Does top spin and bottom spin affect the cue ball's path after hitting a cushion?
- Thread starter macbookmike
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Average Joe 26
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Good question, and honestly there isn't one "correct" answer here — both of the options you laid out are real, legitimate approaches, and different good players use different ones. There's actually established terminology for this: it usually comes down to whether you pivot your whole stance/vision together with the cue when you shift to an off-center hit, or whether you keep your vision locked on the original line and just let the cue's alignment change relative to your eyes.
The real tradeoff is this: if you move your head to keep the cue ball centered in your vision (your option 2), you get a very natural, "this looks straight" feeling, but now your visual reference point shifts depending on how much spin you're using, which is exactly the inconsistency problem you're running into with the stroke feeling crooked. If you keep your vision fixed over the cue (your option 1), your stroke mechanics stay dead consistent no matter how much spin you add, but you have to trust the cue's line rather than what "looks straight" in the moment, which takes some getting used to.
Most players who've been at this a while land on keeping the vision/stance consistent (your option 1) specifically because it means your fundamentals don't change shot to shot — you're not relearning your stroke every time you add side. But plenty of really good players do use head movement too. Honestly, the biggest factor isn't which one is "right," it's picking one and drilling it enough reps that it becomes automatic, since most pros aren't consciously running a system in the moment — it's just become feel through repetition.
If you want to go deeper on this, look up "back-hand English" vs "front-hand English" — that's the formal name for the two pivot methods and there's a lot written on the tradeoffs of each.
The real tradeoff is this: if you move your head to keep the cue ball centered in your vision (your option 2), you get a very natural, "this looks straight" feeling, but now your visual reference point shifts depending on how much spin you're using, which is exactly the inconsistency problem you're running into with the stroke feeling crooked. If you keep your vision fixed over the cue (your option 1), your stroke mechanics stay dead consistent no matter how much spin you add, but you have to trust the cue's line rather than what "looks straight" in the moment, which takes some getting used to.
Most players who've been at this a while land on keeping the vision/stance consistent (your option 1) specifically because it means your fundamentals don't change shot to shot — you're not relearning your stroke every time you add side. But plenty of really good players do use head movement too. Honestly, the biggest factor isn't which one is "right," it's picking one and drilling it enough reps that it becomes automatic, since most pros aren't consciously running a system in the moment — it's just become feel through repetition.
If you want to go deeper on this, look up "back-hand English" vs "front-hand English" — that's the formal name for the two pivot methods and there's a lot written on the tradeoffs of each.
The angle into the cushion is almost never equal to the angle out. If there is no side spin on the ball, the angle out is always shorter -- more perpendicular to the cushion.
On rolling cue ball shots, as you see on many kick shots, the angle may appear to be equal -- the times two diamond system for kick shots -- but in fact the cue ball leaves the rail a little short and then curves into a little long, compared to the ideal equal angles.
The problem is that the collision with the cushion is very complicated and the answer may depend on the profile of the cushion. Gearing seems like a reasonable answer, but what does that mean when the cushion changes shape during the contact? I think we can be sure that some amount of running side will give equal angles for a particular shot. That might depend on the speed of the shot. And there might be some spin on the cue ball after it leaves the cushion that will make it curve, so the outbound "angle" needs to be the direction just as the ball leaves the cushion and not the final path of the cue ball after it stops curving.
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Starting with the fact the cushion contacts the ball above center - which I forgot to consider.
pj <- doh
chgo