Combo Shots - Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?

ridewiththewind

ridewiththewind

♥ Hippie Hustler ♥
Silver Member
I was just curious how many of you out there love or hate combination shots? Me, personally, I love a great combo shot. I got really good at these playing 8 Ball, and found them very handy when I started playing in the 9 Ball league this season. In fact, upon reflection, most of my wins in 9 Ball have been with a combo to the 9. I have taught others how to make a good combo shot, because I have seen too many of them done poorly. I have love the ones where I can get both balls in a two ball combo to pocket. I find the once properly aligned, with a soft, smooth center top follow-through stroke, both balls will pocket quite nicely. The long table combos are very difficult unless you have the balls aligned properly, and you better be in deadstroke in order to be successful with them.

I'd love to hear other people's take on combo shots....just wondering if I am a freak or something...Lol.

Lisa
 
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I don't mind them too much ...

They don't bother so much anymore. Some people aim with their sticks a lot, but I find if I just sight them in with my eyes with a target area of a
small 'o', that I can make a large percentage of them. The last tournament I was in, the 6 ball was tied up, and I shot a 3 ball combo and made the 9 straight in the hole. My opponent's mouth dropped open ... lol

Of course, knowing when to shoot them and when not to is half of the solution. I have a good friend that plays real good, and he is what I would
call 'real real good' at combos. He is so good in fact that it drives me nuts sometimes ... lol

I like caroms too, probably more than combos.
 
I like to play combo's when needed, otherwise I think they add more risk to a runout than I would care for. Like Snap said, I prefer Carom's and play those more than Combo's since I have a knack for them.

One question about your comment about running both balls in on a straight in combo. Don't you need to use draw in order to impart forward spin on your object ball?

On the hill last week in League, I beat a decent Sl7 with this shot. Hard hit on the 5 with draw so the 8 followed.


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I hate combos, and will avoid them if at all possible. Even with ball in hand, I can rarely make a combo shot in the 9. It probably goes back to my English pool upbringing where it's so hard to make a combo with the tiny pockets and small balls that we never play them. Similarly for banks which I also avoid if at possible. Given the fact that I never jump, I guess I'm a pretty one dimensional player :eek:
 
Successfully making combination shots comes and goes at times... kinda like breaking 9-ball racks. Some days you have it... other days you don't.

Right now I'm hittin' combos pretty good.

What I find works well for me is to use my cue to line up the two balls correctly... letting the tip of my cue rest on the table just shy of the first ball and adjusting my aim back and forth in vey small adjustments to get the correct cut angle... and once that's done, then focusing on the cut angle from the CB to the first ball... and once I have that, stay on chin-lock... get down... and shoot center ball, medium speed stroke (if that doesn't get me into any trouble).
 
ridewiththewind said:
I was just curious how many of you out there love or hate combination shots? Me, personally, I love a great combo shot. I got really good at these playing 8 Ball, and found them very handy when I started playing in the 9 Ball league this season. In fact, upon reflection, most of my wins in 9 Ball have been with a combo to the 9. I have taught others how to make a good combo shot, because I have seen too many of them done poorly. I have love the ones where I can get both balls in a two ball combo to pocket. I find the once properly aligned, with a soft, smooth center top follow-through stroke, both balls will pocket quite nicely. The long table combos are very difficult unless you have the balls aligned properly, and you better be in deadstroke in order to be successful with them.

I'd love to hear other people's take on combo shots....just wondering if I am a freak or something...Lol.

Lisa
Click to expand...
I like to try combos. They're fun. I typically don't try the long ones.

Incidentally, both balls will only ever be pocketed if the second two balls are lined up straight into the pocket. Otherwise the second ball (the one you hit with the cue ball) HAS to cut the ball and will thus diverge along the tangent line (with or without forward roll, depending on speed). Thus you have very little angle in which to pocket both...

In other words, this will work:

CueTable Help



but this will not:

CueTable Help


(the 2 will end up near "A" and the cue ball, depending on spin and speed and whatnot, near "B").

P.S. The green line in my second diagram should connect to the blue, but it's misbehaving. :)
 
hobokenapa said:
I hate combos, and will avoid them if at all possible. Even with ball in hand, I can rarely make a combo shot in the 9. It probably goes back to my English pool upbringing where it's so hard to make a combo with the tiny pockets and small balls that we never play them. Similarly for banks which I also avoid if at possible. Given the fact that I never jump, I guess I'm a pretty one dimensional player :eek:
Click to expand...

I agree with hoboken, although I will not use the word hate. I will shoot them only if I have no other alternative or they're practically dead. Don't get me wrong I can shoot and make combos but given the choice Iwould rather play position and cut the shots in.
 
I like combos. One of my drills is to take BIH on every shot and line up every goofy combo I can think of. This takes the intimidation factor out of it and I have learned a few very successful methods to help make them.
 
I consider them a challenge and like to figure out the "after" situation and how to continue shooting when the combo is made.

Barbara
 
When I played a lot of 14-1 I was good at combos. Now in a game of nine ball I'll avoid them like the plague. Well, fairly easy ones are ok but when the difficulty factor grows Its a fast way to lose a game. That game may cost you two more so proceed with caution.

Rod
 
Barbara said:
I consider them a challenge and like to figure out the "after" situation and how to continue shooting when the combo is made.

Barbara
Click to expand...

I agree with Barbara, they are a challenge. I spend some time in practice just ball banging around. I shoot the hardest shots that I see and never pass up a combo. When I face one I then do not want to fear it. I want to know I have and can make it.

Reality however is they are killers, heart breakers. They should be avoided at all costs unless they are dead wired. I have seen both Varner and Sigel in their primes have combos so simple I felt they could not be missed and both missed. :)
 
rackmsuckr said:
I like combos. One of my drills is to take BIH on every shot and line up every goofy combo I can think of. This takes the intimidation factor out of it and I have learned a few very successful methods to help make them.
Click to expand...

Those methods will be introduced on this forum in another thread.

Thanks Linda!!!
 
As to the comment involving using draw instead of follow to pocket both balls in a two ball combo...I have never used draw. I have been very successful with top center hit. But it is a very 'finesse' shot. You're basically wanting to slow roll the cue into the first ball, at which point the CB tranfers it's momentum to the first ball, then tranferring about half of that momentum into the intended OB. The intended OB rolls into the pocket, and the 2nd OB has just enough momentum to roll in right behind, the CB loses all it's 'umph' and rolls dead. I have never scratched on this shot.

Sorry, I cannot access the WEI Table, as I am running Linux, and it is not Shockwave compatible. :(

Last week, during 9 Ball league play, I broke the rack, pocketing the 4 ball on the break. Well, I just barely missed a 9 ball break, with the 9 rolling up to just in the jaws of the corner pocket. The 1 ball was wound up sitting about where the 9 ball would be in the rack. My opponent, whom I have great banter with, tells me to go ahead and try the combo....which was a risky move...but I love a challenge, and it isn't life or death, it is a game afterall, so I go for it. I cut that 1 ball just as pretty as you please perfect into the 9, taking the game. He liked it so much, he even bought me a beer on that one. :D

No, I do not hunt out the combos, and position is always first and foremost in my brain, but if a combo presents itself, I'm gonna go for it. And yes, I do like caroms, they just don't seem to come up as often for me.

Lisa
 
ridewiththewind said:
As to the comment involving using draw instead of follow to pocket both balls in a two ball combo...I have never used draw. I have been very successful with top center hit. But it is a very 'finesse' shot. You're basically wanting to slow roll the cue into the first ball, at which point the CB tranfers it's momentum to the first ball, then tranferring about half of that momentum into the intended OB. The intended OB rolls into the pocket, and the 2nd OB has just enough momentum to roll in right behind, the CB loses all it's 'umph' and rolls dead. I have never scratched on this shot.

Sorry, I cannot access the WEI Table, as I am running Linux, and it is not Shockwave compatible. :(

Last week, during 9 Ball league play, I broke the rack, pocketing the 4 ball on the break. Well, I just barely missed a 9 ball break, with the 9 rolling up to just in the jaws of the corner pocket. The 1 ball was wound up sitting about where the 9 ball would be in the rack. My opponent, whom I have great banter with, tells me to go ahead and try the combo....which was a risky move...but I love a challenge, and it isn't life or death, it is a game afterall, so I go for it. I cut that 1 ball just as pretty as you please perfect into the 9, taking the game. He liked it so much, he even bought me a beer on that one. :D

No, I do not hunt out the combos, and position is always first and foremost in my brain, but if a combo presents itself, I'm gonna go for it. And yes, I do like caroms, they just don't seem to come up as often for me.

Lisa
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I love caroms too, especially off 1, 2 or 3 rails before pocketing, with inside or outside english...they are just really fun.

One time my husband was jumping up and down furiously when I did not pocket the hanging 9 on my pushout, electing to push to a place where the 1 did not go anywhere and could not be banked into the 9. I was playing a weaker player who did not jump (OK, neither do I very well, but I digress. :p ) and it was hard to kick it in to make me run the rack. She passed it back to me and I caromed off the 1 with inside english, going 3 rails to pocket the 9. :D
 
I like to get on the proper side of combo's, but that's about it. I hate getting a on the wrong side of them, and when you try to drill it to move position, you pocket both of them by accident. Usually the next ball is at the other end of the table. Any combo on the nine is welcomed though. lol
 
Usually when I play against weaker (read - bangers) players, I pushout by making the 9ball to secure myself against those who chase combos all the time. You wouldn't believe the combos them bangers try and very often make...probably because they don't realize the difficulty of those shots.
 
Are there accepted terms for the 3 types of combination shots diagrammed below.

A = Carom?
C = Combination?
B = What?

btw. Were I played we refered to them as follows.
A = Cannon
B = Plant
C = Train
 

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Colin Colenso said:
Are there accepted terms for the 3 types of combination shots diagrammed below.

A = Carom?
C = Combination?
B = What?

btw. Were I played we refered to them as follows.
A = Cannon
B = Plant
C = Train
Click to expand...

Generally we in the states would say that only C is a true combination. A and B are both sometimes called carom and sometimes called kiss shots, but I think most players would say A is a carom and B is a kiss shot.

As far as making both balls in a combo, the ob1-to-ob2-to-pocket line has to be straight, otherwise ob1 is cutting ob2, and will move away along the tangent line instead of following. Also, ob1 has to be spinning (rolling) forward when it hits ob2 in order to follow. Some people think draw on the cue ball will put follow on ob1 because of gear action, but I don't think there's enough friction between the balls to really put any noticeable follow on ob1. Really what you need is enough cloth between ob1 and ob2 that ob1 picks up forward roll from friction with the cloth. As long as they're at least 2 feet apart, and you don't hit the shot super-hard, you'll get ob1 rolling, and it'll be a follow shot.

-Andrew
 
I can't make a combo to save my life, unless the ball I am trying to make is right in the hole. Often, I will play shape for a bank to avoid a combo.:rolleyes: :( :o
 
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