Imac007 said:
The analyst discovered what CJ Wiley discovered years ago. A small off center hit adjusted for before the shot works better than trying and failing to hit a perfect center ball hit.
Still nonsense after all these years.
Imac007 said:
In golf they call it a shaped shot.
Maybe that's where CJ went wrong - this isn't golf.
pj
chgo
PJ constantly objects when either CJ or myself talk about the shaped shot concept and how we can enjoy its benefit on a pool table. The trouble is that there is an element of truth in his argument that is valid from the perspective he is looking. We both look at pocketing the object ball center pocket starting with the center ball line. I’m assuming we are starting from the same reference at this point. For initial analysis I will talk about comparing two different cue lines used to stroke the shot. The first line is the center ball shot. The second uses outside gearing english. PJ keeps his bridge hand on the center ball line where we don’t. That perspective doesn’t allow for an adjusted cue line and all cueing errors radiating from the center ball line bridge.
Using center ball, there is no aim adjustment for an off center hit. CJ, Ronnie and others admit that there is an inherent difficulty in achieving that consistently. Their solution is to aim just off center and adjust the cue to pocket the ball center pocket on a new cue line. Dr. Dave, using gearing english, shows that a 40% parallel cue shift offset from the ghost ball line, generates gearing english, the kind of new cue line that applies.
This is spin induced side, there is no cut induced side. That sets a new cue line parallel to the center ball path. Next we need to consider what happens, in both scenarios, on a slight miss to either side of the respective cue lines.
Center Ball Cue Line Setup Scenario
On the center ball cue line, a miss to the outside side of the object ball angle, sets a new cue line, wide of the target. The effect is the ball path travels to an overcut position. On small off center hits tests have shown an insignificant amount of deflection. The new cue line at contact sets the ball path to the new line. Dr. Dave also determined that, with very small amounts of side, throw is very small, regardless of speed. The result is the cue ball ends up in an overcut position at impact. There is a margin of error of about half a ball or just over an inch into the overcut side of the pocket.
Placing the bridge on the center ball line and inadvertently contacting the cue ball on the inside side in relation to the object ball, sets the new cue line on a more direct line towards the object ball, an undercut. There will be no gearing effect and roughly about a single degree of throw, plus insignificant deflection on the small mishit. With the object ball close to the pocket, there is no problem. A ball the length of a shaft, 29” away, will experience about a half inch difference in path deviation, or roughly a half ball, an undercut. If that was the only issue the ball, at that distance would go in the undercut side of the pocket. But, the new cue line set by the inside contact puts the cue and cue ball on an undercut path to the object ball. The result is a miss.
The lesson, using a center ball path bridge, is to constrain the cue from ever wandering to the inside side of the target line.
Gearing English Cue Line Setup Comparison
The first point is that the cue line differs depending on the cut angle. This cue line is adjusted for the fact that the cue ball will have outside english applied. The cue is parallel shifted from the center ball line towards the outside side of the impact area. The physics says the position at impact mirrors the ghost ball and that the object ball path is in alignment with a line drawn through the two balls centres at impact. The bridge is no longer on the center ball line but shifted to the outside but parallel. The straight stroke delivers the object ball to middle of the pocket.
Imagine the player mishits to the outside, the cue line now points in an overcut position. The result will be a pocketed ball in the overcut side of the pocket. Both throw and deflection were built into the cue line adjustment initially and a small deviation will have minimal effect leaving only the outside cue line creating the overcut.
Now imagine that the player mishits the shot to the inside side of the gearing line. The cue line is now to the undercut side. The side, including deflection and the gearing effect have been overcompensated for compared to the new line. The result will be less deflection than adjusted for and less english than needed to create a pure gearing scenario. Between the new cue line and near cancelling english and deflection errors, the ball has a half ball of error margin to catch the slight undercut.
The adjusted cue line means that errors to the inside or outside of that line are proactively considered and still enter the pocket. The center ball cue line has no proactive solution to off center cueing errors, only passive half ball tolerances, handling two different spin scenarios, inside and outside, with no adjustment. All three of the spin scenarios using gearing english are adjusted for outside english only.
The scenario for inside english is similar. The primary difference has to do with setting up the adjusted aim line to get the same mishit benefits using inside english. Just like gearing english there is a different alignment for each shot. This adjustment is based on distance instead of the cut angle. But that is a topic for a different post.
