Back Cut Break Shots

[L.S. Dennis]

Any suggestions on how to practice back cut break shots? How to sight the cue ball and object ball when using a center ball hit.
The old Mosconi 40 degree side of rack break shot is a good example.

 

[crazysnake]

Diagram?

Sent from my motorola one zoom using Tapatalk

 

[Texas Carom Club]

the back cut i practiced the most, seems very hard, but thin hit with speed and lots of outside english make the ball easier than it looks and broke well
for me.

 

[ChrisinNC]

Any suggestions on how to practice back cut break shots? How to sight the cue ball and object ball when using a center ball hit.
The old Mosconi 40 degree side of rack break shot is a good example.

The obvious answer is practice, practice, practice! To be a 14.1 player, you’ve got to get to where you salivate at these shots.

Depending on the severity of the angle in to the pack and where in to the pack you are hitting, you should get to the point that you are comfortable hitting this shot with follow, draw, inside, or outside spin.

 

[L.S. Dennis]

The obvious answer is practice, practice, practice! To be a 14.1 player, you’ve got to get to where you salivate at these shots.

Depending on the severity of the angle in to the pack and where in to the pack you are hitting, you should get to the point that you are comfortable hitting this shot with follow, draw, inside, or outside spin.

I guess the point I was try to get at is that Dr. Dave says a 30 degree cut shot requires a center to edge center cue ball hit, the problem becomes when the cut angle is more sever (as many if not most are ) in these most sought after side rack break shots. Beyond 30 degrees you are now essentially aiming at ’air’. The question becomes what point of ‘air’ do you now aim for since you are no longer aiming at a part of the object ball with a center ball hit?

 

[ChrisinNC]

I guess the point I was try to get at is that Dr. Dave says a 30 degree cut shot requires a center to edge center cue ball hit, the problem becomes when the cut angle is more sever (as many if not most are ) in these most sought after side rack break shots. Beyond 30 degrees you are now essentially aiming at ’air’. The question becomes what point of ‘air’ do you now aim for since you are no longer aiming at a part of the object ball with a center ball hit?

Yes, I know what you mean and it is tricky, particularly if you are using outside spin which requires you to aim the shaft even further off the outside edge of the object ball.

For that reason, a number of players including myself prefer to use inside on those sharper angle back-cut shots, as opposed to outside or even center ball, which allows you to orient the shaft closer to the outside edge of the object ball.

Of course for an absolute maximum cut back shot of close to 90°, you may have no choice but to use outside spin to get the maximum throw on the object ball in the direction you want, to have a better chance of pocketing it.

If possible, if you are at an angle where the immediate background of your aiming line is outer balls in the rack, sometimes you can use those balls and the edges of those balls to assist in giving you a reference point in terms of where to aim, on a severe cut shot where you’re having to orient the shaft well off the edge of the object ball.

The only way to get good at these shots is practicing them over and over which is obviously not fun, constantly having to re-rack the balls after every shot.

 

[DynoDan]

….a number of players including myself prefer to use inside on those sharper angle back-cut shots…..

Of course for an absolute maximum cut back shot of close to 90°, you may have no choice but to use outside spin to get the maximum throw on the object ball in the direction you want, to have a better chance of pocketing it.

Maximum throw using outside requires a soft hit, which often leaves you stuck to the pack. If the balls are clean/polished, and the cut angle is close to 90, I generally have better luck when shooting hard by using a bit of inside.

 

[DJKeys]

In practice, this is always my opening shot. I do not use any english as it negates the follow.

-dj

 

[Dan White]

There is no trick like the half ball aim needed. Just practice the shot and in less time than you imagine you will become very good at this shot. I practiced break shots by hitting 15 balls randomly set up as side breaks. Don't rack the balls. Just put them at the foot of the table out of the way. I'd shoot one from the left side then one from the right side and back and forth until all the balls were gone. If you feel up to it do another 15. If not then do something else. Do this for two weeks and you'll be making pretty much every shot. Let your brain do its thing.

The interesting thing I found is that my aim was just fine for most shots. My misses were caused by stroking errors caused by hitting too hard or reaching over the table, etc. Knowing that my aim was correct allowed me do diagnose and fix stroke errors surprisingly quickly.