Colin Colenso said:
Hey Larry,
In your article about 'balls' at your website www.fastlarrypool.com you talk about polishing your cue ball and keeping object balls unpolished.
I would have thought that polishing the cue ball would make it hard to get grip on, especially deep screw and masse shots. What's your thinking and experience with this.
Also, here in China they are always cleaning the balls by sloshing them around in towel. Seems to keep them pretty shiny. I've noticed when I try to play some tricks using planted balls that I can hardly get them to move off their line. Amost no friction occuring. They will still turn if I hit directly on with side, but not if I hit 3/4 ball. In my snooker experience I used to get quite a bit of deviation this way.
I was thinking it may because of the extra weight of the 2 1/4" balls, but now I wonder if the cleaning could be the cause. What do you think?
Colin
Fast Larry has dirty balls.
FL SINGS LIKE A CANARY AND TELLS IT LIKE IT IS...
Dirty balls throw better than clean balls, so I would never wash or clean my object balls where they were now squeaky clean, it would throw off everything I know. My balls are really clean;
When they get a smudge on them I wipe it off with a towel. When people hit my object with their cue tip to send it back down to me to rack I have a cow, I do not want anything new being added to them and chalk dust is the last thing I want on them. Eat lunch with me, hamburgers and French fries, I make you go wash your hands with soap, I don't want the grease on my balls either.
Any where I go in the world my hand selected set of Rashigs and Centennials go with me. This vital part of the game I control. I don’t want them getting cleaner or dirtier. I want them staying exactly the same so they throw and react the same every day and don’t change on me. I am of course cognizant of the fact most people want and like balls cleaned with Windex or ran through a ball polishing machine and having a shine.
some are neat nicks and some are what I call gadjet people, they love buying gadjets in any sport. When I say all you need to do is wipe down your shaft every night with a slightly damp cloth and wipe your object balls off with a dry towel, this is free, does not cost any money. It's too easy and simple for these people to believe so they dismiss it and listen to those selling the gadjets. Some gadjets work and I use them, some don't and all I do is try and tell you the good from the bad.
My cue ball is a new super pro aramith; a red circle is good also.
It is highly polished and hot. For general play and for my trick shot shows that is all I use, the ball off the shelf, I do not do anything to it, don't have to, it's fine as it is. Everyone should buy one and carry it in your cue case. When you go into a room that produces a bad cue ball, use yours, then your deep screws work and do not fail as cheap cue balls often do. Break with the house cue ball, then switch and play with your new ball. Soon the hot outer polish on your new cue ball will wear off. You have two choices then, buy a new one or begin to polish and doctor up your old one. The hotter the cue ball, the higher the outer polish on it the less resistance it will have on the cloth and the better and longer your deep screws and draws will run.
You will produce more English coming off the rails and have more success and fun in your game. If you want to wax it and polish, spray it with WD 40, let that dry and polish that, that’s Ok also. WD 40 is silicone spray but it is not greasy. Most ball polisher creams have silicone in them as well as McGuires does. If you are just playing and wanting to show off your big screw or draw to your pals, go for it. Doctor the cue ball, have some fun. In any tournament and in our Artistic Events no doctoring of the cue ball is ever allowed.
For Masses I doctor it by using a ball polisher cream, let it dry, highly buff, then carnauba hard white wax, dry and polish, Then I put on a coat of McGuire’s liquid wax and repeat the process, let dry and hand polish and then coat with silicone spray, something greasy, I leave it on over night then wipe it off the next day. For the show I spray WD 40 in the bottom of a ball tray, I can take the cue ball and dip it into it and that is where I want it, on the bottom so it's hot taking off. I don't want the top of the ball where my tip strikes wet, the tip will miss cue. I can also pick up the ball, dip the tip of my finger in the wd40 and do a wipe on the bottom of the ball and nobody really see's what I am doing.
For the standard Masses I do not have to doctor the ball, but for these real stunning artistic masses, you cannot make the shot if you do not.
When I first came on az and ccb and tried to explain why dirty balls were better than clean balls the people making and the dealers selling ball polishing machines ganged up on me and put me through a total denunciation and degrading, it was pretty rough. Dozens came on to say I was wrong and did not know anything. I had said you do not have to spend hundreds of dollars for this machine and endless creams and supplies, just wipe off the balls at night with a towel, it's faster and costs no money to do so.
That was a threat to the establishment and I had told thousands of rooms who had bought this machine they had made a mistake. Those people did not like hearing that, so it was easier to gang up to shut up my mouth than admit I was right and they had been sold a worthless thing. The rhadamanthine, the guy making the ball polishing machines has to say I am nuts, do not listen to this mad man, listen to me, buy my worthless product and now have to buy my supplies for life.
The general base of players went along with this attack on me because nobody stood up for me then. I hit them with new data and new facts they had never heard before. Any time you do that, people do come down on you. When the general board does not know, the majority will go along with the general line of what’s being said.
I am a Sexagenarian and have now acquired knowledge that extends over a half century of actual pool and billiards experience. I have learned a lot and am simply trying to pass that on to others. Many now realize everyone else has their mouths zipped shut, these people will not tell you nothing of value. When they did, they got crucified. So now, they say nothing.
There is a thread now at the bottom fast going away called shaft cleaning. I put in my little blurb clean free with a damp washrag and I'll be damn, one guy said I was right. Apparently I won one guy over during that last rumble, maybe more. You go on that thread and there are 19 guys saying do it this way 19 different ways. Some are right, some are wrong, many will work just fine, some will not. Who has the time or the experience to sort all of this out, that is where I come in and that is why people are asking me questions or bringing things in to me to explain. There are too many experts on these boards with too many opinions and people get flat out confused. There is, only one guy, telling it like it is.
I am the only one speaking out freely and not being controlled by anyone. I am in no body's pocket. I am truly telling it like it is and you are getting the true and inside story on everything in pool. For every person who want’s that and seeks this, there is a person who want’s to stop that and to shut that source off. The way they do it is to convince you that this person is some loose cannon who is off his rocker and just escaped from some Looney tune farm. Don’t listen to him they tell you, every one knows, he does not know squat. He's a fraud, a phony who can't run 3 balls. That is how pool works. This dirty ball affair I went through was a beautiful study of these people at work. I got rode hard and put up wet on that one for sure.
