Any Tips On This Shot?

[DrCue'sProtege]

this shot is giving me all kinds of trouble lately. i am talking about the shot where the object ball is in the Jaws of the Pocket, a hanger as its commonly referred to.

anybody have any advice on this shot?
when its right in the middle;
when its a hair to one side or another;
when its not quite hanging, and to one side where you could possibly go off a rail.

any tips would be appreciated.

DCP

 

[drivermaker]

this shot is giving me all kinds of trouble lately. i am talking about the shot where the object ball is in the Jaws of the Pocket, a hanger as its commonly referred to.

anybody have any advice on this shot?
when its right in the middle;
when its a hair to one side or another;
when its not quite hanging, and to one side where you could possibly go off a rail.

any tips would be appreciated.

DCP

First of all, knock the SOB into the hole and don't scratch. But you didn't say what the problem is. Where do you want the CB to go afterwards when it's in those various locations?

 

[DrCue'sProtege]

sorry, scratching is not the problem. i have a hard time controlling the cue ball on this shot, irregardless of where it actually needs to go after the ball is pocketed.

i thought maybe someone out there knew some kind of little tip/secret on how to control whitey in these situations?

DCP

 

[drivermaker]

sorry, scratching is not the problem. i have a hard time controlling the cue ball on this shot, irregardless of where it actually needs to go after the ball is pocketed.

i thought maybe someone out there knew some kind of little tip/secret on how to control whitey in these situations?

DCP

You still haven't said what part of the table you want the CB to go afterwards. It kind of also depends how deep into the pocket the OB is sitting. You can always play rail first, but based on the speed and angle that you're hitting it from, will it get to where you want to go in order to attain position on the next shot? You can just clip the side of the OB in the pocket as if it were an extreme cut shot and it should still fall, and bring the CB off the rail back to the center of the table or whereever you want it to go. You haven't provided enough "next shot" scenarios to be able to tell what to do.

 

[LastTwo]

First you have to acknowledge the fact that on tables with very big pockets, controlling this shot is much harder. The reason why, is that if the ball is deep in the hole, you have a very big chance of the cueball catching the horn and going the wrong way. On normal sized pockets, all you really have to do is know how the rails play. Practice the shot alot. There is so much you can do with it really, when you are playing on normal sized pockets. Hit the ball thin, it will come off at a sharp angle, hit it thick, it comes off at a wide angle. Practice hitting it rail-first, with all different types of spin. Knowing these shots very well is a huge part of pattern play, especially 9-ball. Sometimes you will see a player shoot a combination where their objective is to leave the object ball they contacted first hanging in the hole where the other ball is, and they will shoot that shot instead of shooting the ball into an open pocket. They usually do that to give them many more options to move the cueball around the table. Practice makes perfect.

 

[chefjeff]

this shot is giving me all kinds of trouble lately. i am talking about the shot where the object ball is in the Jaws of the Pocket, a hanger as its commonly referred to.

anybody have any advice on this shot?
when its right in the middle;
when its a hair to one side or another;
when its not quite hanging, and to one side where you could possibly go off a rail.

any tips would be appreciated.

DCP

When practicing, throw a paper coaster on the table and let it land wherever. Then set up the shot and practice various ways of getting the cueball to end up near/on the coaster. Move the coaster and try some more.

You'll discover that if you use the rail for help, the cueball will have more speed. Also, you'll discover that using just draw, with no rail, is very effective for many jawed object ball shots.

I spent about a week doing these exercises and it improved my position play about 30% on this shot. There is no magical answer (sorry) except practicing it, IMHO.

Jeff Livingston

 

[Williebetmore]

DCP,
I would have to disagree with the above posters. This shot should be a piece of cake to make and put the cueball anywhere you want on the table, 99% of the time. The first time I had a lesson with Jerry Briesath, he set this shot up (object ball hanging in corner pocket)and asked me how often I could get position on the next ball, 9 feet at the other end of the table in the middle of the short rail. I thought I could do it most of the time, but when I tried I failed several times. In 10 minutes he showed me how to get position from any cue ball position to any place on the table, and it works 99 times out of 100 (even for an average player). It's a little hard to describe in 10,000 words or less, but I could show you in 10 or 20 minutes (I bet Tom Rossman could show you better than I) - if you are ever in Indy drop me a note and we can play some and I'll show you. Jerry called this shot "the professional's friend, and the amateur's nightmare." I used to fear it, now it's a sure thing.

 

[drivermaker]

Not long ago you were asking about Bert Kinister tapes. I don't have it, but I do know he made one specifically for these shots. Anybody who's seen that tape know how good it is?

 

[sjm]

this shot is giving me all kinds of trouble lately. i am talking about the shot where the object ball is in the Jaws of the Pocket, a hanger as its commonly referred to.

anybody have any advice on this shot?
when its right in the middle;
when its a hair to one side or another;
when its not quite hanging, and to one side where you could possibly go off a rail.

any tips would be appreciated.

DCP

DCP, others in this thread have already given outstanding answers to your question, but I'd like to add one point.

When playing shape off a hanger, it's easy to get lazy in your aim, not being careful enough about hitting the exact part of the object ball you want. This is more of an issue when the object ball is a few feet away or more. Hitting a third of a ball will cause a very different position path than hitting a quarter of a ball.

I've noticed that many who struggle with position play off hangers when the object ball isn't close, have a tendency to use slow-to-medium speed with maximum english more than is necessary. The problem, and far too many don't even realize it, is that the cue ball curves on the way to the object ball, and while this won't produce a miss on a hanger, it will cause some inaccurate hits of the object ball, thereby bringing an extra variable into the position play equation.

My advice, therefore, is that, where practical, it's best to use little or no english to ensure an accurate hit of the object ball.

DCP, I'm guessing that you're struggling with your position play off of hangers because your hit on the object ball is not accurate enough.

Good luck with your game.

 

[sjm]

Adding to my last post, the game "Target Pool" has a course in which the focus is playing shape off balls hanging in the pocket.

 

[Bob Jewett]

this shot is giving me all kinds of trouble lately. i am talking about the shot where the object ball is in the Jaws of the Pocket, a hanger as its commonly referred to.

You already have the basic ways to play the shot, so I think you just need practice. As others mentioned, it's easy to take the shot for granted. One way to practice it is as a proposition/challenge against a sparring partner or The Ghost, as described in an On The Break article.

You may want to start the balls in an easier position, or a variety of positions.

Don't overlook coming off the point of the pocket -- sometimes it's the best choice depending on where you have to take the cue ball and the size of the pocket.

 

[mjantti]

Sjm has made an important note here. You may easily get too comfortable with the hanger and your aim is not as accurate as it should be and your position play suffers from this. Also, if I need to make the cueball travel a lot, I almost all the time use a very thin cut on the object ball and avoid using excess speed. I find it very easy to control the cueball if I hit the hanger thinly. And with a hanger, I never want to play follow, except if I want to leave the cueball near the pocket. The follow tends to kill the cueball and thus making it harder to control...

I've noticed that some of the Diamond tables I've played tend to leave the ball much deeper between the jaws compared to Brunswicks etc. It is extremely annoying if my cueball is near the cushion and I can see less than half of the object ball which is hanging deep in the jaws of the pocket. Then it's almost impossible to get a good hit and avoid hitting the jaw with the cueball.

Oh, and it's quite easy to control the cueball if you hit the ball rail first with running English, although there is only one path the cueball usually has after the contact but it's very useful sometimes.