Alignment on shots with English

M

MiscueBlues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I use one of them pendulum strokes and a very slight knee bend in my stance...

I'm not sure how I should go about getting ready to shoot a shot with English.

Do I just get down on the shot aligned slightly to the side for the spin?

Or do the pivot method... Then when do I pivot in my psr? And do I pivot with my knees? That's the only way that feels right. I've heard pivot your back hand... But then my hand finishes at a different spot in my stroke and everything feels off...

I'm trying to get a feel for shots with English but just trying to shoot a basic shot consistently is really hard because nothing I've tried feels right, I know there's all kinds of deflection and throw that I have to account for but I'm having trouble getting any kind of consistent result and I'm pretty sure the problem is in the alignment.

Any advice? Or know a good YouTube video?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
English

If you have a cue that results in a lot of deflection, then I suggest the pivot method.

Line up the shot as if you were shooting without English, then simply pivot your back hand the opposite direction of the desired English. But first you need to find what distance your pivot point is. Setup a straight in shot and try to do stop shots with left or right English. If you are using left English and the cue ball is going to the right of the object ball then adjust your bridge hand/length slightly closer to the object ball and repeat. If you are using left English and the cue ball is going to the left of the object ball then adjust your bridge hand/length slightly further from the object ball and repeat. Continue this until you can get stop shots with side spin.
 
Plenty of stuff on various resources regarding application of spin and compensating techniques. Check out Dr. Dave's site, many threads here, excellent stuff by Joe Tucker on YouTube.

Regarding getting down on the shot, people do it differently. When I teach, I try to break it down and show people how to do it mechanically, but the end goal is for them to get down on the shot with their english pre-applied and pivoted appropriately. That's how I do it but obviously that takes practice, knowledge of your equipment and the effects you are compensating for, etc.

When doing it mechanically, using backhand or front hand english pivot techniques (or a blend), you need to pivot at some point. I would approach the shot as normal via center ball, then you can either pivot first and then take warm up strokes and shoot, or take your warm up strokes first and then pivot and shoot. The second method minimizes the "weird" feeling of aiming somewhere other than where you are looking. Some people combine the two, taking warm up strokes, pivoting, then taking another stroke or two to really hone in on the shot before shooting.

As for the actual pivot, you just need a small rolling of your bridge (for front hand english) and/or a small movement of your back hand (for back hand english). You don't really want to realign your hips or stance to the new direction, you just shoot down the new line. It may feel weird at first but it does work as an estimate at least, no pivot will be perfect, you will still need to take into account small adjustments based on distance or speed. As I said, the end result of this experimentation and lots of practice is you are able to just get down on the shot with the correct adjustments already dialed in and ready to shoot, and when you get to that point then your body, eyes, etc. are in alignment and you can move beyond the mechanical pivoting techniques.

Scott
 
English is best used in more than slight amounts only when the object ball is quite close to a pocket. Be cautious! There are usually a half-dozen options for working a cue ball without english for a shot.
 
RWOJO said:
If you have a cue that results in a lot of deflection, then I suggest the pivot method.

Line up the shot as if you were shooting without English, then simply pivot your back hand the opposite direction of the desired English. But first you need to find what distance your pivot point is. Setup a straight in shot and try to do stop shots with left or right English. If you are using left English and the cue ball is going to the right of the object ball then adjust your bridge hand/length slightly closer to the object ball and repeat. If you are using left English and the cue ball is going to the left of the object ball then adjust your bridge hand/length slightly further from the object ball and repeat. Continue this until you can get stop shots with side spin.
Click to expand...

What do you propose he's supposed to do when shooting a longer/shorter shot or shooting harder/softer than the shot he originally used as his baseline?

To the OP, if you are serious about learning the game and aren't married to your present cue then do yourself a big favor and invest in a low deflection shaft. It will allow for quicker progress. FH, BH or parallel, the amount of table time needed to get a feel for all the adjustments needed when using a conventional shaft is immense. With a LD shaft there are virtually no adjustments necessary except when dealing with extremes of speed and sidespin.
 
BilliardsAbout said:
English is best used in more than slight amounts only when the object ball is quite close to a pocket. Be cautious! There are usually a half-dozen options for working a cue ball without english for a shot.
Click to expand...

Could you please elaborate on this. I had no idea there were so many. Thanks
 
MiscueBlues said:
I use one of them pendulum strokes and a very slight knee bend in my stance...

I'm not sure how I should go about getting ready to shoot a shot with English.

Do I just get down on the shot aligned slightly to the side for the spin?

Or do the pivot method... Then when do I pivot in my psr? And do I pivot with my knees? That's the only way that feels right. I've heard pivot your back hand... But then my hand finishes at a different spot in my stroke and everything feels off...

I'm trying to get a feel for shots with English but just trying to shoot a basic shot consistently is really hard because nothing I've tried feels right, I know there's all kinds of deflection and throw that I have to account for but I'm having trouble getting any kind of consistent result and I'm pretty sure the problem is in the alignment.

Any advice? Or know a good YouTube video?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...



I use pivot English quite a bit.
I pivot with my hips, like a Hula Hoop.

randyg
 
sparkle84 said:
What do you propose he's supposed to do when shooting a longer/shorter shot or shooting harder/softer than the shot he originally used as his baseline?

To the OP, if you are serious about learning the game and aren't married to your present cue then do yourself a big favor and invest in a low deflection shaft. It will allow for quicker progress. FH, BH or parallel, the amount of table time needed to get a feel for all the adjustments needed when using a conventional shaft is immense. With a LD shaft there are virtually no adjustments necessary except when dealing with extremes of speed and sidespin.
Click to expand...

A low deflection shaft is not a no deflection shaft - there's always deflection when hitting the cue ball off of the vertical center. No matter what kind of cue he has, he's going to have to learn to make these adjustments with it. Yes, it makes a difference, but it's not going to eliminate the need to learn how to adjust for deflection.

And honestly, some of us shoot a lot better with regular maple shafts.

OP, I use back hand English for pretty much everything. Once you get a feel for it, it becomes almost automatic. Try a few of the different ideas here and see what works for you. In the long run, anything that you practice enough to get used to will work just fine.
 
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