Two Mondays ago I had to play this safe a lot, and almost every time a ball came out and he was left with a shot. I don't understand why it didn't work much this match, unlike my last match where I was so successful. :banghead:
I had to hit hard enough to get a rail, guess each time was still too hard.
Hi Trig!
Andy's advice is EXCELLENT, and spot-on. The keys to these "stick whitey" safeties:
1. A "near" dead-center hit. "Near" dead center means if the cue ball deflects a bit off of the object ball, it will err on the safe side of the ball (i.e. more towards the "more middle" balls), rather than to the unsafe side of the object ball, which would be closer to the corner ball. I guess it really depends on the situation, as I personally have had good results with an absolute dead-center hit, and I trust my stroke and aim to get the cue ball there. It's rare that I don't glue the cue ball to the object ball.
2. Use follow (top) on the cue ball. This is important, because as Andy succinctly states, the cue ball will want to "bounce backwards" off of the object ball. It's a basic principle of physics; a lower-mass object (cue ball) hitting a heavier/denser mass object (i.e. the rack), results in the cue ball losing that battle. Follow (top) on the cue ball compensates for this.
3. Pick a line of balls in the rack that is closest to your cue ball's line of sight. That is, as you get behind the cue ball to aim it into one of the four balls on the side of the rack, pick the ball that presents to you the straightest line (i.e. row of balls behind it) through the rack. Obviously, you'll be fortunate if you are perfectly in-line with one of the four rows, as all you'll have to do is hit that first ball square to send that row of ball's very last ball into the facing cushion, and stick whitey on that first ball.
4. Practice these safeties on your own -- rack up 14 balls in the standard way, place the cue ball at various places and angles, and hit a safety shot. When you feel comfortable with doing these safeties, try altering step 3 slightly, and intentionally select a row of balls away from the "optimum in-line-with-the-cue-ball" row. Say, one row over to the left or right (but still away from the corner ball itself). Hit the safety just a wee bit harder, still gluing the cue ball to that first ball with follow (top), and watch what happens. Rather than one or two balls popping out to the far cushion, you'll open-up the rack on the far side more, and "test" your opponent. One of two things will happen: either the opponent will then engage you in the standard three-foul initiation process, or he/she will try something dangerous (e.g. kicking at a ball, thinning the ball that the cue ball is glued onto and trying to come back into the rack, etc.). It's that latter instance you're hoping for, because now that the rack is more open than usual, you are more likely to end up with a shot.
As Andy states, there is a set of diminishing returns with selecting non-optimum rows of balls to stick whitey to, where you'll want to opt for a "thinning" safety instead. A good example is when the cue ball is near one of the bottom corner pockets and you're presented with one of the corners of the rack to play safe off of. It really depends on the angle, of course, but a common technique here is to thin the far corner ball (the ball in the last row furthest away from you), and have the cue ball contact the side cushion, and back behind the rack again.
Hope this helps!
-Sean
