The more I hear this "truth" being spouted, the more I am inclined to doubt it. You simply cannot, I repeat cannot play pool at its highest level without spinning the ball once in a while, and more often than most claim IMHO, and inside is a part of that. Watch Efren play in his prime, watch Earl play in his prime, and look at what the ball is doing. Don't listen to what people are saying, use your own powers of observation, just look. They use tremendous inside on some shots, less on other but always the amount needed. They don't place restrictions, they play the shot as it should be played. How are you ever going to get good without playing shots the right way? Some can maybe get away with leaving themselves long shots all the time, but the unfortunate ones who do not have perfect speed control (I count myself here) who do not excel on these shots, will eventually miss. As far as I know, without using backhand english (which also requires feel adjustments because of the balls curving path), there is no other way to learn how to use inside, other than to practice it.
Statistically in the rotation games and eight ball where the balls are being broken hard, shots are more likely to end up on the rail than not, specifically the long rails. Read the Beards first book for the explanation to this. The only exceptions are situations when the cloth is brand new and has not been broken in, and when it is completely worn out When shots are on the rail, you will need english both outside and inside, to get the complete range of possible cueball movements, it's that simple. You can't avoid using inside english without seriously compromising your run out ability. The question is then, when you have a choice between an inside route and an outside route, which should be chosen? That is an individual choice, but I know that I want that choice to be dictated by the table layout and my own ability, rather than some restriction I have placed on myself, based on the advice of others. For various reasons, mostly because of the way I practice and aim I feel that outside english shots is not particularly easier to pocket than inside english shots with only a couple of exceptions, one being slow speed half ball shots, where throw is at its highest. It can also be because I play with the lowest deflecting shaft on the market, the Z2. If I played with my custom shaft, which has huge deflection, I would actually think outside is even more difficult than inside, because I don't use backhand english, and aiming hard outside shots would involve aiming far outside the object ball, while with inside I can at least aim at something, even if it is the "wrong" side of the ball.
