BHE explained on Video

Colin Colenso

Colin Colenso

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've had a bunch of people ask me to try to explain Back Hand English....or Aim & Pivot aiming in a more simple way.

So today I produced a 30 minute video introducing the basic concepts.

It's not the best quality in the world, and I make a couple of errors such as calling the cue ball the object ball a few times (I was using an OB as the CB so the spin was more visible, so I got confused...lol).

Anyway, I hope it answers some questions for those of you who can't follow the complex descriptions in text.

Here's the video:
http://www.cue-tv.com/blog/_archives/2006/8/8/2209739.html

Colin
 
That is awesome! You have shown me more in the first 2 minutes of that vidoe, then I've learned in 20 days of reading in the BHE threads! thanks.
 
Snorks said:
That is awesome! You have shown me more in the first 2 minutes of that vidoe, then I've learned in 20 days of reading in the BHE threads! thanks.
Click to expand...

That's great Snorks,
very happy to know that this video is much easier to decifer than the endless discussions in type.

btw: For those who watch this video, it might be helpful to also watch this short video which shows how the Object Ball Throw Angle varies for different spins and speeds.

That will help you to make sense of the BHE video.

Watch it here:
http://www.cue-tv.com/blog/_archives/2006/8/8/2209796.html

Colin
 
Colin Colenso said:
I've had a bunch of people ask me to try to explain Back Hand English....or Aim & Pivot aiming in a more simple way.

So today I produced a 30 minute video introducing the basic concepts.

It's not the best quality in the world, and I make a couple of errors such as calling the cue ball the object ball a few times (I was using an OB as the CB so the spin was more visible, so I got confused...lol).

Anyway, I hope it answers some questions for those of you who can't follow the complex descriptions in text.

Here's the video:
http://www.cue-tv.com/blog/_archives/2006/8/8/2209739.html

Colin
Click to expand...
Great job. I only got 5 minutes in (just to make sure that you're doing it right;) ). I would like to see you slide your bridge hand forward after pivoting so that people understand that the bridge length and the pivot length are not mutually inclusive.

Do you do that later on in the video?

Fred
 
Excellent Colin.

And you didn't need to make any apologies about what you said either. The explanations were put in a way that anyone could understand what you were explaining. As a matter of fact your explanations were so good that it didn't matter that the video was so blurred. You could still see the effect because of your explanation.

Very well done. With better video it would be sellable.

JR
 
Thanks Colin

The best information that I have ever received and I got it for free. Have spent thousands on books and videos that don't come close to what you shown. Never knew why I was missing shots. Thought maybe my aim was off. Now I know.

If you ever put out a video I will sure buy it.
 
Cornerman said:
Great job. I only got 5 minutes in (just to make sure that you're doing it right;) ). I would like to see you slide your bridge hand forward after pivoting so that people understand that the bridge length and the pivot length are not mutually inclusive.

Do you do that later on in the video?

Fred
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Hi Fred,
I was surprised at how much time I used up with the demonstations I provided.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to get deeper into other areas such as ajdustments for bridge length, reverse swipe, longer shots, consideration of swerve and some other shots that I find BHE particularly useful for, and for discussing the relevance of what we can learn from BHE and throw as it pertains to stroking errors and some of the myths of stroking errors and their relationship with aiming / alignment.

I did mention a few of these briefly, but they deserve a dedicated section, so I'll have to put together a small series.

Colin
 
TheBook said:
Thanks Colin

The best information that I have ever received and I got it for free. Have spent thousands on books and videos that don't come close to what you shown. Never knew why I was missing shots. Thought maybe my aim was off. Now I know.

If you ever put out a video I will sure buy it.
Click to expand...
Thanks TheBook,
That's quite a compliment...not sure what to say:o

But generally, on this topic at least I have to agree with you. There is very little out there to explain Aim & Pivot, BHE, Pivot Point and Throw and how it can all work together.

I basically have been piecing the various bits of information together for the past couple of years and doing a lot of thinking and experimentation myself to come up with a good way to explain it and ways to effectively implement this knowledge into my game.

I've never minded giving away my ideas for free. They often come back battered and better in the process anyway:D But I do plan to produce this type of video in a more professional way, and with additional explanations with text and diagrams in the not so distant future, into something that will be an easy to use study guide that I will charge a reasonably low price for.

Heck, people can copy stuff pretty easily anyway, so if I can keep it below 15 bucks I figure they wouldn't bother with all the downloading etc to save a few bucks.

I just wish I knew this stuff 20 years ago. It would have saved me a lot of frustration and made me more money at the table:mad: ...:p

Colin
 
watched the first few minutes of it Colin, hoping to get the rest of it in the very near future. looks like excellent info.

FWIW, Tom Rossman explained this principal to me in one of the early lessons he gave me. he referred to this as the "Swivel & Shoot" Method.

DCP
 
I only had time to watch the first 5 minutes today but will have to view the rest when time permits.
Thanks for taking the time to explain it all and to demonstrate the cause and effect in your video. I am looking forward to seeing if I can now predict versus taking the chance as I have done in the past.

Myron
 
The first 5 minutes are a bit boring and may be elementry to some of you, but I wanted to include the pivot point explanation for completeness as this part is still a bit tricky for some people to wrap their heads around.

The pivot point is really the magic bullet effect that makes BHE a usuable tool, so it needs inclusion.

But if it's a bit slow....forward to the shots....it's a little more entertaining :D

Colin
 
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Colin Colenso said:
The first 5 minutes are a bit boring and may be elimentry to some of you, but I wanted to include the pivot point explanation for completeness as this part is still a bit tricky for some people to wrap their heads around.

The pivot point is really the magic bullet effect that makes BHE a usuable tool, so it needs inclusion.

But if it's a bit slow....forward to the shots....it's a little more entertaining :D

Colin
Click to expand...

The Pivot point is the key to understanding BHE for me. I can't wait to get home to try it out. Thanks for taking the first 5 minutes to explain it.
 
Snorks said:
The Pivot point is the key to understanding BHE for me. I can't wait to get home to try it out. Thanks for taking the first 5 minutes to explain it.
Click to expand...
Interesting you say that Snorks. I was explaining BHE as an alignment method for playing with english to a couple of IPT players in Vegas and one of them kept insisting that the variables were too large. A couple of times he mentioned the variation in squirt with the amount of side.

A little later I realized that where he was getting confused was with the concept of pivot point. And that by knowing your pivot point for the speed of shot allows you to hit quite accurately the same contact point over moderate distances, regardless of whether you're pivoting for 1/8th tip or as wide on the CB as possible.

The pivot point is a kind of magic trick, but it has been under utilized by players because of the significant variation produced by throw with various spins, angles and speeds.

But now with the knowledge of these variables and how they influence throw available, the power of familiarity with your cue's pivot point can become a powerful tool in aligning for most shots played with English.

I honestly think that a reasonably skilled and accurate player who focuses on learning these variables, could within a year or so, be playing most english shots with more confidence than most of the top pros.

The real beauty of the system I think, is that it allows you to align to shots as if you were potting all of them with natural follow. By doing this over and over again, your aim and alignment for natural follow shots will become highly accurate and almost instantly recognizable. Whereas, if you have to learn to feel the angles intuitively for each type of speed and spin, there is a tendency to get a little confused about what is actually aligned to what...and this makes consistant potting hard when a player cannot slide into the zone.

There are adjustments to learn, such as how much to shift the bridge hand to move the aim to the edge of a pocket, but with practice these adjustments become more and more accurate. It is based more on a systematic knowledge that feel, so it's not gonna dissappear all of a sudden.

The only thing that can go wrong is the feel for aligning for a medium speed natural rolling pot, but as this is the shot you are aligning for almost 100% of the time, it becomes deeply ingrained.

I'm pretty sure you'll find this method will work very well for you on a few shots straight away, and that the others you will become more familiar with as you continue to practice the method and understand the variables.

One by one you'll add new shots that your are confident of executing to your game.

Let me know your results.

Colin
 
Colin,

I used the pivot on the pre-shot strokes method and the first time I used it I played brilliantly. Since then it doesnt seem to work for me and I am pivoting on my LAST stroke.
My pivot point ust be ok since im still potting by pivoting on my last stroke.. maybe I have too many years of last stroke pivoting to change now?
 
Nice video, thanks

I have found that BHE sort of just fit into my game some time ago, intuitive. However, after watching your video I noticed that you actually align in advance with the intention of using BHE. Was this just for demontration? I do know that I align all shots normally and then the ajustment happens more automatically as I pull back for my final stroke to make contact.

If you pre-align, does this improve your accuracy, or again was the pre-align to make the demo better understood? Please explain.

Thanks in advance.
 
pete lafond said:
Nice video, thanks

I have found that BHE sort of just fit into my game some time ago, intuitive. However, after watching your video I noticed that you actually align in advance with the intention of using BHE. Was this just for demontration? I do know that I align all shots normally and then the ajustment happens more automatically as I pull back for my final stroke to make contact.

If you pre-align, does this improve your accuracy, or again was the pre-align to make the demo better understood? Please explain.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

The pre-alignment is exactly what you're supposed to do with the aim & pivot or backhand english. All that other stuff (swiping, swooping, pivoting on the last stroke etc.) is NOT aim & pivot or backhand english.

That's the beauty of Colin's video: it sets things straight so that when we talk about Aim & Pivot, we should be talking about the same thing. You make your pivot and new alignment before you start your warm up strokes.

And again, you don't need to bridge at the pivot point. You just need to pivot at the pivot point.

Fred
 
Cornerman said:
And again, you don't need to bridge at the pivot point. You just need to pivot at the pivot point.
Fred
Click to expand...

Now this is very very interesting! So, if I understand correctly,
- bridge correctly at the pivot point
- then pivot
- then you can move the bridge hand forward or backwards and you will still be aiming correctly?

I need to go home right now to try out some of this cool stuff.
 
I dont get it, pivot then change the bridge length? The pivot point is the contact point on the bridge, it has to be, anything else is not the pivot point.
 
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