Toughest Shot Survey

[Opie]

That's the fun of it, you never know when your world can get turned all upside down and you're sucked into the abyss of dickdom and all the exciment. Aren't forums great?!

I don't remember woofing or asking you to play so don't get your hopes up...but, c'mon....you'd enjoy the hell out of yourself. Not only would I keep you entertained, but I could show you a magic trick or two. Everybody loves magic. I'll bet I could make a $100 disappear from your wallet without you even realizing that I was aiming my ass off to do it..........

You probably could. I'm sure your a world-beater.

 

[pete lafond]

I didn't want to get into an argument when I first posted on this thread. I just stated my opinion. I enjoy this forum quite a bit but the only thing that gets me is when someone starts an argument. You can disagree with someone without being a dick about it. Your right, your probably a better player than me. But it's pointless to argue about it, 'cause in all likelihood we'll never meet each other, let alone play pool together. And with the attitude you give on here sometimes, I wouldn't want to play you anyway.

As you can see there is quite an opportunity to learn from this forum, your 100% right.

Just curious, do you play in a bar league or pool hall more often. If you play in a pool hall, do you play were the stronger players play?

 

[Opie]

As you can see there is quite an opportunity to learn from this forum, your 100% right.

Just curious, do you play in a bar league or pool hall more often. If you play in a pool hall, do you play were the stronger players play?

I play in a pool hall. And I play with the strongest players in the house. It's the only way I feel I can improve. I don't play in any leagues. No offense meant toward league players, but at least in my area, the league players are usually pretty weak.

 

[TATE]

I agree with Tate, in that the question needs to be a little more specific.

Would you rather have a long straight frozen to the rail OB and CB shot? Or an almost frozen to the short rail 90 degree length of the table cut? Pick your poison, both are equally fun.

Rick

I play on tight tables. The reason why long straight in shots are more difficult is because they have to be stroked with enough speed (or a kill shot) to stop the cue ball or you will scratch.

If you prefer to stroke the cue ball with a little kill shot (controlled draw) instead of shooting firm center on straight shots, where the draw dies and the cue ball stops (as I do) you really need to be dead center of the cueball, because it will swerve off line or throw the object ball if you are a little off. Any unwanted spin on the cueball is fully transferred to the object ball. Just a tiny amount of off center will throw the shot off.

On cut shots, you can just roll them in. On slow rolled shots there is a danger of getting a little skid, so many players put a hair of outside on the shot. This is a very reliable way of pocketing a slight cut shot, especially under pressure. I'm talking a quarter to a half tip of outside.

Watch pros shoot these slight cut shots. Rarely are they center ball.

Chris

 

[DaveK]

...I haven't actually expressed a preference one way or the other.

Nonsense, you expressed a perfectly clear opinion on this very matter in a response to me a few weeks back. You said ... wait ... that would bias this otherwise perfect survey-to-truth ... never mind.

How long did the Emperors nose end up being, anyway ?

Dave

 

[Eric.]

Here's another thought;

The hardest shot on the table or (specifically) the hardest shot you should be taking and not playing safe?

For me, it would be a table length slight(3 degrees or so) cut to the opposite corner pocket.


Eric

 

[drivermaker]

You probably could. I'm sure your a world-beater.

For someone that doesn't aim like yourself and just fires balls in with a mere glance, I don't think world-beater is required. Probably just a small island like Jamaica is enough to do you in.

 

[Opie]

For someone that doesn't aim like yourself and just fires balls in with a mere glance, I don't think world-beater is required. Probably just a small island like Jamaica is enough to do you in.

I look at the shot and do aim, but I think that overanalyzing the way you aim could actually hurt a persons game.. In retrospect, I probably do use some type of aiming system but I wouldn't know what type it is or what to call it. I mean, after you shoot enough balls, you begin to see the angles and know where to aim. It becomes subconcious, as another poster mentioned. Do you think that every time a pro or other good player goes down on a shot he/she thinks "Man, I better use my (three line, ghost ball, or another) aiming system for this shot or I'm gonna dog it." They just look at the shot and know where to hit it. I mean, they have to know where the contact point is gonna be, but I think at a certain point you just look at the ball and see it. I think that once you get to a certain level, you begin focusing your mind more toward the way you are gonna get shape than spending all of your focus worrying that your not aiming correctly . But that's just my opinion, and everybody has thier own. Even a legend such as yourself.

 

[drivermaker]

I look at the shot and do aim,

In retrospect, I probably do use some type of aiming system but I wouldn't know what type it is or what to call it.

I mean, they have to know where the contact point is gonna be, Even a legend such as yourself.

I see you've finally come to your senses. (I think) That's the point I've been trying to make. EVERBODY aims and they're using SOME SYSTEM which is either known to them by name or not known. To say, I don't even aim or use an aiming system is totally illogical and stupid. It's just flat out ridiculous! If you AIM...you're using a sytem or method. Who can play this game WITHOUT aiming or aligning?

You actually DON'T NEED to know where the contact point is to make a shot. There are other ways of doing it. This is a case of "you don't even know what there is to know" regarding how to do it.

I use basically 2 aiming systems and that's it. Do I now have to think about them? Hell NO! It's ingrained to where it's second nature. In fact so ingrained, that I could probably be a candidate for speed pool tournaments. They actually make the game faster...without them I would have to take more time.

Thank you for acknowledging my status and place in this game.

 

[Opie]

I see you've finally come to your senses. (I think) That's the point I've been trying to make. EVERBODY aims and they're using SOME SYSTEM which is either known to them by name or not known. To say, I don't even aim or use an aiming system is totally illogical and stupid. It's just flat out ridiculous! If you AIM...you're using a sytem or method. Who can play this game WITHOUT aiming or aligning?

You actually DON'T NEED to know where the contact point is to make a shot. There are other ways of doing it. This is a case of "you don't even know what there is to know" regarding how to do it.

I use basically 2 aiming systems and that's it. Do I now have to think about them? Hell NO! It's ingrained to where it's second nature. In fact so ingrained, that I could probably be a candidate for speed pool tournaments. They actually make the game faster...without them I would have to take more time.

Thank you for acknowledging my status and place in this game.

Sorry for the back and forth arguing. I was misunderstanding and thought you were implying that players actually consciously THOUGHT about thier aiming system when preparing to shoot. It's all good. And, not trying to be sarcastic this time, you probably are a legend/world beater.

 

[drivermaker]

Aren't you a little old for that ?

We all know what WW is thinking: A man has got to know his limitations>

It's all relative...I was talking about participating in Assisted Living Care centers and Nursing Homes. I'd win...hands down...guaranteed!

 

[Rod]

I see you've finally come to your senses. (I think) That's the point I've been trying to make. EVERBODY aims and they're using SOME SYSTEM which is either known to them by name or not known. To say, I don't even aim or use an aiming system is totally illogical and stupid. It's just flat out ridiculous! If you AIM...you're using a sytem or method. Who can play this game WITHOUT aiming or aligning?

You actually DON'T NEED to know where the contact point is to make a shot. There are other ways of doing it. This is a case of "you don't even know what there is to know" regarding how to do it.

I use basically 2 aiming systems and that's it. Do I now have to think about them? Hell NO! It's ingrained to where it's second nature. In fact so ingrained, that I could probably be a candidate for speed pool tournaments. They actually make the game faster...without them I would have to take more time.

Well since you put it like that, tis true I use a system, actually two. One I think is in print but never seen anything mentioned of the other. Mine never come out of an instruction book cause I never buy or read them.

Besides when/where I started playing instruction or instruction books wasn't happening. You got your lessons on a pool table for the doe. I think what bothers me is the word system. Everybody has a teckie name for something.
The term BHE is just a fancy name thought of many many years after what I called a simple side stroke. Nobody ever told me the cue had to go in a straight line. Although their meaning is aim and pivot -WTF is that? Oh, I know they have to find piviot point for squirt, blah blah blah, it's never ending. If that isn't enough to confuse the crap out of most they'll add more crap on the pile. If I had to go thru that before shooting in a dam shot, I'd quit.

For those that use such stuff fine, if it gives them a woody, fine. I can't help but think though many are increasingly lost in a pile of crap.

Rod

 

[drivermaker]

Well since you put it like that, tis true I use a system, actually two. One I think is in print but never seen anything mentioned of the other. Mine never come out of an instruction book cause I never buy or read them.

Besides when/where I started playing instruction or instruction books wasn't happening. You got your lessons on a pool table for the doe. I think what bothers me is the word system. Everybody has a teckie name for something.

Rod

The "techie name" for something probably also happened in baseball too. Somebody threw a pitch and it had absolutely no spin on it and they said, "whoa....what the hell was that"? And the guy said, "I don't know, but I kinda grab the ball like this and instead of wrapping my fingers around it I bend them and just hold it with my knuckles....HEY...let's call it a KNUCKLE BALL". "OK". And then another time the pitcher slipped coming off the mound and it caused his wrist to turn funny and the baseball had a hell of a turn to it...and he tried it again with his wrist and it worked, so he said, "Let's call that one a curve ball". It's just a way of identifying it in order to explain or reproduce something.

Same thing in pool...I think the word "system" does screw with a lot of heads out there. But there's NOTHING that you, I, or Efren can do that hasn't been done before and identified and named in the way of aiming. They're all just different ways to line up and visualize a shot before pulling the trigger. Not much difference in calling something a draw shot or follow shot.

I came up the same way you did in learning the game. It's not since the last 5-6 years or so that I HAVE read a lot of books and purchased tapes, and in doing so have more or less learned what I HAVE been doing and what it's called. Prior to that I didn't know their names either, I just did it. But their names did exist.

It's like being blindfolded, put to sleep, and dropped off in a strange and unfamiliar city. Although when you wake up and have the blindfold removed you might not know where you are, how you got there, or why it's that place...but if it's Tokeka, Kansas...then it's Topeka, Kansas...whether you know it, like it, or not. You're there.

 

[Rod]

.

but if it's Tokeka, Kansas...then it's Topeka, Kansas...whether you know it, like it, or not. You're there.

Topeka is a pretty good town. I traveled through there once a week when I was on the road in that area. It made a fair weekly payday. Use to be a lot of fine college babes there and in Lawrence. I imagine there still is but alas I'm to dam old for the young stuff. ha ha

Yea well, they can call it what they want, I'm jus an ole farm boy that makes a ball once in a while.

 

[drivermaker]

Yea well, they can call it what they want, I'm jus an ole farm boy that makes a ball once in a while.

So, describe the method of aiming that you use which you have NOT seen in any books. I'll see if it exists or can put a name to it. (Hell, maybe make a ball once in a while myself)

 

[Rod]

So, describe the method of aiming that you use which you have NOT seen in any books. I'll see if it exists or can put a name to it. (Hell, maybe make a ball once in a while myself)

I haven't seen anything in a book, I don't read them, remember? My main aiming method is equal distance, I believe that's what it's called. The other while similar, I'll name eclipse. Far to much typing to get my point across so I won't. Besides it may get confused with fractional or ghost ball, which it isn't.

Then they'll think I'm starting a movement. The Alice's massacree aiming movment. That'll lead to a 20 minute song with much adoo about nothing. It's just in visulation, how you perceive ball overlap and angles.

Rod

 

[SmoothStroke]

straight shot

I would be interested to know if you think a long straight in shot is harder than an equivalent cut shot - ie the object ball in the same position.

Editted to add - assume it's the nine ball - don't think of positional complicaions, just the relative difficulty of potting each shot.

Boro Nut

It's a no brainer,,,,a straight shot is the easiest shot on the table, always has and always will be

 

[SmoothStroke]

straight shot difficlt?

The long straight shot is slightly tougher, though as Drivermaker notes, the aim is no tougher. When you hit the part of the cue ball you wish to, the two are identical in difficulty.

The real difference is when you don't hit the cue ball as intended, and produce unintended english, you're just slightly more likely to miss a straight shot. This is because the effect of the unintended throw on a straight shot will, on average, cause an object ball to go further of its intended path than on a cut shot.

straight shot is and always will be the easiest of all shots