insights are revealed from the subject matter.
 
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ktrepal85 said:
There is nothing to what he said. A player who has mastered his speed control is not forcing anything. He is just comfortable enough with the shot that he knows he can land the cue ball up close. A weaker player such as Patrick Johnson does not have confidence in his speed control so he would leave himself a long shot because he is too scared of over rolling position.
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Wow, you're really something: ask a question and then insult people who take the time to answer.

BTW, you're also wrong. Case in point -- Mika Immonen. He's certainly no slouch in moving the CB to get position. But watch his play closely and you'll see that he OFTEN chooses to leave a long shot when there's any question about getting position (I hadn't noticed it until Billy Incardona mentioned it while commentating an Immonen match...then it became quite apparent). But, maybe Immonen is just a "weaker player."
 
bdorman said:
Wow, you're really something: ask a question and then insult people who take the time to answer.

BTW, you're also wrong. Case in point -- Mika Immonen. He's certainly no slouch in moving the CB to get position. But watch his play closely and you'll see that he OFTEN chooses to leave a long shot when there's any question about getting position (I hadn't noticed it until Billy Incardona mentioned it while commentating an Immonen match...then it became quite apparent). But, maybe Immonen is just a "weaker player."
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Good post. Sometimes in pool maintaining the correct angle is more important than the distance. Going very close, you sometimes don't know the exact angle you are going to get, even a slight extra rotation of the ball can have a huge impact. The control of angle is more manageable on a shot with little cueball movement.

Also, if you have a laser straight stroke, there is no point in gambling on getting too close. Take the shot and make sure of the out. It's just a smart percentage play.
 
Better players play positional routes where speed is mostly a non-factor due to the direction of the cue ball and the use of rails as guides. Any position where you are relying on pinpoint speed control with suboptimal position if you are even slightly off is just asking for an unforced error.

This is not to say that good players don't have superb speed control, but that they almost never rely on it in situations where it is not absolutely necessary.
 
I think speed is controlled by focusing more on the backswing than the foreswing.

I've lately been focusing on accelerating the BACKswing (thought: woosh) rather than the stroke itself and this has made it easier to control the speed of the hit better.

Since this is a thread on speed and not on shape, I thought this might help some player's speed training.

fwiw,

Jeff Livingston
 
Masayoshi said:
Better players play positional routes where speed is mostly a non-factor due to the direction of the cue ball and the use of rails as guides. Any position where you are relying on pinpoint speed control with suboptimal position if you are even slightly off is just asking for an unforced error.

This is not to say that good players don't have superb speed control, but that they almost never rely on it in situations where it is not absolutely necessary.
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A great way to explain what I said. I agree.
 
Masayoshi said:
Better players play positional routes where speed is mostly a non-factor due to the direction of the cue ball and the use of rails as guides. Any position where you are relying on pinpoint speed control with suboptimal position if you are even slightly off is just asking for an unforced error.

This is not to say that good players don't have superb speed control, but that they almost never rely on it in situations where it is not absolutely necessary.
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Couldn't agree less Masayoshi. Even on a center english hit speed is important for shape. Speed of the CB is important on every shot and the shooter controls it. I think we are all splitting hairs. You hit the CB and want it to get somewhere. It needs speed to get there. Sometimes a lot of speed. Sometimes a little speed. Sometimes it does not have to hit a rail. Sometimes it must go 4 rails. This is what is called Speed Control. It's pool and pool is governed by the physics that dictates motion in this universe we inhabit.
 
Speed is less important when the CB's route takes it "along the shot line" of the next shot. In that case the only difference is going to be whether the shot is long/medium/short, but you've got the same angle on the next OB at any distance.

However, speed is very important when the CB's path is "crossing the shot line." Then, a matter of inches can be the difference between being on the right side of next OB or the wrong side.
 
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