break question

P

poolhustla61508

Yea....That just happened
Silver Member
I had my break speed clocked in vegas last year and my average speed is about 25mph with my high being a little over 29mph. My question is when breaking especially on a bar box (from the side rail) My cue ball jumps between 1 and 3 feet off the table. I was wondering if this is because of how hard I'm hitting the balls or if its the way I'm hitting'em?

Another question how often have you broke and hit the lights above the pool table?
I've done this more times than I can remember on a bbox and I've done it twice on a ninefooter.
 
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well its becuz u hiting so hard an when u break the cue ball bounces off the table slightly so when it hits the front ball its basicly landing on it an it bounces in the air
 
when you strike the cue ball from the rail chances are that your putting downward pressure on the cueball causing it to skip on the surface of the felt. then when it makes contact with the head ball it deflects off the face of the ball causing it to shoot in the air.

instead of having the cueball so close to the rail try moving it away from the rail a bit and concentrate on hitting it in the face with a level follow thru. this could help tame your break.

just my 2cents of course
 
poolhustla61508 said:
I had my break speed clocked in vegas last year and my average speed is about 25mph with my high being a little over 29mph. My question is when breaking especially on a bar box (from the side rail) My cue ball jumps between 1 and 3 feet off the table. I was wondering if this is because of how hard I'm hitting the balls or if its the way I'm hitting'em?

Another question how often have you broke and hit the lights above the pool table?
I've done this more times than I can remember on a bbox and I've done it twice on a ninefooter.
Click to expand...

The cue ball hops off the cloth on every shot (not just on break shots) because you're always hitting at least a little downward. You can prove this to yourself by putting a coin a couple of inches in front of the CB and noticing that it doesn't move on any semi-firm shot - because the CB jumps over it.

The hop isn't noticable on most shots because your cue is (hopefully) as level as possible and you're not shooting that hard. But on a break shot two unusual things happen: (1) you're often shooting over the rail with the CB close to the rail, which means you're hitting more downward than usual, and (2) you're hitting harder than usual. The CB hops higher/longer than usual so it has a better chance of being in the air when it hits the rack, which makes it ricochet into the air - a vertical carom shot!

The CB actually hops more than once on a break shot - that's why you see those little white dots halfway to the rack (where the CB lands the first time). Ideally (if your break speed, stick elevation and distance from the rack are just the right combination) it will land again right in front of the head ball. Most times it hits the head ball while it's still a little in the air and ricochets up a little - and sometimes it hits the head ball near the top of a hop and ricochets up a lot (I'm guessing this is your situation). This is bad because all the energy that goes into breaking the light could be going into breaking the rack and making balls.

Fortunately, the cure is easy: just change something - speed, distance or stick elevation.

pj
chgo
 
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poolhustla61508 said:
I had my break speed clocked in vegas last year and my average speed is about 25mph with my high being a little over 29mph. My question is when breaking especially on a bar box (from the side rail) My cue ball jumps between 1 and 3 feet off the table. I was wondering if this is because of how hard I'm hitting the balls or if its the way I'm hitting'em?

Another question how often have you broke and hit the lights above the pool table?
I've done this more times than I can remember on a bbox and I've done it twice on a ninefooter.
Click to expand...

It is hard to tell without seeing you break but most people I know with this problem jack the back of their cue up at initial contact and drive the tip into the cloth. Every stroke is different but on a break shot with the force this acts much like a jump shot. So when the cue hits the rack it is actually hitting just a little above the center of the head ball. The head ball acts like a ramp with the cue hitting above center and then you smash a light. Honestly, if this is happening to you then you need to break softer until you learn how to control it. The big smashing breaks look impressive but without control they are useless. It's much more impressive to put a 6 pack on someone with a soft break that is working.
 
I've been working on my break a lot lately and I play almost exclusively on 9' tables. On the 9' tables I rarely send the ball off. Tuesday night I was playing on the tables at our APA Cities tournament which are 7' SmartTables. Using the exact same break with the same speed I was sending the cue off the table on just about every break. I had to lighten up my break to keep the ball on the table.

So, my theory is that the the extra foot of distance (doing the 2nd ball break from the rail on the head string on a 9' table is approx 4.67 ft and on a 7' table is approx 3.60 ft) is enough that on my break the cue ball is just about done bouncing and makes a solid break. On the 7' table it is still bouncing up and down on the cloth when it makes contact which is why it's flying up and off the table.


Brian
 
NewStroke said:
Did you know the perfect speed for a bowling ball to get a strike is 13 mph?
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NPR please!:smile: Did Corey Deuel tell you this?

The cue ball stops dead and does not jump on some of the fastest breaks. Someone could be lauching the cue ball all over the place, but on their fastest break the cue ball stops like you hit them 10 MPH. Its weird!:eek:
 
poolhustla61508 said:
I had my break speed clocked in vegas last year and my average speed is about 25mph with my high being a little over 29mph. My question is when breaking especially on a bar box (from the side rail) My cue ball jumps between 1 and 3 feet off the table. I was wondering if this is because of how hard I'm hitting the balls or if its the way I'm hitting'em?

Another question how often have you broke and hit the lights above the pool table?
I've done this more times than I can remember on a bbox and I've done it twice on a ninefooter.
Click to expand...
IMO 29 is a waste of time and energy. 20-23 is controlable and plenty hard to pocket balls. Anytime u break the cueball has a flight pattern that can be seen on a table where people break in the same place over and over. You'll see where the cue ball was struck with wear on the cloth, then see where it lands. Its ideal to hit the 1 ball as full as possible. If you hit the one ball coming down or coming up you will have considerable jumping from the cue ball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg2WAg9OZNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLDCnivOTS4
I love this one too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O21AsO3g9Ms
 
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btoneill said:
I've been working on my break a lot lately and I play almost exclusively on 9' tables. On the 9' tables I rarely send the ball off. Tuesday night I was playing on the tables at our APA Cities tournament which are 7' SmartTables. Using the exact same break with the same speed I was sending the cue off the table on just about every break. I had to lighten up my break to keep the ball on the table.

So, my theory is that the the extra foot of distance (doing the 2nd ball break from the rail on the head string on a 9' table is approx 4.67 ft and on a 7' table is approx 3.60 ft) is enough that on my break the cue ball is just about done bouncing and makes a solid break. On the 7' table it is still bouncing up and down on the cloth when it makes contact which is why it's flying up and off the table.

Brian
Click to expand...

Try moving the CB back a foot (or whatever) and breaking as hard as you do on a 9-footer.

pj
chgo
 
other causes

Although probably not applicable in your case, there are two other possible causes:

  • The cloth can get a depression under the spot from the pounding it gets.

  • The one ball can shrink over time from the pounding it gets.
In either case, the cue ball can climb up over the one and launch into the air.
 
Damnnnn....

gpeezy said:
IMO 29 is a waste of time and energy. 20-23 is controlable and plenty hard to pocket balls. Anytime u break the cueball has a flight pattern that can be seen on a table where people break in the same place over and over. You'll see where the cue ball was struck with wear on the cloth, then see where it lands. Its ideal to hit the 1 ball as full as possible. If you hit the one ball coming down or coming up you will have considerable jumping from the cue ball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg2WAg9OZNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLDCnivOTS4
I love this one too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O21AsO3g9Ms
Click to expand...

After seeing that, I now know I do hit 'em with my purse.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Try moving the CB back a foot (or whatever) and breaking as hard as you do on a 9-footer.
Click to expand...

I was slightly off on my initial calculations... posted too early in the morning for doing trigonometry... :)

It's approx 5.0 ft on the 9' and 3.9 ft on the 7'.

Taking the ball back on a 7' table one diamond would go to 4.7 ft and 5.1 ft if you moved it back 1.5 diamonds.

The problem with this is the angle of impact changes from 27 degrees to 22 and 20 degrees respectively. As I'm talking about doing the 2nd ball break in 8ball so that the 8ball roles to the opposite side pocket the changing of the angle will effect the break dramatically (as well as increasing the chance of scratching on the break).

Brian
 
Thanks everyone for the advice..I had an idea as to why this was happening when I broke but I wanted to get some input from others to make sure.
 
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