Why does SVB hit the cueball low almost all the time ?

Neil said:
Please tell me you aren't serious here. Surely you don't believe that anyone is born knowing how to play pool.
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neil what i mean, some people are more naturally gifted when they start playing not just at pool but other sports. These people i have noticed, hit the cueball low, doing this naturally. A natural cueist i mean. Snooker examples Ronnie o sullivan, Jimmy White, Alex higgins all done this. There are also numerous pool players who are naturally gifted players who do this also.
 
lee brett said:
neil what i mean, some people are more naturally gifted when they start playing not just at pool but other sports. These people i have noticed, hit the cueball low, doing this naturally. A natural cueist i mean. Snooker examples Ronnie o sullivan, Jimmy White, Alex higgins all done this. There are also numerous pool players who are naturally gifted players who do this also.
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The reason good players prefer to hit the cue ball low is (drumroll please) it minimizes collision induced throw.
 
Neil said:
You would be very surprised with the answers if you asked all the top pros what collision induced throw is. Most don't even know what it is! That is something that us internet people know about. You don't have to know what it is to learn that you have to aim a little different on certain shots with certain cb position hits, but that is intuitive to them, not a conscious thing at all. Most don't even know how they aim! They just "do it".
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Efren at the question "what aiming system do you use" always responded "I aim by feel". :smile:
 
To all the naysayers out there, I firmly believe there really is something to shooting and aiming low on most shots. Shooting down into the CB gives better vision and control, especially for draw and stun shots. It takes practice to be able shoot downwards without unwanted sidespin but once you get over that there is no going back.
I don't know how it works but it does. Many great "feel" players eventually pick up on it and consciously or unconsciously incorporate into their game because it works.
Watch closely and you'll see the tops players like Earl, Shane, Efren, etc. all aim low and bridge higher than necessary so that they are almost always shooting down into the cue ball.
It's not a quirk or a flaw, they do it because it works.
 
Taco said:
I had a lesson from a Pinoy recently and he told me, on a shot running 3 rails around the table, to hit it at 2 o'clock. Then he said a pro would hit it at 4 o'clock. I asked him why and he had no answer, possibly because he's English-challenged (the language, not the spin). But this is something I've noticed about every pro, not just Pinoys - they hit shots with a lot of English lower. For maximum spin you have to go lower on the cue ball - there's no draw, just English. Try setting up a shot with no OB. You're shooting the CB straight across the rail from the 3rd diamond to the other 3rd diamond and trying to scratch in the near corner pocket. The only way to make it is with low right/left - not drawing, just maximum spin, and you can only make it hitting soft - hitting hard the English won't take enough.
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actually hitting hard is not causing the english to not take enough it is closing up the rebound angle off the rail as it always will.
 
Neil said:
You would be very surprised with the answers if you asked all the top pros what collision induced throw is. Most don't even know what it is! That is something that us internet people know about. You don't have to know what it is to learn that you have to aim a little different on certain shots with certain cb position hits, but that is intuitive to them, not a conscious thing at all. Most don't even know how they aim! They just "do it".
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You are so right Neil. Many don't know even know the definition of swerve and squirt but somehow they struggle to put those balls in the pocket. :D

I love or comment about us Internet people. Lol. Internet people know so much about the finer points of pool but the "ignorant players" clean our clock, time after time. Lol
 
Players hit low because it's the most accurate way to strike the CB. The lower you hit, the closer to true-center you hit by default. That, paired with the fact that draw is how you control your rock.

Why is this so tough?
 
Neil said:
You would be very surprised with the answers if you asked all the top pros what collision induced throw is. Most don't even know what it is! That is something that us internet people know about. You don't have to know what it is to learn that you have to aim a little different on certain shots with certain cb position hits, but that is intuitive to them, not a conscious thing at all. Most don't even know how they aim! They just "do it".
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Believe me, there was pool before the internet. :D For the record, I don't consciously aim, feel only. In fact, if I'm playing bad it's usually because I'm trying to aim.
 
Seems to me that you could test all of these ideas and come to your own conclusions. I like the hypothesis that says, when you have a choice, aim low.

I think I will set up a bunch of shots and determine how many errors are made when comparing above center to below center shots.

Obviously learning the drag shot is important to anyone who uses the tangent line.
 
Did you know the part of the cue ball that touches the table is on the EXACT center of the vertical axis. I wonder if Shane knows that; that the bottom of the cue ball points out the center of the vertical axis?

I hear many of the great players avoid left/right english when not needed and if you could just figure out a way to identify the vertical axis you would be well on the way to being more accurate.

Maybe if a kid from South Dakota took some time tried to hit a lot and I mean a whole lot of balls they could figure out how to be real accurate and perhaps part of their accuracy might come from always identifying the vertical axis of the cue ball in their pre-shot routine. I wonder if that combination of desire and effort could turn into a viable world beater out of little old South Dakota.
Give it some time, only time will tell.
 
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SpiderWebComm said:
Players hit low because it's the most accurate way to strike the CB. The lower you hit, the closer to true-center you hit by default. That, paired with the fact that draw is how you control your rock.

Why is this so tough?
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Here ya go. The answer is above.

Nick
 
Regarding cueball control on high/low shots and precision:

Try to just shoot the cueball up and down the table without any english. Doing this perfectly is really hard and requires to be a dead straight shooter.
Try doing this with a high ball and a low ball. You`ll recognize that its way harder to accomplish the straightness with a low ball!!!

On the other hand: The contact between the cueball and objectball regarding the transfer of english/spin from cueball to objectball is mutch more natural with a low ball, as there is follow/forward spin applied to the objectball. This is kind of a cleaner contact like its the case with "running english" vs. "check side" english (also kind of missing on the vocabulary there :shakehead:)
 
SVB has a very unique stroke all together, I'm guessing its just his comfortable style of shooting. It obviously works for him.

-JD
 
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