My scratch % is high on this break...
- Thread starter alphadog
- Start date
Hit it with low right between the 1 and 5 and draw it back to mid table.
Your overhead photo doesn’t show the pocket, so can’t tell where the CB will strike the rack. Applied english is rather irrelevant if you hit the breakshot really hard, since the CB is thus still sliding. If the natural target impact point is downtable side of the contacted OB, and the carom angles lead toward the pocket, then a softer stroke is required to allow english to steer & avoid the scratch.
“Up table playing combos” beats scratching. “Stuck to the pack” suggests inadequate draw (happens to me often when contact is between the one & four, and the rack is less than perfectly tight).
“Ideal” break position: Shaw’s record run indicates a more acute angle works better, since the scratch is so unlikely, you can safely slam the pack with follow regardless of the target point (his template racking system especially eliminated the “stuck” issue).
Actually having second thoughts re: using ‘follow’. While the more acute angle break largely eliminates scratching in the corner, I’ve noticed a CB following thru the pack sometimes gets kicked into the side. So, drawing off into center table (and away from the resulting melee) might be more beneficial (?).
Not a sharp enough angle to hit high, this angle needs a draw stroke.
So the overhead should allow anyone to set this up , if you use draw where do you want to contact the stack?
Let's say the 5 is a clock with 12 pointed straight at the footrail. 9 0clock,6 30,10?
You can't tell much about the angle by any of your pics. Take a pic from the top of the table that includes the CB, the left side pocket, the entire rack and the left bottom pocket. Off hand, from what I can see, I'd probably shoot this with top right. If you do that and scratch in the bottom left then you're most likely not hitting the shot hard enough and/or not generating good topspin.
Top right might leave the CB against the bottom of the pack. I like top left, which usually goes two rails back to center table before the pack can spread/interfere.
Topspin won’t help anyway if you hit the rack hard at the wrong spot (you’ll be in the corner pocket before the CB stops sliding). The breakshot seems more ‘art’ than ‘science’, as there are a myriad # of things to consider when deciding how to approach it: If the tangent line/contact point looks like a dead scratch, a softer break can better allow time for english to steer (especially if the balls are clean/polished). Choice of new contact point will often determine whether to use draw or follow. If clean balls are racked tight, soft/draw is usually safer when the tangent line/point is iffy. If it’s naturally high on the OB, then the CB is temporarily stunned with a hard break, and follow will take & beat the scratch.
Hi. You should consider hitting this with draw instead. The shot is right on the border of the balls being perpendicular to the rail, and I would consider this to be in "draw" territory.
You can draw this at multiple different speeds as well, you don't have to do a Hohmann and draw it all the way back to the short rail. And you don't have to use the maximum amount of draw. Try differing amounts to see the effects. A controlled draw would maybe suit you better.
People naturally want to hit breakshots hard, but then the angle must be correct. This angle is a little bit dangerous. Hitting hard with follow will often result in a scratch. Hitting soft with follow, to give the cueball time to bend forward to the short rail, will also sometimes cause the cueball to kiss off of a ball from the rack and scratching. I'd stay away from follow all together.
Personally, when faced with this angle, I hit with a medium speed stroke and a little draw . It's kind of a feel thing, though, and I'd have to be right there to determine exactly how to hit it.
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I agree its tough to see the angle in this pic
I suggest either hit hard with just stun or apply more follow so the Q goes towards the bottom rail and therefore can not scratch
IMHO
I suggest either hit hard with just stun or apply more follow so the Q goes towards the bottom rail and therefore can not scratch
IMHO
The simple fact is that most players are not as confident in their pocketing on a break shot like this using inside spin as opposed to outside or center ball. Obviously making the shot takes precedence.
Which is why it’s likely better to leave yourself a steeper cut angle on the breakshot. You don’t have to overhit it for the same spread action and use any side english (or risk the corner scratch). Shaw’s record run was a real ‘eye opener’ in that respect (though the template racking system IS rather deceiving, in that the CB never seems to end up stuck in the pack). With the OP’s photo leave though, I always have to resist the temptation to overhit the shot (for max. spread), since I too often thus end up missing.
Not likely the way to set high-run records, but a softer shot using draw (aiming for center table position), and imagining the pack isn’t actually there, is the best way (for me) to be sure of pocketing the OB. If the pack doesn’t spread and leave you a shot, then you can always play a safety (which is better than missing & selling out). Guys like Mosconi (who never seemed to miss) could risk slamming the rack every time and get away with it.
Me, too. Ray Martin often played this shot that way.
I got refocused on playing straight pool over the last couple of years and have watched lots of YouTube videos of all the top straight pool players and have noticed that the European players vary how they hit their break shots far more than I've typically seen from the top American players over the last couple of decades. The European players typically put more focus on trying to pinpoint exactly where on the rack the cue ball is going to make contact and from that contact point they determine how they are going to hit the cue ball. (they don't all hit them the same even if they determine the exact same contact point!). It's hard to tell from the main picture but it LOOKS like it's gonna hit dead square on that one ball. In that situation, most of the players I've seen would hit it with a firm stun shot. If the contact point leads to either the bottom side of the one (where it contacts the 4) or the top side (where it meets the 5), I see multiple different approaches depending on style. Ralph Eckert explains it as trying to determine what the natural path of the cueball would be after it hits the contact point and deciding if you are comfortable using the natural path or altering it. (Ex. If the contact point is the high side of one ball I've seen Mika just hit it with soft draw, back the cue ball up about a foot and half and be comfortable knocking 5 or 6 balls loose...I've seen Thorsten Hohmann hit the same shot full speed and draw the ball all the way down table and halfway back...and I've also seen Ruslan Chinakov hit the same shot with a medium firm straight follow shot and the cueball bounces back from the rack, the spin takes and the ball curves a little bit to the right side of the table and stops somewhere mid-table. I'd suggest practicing the shot and recording it and then double check to see what the actual contact point is and what results happen if you try different approaches.