The break shot

I have a pretty powerful break. But when I do break I always break from the center on the rail directly onto the balls. It's an alright break but doesn't make balls that much.

So now I'm changing it up some. I now like to break from the head string. With the cueball placed on or about the first diamond (either side). When I break and don't jump the ball it's a damn good break. But I tend to scratch a lot.

I watched Johnny and Stevie break the other night. Johnny had the cueball on the head string on the first diamon about 1"-2" towards the center.

Another thing I noticed is lots of times when pros break they'll be aiming for the bottom of the ball. That makes me think the ball is going to jump. But their pros and it doesn't.

Basically my question is...
When breaking where should I hit whitey. Where should I aim whitey for (Directly to the middle of the head ball or left of it) and what is the best bridge for controlling a cue with a lot of force?

Now if I could manage to break like I can rack. Then I'd break and run on my first stroke everytime.
Mark

Appreciate it. I figured they were aiming for hte bottom to compensate for the cue raising up.

I'm going to start practicing the break with a 9ball rack so I can break softer to get better control but still not have to worry about a cluster.

Now I do understand to use a closed bridge. But I really meant to ask how should your bridge be? I know many when shooting will have the index finger pressing against the thumb and have the top part of the index almost concaved in.

I played around with looping the index finger hoping to have more control when hitting hard. I feel like I do but would prefer to know a better way if possible.

Now I do follow through but when I do I often end up having the shaft bend along the table. I'm not worried about breaking the stick or messing it up. But have seen some powerful breakers do that.

I'll have to mess around with it some

Apprecaite the help
Mark