I do love it when I'm forced to quote from WONDERBOYS...which I've posted this quote here before...and this is worth the price of the book...here we go from page 83...spaces added for readability...
"I call it THE SECRET. I will now open my big flap of a mouth and reveal it.
He [Del] called me at home one day and told me to come right away to the YMCA, where he had a table in the men's area. The boys played on eight foot industrial strength tables, but the men had a nice room, with four leather pocket tables. An ancient pulley system operated overhead fans, and the chalk dangled on a chain, pull it down to chalk up, let go it releases to hang just in reach.
Del was more animated than I usually see him.
?I'm going to play some spot shots. You just spot the ball for me, and let me know when you think I'm on to something.?
I said O.K., and placed the nine ball on the foot spot and stepped back to watch.
Del placed his cue ball, as he explained, at the intersection of the first diamond on the top rail and the second diamond on the side rail. He then moved it back a hair to make it legal.
He used an open bridge, stroked like silk three times and sent the cue ball toward the nine with average speed. The nine split the corner pocket with a click on the little pad at the bottom of the leather pocket. I've seen that before.
I set up the nine again and stepped back. Del made the spot shot the same way at the same speed. And again. And again. Here we go. Ten in a row. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Fifty.
Del moved his cue ball to the left side. Ten spot shots. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Fifty. Fifty spot shots in a row from the right side, fifty from the left side. No misses.
?Well, what do you think??
?I'm not sure. I don?t expect you to miss a spot shot. Still, a hundred out of a hundred is impressive. I see you're using the overhand bridge, but what I'm seeing more than anything is the speed. You're hitting the cue ball at exactly the same speed every time. That's pretty consistent.?
?Consistent. That's the word. It works every time. All you have to do is stroke it right and it goes. Here, try it.?
The first part of the secret is the angle. It has to be somewhere near the angle of a spot shot. The second part is the speed. It has to be stroked medium speed, too hard will undercut, too soft will overcut. Smoothness counts. Stay down. Follow through. The best part of the secret is the new way of looking at things.
Instead of aiming the shot in the usual way, the way we learned from Mosconi's book, all you do now is use an open bridge so you can see the shaft of the cue, line up the shaft to the edge of the object ball. And stroke the cue ball.
I set the cue ball at the diamond intersection on the right side, made sure I was comfortable, that my cue tip was in the right spot (just a little running english, Del said), took a few warmup strokes, saw that shaft extension meet the edge of the object ball, and split the pocket. Again. And again. Then I missed. Del asked why I missed.
?I hit it too hard. And I poked at it.?
?Excellent. It doesn't take long, does it, to get the speed down. And you have to be smooth.?
I missed a few times on my first ten tries. Then I rattled off thirty in a row and was ready for the left side. Again, a little sputter with the speed control, then by the time I made twenty I was convinced.
?Well, blow me down. Looks like we've got something here, Del.?
He went off about how he had to work out the bugs on the angle. He showed me how ?the system? (he called it the system, or the method, I called it the secret) fades out on extreme or little angle. He gave me the range where it works, that most shots should be in that range anyway, so the system will be in play most of the time.
A few weeks later, I blew his mind by announcing,
?It works on bank shots.?
I had been using the secret in my practice sessions, and for kicks used it on a bank shot, cross side. It split the pocket. I changed the angle. It split the pocket. I banked it cross corner, it split the pocket. This is too easy. This is how Lombard and Del must feel all the time, no matter what I do, the ball goes in. And I don't even have to aim.
Try it. But don't tell anyone I told you."
Thanks again
Mike
I must be getting old.
