Sorry I'm late to the party.
I'm not an expert on power breaks, but while I was writing the Break Speed app (the Predator one) I did learn a few things that some might find helpful for quickly getting a bit more power from their break.
Speed tips
1: Use a loose wrist during your break and just before contact with the cue-ball, grab the cue tight which will snap your wrist straight. If you get the timing just right, you'll notice the extra movement in your wrist makes a marked improvement in speed without sacrificing accuracy.
2: Be sure to pull your cue stick as far as your bridge will allow (without the cue falling out of your bridge hand - because that would look silly.) You can even practice moving your bridge farther back gradually to increase the distance further.
Those first two are easy to incorporate and with just a little practice, shouldn't have any negative impact on your accuracy. I think I get an additional 2MPH from the first one alone.
This last one is less of a tip and something to practice over time...
3: Work on standing up a little taller and letting your shoulder do some of the work. By combining your shoulder plus your elbow, plus the wrist snap, you'll leverage the combined motion of all three pivots. This is where the real power comes from, but it's also the hardest to master without totally destroying your accuracy.
A few responses to comments
>> "Measuring your break speed...is not critical to fun or function."
What about consistency? When you're learning, any information or feedback can be helpful. Also, it can't hurt to have a more powerful break if you can find ways to achieve that without sacrificing accuracy.
>> "My break cue is 18 ounces, i hear that break app can vary from room to room due to size and echo."
The app should not vary from room-to-room (if it did, I'd have fixed that by now.) It's true that echo can sometimes cause bad readings, but when that happens you'll know it. It'll read 55mph or something crazy. Echo was a bigger problem with early versions of the app, but I've not seen this happen to me in a very long time.
>> "I also have the Predator phone app. I find almost no difference between cues. Less than 10% for sure."
That 10% is error from your radar gun. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) The last time I looked (2010) most are guns only promised to get within 1 MPH and some within 1/2 MPH. Break Speed is usually within ~0.03 MPH and almost never gets outside of 0.1MPH.
Story time
I walked past a table with Corey Deuel and John Schmidt just messing around and trying out different shots. Corey stepped up to break and I asked if I could time his break. This was when the app was about 5 days old and nobody had heard about it yet. So when I set the phone on the table and started the timer, he just shrugged not knowing what to expect.
He broke and I stopped the timer. It registered something around 21-22 MPH (I don't remember.) He had never seen anything like this before and his eyes got really big. And then that ultimate competitor in Corey woke up. He had to see how high he could get the speed reading.
Throwing caution to the wind, he set his bridge hand down on the end rail to break. This isn't entirely uncommon. What was unique about this particular case was that Corey had spotted the cue ball all the way up on the head spot. This was on the tournament's 9-foot TV table, so the distance from bridge hand to cue ball was almost the length of his arm.
Corey pulled that cue all the way back and let 'er rip. He missed the cue ball entirely; stick never even touched it.
Ignoring the snickers from John on the sidelines, he pulled back again and gave it another go. Nothing. He tried again! Just more air.
It was about 7 or 8 attempts before he managed to nick the cue ball once making it roll a few feet sideways. Eventually, though, he managed to make solid contact. He sent that cue ball flying at the rack and they exploded.
I finally walked over to the phone and stopped the timer. This one I remember. It read 30.21 MPH.
So, boys and girls, let this be a lesson to ya: be careful with Speed Tip #2.
I'm not an expert on power breaks, but while I was writing the Break Speed app (the Predator one) I did learn a few things that some might find helpful for quickly getting a bit more power from their break.
Speed tips
1: Use a loose wrist during your break and just before contact with the cue-ball, grab the cue tight which will snap your wrist straight. If you get the timing just right, you'll notice the extra movement in your wrist makes a marked improvement in speed without sacrificing accuracy.
2: Be sure to pull your cue stick as far as your bridge will allow (without the cue falling out of your bridge hand - because that would look silly.) You can even practice moving your bridge farther back gradually to increase the distance further.
Those first two are easy to incorporate and with just a little practice, shouldn't have any negative impact on your accuracy. I think I get an additional 2MPH from the first one alone.
This last one is less of a tip and something to practice over time...
3: Work on standing up a little taller and letting your shoulder do some of the work. By combining your shoulder plus your elbow, plus the wrist snap, you'll leverage the combined motion of all three pivots. This is where the real power comes from, but it's also the hardest to master without totally destroying your accuracy.
A few responses to comments
>> "Measuring your break speed...is not critical to fun or function."
What about consistency? When you're learning, any information or feedback can be helpful. Also, it can't hurt to have a more powerful break if you can find ways to achieve that without sacrificing accuracy.
>> "My break cue is 18 ounces, i hear that break app can vary from room to room due to size and echo."
The app should not vary from room-to-room (if it did, I'd have fixed that by now.) It's true that echo can sometimes cause bad readings, but when that happens you'll know it. It'll read 55mph or something crazy. Echo was a bigger problem with early versions of the app, but I've not seen this happen to me in a very long time.
>> "I also have the Predator phone app. I find almost no difference between cues. Less than 10% for sure."
That 10% is error from your radar gun. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) The last time I looked (2010) most are guns only promised to get within 1 MPH and some within 1/2 MPH. Break Speed is usually within ~0.03 MPH and almost never gets outside of 0.1MPH.
Story time
I walked past a table with Corey Deuel and John Schmidt just messing around and trying out different shots. Corey stepped up to break and I asked if I could time his break. This was when the app was about 5 days old and nobody had heard about it yet. So when I set the phone on the table and started the timer, he just shrugged not knowing what to expect.
He broke and I stopped the timer. It registered something around 21-22 MPH (I don't remember.) He had never seen anything like this before and his eyes got really big. And then that ultimate competitor in Corey woke up. He had to see how high he could get the speed reading.
Throwing caution to the wind, he set his bridge hand down on the end rail to break. This isn't entirely uncommon. What was unique about this particular case was that Corey had spotted the cue ball all the way up on the head spot. This was on the tournament's 9-foot TV table, so the distance from bridge hand to cue ball was almost the length of his arm.
Corey pulled that cue all the way back and let 'er rip. He missed the cue ball entirely; stick never even touched it.
Ignoring the snickers from John on the sidelines, he pulled back again and gave it another go. Nothing. He tried again! Just more air.
It was about 7 or 8 attempts before he managed to nick the cue ball once making it roll a few feet sideways. Eventually, though, he managed to make solid contact. He sent that cue ball flying at the rack and they exploded.
I finally walked over to the phone and stopped the timer. This one I remember. It read 30.21 MPH.
So, boys and girls, let this be a lesson to ya: be careful with Speed Tip #2.