Tom Simpson
Beat People With a Stick!
Hi Everyone,
I've pretty much been off the forums for about 10 years now. Someone gave me a heads up about the Myth of Top Spin?? thread that's underway, so I thought I should visit and read it.
I'm now more convinced than ever that this myth needs to be cleared up. My next column (September issue) will address this in a little more depth. A lot of players have a mistaken idea of how follow works, and it's related to this issue.
For those who don't get Inside Pool, I've attached a pdf of the original article, so you can see what the fuss is about.
I think poster 3andstop did a nice job in post #34. Thanks to you and the various other physics fans for helping.
What I feel is really going on is that our adoption of the term "topspin" has led most players to a mistaken idea of how balls behave. It's easy to see how players assume that hitting above center causes overspin. Before I started reading pool physics, I thought so too. I can also see how playing with that mistaken notion can still produce terrific results. I believe that the clearer your grasp of this stuff, the better and smarter you will play. Just as you can learn to pocket balls perfectly without knowing anything about throw, you can play perfect follow without understanding how follow actually works. But I think the truth helps us learn more quickly and helps us better solve new game situations.
My experience is that most players have trouble at first believing that what they've always assumed was overspin in the CB is nothing more than roll - and that "force follow" is merely fast roll. As we hit higher above center, the skidding of the CB decays to full natural roll sooner in the shot. As we hit harder, the skidding zone lengthens.
Other than the special cases of masse and the fleeting overspin it's possible to get, hitting in the last 1/8" of CB before the miscue boundary, what we refer to as "topspin" is roll. Overspin is what you see in the CB after a collision has removed some or all of its linear force. What was, prior to the collision, a rolling CB, now is a stopped or slower moving CB with overspin. That overspin was not there when the CB left the tip.
Please consider that maybe the physics guys are correct (and maybe I'm not nuts).
I've pretty much been off the forums for about 10 years now. Someone gave me a heads up about the Myth of Top Spin?? thread that's underway, so I thought I should visit and read it.
I'm now more convinced than ever that this myth needs to be cleared up. My next column (September issue) will address this in a little more depth. A lot of players have a mistaken idea of how follow works, and it's related to this issue.
For those who don't get Inside Pool, I've attached a pdf of the original article, so you can see what the fuss is about.
I think poster 3andstop did a nice job in post #34. Thanks to you and the various other physics fans for helping.
What I feel is really going on is that our adoption of the term "topspin" has led most players to a mistaken idea of how balls behave. It's easy to see how players assume that hitting above center causes overspin. Before I started reading pool physics, I thought so too. I can also see how playing with that mistaken notion can still produce terrific results. I believe that the clearer your grasp of this stuff, the better and smarter you will play. Just as you can learn to pocket balls perfectly without knowing anything about throw, you can play perfect follow without understanding how follow actually works. But I think the truth helps us learn more quickly and helps us better solve new game situations.
My experience is that most players have trouble at first believing that what they've always assumed was overspin in the CB is nothing more than roll - and that "force follow" is merely fast roll. As we hit higher above center, the skidding of the CB decays to full natural roll sooner in the shot. As we hit harder, the skidding zone lengthens.
Other than the special cases of masse and the fleeting overspin it's possible to get, hitting in the last 1/8" of CB before the miscue boundary, what we refer to as "topspin" is roll. Overspin is what you see in the CB after a collision has removed some or all of its linear force. What was, prior to the collision, a rolling CB, now is a stopped or slower moving CB with overspin. That overspin was not there when the CB left the tip.
Please consider that maybe the physics guys are correct (and maybe I'm not nuts).
Actually trying to learn something , but I'm not totally convinced yet.
