RichardCranium said:
So to us non scientifics.....Its like accelerating in your vehicle on flat land...when you hit the up-hill the vehicle slows down even though your still accelerating......(I sure wouldn't advise slowing your vehicle down right before you hit the "hill"
Picture the force you're applying to the cue from the start of your stroke
to the moment of impact. Whenever you're applying a force, by the way,
the cue's speed is changing, increasing or decreasing (accelerating
positively or negatively), which I'm sure you understand.
What typically happens is the force starts off at zero and increases gradually
to some maximum roughly half way through the stroke. Then it begins
subsiding and reaches zero around the moment of impact. Even though the
force is diminishing during this period, the cue's speed is still increasing
because the force is still in the forward positive direction and nonzero.
Shortly after impact the force turns negative (i.e, you begin pulling instead
of pushing the cue) and the cue eventually comes to a stop.
I'm not sure this follows your analogy too closely but I hope it's clear so
far.
I'm saying there are some benefits to hitting the cueball while the cue
is still accelerating positively (its speed is still increasing). They are:
increased cue speed when you need it, and decreased sensitivity to
some errors that can occur during the stroke. This has absolutely nothing
to do with the fact that the cue is actually accelerating during impact, but
with what you have to do during the stroke to get it to do so. It's a
consequence of the shape of the force vs time curve from the very start
of the stroke up until the time of impact.
To achieve this you have to lengthen your stroke, either by changing your
muscle timing or by gripping the cue further back.
Obviously, Bob Jewett doesn't agree with this, which gives me some pause
because he knows a lot, but I've spent so much time working on this I'll be
amazed if it's not true.
To address what I think you were getting at, one of the errors that tends
to diminish is the sensitivity of the cue's speed to changes in the length
of the stroke due to variations in muscle timing. This is pretty surprising
since you would think that some error, say 10%, in stroke length should
be ever larger as stroke length increases. While this is true, the effect
on cue speed still manages to diminish. It is not at all obvious that this
should occur, but according to my calculations, it does. And the reason
is that the shape of the force vs time curve is generally flatter (less steep)
for a longer stroke.
Hope this helps. If you understand it, please explain it to me again after
Jewett gets done working me over.
Jim