Brandon79ta said:
Anyone have any things to look for in a 8ball rack?
Since everyone wants Joe Tuckers book, me included, why hasn't someone lit a fire under his a** to get him to reprint some?...
The thing which has helped me understand breaking the most was getting one of those security cameras (not very expensive these days) connecting it to my VCR, and recording my break shots. Then playing it back frame by frame or in slow motion.
I have seen things which are not covered in any books I've read including Tuckers.
The most important thing I learned was that I was not hitting the head ball in the same spot on each break. I've recorded a few friend's breaks and they do the same thing.
While my accuracy with my other shots is pretty good, my accuracy with my break shots is more along the lines of "poke and pray" with no aiming whatsoever! And looking at the breaking videos, I can see that hits slightly this side or that side of the head ball will have a big difference on where the balls go.
So my first problem is to be able to aim accurately when breaking. Evidence of an accurate break will be that the cue ball will come back off the rack in the same *exact* direction with each break. I'm still working on this and it is not easy to say the least. I can hit the cue ball slow and get accuracy, but when I add speed, things change. But as with everything else, I'll keep practicing this and will slowly get better (now that I know what I need to do).
Anyway when I can hit hard and aim accurately, then I'll go back to my camera/VCR and try hitting the head ball in different spots to see what happens.
Note: For 9-ball, I found a neat break from the side where you hit the head ball so the cue ball will carom off to the side. This makes all the balls move away from the 9-ball. If you use a little left/right English, once the cue ball hits the side rail, it can then bounce off the rail to come back and hit the 9-ball. Since all the other balls are out of the way, there is a clear path to knock the 9-ball into the corner pocket. I experimented with this and was able to make a 9-ball break a few times. The problem is that it is a kick shot to make the 9 (not easy by itself), but prior to the kick shot is a carom shot (just getting the cue ball to hit the same spot on the rail each time is difficult), then the amount of English to use is quite touchy. So talk about needing extreme accuracy...
For 8-ball the advice which has worked best for me is to hit the cue ball a little low so the cue ball will bounce back off the rack and "get out of the way". I seem to make more balls when doing this.