Should I first learn to jump or kick?

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Halter

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As I begin to play better players, I find myself regularly hooked with their good safety play. While I'm sure the purist pool player believes learning to kick properly is a required skill for any legitimate pool player, I can't help but wonder if I should just learn to jump. It seems it would be easier to jump balls than learn the geometry behind one, two, and three cushion kicks.

I plan to become proficient at both, but which one would you recommend starting with? Giving up ball in hand is killing me.

Thank you.
 
Learn to kick first and the jump shortly there after.
Kicking is a art that you will find helps your game grow in many different ways. I jump ok and even made my own jump cue but it still seems like the easy way out. When you practice kicking two and three rails you will start to understand parts of the game that had been hidden to you.
 
Jump for show, Kick for dough. You can't always jump (may not be allowed, you might be too close to the interfering ball, etc.), but there is almost always a kick available; and it's really a shame to get stuck missing an easy one rail kick because you haven't spent any time putting that tool in your tool box. One rail and two rail kicks are not terribly hard to master, and will save our bacon over and over again.
 
Jump for show, Kick for dough. I like that. I think u should learn too kick before jump I almost never jump :thumbup:
 
At first I was going to say learn to kick first, but, honestly, practice both. Since almost every player has a jump cue nowadays, both kicking and jumping are skills that you should know. There will be situations where kicking is the better option, and there will be situations where jumping is the better option. There's no need to focus on one until you become proficient with it before practicing the other. I know you're looking for an opinion of one or the other, but I think it's best to work on both (as well as any other area that needs improvement) at the same time.
 
im still a novice at the game, but i dont have a jump cue and when i play weekly tournaments, ive been hooked every way possible LOL by better players i havent jumped once thats just because im not as comfortable with it, but even missing some difficult kicks, it really teaches u the way rails work, important thing is to notice why u missed and by how much. id say kicking first if u have very limited time to practice, if u have alot of time do both.

cheers.
 
Halter said:
As I begin to play better players, I find myself regularly hooked with their good safety play. While I'm sure the purist pool player believes learning to kick properly is a required skill for any legitimate pool player, I can't help but wonder if I should just learn to jump. It seems it would be easier to jump balls than learn the geometry behind one, two, and three cushion kicks.

I plan to become proficient at both, but which one would you recommend starting with? Giving up ball in hand is killing me.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

As you begin to play even better players, the safety play will become tighter and tighter. In many cases, jumping won't be an option.

You can learn to jump, but focus on kicking... Improving at kicking goes hand in hand with improving at position and safety play.
 
Practicing kicks opened up new possibilities on the table for me, and I learned jumping first, after getting confident with my kicks I haven't played a single jump
 
Halter said:
As I begin to play better players, I find myself regularly hooked with their good safety play. While I'm sure the purist pool player believes learning to kick properly is a required skill for any legitimate pool player, I can't help but wonder if I should just learn to jump. It seems it would be easier to jump balls than learn the geometry behind one, two, and three cushion kicks.

I plan to become proficient at both, but which one would you recommend starting with? Giving up ball in hand is killing me.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

You should learn to jump first because you are shooting directly at the ball. You don't need geometry for kicks.

You need to learn some good kicking systems and use them as your baseline. Then you will have a completely set of skills.
 
PhilosopherKing said:
As you begin to play even better players, the safety play will become tighter and tighter. In many cases, jumping won't be an option.

You can learn to jump, but focus on kicking... Improving at kicking goes hand in hand with improving at position and safety play.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. ......and kicking is an excellent learning tool for banking! I play APA so jumping more then a quarter or half a ball Is not an option for me. Not allowed jump cues in APA. Learned to kick pretty well though. I can get out of a safe 90 percent of the time.
 
For immediacy, figure out how to jump. The learning curve isn't quite as steep.
But on your own time, nail kicks, not necessarily to pot, but to score a legal hit. It'll expand your knowledge of the table far more than jumps, especially when you start thinking about 2+ rail kicks when you have to shoot the opposite direction.

That being said, I do love to jump, and I get why some folks would consider it unfair. I feel way advantaged when playing against someone using only a playing cue.
 
Learn to kick first, actually if you learn to kick well then you will never have to make the jump shot part of your game.



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both are really important and are skills that must be mastered in order consistently keep your runs going.

but in general, i feel that kicks take more time to learn.

i personally spend more time kicking, i think its a really interesting aspect of the game.
 
A recurring nightmare for me is guys from my league chasing me saying "you're on two"!!

Seriously though, that's why I like straight pool!!
 
jump shot is killing the game. get on with kicking and you will learn many shots, movement and master the table.

I started jumping quite well, but then I did not see any fun in it, I quit jumping for 1 year and got really solid with kicking and kicking safely and even pocket with kicking. the needs of performing in tourneys made me get back to jumping and after a few months using the jump cue. I learned that my game was no improved but my kicking and even banking got declined remarkably.

Now I will never jump balls again.
 
Halter said:
As I begin to play better players, I find myself regularly hooked with their good safety play. While I'm sure the purist pool player believes learning to kick properly is a required skill for any legitimate pool player, I can't help but wonder if I should just learn to jump. It seems it would be easier to jump balls than learn the geometry behind one, two, and three cushion kicks.

I plan to become proficient at both, but which one would you recommend starting with? Giving up ball in hand is killing me.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Why not learn both at the same time? It shouldn't take you more than a day or two to get over a ball. Sprinkle a few basic kick shots into your practice session and there you go!

It will take a while to get "good" at both of them, but not long at all to learn ho to jump.
 
prior to your making any shot, do you consider the % of making the ball? if less than 75% or so do you then decide to play a safe? take some time and watch the results from players (pros too) and see what the outcome is after the jump. if they make the ball, what was the result on shape for the next ball? after seeing the high % of jumping and not making the ball or making the ball but getting horrible shape or jumping off the table, why on earth would you want to jump at all based on the percentages? just saying...
 
Pool is a game of angles. The same basics apply for kicking that apply to shot-making, for the most part. You can kick yourself out of many more situations than you can jump out of. I think kicking is a fundamental part of the game, and you should learn it first.

That doesn't mean that you should avoid jumping. You need to learn both, in today's game, especially 9 ball. I would practice both, on separate days. It is easy to set up balls and practice jumping. Just work on simple direct jump shots and go from there. Get tips from someone you know who is good at it.

Still, if you don't know kicking, your game is going to suffer some.

I am an old player. I can't jump for s#@t. When I learned to play, jumping was not allowed. I mostly played snooker growing up in south Alabama. Kicking and screw shots (basically, light masse shots) were a very important part of the game.

Joe
 
A lot of pool purists hate the jump cue so they will say
"learn to kick and throw your jump cue off a bridge".
They grew up having to kick because jump cues were not in popular use.

Now they resent that someone with 2 years of jump experience can give up ball in hand
less often than someone with 20 years of kicking experience.

Jumping is just easier -
Easier to get a hit, easier to make the ball, easier to control the cue ball after.

If you want to stop giving up ball in hand, so you have the opportunity
to return to the table and practice your other pool skills
(vs. returning to the chair and waiting to get the rack)
then learn to jump first.

Kicking takes a lifetime to master, nobody is "done learning how to kick".
So it's just common sense - a beginner should learn the easier
skill with the bigger reward first, then move on to the tougher skill.
Do what's best for your pool game, not what makes traditionalists happy.
 
u should learn pattern play, shot making and safety first. but i know that banking, kicking and jumping seems cooler. i personally can make an extreme cut shot from one end of the table to the other, a decent kicker but im a shit banker, but i have success against the latter. oh, and jumpng is fairly easy after you get the hang of it, so learn a kick system or two.
 
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