WTF is "backhand english?"

BHE vs. "swoop" vs. "cue twist"

quedup said:
This may not be the place to ask this but here goes. How do you describe the english that is used by twisting the cue upon impact either to the inside or the outside? What I mean is if you are right handed when the tip is about to make contact with the cue ball the cue is then turned by the back hand (ie the right hand in this case) either inward or outward?
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Back-hand English (BHE) usually refers to pivoting the back hand before (and not during) the stroke. What you are describing sounds like "swoop" (back-hand pivot during the stroke) and/or "cue twist." Both are demonstrated, with a little humor, here:


Regards,
Dave
 
poolplayer2093 said:
Really, who thinks about this stuff when they play?
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I guess that depends on what you mean by "think" and "stuff" and "when."

If people don't adjust (subconsciously or consciously) for squirt, swerve, and throw when they use English, they will miss many shots. Also, if they don't have a "feel" for how all of these effects vary with different conditions and for different types of shots, they won't know how to adjust. But you certainly shouldn't be "thinking" about this stuff during your stroke.

Regards,
Dave
 
Bhe

Someone already mentioned Bert Kinister's "Deflection Tape". It explains the whole thing in easy to understand language, and it works!! I've known Bert for many years and I've never seen him so excited about anything else. Putting the deflection tape together with "Aiming to Win" and "Bank Shots" tapes are dangerously good and will improve your shotmaking ability a bunch and failry quickly without much "PAIN".
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Who plays while they're on AZB?

pj
chgo
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I often do... especially if there's a teaching thread, like a bhe thread. The table is 3 ft from me so I move back and forth.
 
cuebuilder said:
Someone already mentioned Bert Kinister's "Deflection Tape". It explains the whole thing in easy to understand language, and it works!! I've known Bert for many years and I've never seen him so excited about anything else. Putting the deflection tape together with "Aiming to Win" and "Bank Shots" tapes are dangerously good and will improve your shotmaking ability a bunch and failry quickly without much "PAIN".
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Bert Kinister gets exicted just dreaming about a pool video. He's never created a pool video that he didn't like.
JoeyA
 
CrownCityCorey said:
I watched the first couple minutes of the video, and I am still slightly confused. I've never consiously, I don't think, done what Colin did.

I am thinking it has to do with amping up whitey with spin for some thing. Consiously, I will use a slip-stoke when I need to do that (close quarters).

Perhaps, I am doing this backhand english deal at a distance?

Am I at least getting warm to the concept?
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Corey,
Yeah, I doubt you've ever consciously aligned and pivoted this way unless you were taught it earlier.

Like you and most players, I think we just address the CB off center and learn to see/feel if the pot would go.

I considered myself a pretty adventurous played using spin but BHE has made it much less of a guessing game. It would take a while for your BHE to surpass your feel approach as you have learned how to make so many shots, but I don't think practising a little BHE would hurt your game. You might learn a bit more about some shots you have trouble with.

Colin
 
poolplayer2093 said:
Really, who thinks about this stuff when they play?
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We wouldn't expect a mechanic to be very good if he didn't study the complex workings of a distributor and all the other parts of a car and its engine. Same is true with other trades.

Yet somehow people think they can get better at pool without studying what is really going on regarding swerve, squirt and throw, despite that fact that every shot they play is affected by at least one of these factors.

The idea that you can keep it simple and just guess it all by feel comes from the same mentality that we should get something for nothing.

Imagine a mechanic guessing how to fix your car. He'd be called a hack.

Colin
 
Good stuff to know.........

A buddy of mine taught me some cool shit like this. Yo O thanks for the tips man. I'm practicin my heart out day in and day out! Hope I can someday be good enough to actually be some competition against you.
 
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sixpack said:
It's when you apply english by moving your back hand and changing the contact point on the CB. Usually you pivot around your bridge hand.

If you pivot around the right point, the effects of deflection and the different direction of the movement of the cue offset and allow you to hit your aim point as if you were aiming with center ball.

~rc
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Could you start over, I fot distracted.
 
I recently discovered BHE and watched Colins vid a few times. I have been using it on shots where english is needed for shape but where I always seem to get the dreaded "miss the shot, get the shape" syndrome. It has done wonders for my game overall.
 
SpiderWebComm said:
You probably do it subconsciously, Corey, and don't even know it.

Let's see if I get this correct (SIMPLIFIED definitions)....

Back-hand english: Your cue is aligned along the proper aim line. You move your back hand and pivot at your bridge to apply english. If you know the "pivot point" of your particular cue, it will cancel out deflection.

Dave
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I have a friend that I played with a lot and he was a master at Back-hand english. I had to resort to predator shafts to help with deflection in my game and he never had a problem because of the Back-hand english he used so well.

James
 
Cornerman said:
Hard to believe, Corey, but then again, I see many threads about how to play this game well, and I have no idea what people are talking about.

Anyway, here's a youtube video from Colin Colenso explaining it better than I ever could with the million words I've tried to use in the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERFTM8dbat0


Fred <~~~ bad communicator
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Thanks for the link to the video and the information is great, but it's a shame that the picture is blurred.

James
 
yeah Corey.... I've posted about this before but here it is again...

I was playing some at Shooter's in riverside and my buddy that doesn't play pool calls me bored. I say "come down to the pool hall" he comes down and about fifteen minutes later the door opens up and in walks Efren.

I turn to my friend and say "Do you have any idea who just walked in?"

Of course he doesn't have a clue.

There's no action there and Efren is there with his buddy Alex, who at the time ran the place and Efren starts practicing by himself on the table next to where I'm practicing.

He's doing this shot where the OB and the CB are about an 1/8th inch off the rail dead straight into the corner pocket and the next ball is on the opposite rail midway between the pockets.

He shoots the ball straight into the pocket with like three tips of right follow and proceeds to get perfect shape like ten times in a row.

I ask him how he put so much english on the ball and still made the shot and he told me in Tagalog and Alex had to translate for me.

But he basically said you aim like you're not going to put any english on it and leaving your bridge hand in place just rotate over and stroke through the ball.

I didn't even try it. I thought there's NO WAY in hell that it can just happen to adjust the right amount for squirt and throw.

So I didn't even try it for three years. Then I'm practicing one day and a friend of mine named Chip Klein, is talking about it and describing it and I said that's what Efren taught me three years ago but I didn't think it would work so I didn't even try it.

So, I tried it and now it's history. I only use backhand english now.


The best piece of advice I'd give to someone trying it out for the first time is to make sure you stroke straight through the CB. At first it will look like it's not going to go and that you're aiming wrong, just trust it.


Jaden
 
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