I tried this on the VP4 simulator - it worked exactly as described: maximum draw at 60° made the CB scoot forward (an amount determined by force) and stop dead with no follow or draw.
There are a few things VP doesn't get quite right mostly because they are very expensive to calculate. One of them is the ball sinking into the cushion.
In general use a masse is a forward moving shot with exaggerated curve. A piquet starts out forward but stops and reverses course. If you've never seen it done its an eye-opener.
I think this counts as a piqué. I learned how to play from Willie Mosconi and this was one of the shots he taught me fairly early on. Mike Massey normally takes the cue ball out to the third diamond before it yo-yos back. Allen Hopkins does it without a cushion and very short travel. To see Willie do it, watch The Hustler.
FYI, a demonstration of how to easily do this can be found in the video here:
A pique shot is an extreme example of quick draw. It is especially useful when a level stroke is not possible without a double hit. For straight-back draw shots where cue elevation is not required, more backspin and draw is possible with a level cue. For an explanation for why this is true, see:
Here's a demonstration with super-slow-motion playback:
Backspin doesn't need to be expressed as anything else. The farther your hit from CB center (relative to the direction of the cue), the more spin is applied. When the cue is elevated, some of the back is lost as the CB is driven down into the table. Also, with an elevated cue, the CB moves forward with less speed, allowing the backspin to "take" more quickly. For more info, see:Lets take the cue ball by itself. Can backspin be expressed as torque and forward momentum, something else; in English not math.
Yes, those are the most familiar examples. But I also think of piquet as a version of masse - which to me is any spin about a horizontal axis causing the CB to change direction without outside influence, with versions ranging from the mini-masse of side spin "swerve" to the swooping curves of trick shots all the way to the "sharp curves" of piquet.
The problem with using lay jargon is it doesn't really mean anything specific. "impact mass and rate" ... what the heck is that supposed to mean? You need to throw in "momentum", "tangential activation", and "phlogiston" to make things complete. Lots of people confuse acceleration and velocity, momentum and force, etc. Those words actually mean something, and if you're going to have a technical discussion, it's better to use them correctly.
The details are in the links already provided. It takes some amount of training, but not beyond high school physics and geometry, to understand them.
