Any Masse experts out there?

B

BFrench501

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm always trying to learn more fun things about pool and watching the likes of Venom and Steve Markle have got me curious about extreme masse. I have a few questions, maybe somebody can help me out here :)

I use an 18.5oz cue with 12.25mm tip, Soft Black heart. Is it possible to do some of the masses these guys do with such a cue? I'm not talking about ridiculous masses off several balls, just a couple of masses similar to the ones shown on the Eagletrickshot collaboration.

If so, what table conditions are required? Do you need a specially heated slate or will a normal table suffice?

Any tips for getting into a good stance, because I feel uncomfortable sitting on table at the minute and my shots are inconsistent.

I realise I sound like a noob asking about this kind of thing, but I like to take in new information and anything that can possibly help me in a future scenario is worth learning - to a point!

Cheers
Baz
 
There's really only so much equipment can do for you. If you're looking for one shot without future consideration in mind (your next shot will have a depressed tip making it more prone to a miscue), then an ideal set up would be a soft tip (longer contact with the cue-ball), a heavier cue (this will vary person to person) to assist with acceleration through the ball and a shaft with some good deflection to get out of the way of the ball.

It's all going to boil down to practice and stroke though. This is also for being jacked up close to 90 degrees, things get different the less you have to do with the ball.

These are ideal circumstances for a masse', but far from ideal for real world scenarios. It should give you a decent idea of the physics though.
 
BFrench501 said:
I'm always trying to learn more fun things about pool and watching the likes of Venom and Steve Markle have got me curious about extreme masse. I have a few questions, maybe somebody can help me out here :)

I use an 18.5oz cue with 12.25mm tip, Soft Black heart. Is it possible to do some of the masses these guys do with such a cue? I'm not talking about ridiculous masses off several balls, just a couple of masses similar to the ones shown on the Eagletrickshot collaboration.

If so, what table conditions are required? Do you need a specially heated slate or will a normal table suffice?

Any tips for getting into a good stance, because I feel uncomfortable sitting on table at the minute and my shots are inconsistent.

I realise I sound like a noob asking about this kind of thing, but I like to take in new information and anything that can possibly help me in a future scenario is worth learning - to a point!

Cheers
Baz
Click to expand...
Well there are several things that make your masse techinque good. First all the pros shoot with a masse cue which is much shorter and little havier. I prefer to shoot with Kamui Black Super Soft it gives you more than enough spin. The cue ball has to be clean and i prefer to use the Aramith Pro Cup Qball. You have to find a comfortable bridge style for you. I hope it helps.

Iulian-The Eagle
 
EAGLETRICKSHOTS said:
Well there are several things that make your masse techinque good. First all the pros shoot with a masse cue which is much shorter and little havier. I prefer to shoot with Kamui Black Super Soft it gives you more than enough spin. The cue ball has to be clean and i prefer to use the Aramith Pro Cup Qball. You have to find a comfortable bridge style for you. I hope it helps.

Iulian-The Eagle
Click to expand...
Also use the same leg as the bridge hand you shoot with to put in on the table so you can make your stroke more stable.
 
There are a few fundamental things you should understand for a masse. They are
(1) direction of cue (where the cue ball will go)
(2) angle of cue (affects relationship of forward motion vs spin imparted to cue ball)
(3) offset of cue with respect to center of cue ball (what kind of spin is on the cue)
(4) speed of stroke (combined with 1-3, this dictates how far the ball will go on any path, how much spin it will have, etc).

This is much easier to show, but I'll try to explain how it works. If you have your cue at just under 90 degrees (say 80) and - looking down at the cue ball as a clock face - let's say your cue is contacting at 6:00, you are imparting "backspin" to the cue ball. So the cue will travel forward for a little while (perhaps until it hits something) and then return close to the same line. If your cue is at 45 degrees, it will travel farther forward. Of course, the harder you hit it, the farther it will go.

If you are still at 80 degrees and hit at 3:00, you are putting right spin on the cue ball. The cue will go forward for a little bit and then curve to the right. If it hits something dead on, it might stop completely and then turn right.

It is the combination of angle, offset, direction and speed that dictate where the ball will end up. There are a few other tricks to understanding how this all interplays. Some folks teach drawing a mental line from the center of the cue ball to the offset to get an general line of where the cue ball will travel. This is particularly helpful for half masses and slow roll masses.

Extreme masse shots (over 60 or 70 degrees) require a firm bridge.

If you have a home table and want to practice extreme masses shots, I suggest putting your cue ball overhanging a corner pocket just slightly and hitting the ball up table, trying to scratch in the other (short rail) corner pocket. Say, around the foot spot. Try scooting around 1 ball at first, then a couple, then 10. If your equipment is good, you should eventually be able to clear the footspot and a bit more.

If I had a bit more motivation, I'd draw up some diagrams. Heck, Dr. Dave may already have some available. Like many things in pool, it's not hard to explain or understand, but can be very difficult to execute.

-td
 
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