(pro) stroke

Bob Jewett

Bob Jewett

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Tony_in_MD said:
Not only new cloth, but the TV table @ the US Open, had a bank of lights that threw off a lot of heat on the table, drying out the cloth, and making it even faster.
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Which reminds me of the opposite which I wrote about in Billiards Digest in 1995:

Friction: Friend And Foe by BOB JEWETT

JULY, 1980. MIKE Sigel and Ronnie Allen. One pocket.

It was the sort of after-hours match everyone at the San Francisco Open had been hoping to see. Or at least everyone interested in clever tactics, precision safety play and a change from the smash-'em-shoot-by-the-numbers 9-ball tournament. It was a night made memorable by two pool legends, head to head in a tough, expensive contest of wit and moves and traps.

About two hours into the match, a third participant arrived: the fog. San Francisco Bay relieves hot, summer days by generating cool fog at night. The damp descended on the table, destroyed stroke, and especially aggravated Allen, who lamented, "It's tough. You know what the ball's supposed to do but it just won't do it."
​

Neither of them could draw the ball.
 
Tennesseejoe

Tennesseejoe

AzB Silver Member
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bbb said:
Timing and accurate hit
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This says a lot....but both are extremely hard to measure. What is the speed of the cue tip? And what is the plane of the tip at impact? Measuring and giving feedback would make learning pool much quicker.
 
Patrick Johnson

Patrick Johnson

Fish of the Day
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FranCrimi said:
...static electricity causes the cloth fibers to stand up more, so very little spin is lost because it kicks in sooner because there's less sliding, thus the backspin kicks in like a rocket.
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Sorry Fran, but I think I'm misunderstanding this - if there's less sliding, doesn't that mean the cloth is less slippery, and so shouldn't there be less draw?

My understanding is that the amount of draw you get depends entirely on the amount of backspin on the CB at the time of contact with the OB - at that point the cloth's slipperiness (and the amount of time the CB "peels out" in place before moving backward) is irrelevant.

pj <- missing something
chgo
 
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BC21

BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
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Patrick Johnson said:
Sorry Fran, but I think I'm misunderstanding this - if there's less sliding, doesn't that mean the cloth is less slippery, and so shouldn't there be less draw?

My understanding is that the amount of draw you get depends entirely on the amount of backspin on the CB at the time of contact with the OB - at that point the cloth's slipperiness (and the amount of time the CB "peels out" in place before moving backward) is irrelevant.

pj <- missing something
chgo
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Yeah....new cloth and very dry cloth allows the balls to slide more, less friction. So when there is less friction between the cb and the table surface, the cb retains more of its backspin and therefore draws back a lot better and faster after it strikes the ob, when compared to hitting the exact same shot (same stroke, same speed, same below center hit on the cb, etc...) on older/dirty cloth.
 
Patrick Johnson

Patrick Johnson

Fish of the Day
Silver Member
BC21 said:
Yeah....new cloth and very dry cloth allows the balls to slide more, less friction. So when there is less friction between the cb and the table surface, the cb retains more of its backspin and therefore draws back a lot better and faster after it strikes the ob, when compared to hitting the exact same shot (same stroke, same speed, same below center hit on the cb, etc...) on older/dirty cloth.
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An interesting (to me) side note...

If the CB hits the OB with the same RPMs of backspin, it doesn't matter how slippery the cloth is - it will "peel out" for different amounts of time but will draw back the same distance. (Of course, cloth slipperiness changes how low/hard you have to hit the CB to give it the same RPMs.)

pj
chgo
 
F

FranCrimi

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Patrick Johnson said:
Sorry Fran, but I think I'm misunderstanding this - if there's less sliding, doesn't that mean the cloth is less slippery, and so shouldn't there be less draw?

My understanding is that the amount of draw you get depends entirely on the amount of backspin on the CB at the time of contact with the OB - at that point the cloth's slipperiness (and the amount of time the CB "peels out" in place before moving backward) is irrelevant.

pj <- missing something
chgo
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree. But when there's hot lights involved, then the cloth is faster (because it's drier) than ordinarily from the start. So even with the additional friction, I think it's still faster. I think it makes a different kind of situation -- faster and once the back spin kicks in --- some really dramatic-looking draw. That's been my experience, and I've played under some really hot lights. I think the hottest were in Atlantic City in the early days of TV filming. No one really knew the proper lighting back then so they just blasted the lights. And they were hot. Of course I'm not a scientist so these are just my unscientific experiences under those types of conditions.
 
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