Sometimes its a good idea to hide the cue ball so you can possibly get cue ball in hand when your opponent fouls. A good way to hide the cue ball is shown in the diagram. The idea is to put the cue ball at location “C”. To do this align your cue stick from point “B” to over the center of the ball that you hit first. The point “A” is on the opposite side of the object ball from the cue ball. This is your aim point with the cue. I placed a line from the cue to the point “A” with an arrow to show the aim point. I hit the cue ball with just enough speed to reach point “C” with a 1/2 tip to full tip above center and no english. Set this up and see if you can do it. Use this principle to hide the cue ball in other situations.
In a similar situation, I used this principle in yesterday’s tournament at Bankshots in Jacksonville to hide the cue perfectly behind the four ball. Unfortunately, the one ball was banked into the corner pocket and I had played a perfect safety on myself.
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some basic concepts of aiming at pool. Ghost Ball Aiming System
Duration : 0:7:53
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http://billiards.colostate.edu
NV B.35 – Corner-5, Plus-2, and one-rail kicking systems, with “spot on the wall” aiming, with Tom Ross.
Much more info can be found at:
http://billiards.colostate.edu
Duration : 0:9:26
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How far is your bridge hand from the cue ball? Is it a bridge too far? If you have a long bridge that is more than 8 inches, it may be too long. The long bridge provides more of an opportunity to sway your stick during the pool stroke. The sway causes the cue ball to create unintended english and/or off the line of aim. Unless you are a seasoned player with many years of play measure your bridge length to see if it needs to be shortened. Or use a stroke improvement tool such as coke bottle or Cue Track to see if you are swaying the cue when you stroke. A 6-8 inch bridge length is recommended for most players.
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Three common mistakes during the stroke process for most players are pulling back too fast on the backswing, raising the head/body before the stroke is finished and gripping the cue too hard.
I attended Jerry Brieseth’s Pool School in 1995 and learned the pool stroke is like a throwing motion. Imagine throwing a baseball from the outfield to home plate. You pulled the arm back slowly and accelerated into the throw to home plate. A whippy motion on the backswing jerks you off line and limits the acceleration through the cueball. When I observe a really good player missing a shot I often notice he has tried to “load up” on the shot and the flaw was he was too quick with the backswing. When I coach players I usually say “Slow down the backswings”. I tell that I will tell them this so many time that they are going to dream about “Slow down the back swing”.
Another common mistake is raising the head/body before the stroke is finished. During a match you might miss a shot that you think you should make. So being anxious on the next shot you get you raise your head/body too soon. More failure leads to more anxiousness leads to more body movement. This can lead to habitually raising the head/body too soon. Practice staying down today by setting up a shot and stay down with cue stick extended until the cueball comes to rest or crosses the path of the cue stick.
Are you gripping the cue stick too hard? You are if I can walk up behind you and hit the butt of your cue stick with the palm of my hand and it does not fall out of your hand. Grip lightly to give your wrist a chance to help with the stroke and to finish the stroke process properly. Can’t get the draw action you expect then try loosening the grip.
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Here you can take your game to the next level by ordering the books Recommended Book List.
Before the Color of Money there was only one book worth reading more than once on pool Byrne’s Standard Book of Pool and Billiards”. It is still in print and is now called the Byrne’s NEW Book of Pool and Billiards. Byrne has several books on Pool and Billiards and I also highly recommend his Byrne’s Complete Book of Pool Shots.
After the Color of Money there seemed to be an explosion in pool and billiard books. Play Your Best Pool by Phill Capelle is worth reading again and again.
Gerry Kanov gave us Precision Pool and it is a great book for the intermediate to advanced player. I discovered Banking with the Beard: Secretes of A Master last year and it interweaves great pool stories with serious discussion regarding banking balls. Win at Pocket Billiards is a little known pool book and this one is recommended for building knowledge of banking and kicking and is recommended to the intermediate to advance player.
Although “The Dead Stroke Tapes” by Ryan Elliot is not a book but is a set of a dozen or so audio tapes for hypnosis. These tapes helped me win the regional APA league singles championship in 2002 and finish 9th in the nationals at Las Vegas.
Edie Robin’s books on one pocket are essential reading for the One Pocket enthusiast or advanced pool player.
I have to put in a plug for the Aiming by the Numbers aiming system developed by Mike Massey and Joe Tucker.
Here you can take your game to the next level by ordering the books Recommended Book List.
The number one book for pool players to deal with the mental side is not about pool. It is The Inner Game of Tennis.
Technorati Tags: aiming, billiard books, pool books