Jimmy M. said:Many good players will use outside English on angled shots for the sole purpose of pocketing the ball. I've heard Buddy Hall call it "helping English". I've seen Earl set up a shot with an angle and then say, "now you'd naturally hit this ball with outside English". I don't think anyone would question these guy's ball pocketing abilities. I have an older accu-stats tape where Buddy is one of the commentators for a match between Efren and Nick Varner. Again Buddy brings up "helping English" and goes on to say that Efren is the only one he's seen that doesn't use some sort of "helping English". So, yeah, I guess it's safe to say that many players, of all levels, use English to aid in pocketing balls and not for the sole purpose of playing position.
Thanks for backing me up bro. I have to believe that Efren does as well though.