Speed control
- Thread starter Slasher
- Start date
I think it's a feel thing for everybody. You can't come up with a formula for speed control because there's different tables, cloth, level of wear, ball sets, rail bounce, even humidity.
Even if I could consistently swing my arm to within 1 mph of a certain speed I dunno if I could guarantee where the CB will end up within a foot on, say, a 2 rail position shot.
I find the biggest trick to this is visualization. I watch a quick little mental film. Imagine the stick swinging forward and whacking that cue ball. Where does the cue ball end up afterwards in your imagination? Too short? Replay it again with a more rapid swing. Better? Then just make your arm match your mental film.
I think most of us also develop a set comfortable speed we like to hit balls at. It's a baseline and we adjust from it. It may even subtly influence how much distance or angle we try for when playing shape. Often I will see a shot and think "hmm. I gotta hit it sort of 'medium' speed but a little harder." ...I hate doing that though and sometimes I will try to add extra spin so I can leave off the extra speed.
Even if I could consistently swing my arm to within 1 mph of a certain speed I dunno if I could guarantee where the CB will end up within a foot on, say, a 2 rail position shot.
I find the biggest trick to this is visualization. I watch a quick little mental film. Imagine the stick swinging forward and whacking that cue ball. Where does the cue ball end up afterwards in your imagination? Too short? Replay it again with a more rapid swing. Better? Then just make your arm match your mental film.
I think most of us also develop a set comfortable speed we like to hit balls at. It's a baseline and we adjust from it. It may even subtly influence how much distance or angle we try for when playing shape. Often I will see a shot and think "hmm. I gotta hit it sort of 'medium' speed but a little harder." ...I hate doing that though and sometimes I will try to add extra spin so I can leave off the extra speed.
This is going to be a tough one to answer fully by anyone as the variables you mentioned and many more come down to each specific situation.
The ones you mentioned, plus the cloth speed, rail speed, etc.
Personally the first thing I take into account is the specific table situation. Especially the consistency between the rails and the cloth. Very common for rails to be "springy" and the cloth slow, or the rails "dead" and the cloth fast. I try to remember how each individual rail reacts and plan from there.
For example, I played on a table Monday in which one of the end rails played especially faster than the rest of the rails. I had to remember this anytime I knew I needed to go to that rail for position I must be cautious. I needed to either hit a shot with much less speed than the other rails to get my desired position without the use of extra rails, or I needed to take advantage of this rail to hit a shot a bit more firm and use it to go the extra rail or two. l also had to take into account how hard I needed to hit the object ball to make the pocket. Sometimes the decision would be made for me if hitting the shot softly to play 1 rail of this "springy" rail would not be enough to pocket the ball, I would have to go the extra rails.
Once I take this into account I typically look at how full I am hitting the object ball. Obviously from a physics standpoint, the more full you hit a ball the less the more energy is imparted on the object ball and less is retained by the cue ball and vice versa.
Next would be spin as this also effects how full I am hitting the object ball due to throw.
After that would be distance from the cue to the object ball and also total distance I want to travel after.
So I guess my routine would be something like:
Decide where I want the cue to end up
Table conditions
Fullness of hit
Spin
Distance
Except for the table conditions I do most of the other things "by feel" which basically means its just habit after many hours of consciously thinking about it. I do put actual conscious thought into table conditions though.
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I'd also like to point out something almost always overlooked by players. The Lag.
When I was playing 40 hrs/week or more I had a set "speed" I liked to hit balls with. That speed was practiced on the table/s I mainly played on to hit the lag to almost freeze on the end rail when it came back down table.
From here I could tell a lot about how a table was playing just from my "speed" when I hit the lag. If it came up short, I knew I'd have to hit shots a bit more firm on that table, if I was long I knew I would have to hit shots a bit softer on that table.
When I was playing 40 hrs/week or more I had a set "speed" I liked to hit balls with. That speed was practiced on the table/s I mainly played on to hit the lag to almost freeze on the end rail when it came back down table.
From here I could tell a lot about how a table was playing just from my "speed" when I hit the lag. If it came up short, I knew I'd have to hit shots a bit more firm on that table, if I was long I knew I would have to hit shots a bit softer on that table.
You can't come up with a "formula" per se, but you could easily make a checklist you mentally run though.....at least whilst one is learning the early skills of position play. Eventually this will become "feel" but having a checklist for position is just like having a checklist for a pre-shot routine, shot routine, etc.
Just for determining table speed and not addressing your multiple issues of draw/follow, english, etc... I LOVE to use this drill to get the speed of the table down.
I line up 7 balls across the 2nd diamond (across the headspot, evenly spaced). I then hit the first ball lightly and then hit each consecutive ball a little bit further but the 7th ball can not hit the end rail. Each ball must go further than the ball before it but the last ball can't go as far as the end rail. It is harder than it seems at first and then very easy once you get used to the table. It forces you to learn the table speed quickly.
I do this drill without a cue ball when first learning the table and then I use the cue ball (taking ball in hand after each shot) once I feel I have the table speed down.
I line up 7 balls across the 2nd diamond (across the headspot, evenly spaced). I then hit the first ball lightly and then hit each consecutive ball a little bit further but the 7th ball can not hit the end rail. Each ball must go further than the ball before it but the last ball can't go as far as the end rail. It is harder than it seems at first and then very easy once you get used to the table. It forces you to learn the table speed quickly.
I do this drill without a cue ball when first learning the table and then I use the cue ball (taking ball in hand after each shot) once I feel I have the table speed down.
I think it comes down to hitting lots of balls, learning from your successes and failures. In my mind there is not formula but more lots and lots of practice.
Charlie Bryant had a good video of a speed control system on his website. It was only for one type of basic shot, but if you go through a little experimentation, you can extrapolate his basic system to many other types of shots (and correct some variables which I think are not quite correct in the original system).