need help with short natural three rails (long-short-long)

3

3c4ever

Registered
Hi Everyone,

I play ok with many patterns but there are some patterns that i don't feel comfortable playing with. The short natural three rails (long-short-long-carom) is one of them. I hope you know what i'm talking about.

This pattern is consider basic and very easy but i feel very uncomfortable and i still miss it very often and i don't use the corner five system on this because i want to play it with feelings. I REALLY HATED IT WHEN I MISSED IT........:confused:

Is anyone out there have the same problem? How do you play this, do you try to get the Cue ball to the first rail, or just the second rail or third or do you play the Zone with feelings? Another words, Where is your focus to deliver the Cue ball to, first or second or third rail?

This has to be a high percentage shot, isn't it?

Thanks
 
3c4ever; The short angle shot is not always easy, if the third ball is close to the long cushion, 1/2 to 1 diamond then easy, no matter if you play position or not. You want to try to make a 1/2 ball hit to have a natural carom to the first cushion, adjusting side effect accordin to the position of all 3 balls. Obviously when the third ball is in the middle of the table somewhere, the shot becomes more difficult, especially to play position.

All these aspects will be covered in my book And DVD, "The Concise Book of Position Play"

Bill Smith "Mr3Cushion"
 
On basic shots you can clock the CB. Like Mr3cushion suggests 1/2 ball hit. Or Depending on the shot take the tangent line and clock the shot. In order to clock shots you need to know for yourself what kind of spin will give you 1,2,3 diamonds spread. Max english or 3 diamonds spread will probably only give 2-1/2 diamonds spread for the average player. Thats ok but now you're calibrated and have something definite to work on. 1/2ball tangent and specific defined cue tip placements. Deadly accurate.
 
mr3cushion,
Thank you for your insight knowledge, 1/2 ball hit i will keep that in mind.:cool:

3kushn,
I definitely will work on clocking the shot and using tips of english this weekend.:smile:

eze123,
I saw that before and i will study it more in depth this time,
but i dont know if i can get it down and hit it right.:confused:

Hope that Jim can give me some advice.

Will let you know next week when i'm improved on it.

Thanks All
 
The memorization part kind of depends on the individual. If you can't consistently make a half ball hit, though, you really need to take ten steps back and start from scratch.
 
Certainly one of the things that has helped me improve this shot is kind of awkward and it is get out of traditional systems I use them on some shots, one of the things that systems do not consider are the speed and you have to be very accurate to hit the exact point on the first rail.
I’m a .600 - .700 player and I’m sure this type of shot is necessary to improve my average, there are four things that have helped me improve something like 30% - 40% short angles and these are:

1. Divide the ball in eight parts (thin, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2,…, 1 full ball) and judge the necessary ball hit to make the point.
2. Significantly reduce the English when all three balls are within the second diamond of the long rail.
3. If you hit with a loosen wrist try to tighten it a little when hitting.
4. If you need to draw the ball with spin which usually happens when the either the first object ball or the third ball are located above the 2 diamond (long rail) try to imagine where do you need to hit the 2 rail and try to reach that point with maximum spin, as if you where playing straight billiards.

Hope it helps, my experience is that first you need to improve your game by feeling to get into systems, when I used systems on every shot my average was a poor .400 and high run of 7, I know some professional players and found out that a key component is to improve the control of the first object ball (second ball), it is of major importance for missing kisses and playing position, no system tells you that as far as I know.

Try it and if you find it useful let me know.
 
Hi All,

I'm back with the result. I played some games on the weekend and felt more comfortable with the shots. I made more than i missed, LOL.

Ok, here is what I did:
I tried to hit Ball2 as close to 1/2 ball as I can to get the natural carom to the first cushion, and I avoided using too much of english on the CB. I clocked the shot to know how many tips of English I was using, and I hitted Ball2 as precisely as I could (e.g. 3/8, 4/8, 5/8 ball etc.) with soft speed most of the time.
Over all, I played better on those shots and got part of my confident back. :thumbup:

eze123,
The systems presented by Jim was really effective. I practiced about 30 minutes trying to hit half ball and used the clock english and it worked fine. I used that system to made adjustment when ball positions changed.

tlian,
your tips are very valuable, thanks.
 
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