Half ball hits on the 10ball spotshot?

[mikepage]

all you are doing is finding the exact spot to hit the ball. you can easily do that by just looking at it. and put the cueball where ever you want.
and what happens when you put the cue ball slightly off the perfect line for the half ball hit. now you miss.

if you cant hit aiming where you just looked at the shot and have to aim for the edge which is round, how do you hit all the other shots in the game.

and it isnt natural for you to aim at a different spot then you are used to.

Yes, we have whatever our normal approach is to aiming a shot that doesn't depend on a special cueball placement. The idea, though, is having a second (backup) approach to determining the correct aim is useful. If the aim looks right generally AND when you check you are aiming at the edge of the object ball, like you expect, then all is good. Otherwise, reevaluate. It's like the surgeon looking at which leg is prepped to be amputated AND consulting the patient's medical chart.

 

[maha]

i get all of that and of course it lines up if you have the cue ball in the right spot.
but it isn't like the way you line up or aim for all other similar cut type shots. all that can do is mess you up.

its trying to make a pool shot a mechanical thing which it isn't. you mind has to control a multitude of variables that come into play on every shot. adding one that requires thought doesn't seem effective.

might work for others not for me. after attaining a higher level of play you just line up and shoot. otherwise your mind wrecks the shot for you. an example is someone who chokes for the cash. he lets other thoughts and things into a shot he probably can make most times, then misses.

 

[alphadog]

i get all of that and of course it lines up if you have the cue ball in the right spot.
but it isn't like the way you line up or aim for all other similar cut type shots. all that can do is mess you up.

its trying to make a pool shot a mechanical thing which it isn't. you mind has to control a multitude of variables that come into play on every shot. adding one that requires thought doesn't seem effective.

might work for others not for me. after attaining a higher level of play you just line up and shoot. otherwise your mind wrecks the shot for you. an example is someone who chokes for the cash. he lets other thoughts and things into a shot he probably can make most times, then misses.

It's trying to reduce a shot to a mechanical action. Set it up put a good stroke on the cueball and pocket the ball.

 

[tomatoshooter]

sqrt(3)

I've always done cos(30). I just figured out what you did there, never seen it done like that before. Always cool seeing something new!

 

[tomatoshooter]

For comparison, here's an easy way to see where the CB goes for a half ball spot shot. Looks like your diagram shows about the right amount of adjustment from there.

pj
chgo

View attachment 629119

I've discovered that the corner pocket is on that line or close enough for my 8' table with large pockets.

 

[tomatoshooter]

the object ball doesn't have a edge

I'm scared to ask.

 

[tomatoshooter]

i get all of that and of course it lines up if you have the cue ball in the right spot.
but it isn't like the way you line up or aim for all other similar cut type shots. all that can do is mess you up.

its trying to make a pool shot a mechanical thing which it isn't. you mind has to control a multitude of variables that come into play on every shot. adding one that requires thought doesn't seem effective.

might work for others not for me. after attaining a higher level of play you just line up and shoot. otherwise your mind wrecks the shot for you. an example is someone who chokes for the cash. he lets other thoughts and things into a shot he probably can make most times, then misses.

I definitely see you point. On my best days, I just see the ghost ball sitting there and roll the cue ball through it. when I start thinking "that looks like more than 30 degrees, better cut it a little thinner than half ball" I miss a lot more.

 

[mikepage]

I definitely see you point. On my best days, I just see the ghost ball sitting there and roll the cue ball through it. when I start thinking "that looks like more than 30 degrees, better cut it a little thinner than half ball" I miss a lot more.

It may not be that engaging the analytical side is causing the miss. It could be you go to the analytical thinking when you're not "seeing it." It's that old cause and effect issue.

Think of the announcer saying "oh, he missed because he just jumped up on that shot!" There's no doubt jumping up can lead to a miss. But the announcers rarely consider the player jumps up because on the final delivery stroke he can see it is wrong and it's too late to do anything about it. In other words it is the miss causing the jump.

 

[Bob Jewett]

I'm scared to ask.

The basic premise of the person or persons who say the ball does not have an edge is that a sphere, being round, has no edge. Contrast that with a cube which has 12 edges. They might also say that the mostly 2-D images we usually have to make do with when playing are deceptive and inaccurate, and the edge that the sphere seems to have in the 2-D projection is not really an edge. Or something like that.

I'm willing to admit that a sphere doesn't really have an edge, but if I'm explaining aiming a half-ball shot to a student, I think it's easier to say, "point your cue stick through the center of the cue ball at the left edge of the 7 ball," rather than, "Consider all of the lines from the center of the cue ball and tangent to the seven ball. Those tangents form a cone. Take the tangent farthest to the left, which is to say that has the largest angle theta in Diagram 4. As a check, that tangent is one ball radius above the plane of the playing surface. Consider the vertical plane including that tangent. There is only one such plane. Place your cue stick so its major axis (a line down the middle of the cue stick) is in that plane and passes a little above the center of the cue ball, perhaps 20% of the ball radius."

 

[maha]

why not just tell the student so he or she understands that all shots have a certain point that leads the ball to the pocket.

and to learn how to aim the cueball to hit that point, first.

the half ball hit only works when you are lined up in a certain way. and hit the cueball in a certain way.

 

[Bob Jewett]

why not just tell the student so he or she understands that all shots have a certain point that leads the ball to the pocket.

and to learn how to aim the cueball to hit that point, first.

the half ball hit only works when you are lined up in a certain way. and hit the cueball in a certain way.

All that's true and any reasonable instructor will cover all of that stuff. But I think, and instructors have thought for a couple of hundred years, that a half-ball hit is a reasonable thing to discuss early on.

 

[maha]

nothing wrong with presenting all the information. i am all for that.
as long as not advocating that is the right way to play shots to a new player that has yet to hit thousand of shots to attain his stroke and vision and perception of the balls.

 

[dquarasr]

Of course a round sphere has no “edge”. But are some of us here so pedantic that we can’t admit that we understand the “edge” is the vertical line drawn perpendicular to the horizontal line through the center of (the widest part of) the ball?

C’mon, man!

Such inflexible posturing is how inane arguments start here on this site.

 

[Bob Jewett]

... But are some of us here so pedantic that we can’t admit that we understand the “edge” is the vertical line drawn perpendicular to the horizontal line through the center of (the widest part of) the ball? ...

There are such people and some of them are among us.

 

[eg9327]

??? There is a half ball hit to make virtually every ball on the table. The trick is to know where it is. Two good ones to know. Pocketing the head ball for sure. Everyone should know where that line is. The second is a half ball carom hit to pocket a third ball sitting in the jaws.

 

[eg9327]

The basic premise of the person or persons who say the ball does not have an edge is that a sphere, being round, has no edge. Contrast that with a cube which has 12 edges. They might also say that the mostly 2-D images we usually have to make do with when playing are deceptive and inaccurate, and the edge that the sphere seems to have in the 2-D projection is not really an edge. Or something like that.

I'm willing to admit that a sphere doesn't really have an edge, but if I'm explaining aiming a half-ball shot to a student, I think it's easier to say, "point your cue stick through the center of the cue ball at the left edge of the 7 ball," rather than, "Consider all of the lines from the center of the cue ball and tangent to the seven ball. Those tangents form a cone. Take the tangent farthest to the left, which is to say that has the largest angle theta in Diagram 4. As a check, that tangent is one ball radius above the plane of the playing surface. Consider the vertical plane including that tangent. There is only one such plane. Place your cue stick so its major axis (a line down the middle of the cue stick) is in that plane and passes a little above the center of the cue ball, perhaps 20% of the ball radius."

You are the only guy who could say that and have it sound funny. Uh . . . . or maybe I have that backwards.

 

[Tennesseejoe]

What happens when you hit it with extreme draw?

 

[Bob Jewett]

What happens when you hit it with extreme draw?

There is somewhat less throw but it is pretty close to a rolling cue ball.