hangers
Dr. Dave, you are putting out some serious knowledge!
AZers, I hope you all take time to work through these shots. You could do this in an hour and it will pay off the rest of your life. I'm sure most of you know most of these hits, but I am confident there are some paths you're a bit murky on exactly how the cue ball reacts and you work around them. Learn them. They come up all the time. Additionally those same paths come up with the object ball off the rail so they can be applied to many different situations. Just great for learning the cue ball.
There is one variation I want to add. It is the revere of the shot at 14:00 where he cuts the object ball in to the right side of pocket with extreme inside and comes two rails. In fact, it's similar to the shot at 14:37 where he cuts the ball to his left with high inside.
The shot I'm about to describe is one that many players overlook. Shoot the 14:37 shot as thinly as possible and load that sucker up with inside english. You can get the cueball to spin sharply into the rail and zing towards the third diamond by the side pocket you're standing by, then head up table just on the long rail side of the top left corner as we view the screen. People see this shot when the object ball is on the long rail by the first diamond, it's a common inside three railer. But somehow when the ball is hanging they overlook it, and often attempt using a combination of draw and outside english to attempt to zig zag the cue ball. This is much harder to hit accurately and the english holds up on the second rail making it unpredictable.
I set up this situation for my best friend who plays really strong and he overlooked it and was excited when we played with it. He and I practice hanging balls during our boot camps because they are that important to get down. Especially playing one pocket where you finally get a shot after half an hour and the game hinges on whether you can weave your cue ball on the other side of the balls without running into something.
Also, about those shots where you do need to use low and outside english to draw the cue ball up table. When possible avoid them with a rolling ball/thin hit/sidespin. But when you need to shoot them it can be hard to estimate the thickness of the hit on the object ball to get the cue ball to come out at the right angle. Dr Dave demonstrates this at 12:00 but it comes up often. To help with this, I actually ask myself "If this ball weren't hanging but were instead 6" from the pocket, what angle would I want on the ball to be able to establish the right path using a stun with outside?" For the shot in the video I'd want a pretty full hit but it is much easier to picture the hit I need with the ball out a bit, so I visualize that, then use the contact point on the hanging ball and it gets me very close. And by picking a contact point that works with a stun and one tip of sidespin I can get pretty consistent results instead of messing with actual draw which can easily be over or underdone.
Finally, on the topic of rail first shots. Rail first shots add a variable and are in general more difficult to control. Now, there are many cases in which they also eliminate other challenges (speed of the hit, establishing the right angle with a rolling ball instead of draw, etc). If the rail first hit eliminates more challenges than it creates it is the right shot. There are clearly many, many times this is the case. And sometimes you need to play shape for an angle that sets up for a rail first hit. Maybe other balls force you to play shape along the rail, or it is the most natural position to obtain from the prior shot. In those cases, yes, know your rail first shots. They are common and should be totally comfortable.
But I wouldn't go so far as to say I prefer them. I can't remember ever shooting a rail first shot with ball in hand. My cue ball is pretty good so I usually get the angle I want, and I don't play rail first as often these days as I used to because I know the other hanging shots so well.
Dr. Dave pointed out that if you want to come out at an angle, play shape to be on a rail, if you want to come out along the rail, play shape for an angle. Do this when possible and you'll be able to get where you're going. If not go rail first and get the job done that way.
OK, that's all I have for now. Mostly just cheering on a great video and celebrating the community we have on AZB. Lucky to be part of it!
