Play inside the cue ball and hit them heavy, the rest will come, bring a straight stroke.
Sincerely: SS
YOU explained it better than me in one sentence.
Lots of people get "trapped" into the "spin game" and get into habits (some lasting forever) of over using spin. I have had periods in my playing career where I did the same thing and could do it well and please the crowd with "dazzler" shots and perfect position. This works if you are playing extremely well for the day and "feeling" the weight of the cue ball, even though you are "spinning" it. However, if you aren't playing your "best", most people struggle to find the "feel" because they are all over the place on the cue ball on every other shot.
When I first started playing "well" in my early teens, I had a stroke that resembled Filipino players...looked like Zorro waving his sword around and cutting his "Z". An old guy who worked at the pool halls in town for many decades used to come up to me and give me bits of advice. He told me to "plant my bridge hand", straighten out my stroke and hit a bit to "one side or the other" and to hit "full". This guy was never much of a player that I know of, but he knew pool and had watched great money players and told me stories of when he saw Willie Mosconi come to town on an exhibition a couple times (well before my time). He also taught me to recover tables and repair cues.
After a while, I realized that I could make the object balls and get around the table using what I called "dead ball" and get into the same positions that I could using "spin"...only I was a lot more consistent and I had greater "feel" for the cue ball which increases confidence. When you are more confident of the shot (unless you get careless) you are more apt to do what you set out to do because you have erased some of the "negativity" that may have been lingering in your mind. Like they say, pool is 90% mental (which includes the negative thoughts).
When players get into "the zone", they are playing subconsciously because they have the "feel" of the cue ball and aren't having to "think" of what to do. They are just executing a shot that they have hit "over and over". They see and feel the shot...they don't have to over-think it.
I'm NOT saying I DON'T use spin on shots. I'm saying I prefer playing in such a manner that I hope to be using it as little as possible until I can get back in line.
I use whatever is "needed" to get the job done and hopefully that is little to no spin.
When balls are all clustered up or on the rails, you have to use "spin" more often than you do in other games. The key is to see the available patterns and try to get INTO the "no spin" zone as quickly as you can by using "whatever" method works best for you. Once you are in "line", all you have to do is make the object ball and move the cue ball around the lines in the direction you want to go. NOBODY is PERFECT using ANY system. If you get out of line, you have to get back in line in order to continue using your system. This principle applies using TOI, center ball, or TOO. IMHO, "spin" is not a system....it is a way to get yourself back "inside" YOUR system, which is following the lines.
It reminds me of the old saying, "in order to fully understand something, you must learn it from the INSIDE OUT". Once you learn "inside", the rest will all make sense and fall in place. Some people will say this applies to outside English as well and I agree with that also. Mike Segal was known to advocate using outside spin (gearing or helping) when pocketing balls and playing position. That is because he preferred a TOO and had it down to a science...that was HIS "basic" system. He could play inside and outside and in-between as well as anyone, but he picked a style that he was comfortable with and became the best pool player in the world for a long time.
Aloha.
No one can win unless they learn how to lose, and they can't make every shot until they've experienced missing (and taken responsibility).
