How important is a good nineball break????

Jaden

Jaden

"no buds chill"
Silver Member
I wanted to find out how important a good nineball break is so last night I tried something.

What I did was break and every time I either didn't make anything on the break or didn't have an open shot. I reracked and broke again....

I ended up breaking and running a nine pack this way....before I gave up practicing for the night...

In other words, it may be good time spent(although it may not seem like it) to practice your break.....
 
It's kind of like ...

A first Kiss .... If you don't do it good the first time, there might not be a second time ... lol

I am simply amazed by the players that stick constantly with a break that simply does not work for consistently making a ball AND GETTING A 1 BALL SHOT, but they sure seem to.

I think it is important to have 6-8 different breaks for each game. (3-4 if you take away opposite side but same breaks). This is because of table
conditions and players 'racking' you.
 
The break is huge, and here's why.

At the game's highest levels, everyone runs out once there is a decent opportunity to do so.

For this reason, for top players, the only way to win consistently at nine ball is to win control of a runnable table more often than your opponent. The most important skills when it comes to winning control of runnable tables are a good break and and a good moves game (defense/kicking/two-way shots). When two players have comparable runout skills, the better player is the one more skilled in winning control of runnable tables, and the break is a huge part of it..

Actually, the point can be generalized to all levels of play. For two players with a comparable level of offensive execution, the better player is the one that is more skilled in winning control of the table.

Work on your break, but work just as hard on your moves game. Of course, the danger is that you could kill all your action!
 
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How important is it? Ask that guy Luat (?) who played
Souquet in the finals at DCC. Or Archer who played Souquet
in the semis.
 
PoolSleuth said:
Nothing More be said....THE most important shot in 9 ball is the break....... :cool:
Click to expand...

Do any of you have any stats to back up this claim, or is it conjecture?

Thanks
 
At the pro level , it's (almost) everything.Extremley Important!!!!!!!!

For A+ and A's it's Very Important!

For B+ and lower the importance factor diminishes because of the players inability to runout after a good break.

At the highest levels quite often the tournament winner is the guy who is breaking the best.
RJ
 
recoveryjones said:
At the pro level , it's (almost) everything.Extremley Important!!!!!!!!

For A+ and A's it's Very Important!

For B+ and lower the importance factor diminishes because of the players inability to runout after a good break.

At the highest levels quite often the tournament winner is the guy who is breaking the best.
RJ
Click to expand...

That used to be the case, but with the Sardo rack and the soft break, at certain speeds the wing ball is dead for everyone.
 
To underscore the importance of the 9-ball break, the only player I can come up with who does not have a great break and has been among the 9-ball elite is Efren (and he has an effective, though not great, break). He overcame this handicap with his overall playing excellence; I don't think there has been anyone else that could have done so. On the other end of the spectrum is David Howard (won U. S. Open in '82 and '86) who had arguably the best break in the game at that time but (from what I saw and have heard from people who know) the rest of his game was not as advanced as his break. Ralf Souquet had his break workiing at this year's DCC and just mowed everyone down like they were mooches. IMHO the two best ways to jack the ol' 9-ball game up a little is to spend time: 1. Practicing the break, trying different speeds, angles; rack the balls in numeric order and keep track of where the balls are ending up...2. Practice safeties after you break, instead of trying to run out; the more you work on and improve your safety game, the tougher an opponent you'll be (duh). Most players' ball-running skill hits a ceiling where more practice doesn't always improve play (easy to say, hard to do...runnin' them balls is kinda where it's at).
 
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