Curse Of Being Straight In

[Celtic]

There are very few ways to avoid getting straight in on shots. Rabbits feet help if you keep one in your left pocket. Horse shoes can also help, I recommend just riding a horse to the pool hall and hitching it outside, that works well enough and keeps you from lugging a heavy piece of iron around, plus you get 4 times the anti-straight effect. Also what are you eating before you play? Lucky charms cereal is often thought of as the top meal for producing angles in pool but I tend more towards the natural foods without all those preservatives, if you know a good patch of 4 leaf clovers then I reccomend making a salad out of them and chawing on that before the match, it will definately help keep those straight in shots at bay and on top of that help keep you regular.

If this all is not enough and you still have those straight shots creeping up on you then you need to resort to desparate measures. Keep a roll of pennies with you at all times, when straight shots are still plagueing you take the pennies out of the roll and throw them into the air over your shoulder (dont worry, the rabbits foot should stop you from pelting a big guy with them) and then go about the room collecting the pennies. Make sure you call a timeout before doing this. Once you have found all the pennies you can start playing again and be safe in the fact that straight in shots will not happen again for the rest of the night.

 

[lukeinva]

You could just shove the horseshoes up your butt then you dont have to hold them!!!

 

[Jon]

You could just shove the horseshoes up your butt then you dont have to hold them!!!

And make sure that all those pennies land on heads.
Or you'll just make it worse (always on the wrong side of the ball???)
Just have someone make some 2 headed pennies.
That should fix the problem.
I'll get to work on that.
I'll make a fortune!

 

[Boro Nut]

The most forgiving shot wrt hit point are 1/2 ball shots. Straight in shots are not all that forgiving. I'll hear some howls, but trigonometry tells us so.

No, honestly, I'll still have to disagree. The straight in is the most forgiving, as it's closest to a flat target surface. The more you move away from this point the less margin of error you have with the potting line. 1/2 ball is very forgiving in respect of cue ball angle, but not the object ball potting angle. The only advantage is having something physical to sight to - ie the edge of the ball, but using aiming systems like that are not accurate over distance. It's purely phsycological I assure you. Forget the cue ball. Forget the object ball. Just cue straight. You can't miss. Trust yourself. You'll be amazed.

Boro Nut

 

[Boro Nut]

I never see the pros leaving straight in shots for themselves.....they always leave a minimum of 15-20 degrees to help facilitate getting shape on the next shot. The pros know that natural angles, (not english) is the correct way to move around the table.

Obviously if you need the angle for position you play for the angle. The point was that straight pots are the easiest, not the hardest. And if any good player (not just pros) doesn't need angles for the final few balls then it's straight ins all the way. Watch the blue, pink, and black being potted in snooker (unless they are showing off). If you can play straight stuns to leave straight stuns all the way out that's the obvious and easiest route. Why would you deliberately leave harder angles?

Boro Nut

 

[DaveK]

No, honestly, I'll still have to disagree. The straight in is the most forgiving, as it's closest to a flat target surface. The more you move away from this point the less margin of error you have with the potting line. 1/2 ball is very forgiving in respect of cue ball angle, but not the object ball potting angle. The only advantage is having something physical to sight to - ie the edge of the ball, but using aiming systems like that are not accurate over distance. It's purely phsycological I assure you. Forget the cue ball. Forget the object ball. Just cue straight. You can't miss. Trust yourself. You'll be amazed.

Boro Nut

For dead-straight shots I aim as you suggest, a straight line cueing action through the center of the cb and onto the center of the object ball and onto the center of the pocket. I actually try to follow-through with the tip on that direct line, that is my 'swing-thought' for this particular shot. It has helped by long straight potting ability greatly, so on your method we agree.

Dave

 

[Kevin]

How's your attention to detail?

Purely a matter of technique here, but, where do you get the graphics for the side-by-side tables? is this a screen shot of the Wei tables? Looking to add that special needed touch to some of my posts. Thanks.

 

[Boro Nut]

Boro - I didn't realize that 15-20 degrees was a hard shot.

I isn't. But it's harder than straight in, which is the point. I'll try a simpler example. How many times do you see a player of any decent calibre in either pool or snooker leave the final ball anything other than as close as they can to a straight? That's because they are the easiest pots, not the hardest.

Boro Nut

 

[vapoolplayer]

. The straight in is the most forgiving,
Boro Nut

i do agree that the straight in shot is easier than most shots.

however..........the straight in shot is not the most forgiving, in fact its one of the most unforgving.

straight in shots are forgiving up to about 2-3 feet, after that they aren't forgiving at all.

try it for yourself, and see how hard it is to force an angle on a long straight in shot. cheatin the pocket becomes very hard now. then take a long cut shot and cheat the pocket..........the cut is alot easier force a better angle out of.

again i agree that a straight in shot is a textbook shot that shouldn't be missed under normal conditions, but it is by far the most forgiving shot.

thanks

VAP

 

[TATE]

I isn't. But it's harder than straight in, which is the point. I'll try a simpler example. How many times do you see a player of any decent calibre in either pool or snooker leave the final ball anything other than as close as they can to a straight? That's because they are the easiest pots, not the hardest.

Boro Nut

I'm talking about pool. In practicality, long straight shots are difficult because you have to hit the cueball with no side spin. This sounds easy to do but it's not. Even a hint of left or right will spin the ball out of the hole on a tight table.

If your aim is pretty good, angled shots are more forgiving because a small amount of spin has much less effect on the object ball (because of the glancing blow).

I don't know how good you are, but just to pocket the ball most good players would rather have a slight angle to aim at on long shots rather than be straight in. You can test this yourself by shooting slightly angled long shots and compare your pocketing percentage versus straight in.

Chris

 

[Boro Nut]

straight in shots are forgiving up to about 2-3 feet, after that they aren't forgiving at all. try it for yourself, and see how hard it is to force an angle on a long straight in shot.

If you're forcing an angle you're not playing a straight in, and the pockets don't get magically more forgiving as the cut angle increases. The point being made was that dead straight in shots are the hardest to pot. The plain fact is they are by far the easiest. I'm aware that many players have a terror of them simply because they expose their failings. Just missing a long cut can be passsed of as unlucky. It's just as likely they didn't cue straight. There's no hiding the fact on a straight pot.

I don't find them a problem because I know I cue straight. Long straight pots on a snooker table can be over 13 foot. There's no question of cheating the pocket. I'm not suggesting I never miss them (1983 rings bell) just that I probably miss them less than any other shot.

Boro Nut

 

[vapoolplayer]

If you're forcing an angle you're not playing a straight in, and the pockets don't get magically more forgiving as the cut angle increases. The point being made was that dead straight in shots are the hardest to pot. The plain fact is they are by far the easiest. I'm aware that many players have a terror of them simply because they expose their failings. Just missing a long cut can be passsed of as unlucky. It's just as likely they didn't cue straight. There's no hiding the fact on a straight pot.

I don't find them a problem because I know I cue straight. Long straight pots on a snooker table can be over 13 foot. There's no question of cheating the pocket. I'm not suggesting I never miss them (1983 rings bell) just that I probably miss them less than any other shot.

Boro Nut

i think you got the wrong idea from my post.

i was giving you an example to test out how "forgiving" a straight in shot is. fact is, that its not. cut shots are more "forgiving".

the straight in shot is easy.........but it is not forgiving..........that is my point.

 

[Koop]

i think you got the wrong idea from my post.

i was giving you an example to test out how "forgiving" a straight in shot is. fact is, that its not. cut shots are more "forgiving".

the straight in shot is easy.........but it is not forgiving..........that is my point.

I always thought the long straight ones were more difficult too. Any quirk in your stroke and you are going to miss unless the pockets are buckets.

 

[vapoolplayer]

I always thought the long straight ones were more difficult too. Any quirk in your stroke and you are going to miss unless the pockets are buckets.

like i said, i don't think they are hard at all.......just like boro said, just stroke straight.

but i disagree that they are forgiving.


VAP

 

[Boro Nut]

i think you got the wrong idea from my post.

i was giving you an example to test out how "forgiving" a straight in shot is. fact is, that its not. cut shots are more "forgiving".

For a given distance from the object ball to the pocket the amount you can 'cheat' the pocket doesn't change. But move the cue ball in an arc away from straight-in and your margin of error from cue ball to object ball decreases. It starts slowly, but you're trying to hit a point on a surface that is increasingly curving away from you as the cut angle increases, and at the edge of the object ball it's dropping of the cliff. That is less forgiving anyway you look at it. You have to be that much more accurate with your cueing the greater the cut angle is. It's just physics. Even Scotty agrees with me.

I wasn't taking issue with the original thread, which was about position not potting difficulty. I was taking issue with the statement that straight pots are the hardest when they are demonstrably the easiest bar none. Set up a shot with a ball blocking half the pocket so you have to just miss it or rattle. What angle would you most prefer to take the pot on? Straight in every time.

Boro Nut

 

[vapoolplayer]

For a given distance from the object ball to the pocket the amount you can 'cheat' the pocket doesn't change. But move the cue ball in an arc away from straight-in and your margin of error from cue ball to object ball decreases. It starts slowly, but you're trying to hit a point on a surface that is increasingly curving away from you as the cut angle increases, and at the edge of the object ball it's dropping of the cliff. That is less forgiving anyway you look at it. You have to be that much more accurate with your cueing the greater the cut angle is. It's just physics. Even Scotty agrees with me.

I wasn't taking issue with the original thread, which was about position not potting difficulty. I was taking issue with the statement that straight pots are the hardest when they are demonstrably the easiest bar none. Set up a shot with a ball blocking half the pocket so you have to just miss it or rattle. What angle would you most prefer to take the pot on? Straight in every time.

Boro Nut

we're talking about completely differnt things.

VAP

 

[Boro Nut]

Go on. Agree with me. You know you want to really.

Boro Nut

 

[Boro Nut]

If you say straight pots are easier than cuts I'll say it's harder to get to where you'd like to be on the table from a straight pot. How's that?

Boro Nut

 

[Boro Nut]

What if I throw in a chocolate biscuit?

Boro Nut

 

[pete lafond]

This is why (in 9 ball) I always try to position the cue ball at or near the center of the table. This is for 3 reasons.

1) There are no pockets there
2) I can expect a make-able shot from there
3) Usually I will keep an angle from there

This may or may not always be the case. A large percentage of the time, this is true. I eleborate on how this goes hand in hand with "reading" the rack in this book excerpt.

Reading Racks

I like that. Additionally, sometimes I'll go for the extra rail on position when playing as this allows me to maintain rythm. There are times when this is not possible, though the path (pattern) I normally play will many times give me the xtra rail. It helps me keep in nine ball stroke. In straight I use rails only when required. Does this ring with you? It does seem to help me as angles are much easier to manage and so is position in general.