regardless of your system why are backcuts seemingly tougher

bbb

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
regardless of your system why are backcuts seemingly tougher
your thoughts appreciated.....:wink:
(any tips to make them appreciated...:thumbup:)
 

One Pocket John

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Because you can't see the pocket when down in the shooting position.

You have to see the cut shot perception of the angle from the standing position, bend down on that line and then shoot. Don't try to steer just shoot straight down the shot line.

If you miss, take note of how you missed. Was it short or long. In either case, your perception of the cut angle may be off and you will have to adjust.

Hope this helps.

John
 
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jamesjr1963

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
regardless of your system why are backcuts seemingly tougher
your thoughts appreciated.....:wink:
(any tips to make them appreciated...:thumbup:)


Shoot better position, play safe, or know how to miss the shot so you don't sell out.
 

ENGLISH!

Banned
Silver Member
Hi Larry,

DTL is correct.

It was my post regarding the fact the I had just noticed that I started missing some shots in one direction that led Gene to invite me to call him.

I then found out that FOR POOL I am left eye dominant. I had always 'known' that I was right eye dominant.

I don't really know if I have always been cross dominant & did not know it or if it developed later in life after my slight eye accident.

Anyway, DTL is correct.

Also John is correct too about the pocket being out of the sight line, so to speak.

Best 2 Ya,
Rick
 

Straightpool_99

I see dead balls
Silver Member
Because you can't see the pocket when down in the shooting position.
Agree 100%.

You have to see the cut shot perception of the angle from the standing position, bend down on that line and then shoot. Don't try to steer just shoot straight down the shot line.
Good advice.

If you miss, take note of how you missed. Was it short or long. In either case, your perception of the cut angle may be off and you will have to adjust.

Hope this helps.
John

It was a good post. I think it might help some people if they actually read it. With an open mind. I'd like to add only one thing: If you find yourself missing a lot of blind cuts try going straight down into the shot and shoot it with no warmup strokes at all. If you are way off on many shots, you have "grooved" the wrong aim, and need to retrain yourself on these shots. Rework you starting foot/body position on the shots (using information gained by the above procedure) and try again. If it looks wrong to you but still goes in, you have confirmation.
 

ENGLISH!

Banned
Silver Member
Larry,

If I am correct to assume that you're missing these, are you generally under cutting them or over cutting them.

I think many generally wind up undercutting these. The reason could be CIT as to me it is more so away from the pocket than in a 'normal' cut.

When I 'aim' these normally I almost always hit them with outside english unless shape dictates not. Then I usually wind up hitting them with inside english but I make sure to cut them more than what I would think because the inside english combines with the CIT.

I hope you find something to help either here or elsewhere.

Best 2 You,
Rick
 

Mikjary

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Tap, tap, tap to the posters in this thread. Solid info, all! :thumbup:

Best,
Mike
 

LAMas

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Good question.

If you can't see the pocket as with thick cuts, then thin cuts are all back cuts?

If you have mastered an aiming system/s for all cut angles, just recognize/recall the solution for that cut (angle if you will).

I use my stick to verify the line to the pocket and another line from the CB to the GB and recognize the included angle and recall the solution.

I also use the stick to line up the CP2CP parallel shift the cut to the center of the CB,

That's just me.

Be well.
 

Mikjary

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Good question.

If you can't see the pocket as with thick cuts, then thin cuts are all back cuts?

If you have mastered an aiming system/s for all cut angles, just recognize/recall the solution for that cut (angle if you will).

I use my stick to verify the line to the pocket and another line from the CB to the GB and recognize the included angle and recall the solution.

I also use the stick to line up the CP2CP parallel shift the cut to the center of the CB,

That's just me.

Be well.

Something shown to me years ago made my back cuts easier. In reality, the only difference in a back cut versus a regular cut is not looking at the pocket. It's the same angle, CIT, throw, etc. We just don't have a good line on the pocket because we're looking away.

A mental trick is to imagine the object ball is next to the rail and the rail leads to the pocket. I imagine the ball is a half inch or so off of the rail and I'm cutting it down the rail. The rail will be easier to follow than a line through the contact point. A rail is a familiar known image to you instead of an image of a line or track.

Best,
Mike
 

LAMas

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Something shown to me years ago made my back cuts easier. In reality, the only difference in a back cut versus a regular cut is not looking at the pocket. It's the same angle, CIT, throw, etc. We just don't have a good line on the pocket because we're looking away.

A mental trick is to imagine the object ball is next to the rail and the rail leads to the pocket. I imagine the ball is a half inch or so off of the rail and I'm cutting it down the rail. The rail will be easier to follow than a line through the contact point. A rail is a familiar known image to you instead of an image of a line or track.

Best,
Mike

Mike,

OBs near frozen to the rail are a challenge for the pocket mouth is small. On the tables that I play on (4.0") if I hit the rail on the way to it, it can touch the far side pocket face of the pocket and rattle. If I over cut and it hits the far side face and also rattles.

So I take extra time to get them right. When I get them right, I use the stick next to the side of the OB to the pocket and imagine that it is the rail - on other shots where the OB is not near the rail.

Be well.
 

cookie man

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Something shown to me years ago made my back cuts easier. In reality, the only difference in a back cut versus a regular cut is not looking at the pocket. It's the same angle, CIT, throw, etc. We just don't have a good line on the pocket because we're looking away.

A mental trick is to imagine the object ball is next to the rail and the rail leads to the pocket. I imagine the ball is a half inch or so off of the rail and I'm cutting it down the rail. The rail will be easier to follow than a line through the contact point. A rail is a familiar known image to you instead of an image of a line or track.

Best,
Mike

Thats a nice trick i learned a few years ago.
 

SmoothStroke

Swim for the win.
Silver Member
Shoot better position, play safe, or know how to miss the shot so you don't sell out.

How would you make the shot if your opponet left you the back cut?
Safety is not an option, today we play runout pool, tomorrow we can play safe.

How would you aim it if you had to back cut it into to a corner pocket, go three rails with extreme inside spin, using a punch stroke to alter the tangent line, to beat the scratch in the opposit corner. Be careful you may scratch in the bottom corner also.

The old "Aka" back cut inside out around the world hibbitty do bop shot with full turbo.
 

claymont

JADE
Gold Member
Silver Member
Use CTE or 90/90, you don't have to worry about the pocket. Works for me;) I treat backcuts as just another shot that has to be made nothing more.
 

BilliardsAbout

BondFanEvents.com
Silver Member
A trick to get your cue aligned without english so you can "see" the cut:

Stand on the combined "parallel points" for backwards cuts (the cue ball cp and the ob cp) with the stick on that line then pivot stroke your stroke hand to center ball.
 

336Robin

Multiverse Operative
Silver Member
Because you can't see the pocket when down in the shooting position.

You have to see the cut shot perception of the angle from the standing position, bend down on that line and then shoot. Don't try to steer just shoot straight down the shot line.

If you miss, take note of how you missed. Was it short or long. In either case, your perception of the cut angle may be off and you will have to adjust.

Hope this helps.

John

I have to agree with John on this. There are a lot of those in One Pocket and many times its a long way to the hole. Being off just a tad at a distance is a lot by the time throw gets involved. Either play for the throw to the outside of the pocket or stroke just enough to cancel some of it, before you attempt assisting english
 

Patrick Johnson

Fish of the Day
Silver Member
A mental trick is to imagine the object ball is next to the rail and the rail leads to the pocket.
I think this gets to the real problem: with a backcut you not only don't see the pocket, you also don't see the rails that point to the pocket. These visual cues are extremely important - it's how the "shooting from behind a curtain" trick is done (it doesn't have anything to do with your aiming system).

pj
chgo
 

336Robin

Multiverse Operative
Silver Member
I think this gets to the real problem: with a backcut you not only don't see the pocket, you also don't see the rails that point to the pocket. These visual cues are extremely important - it's how the "shooting from behind a curtain" trick is done (it doesn't have anything to do with your aiming system).

pj
chgo

The Truth! Oh no! We can't deal with it. Call the wahmbulance! Nice Post Pat!
 

Pidge

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
People struggle with back cuts for a variety of reasons. Firstly you don't have the pocket in your peripheral vision. Secondly the cushions aren't of much use to you reference-wise. Thirdly they're usually rather thin cuts and a lot of people look at the OB on these shots. This causes you to steer the cue towards where you're looking when your cue should be aimed outside of the OB.

The trick I use for these shots, and I actually do It on every shot, is once down, before feathering starts, I pick out what my tip is aimed at. So on a back cut that's say a 1/4 ball pot my tip will be aimed outside of the OB. I will pick a spot on the rail where my tip is pointing at and look at this when about to pull the trigger.

To check if it is your aim or stroke causing you to miss you can aim, get down and don't hit the cue ball. Just locate a point on the rail where the tip is aiming at and out a piece of chalk there. Then place a ball as the ghost ball and get down aiming at the ghost ball. If the chalk is directly behind the centre of the ghost ball it isn't your aim, its your cueing action.
 
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