Here are just a few of my personal thoughts on a few different "tough" shots for any player. Through experience, I've discovered a few techniques which have really improved my execution on these types of shots and I thought I would share it with my fellow AZ'ers. Take it with a grain of salt, and remember this works well for me...but sometimes you have to find your own way of doing things in pool, or figuring things out.
When the cueball is frozen to the rail (side or end), there are a few techniques you can apply depending on the situation or location of your cue ball and object ball.
If there is a short distance between the cue ball and object ball (regardless of which rail the cue ball is frozen to), lining up and maintaining your line with the object ball is fairly easy. Obviously you're limited in the amount of english you can apply (which in these situations I NEVER deviate from just a center top hit, sometimes I will vary it one tip's worth to the right or left but only if really necessary) due to the limited exposed area of the cue ball...but you can still cue the ball effectively while maintaining accuracy for the most part. I find this to be true of most shots where the cue ball and object are both on the same half of the table. A few things that help me in executing this shot are as follows. I go from a dead level cue, to an "ever so slightly" elevated cue. An onlooker might not even notice your elevation, but I find this (and I truly emphasize the word "slight") elevation gives you an additional area of cue ball to "cue" without affecting the accuracy of the shot. I also find that slightly tightening my grip helps as well on these shots. I don't mean a death grip, just a slight increase in grip pressure. Last but not least concerning the grip. I like to grip these types of "delicate" shots with JUST my thumb and index finger. Sound crazy? Try it...you just might like the results.
Now, I guess part two of my "thoughts" on cueing off the rail regard a shot where obviously your cue ball is frozen (in this case, the end rail), but your object ball is located on the second half of the table (lets say that the object ball is located about a foot from the left corner pocket, not on that rail but an inch and a quarter off of it, and the cue ball is nearly straight in line with the shot but frozen on the end rail...don't you love these?). When this comes up, and your shot is relatively straight it can be very hard to stay in line with this shot and execute effectively.
A good example is when you are playing one pocket and this same situation comes up. We find outselves jamming these up from time to time right, from trying to do TOO MUCH, or more than accuracy will really allow? When you should be playing just to make the ball, and keep the cue ball that general vicinity to play for a cross-side bank to your pocket, or something along these lines. I find that before I figured out this technique, I would unintentionally STEER the cue ball away from the intended point of contact on the object ball. Here is what I figured out to eliminate this.
When I complete my pre-shot routine and get down on the shot I aim "through" the point of contact on the cue ball, directly to the point of contact on the object ball. To clarify, when I find the point of contact on the cue ball to hit, I try to imagine that the cue ball has disappeared and I'm aiming my tip DIRECTLY at the point of contact on the object ball. Now remember, on this type of shot I'm not shooting to get hard position. I'm shooting merely to MAKE the shot and leave the cue ball in the general vicinity. When you find yourself in this type of situation it becomes a "take what you can get" situation if you're playing percentage pool. Again, I "slightly" elevate the cue, not enough where anyone would notice but you. This time though, I maintain a very loose grip, and one another thing I do that I think is KEY is eliminate the "backswing pause" before executing the shot. I just take slow to medium slow (if I want the cue ball to travel slightly forward) practice strokes until it feels right and I just let the shot execution happen on it's own without thought. In this situation you have to trust your fundamentals. If they are correct you will drill this type of shot everytime. These types of shot seperate the players from the tinkerers.
I guess this information isn't that amazing, but perhaps it can help someone. That is about it. Maybe you can find something helpful in this, maybe not. As with anything, it is always easier to show you in person what I mean. OH ---- and STAY DOWN until the CUE BALL has stopped moving. You really need to ensure this on these types of shots where accuracy is absolutely critical. One little error will cause a miss. Anyhow, just wanted to see if I could contribute something on here today. I've actually written several pages of notes to myself on various techniques or things I find myself doing when I'm playing good. This really helps when I can't play for a while, and I won't remember the "little things" right away (such as the techniques I use for these types of shots).
Ok, enough babbling. Hope someone enjoys this. Maybe I'll write some more on something else later.
Thanks,
When the cueball is frozen to the rail (side or end), there are a few techniques you can apply depending on the situation or location of your cue ball and object ball.
If there is a short distance between the cue ball and object ball (regardless of which rail the cue ball is frozen to), lining up and maintaining your line with the object ball is fairly easy. Obviously you're limited in the amount of english you can apply (which in these situations I NEVER deviate from just a center top hit, sometimes I will vary it one tip's worth to the right or left but only if really necessary) due to the limited exposed area of the cue ball...but you can still cue the ball effectively while maintaining accuracy for the most part. I find this to be true of most shots where the cue ball and object are both on the same half of the table. A few things that help me in executing this shot are as follows. I go from a dead level cue, to an "ever so slightly" elevated cue. An onlooker might not even notice your elevation, but I find this (and I truly emphasize the word "slight") elevation gives you an additional area of cue ball to "cue" without affecting the accuracy of the shot. I also find that slightly tightening my grip helps as well on these shots. I don't mean a death grip, just a slight increase in grip pressure. Last but not least concerning the grip. I like to grip these types of "delicate" shots with JUST my thumb and index finger. Sound crazy? Try it...you just might like the results.
Now, I guess part two of my "thoughts" on cueing off the rail regard a shot where obviously your cue ball is frozen (in this case, the end rail), but your object ball is located on the second half of the table (lets say that the object ball is located about a foot from the left corner pocket, not on that rail but an inch and a quarter off of it, and the cue ball is nearly straight in line with the shot but frozen on the end rail...don't you love these?). When this comes up, and your shot is relatively straight it can be very hard to stay in line with this shot and execute effectively.
A good example is when you are playing one pocket and this same situation comes up. We find outselves jamming these up from time to time right, from trying to do TOO MUCH, or more than accuracy will really allow? When you should be playing just to make the ball, and keep the cue ball that general vicinity to play for a cross-side bank to your pocket, or something along these lines. I find that before I figured out this technique, I would unintentionally STEER the cue ball away from the intended point of contact on the object ball. Here is what I figured out to eliminate this.
When I complete my pre-shot routine and get down on the shot I aim "through" the point of contact on the cue ball, directly to the point of contact on the object ball. To clarify, when I find the point of contact on the cue ball to hit, I try to imagine that the cue ball has disappeared and I'm aiming my tip DIRECTLY at the point of contact on the object ball. Now remember, on this type of shot I'm not shooting to get hard position. I'm shooting merely to MAKE the shot and leave the cue ball in the general vicinity. When you find yourself in this type of situation it becomes a "take what you can get" situation if you're playing percentage pool. Again, I "slightly" elevate the cue, not enough where anyone would notice but you. This time though, I maintain a very loose grip, and one another thing I do that I think is KEY is eliminate the "backswing pause" before executing the shot. I just take slow to medium slow (if I want the cue ball to travel slightly forward) practice strokes until it feels right and I just let the shot execution happen on it's own without thought. In this situation you have to trust your fundamentals. If they are correct you will drill this type of shot everytime. These types of shot seperate the players from the tinkerers.
I guess this information isn't that amazing, but perhaps it can help someone. That is about it. Maybe you can find something helpful in this, maybe not. As with anything, it is always easier to show you in person what I mean. OH ---- and STAY DOWN until the CUE BALL has stopped moving. You really need to ensure this on these types of shots where accuracy is absolutely critical. One little error will cause a miss. Anyhow, just wanted to see if I could contribute something on here today. I've actually written several pages of notes to myself on various techniques or things I find myself doing when I'm playing good. This really helps when I can't play for a while, and I won't remember the "little things" right away (such as the techniques I use for these types of shots).
Ok, enough babbling. Hope someone enjoys this. Maybe I'll write some more on something else later.
Thanks,