Thanks, I always want to know when someone finds anything inaccurate in what I post. I will correct it to 3 at the moment; please let me know if you find others.
14.1 Stats -- John Schmidt's Run of 434 on Video, December 2018
- Thread starter AtLarge
- Start date
Thanks, I always want to know when someone finds anything inaccurate in what I post. I will correct it to 3 at the moment; please let me know if you find others.
I believe he said afterwards that he thinks it was due to the cue ball hitting a small piece of debris like chalk rather than the table itself.
I don't remember any cleaning of the cue ball until the last full rack. (I don't know whether he wiped if off when he had ball in hand for the break shot for Rack 19.)
In that last rack, John took a timeout after the break shot (made 2 balls) and the racker marked and cleaned the cue ball. They may also have changed the camera memory card at that time. Then, after pocketing 6 more balls, John noticed something on the cue ball, so he marked it and removed whatever it was from the CB.
If you don't watch the whole thing, be sure to watch Rack 18 (go to 55:15). That was one of John's "difficult" racks. He broke from the side of the rack with a low OB. The CB hit just the corner ball in the rack and the separation was poor.
He said it was the best out he's ever had ("easily") and contained what might be the best shot he ever made.
[John is prone to a bit of hyperbole.
]
He said it was the best out he's ever had ("easily") and contained what might be the best shot he ever made.
[John is prone to a bit of hyperbole.
]
John posted on Facebook that it was a "little tiny piece of chalk." Bob Jewett posted in another thread that he doubts that could have been the cause.
We can guess....
I think it was not a small piece of chalk as commented at the time. Those usually cause an abrupt turn at low speed. The cue ball looks like it's curving for a long time.
I did not notice the cue ball doing funny things on other shots. It is possible for a ball to be that out of round, but the problem will show up fairly frequently.
It is also possible that there is an unevenness in the slate. Sometimes slate can develop ridges and valleys if it starts to delaminate. Or, maybe the slate was broken with a crack along the path of the cue ball and the repair was not perfect.
the scratch looks unusual, but doesn't appear to be caused by external factors such as chalk or the table. the cue ball has an insane amount of spin coming down the table; the curve of it is dramatic but entirely consistent with that spin as it slows, and lastly, the pockets are large and have a shallow shelf.
John himself knows where it's going before it gets there, and speaks appropriately to the situation...
the big pockets giveth, and the big pockets taketh away.
John himself knows where it's going before it gets there, and speaks appropriately to the situation...
the big pockets giveth, and the big pockets taketh away.
I did a little geometry on the scratch on the video. If you take the position of the cue ball just after it hits the rack and its position as it passes the side pockets, that line points to a diamond from the scratch pocket or maybe a ball less than a diamond. By the time it crosses the head string, it looks like it has rolled off maybe 3/4 of a ball. By the time is is within a diamond of the head rail, it looks like it's over a ball and a half. It looks like the direction of the cue ball changed by more than 45 degrees between leaving the rack and scratching.
(Technical detail: I think straight lines on the table look like straight lines in the video. That means you can project the path of the cue ball by joining locations from two frames.)
If anyone has video software that can do better measurements, I hope they speak up.
(Technical detail: I think straight lines on the table look like straight lines in the video. That means you can project the path of the cue ball by joining locations from two frames.)
If anyone has video software that can do better measurements, I hope they speak up.
On The TAR YouTube channel pocket size was not only taught but explained. I suggest other spend the 4 minutes watching, very educational.
and your inability to think period has also been noted!
Nobody said this was EASY- but just LOOK at the pockets on that Table- the angle cut is way wide, the pocket shelf is WAY shallow. Just look at how mis hit shots float into those pockets numerous times during the run- 55 years of playing pool and I can clearly see this table being used is A VERY GENEROUS table.
Here is an expanded video of the scratch: https://youtu.be/xBb6Bp496oQ
It looks to me like he has a lot of right side spin on the shot. It also looks like the measle ball is spinning on one of the measles towards the end. If the measle is slightly bulging, the ball can effectively be egg-shaped. A problem like this can only happen when there is enough side spin to keep the bulge on the cloth.
It looks to me like he has a lot of right side spin on the shot. It also looks like the measle ball is spinning on one of the measles towards the end. If the measle is slightly bulging, the ball can effectively be egg-shaped. A problem like this can only happen when there is enough side spin to keep the bulge on the cloth.
I think you go too far with this. Yes, the pockets on this 9' table are generous. But so, apparently, were the pockets on Mosconi's 8' record table. Weren't the mouths on those corner pockets somewhere around 5"? Were the shelves on that table deep or shallow? We don't know. Your two examples of "misses" in the first rack aren't even off by much; I've seen many, many shots pocketed in big pro tournaments recently that hit much farther up the rail than those two did. And no one today has any idea whether Mosconi pocketed any such "misses" in his record run. As for the side pockets on "John's" table, I don't know the specs. But the ball drop is visible on just about any table from the angle of the camera. On a pro-cut Diamond table, the side-pocket ball drop starts just about ¼" back from the nose of the cushion, and it is certainly visible from standing behind the center of an end rail. [Note, I'm not saying the side pockets on "John's" table are anywhere near as difficult as those on a Diamond.]
Last edited:
I can tell you one thing for sure, that is what size my pockets are/were(in storage) they were 4 1/8 to 4 1/4 on a 10' so let's not pretend just cause your table has big pockets, not everybody does.
Jason
a measle dot bulging? I've never felt any of the measle dots bulging or sticking up above the surface to where you can feel them on any of our numerous pro cup measle balls. Surely he's using a nearly new cue ball for this run, or if not, his bad.