A while ago I witnessed something I've never seen before and didn't know was possible. I shot a ball with extreme side english. As the cue ball slowed it was traveling straight at first, and then it slowly hooked a full 90 degrees just as it was running our of gas. This happened on a known, totally level table. Has anyone ever seen this before? I've never been able to recreate it. Could it be that it hit a speck of chalk that misdirected it enough for the spin to take over?
Cue ball hook at the end of the shot???
- Thread starter BigBruce
- Start date
Seen it a bunch. As it loses forward momentum the spin makes it curve. Really depends on conditions as to if and how much this happens.
The spin could make it turn a tiny bit as it slowed down but if it was extreme, I would say it hit a speck of something on the table.
Spin the cueball by hand see if it wobbles, might want to do it a couple of times. If it does wobble its out of balance. If its out replace it with new!
For this effect....
Striking from the top of the ball is called masse.
Striking from the side I've seen referenced as warble (but it's still masse).
Yes this is possible, just start using masse enough to see the concrete effect, possibility confirmed. With warble you have to make a "bad hit" (unless intentional) to make the axis move, which can only be done by making the ball jump and transition into a typical masse. I've have tried this countless times, never once have I intentionally succeeded.
To apply the correct amount of English for the cloth while rotating both axises is incredibly difficult from the side, making it jump is the easy part. It's far easier to just masse from the top but, with that said, it is still handy to know. Go learn the secret and pull back the curtain for us all, good luck.
Striking from the top of the ball is called masse.
Striking from the side I've seen referenced as warble (but it's still masse).
Yes this is possible, just start using masse enough to see the concrete effect, possibility confirmed. With warble you have to make a "bad hit" (unless intentional) to make the axis move, which can only be done by making the ball jump and transition into a typical masse. I've have tried this countless times, never once have I intentionally succeeded.
To apply the correct amount of English for the cloth while rotating both axises is incredibly difficult from the side, making it jump is the easy part. It's far easier to just masse from the top but, with that said, it is still handy to know. Go learn the secret and pull back the curtain for us all, good luck.
Yeh there you go. I think he is talking about a more extreme angle at a slower speed, but that's the effect.
Nice find, how do you find these things? Do you have a Oracle reference or something? It's uncanny.
EDIT: after watching that a few times and judging the speed, that looks like just top spin... I could be wromg.
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Measle balls will do some crazy sh!t when the spots wear out.
If the ball spins right on the dot with a lot of english, I've seen them almost do a circle.
Its bizarre...took me a while to figure out why it did that. Thought it was something on the ball, but for the carom balls that did that weird movement, it was due to the spot wearing out. It gets a whitish look on the spots when they get worn.
If the ball spins right on the dot with a lot of english, I've seen them almost do a circle.
Its bizarre...took me a while to figure out why it did that. Thought it was something on the ball, but for the carom balls that did that weird movement, it was due to the spot wearing out. It gets a whitish look on the spots when they get worn.
I just realized I've been looking at this all wrong, you don't need the rotational axis to shift (although that'd be near magical). If you make the ball jump you could do this on a long enough table without touching anything. Although I still can't see how it can be done without the friction being temporarily removed.
Someone posted a link a while back of someone standing at the head of the table and throwing the CB by hand and make it do a 90* turn around a ball sitting between the foot spot and bottom rail, and never touch the bottom rail.
MontyPyFly
King of inconsistency
My guess is that it hit something like chalk on the felt or even chalk mark on the cue ball contacting the felt at the right spot. (Occam's Razor)
For Schmidt's shot, the curve is gradual and continuous starting at about the side pockets.