Ball skid?
- Thread starter Ak Guy
- Start date
Unexpected extra friction between the cue ball and object ball...usually caused by chalk or other dirt at the point of contact between the two, which causes the cue ball to hop or throw off line. Some think humidity can cause it or make it worse. Cleaning the cue ball every rack (at least with your fingers/rail, getting the obvious chalk marks off) will help a lot with it.
Fairies.
Or just about anything that causes a friction change, dirt, chalk, condensation, sweat from your hands on the balls, could be how the ball is rolling when it hits the object ball. I have seen many miscues cause a skid because the cue ball is not rolling properly or along the cloth.
How about a soft table frame ?
Because the skid comes from the very large forces between the balls during the 200 microseconds of ball-ball contact, the frame, the cloth, the cushions and pretty much everything else in the room will have no effect. If something changes the surfaces of the balls, such as having object balls with lots of chalk spots because someone's been cueing the object balls, then it can have a delayed effect. Maybe some kinds of cloth are better at keeping the balls clean. It is certain that some kinds of chalk stick to and stay on the cue ball longer, and that will increase the frequency of skids.
And "skid" is another pool word you have to be careful with. Everyone here so far uses it to mean what the British call "kick", the Americans sometimes call "cling" and carom players often call "bad contact."
Other people see balls on new cloth and the balls are slow to acquire normal rolling while traveling over the cloth and the people refer to this as "skid." Often you will see this when an object ball rolls straight into a cushion and it comes off the cushion with some of its incoming roll still present and it will appear to slide and turn over maybe a foot from the cushion. That action should not be called "skid" IMNSHO. Call it "slide" or "slip" but not skid.
Other people see balls on new cloth and the balls are slow to acquire normal rolling while traveling over the cloth and the people refer to this as "skid." Often you will see this when an object ball rolls straight into a cushion and it comes off the cushion with some of its incoming roll still present and it will appear to slide and turn over maybe a foot from the cushion. That action should not be called "skid" IMNSHO. Call it "slide" or "slip" but not skid.
takeitdown
Banned
Chalk between cueball and object ball initiates the gearing that breaks friction between the base of the object ball and the cloth. Much easier with new slick Simonis like the pros use.
Topspin on the cueball with a slow hit it the most likely to cause it.
Topspin on the cueball with a slow hit it the most likely to cause it.
I played on a Diamond that was just recently covered and it had a set of cyclops balls on it. The skid on that table was awful.
I don't know if they actually skid more, but that is one hell of a funny name! :thumbup:
A thorough explanation, with numerous video demonstrations, can be found here:
cling/skid/kick resource page
Enjoy,
Dave