Well, whatever people might think they're seeing, if you hit the ball low, it puts back spin on it. If the cue ball contacts the object ball with back spin on it, it isn't going to follow. It really is that simple. There is no "magic stroke" that you can put on the cue ball that will make it follow with draw.
You can do something like the following shot where, yeah, you're hitting the cue ball low, but the right-hand english you're using is what is carrying it forward. Plus, you don't hit this ball with much speed:
START(
%HP2Z5%ID5M1%PZ7W9%WP7Z6%XZ7X0%YC0[3%ZP2Z5%[P5[0%\P6Z5%]D9V8
%^P0[4%eC0a9
)END
Or you can do the drag shot that everyone is talking about. Like I said earlier, you can stun the ball forward. I play that shot a lot when I need to move the cue ball forward. I'm not sure if it looks like I'm cueing the ball low though because I only see it from my perspective.
What's interesting is that there are so many players, even very good players, who think that all that hocus pocus shit they do with the cue is really making the cue ball react differently than if they were to just hit the cue ball in the same spot with a straight stroke. As an example, most players that I talk to seem to agree that you can move the cue ball around easier and get more engish on the ball with a loose grip. I even loosened my grip and experienced the same result and now I play with a grip that is a lot looser than the grip that I played with up until a few years ago. However, I started thinking about this and realized that it just didn't make any sense. You hit the cue ball in a certain spot, with the cue traveling at a certain speed, and you're going to get a certain result - whether your grip was tight or loose. I've even heard people try to rationalize that there was some vibration in the cue that was hindered by a tight grip that would produce a different result. I *might* be able to buy into that if it weren't for the fact that the tip is only on the cue ball for a small fraction of a second - not nearly enough time for any magical vibrations to produce some result that would be different had they not been there.
What I've come to believe about why it feels like you can get so much more action on the cue ball with a loose grip is that it FEELS like you're putting less muscular effort into the shot to propel the cue at a certain speed if you're grip and arm are loose as opposed to tight. So, that feeling of less muscular effort leads the player to the conclusion that, "hey, I just barely hit that ball and look at what the cue ball did! I got 'more action' on the cue ball." When, in reality, it just took less muscular effort to propel the cue into the cue ball at that particular speed.
I expect someone to argue against this by saying, "what about this player? he does this-or-that". My answer will be the same for any argument like this so I'll just give it now
D): The player could get the same result without doing some crazy crap with their cue.
You can do something like the following shot where, yeah, you're hitting the cue ball low, but the right-hand english you're using is what is carrying it forward. Plus, you don't hit this ball with much speed:
START(
%HP2Z5%ID5M1%PZ7W9%WP7Z6%XZ7X0%YC0[3%ZP2Z5%[P5[0%\P6Z5%]D9V8
%^P0[4%eC0a9
)END
Or you can do the drag shot that everyone is talking about. Like I said earlier, you can stun the ball forward. I play that shot a lot when I need to move the cue ball forward. I'm not sure if it looks like I'm cueing the ball low though because I only see it from my perspective.
What's interesting is that there are so many players, even very good players, who think that all that hocus pocus shit they do with the cue is really making the cue ball react differently than if they were to just hit the cue ball in the same spot with a straight stroke. As an example, most players that I talk to seem to agree that you can move the cue ball around easier and get more engish on the ball with a loose grip. I even loosened my grip and experienced the same result and now I play with a grip that is a lot looser than the grip that I played with up until a few years ago. However, I started thinking about this and realized that it just didn't make any sense. You hit the cue ball in a certain spot, with the cue traveling at a certain speed, and you're going to get a certain result - whether your grip was tight or loose. I've even heard people try to rationalize that there was some vibration in the cue that was hindered by a tight grip that would produce a different result. I *might* be able to buy into that if it weren't for the fact that the tip is only on the cue ball for a small fraction of a second - not nearly enough time for any magical vibrations to produce some result that would be different had they not been there.
What I've come to believe about why it feels like you can get so much more action on the cue ball with a loose grip is that it FEELS like you're putting less muscular effort into the shot to propel the cue at a certain speed if you're grip and arm are loose as opposed to tight. So, that feeling of less muscular effort leads the player to the conclusion that, "hey, I just barely hit that ball and look at what the cue ball did! I got 'more action' on the cue ball." When, in reality, it just took less muscular effort to propel the cue into the cue ball at that particular speed.
I expect someone to argue against this by saying, "what about this player? he does this-or-that". My answer will be the same for any argument like this so I'll just give it now
D): The player could get the same result without doing some crazy crap with their cue.
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Seriously though, I don't understand why anyone would want to shoot a drag shot when you can use stun follow. Too many things can go wrong with a drag shot.