14.1 Hail Mary Shots

[LWW]

I think that a lot of the 1970s players would not take a 70% shot and would instead play safe. When you have been playing a lot of 99%+ shots, a shot you might miss one in three looks pretty scary. However, if you instead go into a safety battle with no lock-up safety to start with, you are probably around 50% to get the first runnable position. That is a mistake. You should take the 70% path rather than the 50% path.

That is simple statistics, but often missed. I agree 100%.

It's like punting on 4th down.

 

[HueblerHustler7]

It seems to me that back when 14.1 was king, up through the 1960s or so, the best players (Mosconi, Greenleaf, Caras, Lassiter, Crane, etc.) tended to play safe when the shooter got out of line and without a reasonable shot. Hard to say as there aren't many videos of those times. Today it seems that the pros just hate giving up the table and they are more likely to take a lower percentage "Hail Mary" shot than play safety.

What do you think? Were there some of the old great players that took plenty of high risk shots? Does the fact that the current equipment makes it easier to break the balls shed any light?

This game is still my favorite and I practice often. I get out of line more often than I'd like so I don't hesitate to look for a Hail Mary shot to keep the run going. I have nothing to lose. Finding these shots are good for the imagination and they're fun to try.

Here's a video of about 30 of these shots, all made on the first attempt.

Love this post, opens my eyes out to many many more possibilities! Thank you!

 

[center pocket]

I really enjoyed that video. Got me thinking how to get onto a wired ball in the rack. Often i will find one but can't get to it from the proper angle/direction. Thanks for posting.