Which break ball position do you prefer?

Dan White

Dan White

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Assuming you have good key balls for either break balls in position A or B (I'm using the cue balls just for the A and B reference), which do you prefer? Aside from the ability to reach the break shot, are there other considerations for not wanting to choose one over the other? Obviously, I'm getting at the idea of using break balls close to the rack and whether there are any reasons to prefer B over A (again, aside from whether you can reach it or not).

CueTable Help

 
Well Dan,
from that diagram i couldn t say which one :) I prefer a break, where i see clearly the tangent-line. So if the Cueball hits the ball in the rack in a way so it *naturally* would roll towards middle of table or towards the headrail, that would be my breakball- no matter if it would be a bit closer (like A) or a bit more in the field (B).

Hope that was the answere you were lookin for :)
lg
Ingo
 
hip to B

Dan White said:
Assuming you have good key balls for either break balls in position A or B (I'm using the cue balls just for the A and B reference), which do you prefer? Aside from the ability to reach the break shot, are there other considerations for not wanting to choose one over the other? Obviously, I'm getting at the idea of using break balls close to the rack and whether there are any reasons to prefer B over A (again, aside from whether you can reach it or not).

I prefer option b - no matter the playing conditions. It may be easier to see the 90 with option A, however this is where a players personality and or style enters. Either option is reliable but it is not as easy to get stuck in the stack with option B, there are many options as to how to approach either shot ie (cue ball spin.) I guess the real answer is you do not know untill your at the table, but I prefer the break ball to have some distance between it and the stack - if given the option.
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Dan, I'm not an expert by any means, and I would choose the close ball (A) simply to make sure I hit the rack, but one argument I see for ball (B) is for more options "where" to hit the rack.
 
As Danny said, just from a personal preference standpoint, I also prefer position B further away from the stack. I just feel it is a little easier "see" the shot on the break ball when it doesn't have a sea of balls right behind it as a back drop. It also leaves a little extra room to use some spin to hit the stack where you want to if you don't like the natural angle. I also agree with Danny's point that the CB seems less likely to get stuck on the stack.
 
From the positions shown, I like B better. But, I'd rather a ball about a ball and a half's width under the 6 ball and the CB about 3 balls under the rack, 8" from the break ball, shooting into the top left pocket. That's my favorite of all.

I know not a lot of players like that, but, FWIW, my CB is going in the direction I want it to go (center table) with a touch of outside english.

The only chance for a scratch is cross side if you really cream it, spin it and get totally unlucky and miss all the open balls on its way to that pocket. :)
 
Some good replies there. As Danny says, I guess it's more personal preference. I always wondered whether the cue ball sticks to the pack with A vs B because the cue ball is stunning into the pack rather than rolling or near rolling. In any case it does seem to stick more but I'm not sure. I'll take Danny's word for it.

Thanks!
 
it's funny but all my decent runs are always with strange break balls. below the rack and thin cuts down the rail that send the cb into the stack
 
Gimme a B!!!

Option B for me all day long. One benefit of a good memory is being able to recognize shots that have turned out poorly in the past - and to me Option A is one of them. Higher chance of sliding off the rack and scratching or hitting the side of the rack full and sticking to it. All the above responses were spot on. With option A I always feel I have to hit it a bit harder to prevent the cue ball from sticking to the pile or to get more draw on it to prevent a scratch - hitting it harder means my make percentage also goes down as well. I actually hate option A come to think of it. lol

Ron F
 
Dan White said:
How so? Are you assuming a shallower angle with shot A?
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Angle does not appear to be the reason. I've seen a lot more scratches when the cue ball is close to the rack no matter what angle. Orcollo had the same break ball at 98 last week with about a 70 degree angle, the cue ball almost beat the object ball to the pocket. Throughout the DCC there were far more scratches when the cue ball was close to the rack.
 
I also prefer B because it provides more choices and since 14p1 is the game of maximum choices, planning which provides more options usually pays off.
I will say that A could be fine but that assessment is much more sensitive to where the BB is along the edge of the rack.
There are certain combinations of cueball velocity(both speed and especially direction), cueball spin, and contact point on the rack which kill the cueball speed after the contact(s)( there are often two successive cueball contacts to the rack). When the BB gets closer to the rack you can see that the cueball approach to the rack becomes closer to perpendicular and that aggravates the sticking problem.
 
Option B :)

Option B, looks much better to me too. I'm not sure exactly why but it looks like the stroke you put on the CB will convey through the pack from a little more distance than at option A. When considering option A it makes me want to use more spin and speed to get a similar result as to what would happen with a less extreme more controlled stroke on option option B. Maybe it's the perceived momentum of the shot using option B which has more space to visualize that in before the CB hits the rack.
 
For me it would depend on where the cueball was left. With a shallow angle I would prefer Ball "A", for a steeper angle I like position "B". From parallel to the break ball I prefer "A" but from closer to the lower long rail I prefer "B".

Andy
 
I Like Position B:

I feel as though when the object ball is a little further away from the rack it has an extra second to find its proper path into the stack, and gives the cueball a chance to pickup whatever English has been applied to it !!

Equally said, that i find as well when the object ball is closer to the rack there's more chances for the scratch. maybe its for the opposite reasons that i have indicated above.

-Steve
 
Dan White said:
Assuming you have good key balls for either break balls in position A or B (I'm using the cue balls just for the A and B reference), which do you prefer? Aside from the ability to reach the break shot, are there other considerations for not wanting to choose one over the other? Obviously, I'm getting at the idea of using break balls close to the rack and whether there are any reasons to prefer B over A (again, aside from whether you can reach it or not).

CueTable Help

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Being left handed I'd rather have B over A, though I"d like to have them on the other side more :) I like playing the back cut with follow and driving through the bottom corner of the stack.
 
confused about recent CueTable layouts

it's not the first time I open a thread with a layout and don't see it. Then it works okay on other pages. So in this one, I see the position in quoted message but the table isn't showing in the initial post. I check back to the first page, and I still don't see it. So I return to page 2 - and whatdaheck, it shows empty table again.

From the post by Ratta I see I'm not alone.
 
Vahmurka said:
it's not the first time I open a thread with a layout and don't see it. Then it works okay on other pages. So in this one, I see the position in quoted message but the table isn't showing in the initial post. I check back to the first page, and I still don't see it. So I return to page 2 - and whatdaheck, it shows empty table again.

From the post by Ratta I see I'm not alone.
Click to expand...

Go to the cue table website and log in as a member, and then see what happens. That fixed it for me.
 
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