Changing the Cue Ball???

[Bob Jewett]

I apologize for my ignorance, but I have heard the term "ball skid" numerous times, what is it and how do I recognize it?
Someone mentioned there being a problem with pattern racking and soft breaking, whats wrong with soft breaking as long as it is a legal break? Is this viewed by some players as cheating or bending the rules? I can see why some would frown on pattern racking, all rules that I have read speak of random racking the balls, except maybe the 1 ball and the game winning ball, which to me pattern racking is not random.

"Skid" is also known as "cling" in the US, "kick" in the UK, and "bad contact" in Europe. It happens when the friction between the cue ball and the object ball is much higher than normal and it results in very strange action such as tremendous throw or the cue ball jumping into the air. An article about it is here: http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/2009.pdf See also Dr. Dave's page on throw: http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads/throw.html An article from Dr. George Onoda that actually calculates the chance of a skid is in this pdf: http://www.sfbilliards.com/Misc/onoda_all_txt.pdf

 

[Bob Jewett]

Many years ago the "blue circle" was the cue ball everyone wanted to play with. I got my own. I was practicing lags one day and the ball rolled off about four inches to the left coming back. On a later lag, it rolled off to the right. The table was level. A year or two later I saw a blue circle that had broken open and it had a center about the size of a golf ball of some other material. That center was off-center.

It seems to me that if they cast the whole cue ball from a liquid material it would be really hard to get a lop-sided ball unless the material has particles (filler?) that could settle to one side. On fast cloth it wouldn't take much eccentricity to cause noticeable roll.

 

[jaetee]

How old is the cloth are they playing on? And what kind is it?

if they are playing on recently installed Simonis 860, that will definitely contribute to skid, regardless of the type of balls in use. And you would probably also notice that the pockets play a bit looser than they should due to the temporary effect of lesser friction with the new cloth..

Depending on how tightly and evenly the cloth was stretched and tacked by the table mechanic, you are likely to see balls wobble a bit when as they decelerate and come to a stop, and it will happen to all balls. I'm not sure if this happens on glued Simonis 860?

As the cloth gets broken in with time and use, the wobble goes away and the pockets will tighten up a bit.

 

[imissedthe9]

the cue ball is off balance.

this has been happening a lot at the BCAPL

and was tested by Dechaine where they used the cyclops cue ball, and the measle ball

the measle rolled true while the cyclops rolled off.

heres how the test went.

put the cyclops cue ball down with the logo on the right side and slow roll the ball straight you will watch it curve to the left. then set the logo on the other side.

also take the cyclops cue ball and an object ball and hold them in your hands and then slowly touch the balls together, Then rub the too together to create friction and then slowly touch them together in your hands and you will feel magnetic resistance.

 

[ssbn610g]

Interesting topic. I had noticed a few balls wobble during league. I automatically attributed it to the cloth. I have learned to hit the CB as firmly as needed where I play to take out the table roll. After hearing this, I was wondering how can one measure the balance of a ball instead of by empirical observation? I am sure the owner of the pool hall doesn't want me to cut his CB in half?

Al

 

[Elwood]

cyclop

My team and I just returned from Las Vegas. We all, on many occasions, witnessed the aforementioned roll outs. It wasn't limited to the cue ball. The Diamond 7-footers usually roll very true. I'm not an expert by any means, but I would lean toward concluding that there was something wrong with the balls. We were astounded by how far balls were rolling out.

 

[smashmouth]

Some of his behaviors come off as a bit ethically in the grey area to me. That incident along with blatantly pattern racking and soft breaking to defeat Jayson Shaw at Hard Times. There were a couple other incidents that I can't think of off the top of my mind right now.

don't be surprised, lmfao at people's expectations of "pool players"

didn't he he pull a suck attack against Shane shooting one handed last year?

Dennis is from the frickin slums of the phillipines, the boy has some hardcore in him, trust me on that

 

[NINEBALLART]

I played Scotch Doubles, Singles and Team....My partners and I noticed several bad rolls...Crazy things happened while we were playing...I don't know if it was the table or the balls or both...
I did have someone tell me that they had installed new carpeting just before the table's were set up..Some said maybe the carpet settled and made the tables a little tilted...

Craziest one was a shot up the long rail with the cue and 9 ball frozen on rail....Balls were at about the 1st diamond...The 9 goes along rail but when it goes past the side pocket it rolls out about a inch or inch and a half ...Then about 2 feet from pocket it rolls back toward pocket and goes in....Couldn't believe my eyes..It defines physics...Everyone was laughing because it was so weird...
Then once when I was racking and I pushed the cue ball down toward head of table..I saw it headed for the left corner pocket and thought it was going in....It slowed down and went about 2 inches to the right and didn't go in...Rolled way off...
Last year I had no complaints about rolls or the balls. Weird....