How do I keep my cue ball from killing a observer when I break?

8

8-Ball Player

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Every single time I break the cue ball goes flying, and I mean FLYING off the table. Yesterday the cue ball flew over my brothers head just missing him (you should have seen the look on his face):eek: :eek: :eek: . We have only had my table for a week and a half, but already there are many dents in the wall. My old pool teacher said that it was because I was lowering my shoulder when I break, but Ive seen some pros lower their shoulder while breaking. I want to learn how to keep it on the table, even if it means I have to break softer, please, some insight would be very helpful. Is it too much topspin, bottom spin, english?

Again, help would be very nice!

Thanks in advance.
 
8-Ball Player said:
Every single time I break the cue ball goes flying, and I mean FLYING off the table. Yesterday the cue ball flew over my brothers head just missing him (you should have seen the look on his face):eek: :eek: :eek: . We have only had my table for a week and a half, but already there are many dents in the wall. My old pool teacher said that it was because I was lowering my shoulder when I break, but Ive seen some pros lower their shoulder while breaking. I want to learn how to keep it on the table, even if it means I have to break softer, please, some insight would be very helpful. Is it too much topspin, bottom spin, english?

Again, help would be very nice!

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Its called "shoveling" and it sounds like you do it very well, LOL. Seriously...first thing you should do is practice your break with different speeds and power but more important you really need to AIM ALOT more than you are. Miss-hit breaks can cause serious damage to teeth, drinks on a table or god forbid hit someones Szamboti...practice your break.
 
for it to go airborne you must be shooting downward into the cueball more than necessary. Getting air with the cueball is normal, but if it's more than a half inch above the table bed it will fly.

So focus hard on keeping the stick level. You can put as much speed as you want into it if your stick is level at the moment of impact. If you're breaking near the rail, the height of the rail automatically means you'll be shooting downward into the ball. So move it away from the side rail a bit. If you're breaking more towards the center, move your bridge hand further away from the cueball.
 
Great responses....

8-Ball Player said:
Every single time I break the cue ball goes flying, and I mean FLYING off the table. Yesterday the cue ball flew over my brothers head just missing him (you should have seen the look on his face):eek: :eek: :eek: . We have only had my table for a week and a half, but already there are many dents in the wall. My old pool teacher said that it was because I was lowering my shoulder when I break, but Ive seen some pros lower their shoulder while breaking. I want to learn how to keep it on the table, even if it means I have to break softer, please, some insight would be very helpful. Is it too much topspin, bottom spin, english?

Again, help would be very nice!

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

These are some great responses! We just had a man get hit in the temple and had to go for an MRI after he came to.

Colin Colenso has a great break video on youtube that helped my break considerable!;)

Good Luck!

Ray
 
A qualified BCA instructor might have a lot more to say on this subject than I do, but here's my understanding. To effectively break in Nine Ball, or in Eight Ball via hitting the head ball, you need a combination of several factors. You MUST hit the head ball squarely to keep the cue ball under control, which includes keeping it on the table and ideally parking it between the side pockets or slightly behind them. You need all the speed of stroke that you can get WHILE hitting that head ball squarely. Last but not least, you need to stroke directly through the core of the cue ball. Your cue ball will leave the bed of the table slightly enroute to the head ball, and after contact, but it won't jump off the table if you follow these guidelines.

Imagine a steel ball bearing in the exact center of the cue ball. That is the core of the ball. To draw the cue ball in normal play, you have to stroke through the cue ball far enough below the core at a speed so the ball is still spinning backwards when it contacts the object ball. This is complicated, and even involves how far the cue ball will skid, and when, in a soft stop shot at different distances for example.

In the break, each player may perceive that he is hitting the ball low enough to draw it, or with slight follow, but what you really need is to go STRAIGHT THROUGH THE CORE and hit the head ball squarely. I mean a 100% square hit ! Start slower, and build speed each day or week as you build accuracy. If you do that you won't jump the cue ball off the table any more and you'll get better breaks...Tom
 
Okay, put a quarter in front of the rack, tell your enemy to stand directly behind the rack, and kill the break with a lot of top English. If this doesn't work... take the butt of your cue and .. Oh wait a minute, I misread the question. You meant NOT to kill someone. Okay, different answer entirely. Keep your cue as parallel to the table as possible and try to hit the head ball with middle English while rolling your body towards the rack. Practice and practice some more. Take a little steam off of your snap and check the result.
 
Well since your name is 8 ball player and the best 8- ball break should not require too much power. Depending on what side you break from, place the cue ball about 1" from the rail on the head string. Hit the second ball inside of center with half a tip of low inside english. Use a smooth stroke. If you are hitting this break correctly your cue ball will hit around the middle diamond on side rail and your 8 ball will travel to the side pocket away from the side that you broke from. You should get a good spread and will make the 8 if nothing knocks it off line
 
also

CreeDo said:
for it to go airborne you must be shooting downward into the cueball more than necessary. Getting air with the cueball is normal, but if it's more than a half inch above the table bed it will fly.

So focus hard on keeping the stick level. You can put as much speed as you want into it if your stick is level at the moment of impact. If you're breaking near the rail, the height of the rail automatically means you'll be shooting downward into the ball. So move it away from the side rail a bit. If you're breaking more towards the center, move your bridge hand further away from the cueball.
Click to expand...
this is all true, also your bridge hand may be a bit high, causing you to hit down into the cueball, which like creedo said if you cause the cueball to hit too high on the object ball(because it's in the air), it will go sailing every time!
 
If you are breaking from the side rail your cue stick needs to be laying on the rail with you fingers over the shaft. Your thumb should be on the same side of cue as your middle finger not your index finger
 
I do put my bridge on the rail when I break, I try to but bottom english on it, it seems to keep it on the table. It seems that all the pros try to put bottom english on it to keep it in the mid of the table. Hmm, Ill just try to break real soft from now on. Its too bad though, the break was usually how I got all my anger out. Sometimes it makes my ears ring!:)

Thanks everyone, I will tone it down a lot.
 
8-Ball Player said:
I do put my bridge on the rail when I break, I try to but bottom english on it, it seems to keep it on the table. It seems that all the pros try to put bottom english on it to keep it in the mid of the table. Hmm, Ill just try to break real soft from now on. Its too bad though, the break was usually how I got all my anger out. Sometimes it makes my ears ring!:)

Thanks everyone, I will tone it down a lot.
Click to expand...

You don't need to hit the cue ball REAL low. About the width of one cue tip below center is supposed to be enough. I think I use a bit more than that and I don't play 8 ball. By the by, if you're putting bottom english on the cue ball, you're hitting it off center. You should hit just below center, no english.
 
I break an 8-Ball Rack, at a cue ball location, just behind the headstring & off center about 2 inches. I stroke as level as possible & try to strike the cue ball about 1/16 to 1/8 inch above center ball. I aim straight at the lead ball.

My focus is on accuracy of hit & cue ball control...
 
Pushout said:
You don't need to hit the cue ball REAL low. About the width of one cue tip below center is supposed to be enough. I think I use a bit more than that and I don't play 8 ball. By the by, if you're putting bottom english on the cue ball, you're hitting it off center. You should hit just below center, no english.
Click to expand...


Opps, I didnt mean english, I meant draw, or whatever. :o
 
sometimes as a 'fix' people will suggest drawing the cueball. It works, but I don't like it. You're punching less downward on the ball, but you're putting real serious backspin in the ball. A scratch in the side or drawing the ball up to the head rail is pretty common. If you're playing 9 ball, a position in the kitchen can be good (as the 1 often banks somewhere up there). But in 8 ball it can suck.

Hitting hard and center ball should guarantee the cueball doesn't go forward and doesn't draw back. If you want to get technical, a proper break always hops back a foot or so because it hits the upper half of the 1 ball while airborne, which causes it to roll off the rounded surface of the 1 back toward the breaker (imagine dropping a cue ball onto the the barest edge of the 'front' half of the 1).

Typically players jump up a bit when breaking, which means they hit above center (i.e. with top). Sometimes a nice thing happens... the forward momentum from the top cancels the cueball's urge to fly back from the rack, and it ends up just sorta sticking in about the middle of the table. I think that's what happens when you see pros do a nice break with little movement. So the secret to a perfect break might just be a tiny hair above center ball, with an almost level cue.
 
Your first mistake

8-Ball Player said:
I do put my bridge on the rail when I break, I try to but bottom english on it, it seems to keep it on the table. It seems that all the pros try to put bottom english on it to keep it in the mid of the table. Hmm, Ill just try to break real soft from now on. Its too bad though, the break was usually how I got all my anger out. Sometimes it makes my ears ring!:)

Thanks everyone, I will tone it down a lot.
Click to expand...

is breaking from the rail (unless it is the side rail). If breaking from the top end rail, you probably have too long a stroke, and then when you try to put power into it, you lose control of the cue ball.

Shorten your stroke, even if breaking from the box. Shorten your stroke (bridge hand) by 1-2" and break. You can still get power into it, and your improved accuracy will show you better results.

I do not recommend breaking from the top end rail for anybody. That is just a beginner thing for people that don't know the proper breaking form or for people that have trouble making a bridge. And too many players keep on with it later on, when they should switch over to a better break place and form.

Look at the best 10 players in your area, and count how many break from the end rail. Just offhand advice, but watch the best players and how they break, and emulate them. Many a player has stolen break shots from a better player, or at least a better breaker. Something the better players know that you don't is how the balls spread or react when the head ball is hit a certain way with a certain english from a certain spot on the table.
 
My "secret"in breaking is simple. You will need decent fundamentals, but the secret is mental. Many players I have asked about their break and what they think during the break. The common answer is hit the head ball square and hard. Is this you?

Now let me ask you a question. What other shot have you ever hit that way? I thought so.

Next time you set up to break think of the break as a shot. I don't care where you break from, imagine a pocket 6 inches behind the head ball. Now hit this like a shot. Drive the head ball into the "pocket" with a hard stop shot and focus on the final cue ball position.

Works for me.
 
PoolSponge said:
My "secret"in breaking is simple. You will need decent fundamentals, but the secret is mental. Many players I have asked about their break and what they think during the break. The common answer is hit the head ball square and hard. Is this you?

Now let me ask you a question. What other shot have you ever hit that way? I thought so.

Next time you set up to break think of the break as a shot. I don't care where you break from, imagine a pocket 6 inches behind the head ball. Now hit this like a shot. Drive the head ball into the "pocket" with a hard stop shot and focus on the final cue ball position.

Works for me.
Click to expand...

Hmm, never thought of that, I will try it thanks!

To snapshot9: I am sort of a beginner so that would explain me placeing my hand on the top rail. I am trying new things to eliminate my noobness!;)
 
Don't use a fist bridge on top of the rail :) Seriously stay as level as you can with the cueball and try to hit whitey right smack in the center with no english. If you hit the CB in the middle while your cue is level how would the ball fly off the table? Oh yea you break 35mph heh. People say well I use a 121213/1434342541235 tip of low on my power break I giggle. If you are really crushing the cue ball the only logical place to aim is center ball. I think if they think they are putting any english and they actually have a solid controlled hard break they just got used to cueing a tad low/high and they actually hit in the center from there.

Eric.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top