It is probable that the games played by professional billiard players, and, indeed, the game of billiards itself, have been largely built up upon a careful noting of cause and effect and the gradual application of the practical object lessons thus gained to the system of play adopted.
For the purposes of this article, which seeks to establish, by a few familiar instances, the premiss above set forth, we will imagine an absolute novice at the game taking up a cue and striking a ball. He makes no sort of bridge, aims at no particular part of the ball, and miscues. Here are three preliminary lessons. A stable support must be made by the hand for the cue; the safest part of the ball to strike is its centre; and the cue tip should be chalked. This sounds elementary almost to the point of absurdity and yet there are thousands of billiard players, who have played the game for years, and who have never yet made a proper bridge, struck the cue ball in its dead centre, except by accident, or made a systematic study of the art of chalking the cue tip with sufficient frequency, yet without overloading it. They ought, as an act of common prudence, to have resolved upon all three courses after making their first futile stroke in the now dim past.
The next performance of the tyro at billiards, after nearly missing the cue ball altogether but wisely taking precautions at his next essay to hit it a little better, would probably be to send it scurrying to different parts of the table and this would provide him, if at all observant, with some further, and quite useful, lessons. He would find that sometimes the ball came off the cushion at an angle equivalent to that with which it reached it, and that sometimes, quite apart from any idea or intention on his part, it came off the cushion quickly and at a wide angle and at other times slowly and at a narrow angle. If at this point, instead of doing anything further of a desultory character he quietly experimented for two minutes he would probably discover that when the angle of approach and rebound was equal he struck the ball in the centre, that when it came off quickly and widely he struck it on the side farthest from the cushion, and that when it came off slowly and acutely he struck it on the side nearest to the cushion. He would then be in possession of three more bed-rock billiard principles, which would come home to him with greater force and be held by him with greater tenacity than as though he had been drilled into them either by teacher or by book.
In almost every billiard history there is told the story (or fable) of a certain billiard marker named Carr, of Bath, who is said to have" discovered "side in billiards, and who made a fortune by selling what he called" twisting chalk, "his argues little for the intelligence of the earliest billiard players, and our own opinion would be that" side '" was really discovered by the first man who struck the ball with a cue Two other great compensating forces in billiards known as" top "and" bottom "must equally make their potency known to the tyro with the cue who is not altogether blind to the relationship of cause and effect. Tired, as he soon would be, of knocking only one ball about, he would presently commence aiming through the cue ball at a second ball, which might be just over a top pocket. Striking strongly and making thick contact he might, if the cue ball stopped against the top shoulder, experience mild surprise, and this surprise would be accentuated if, upon repeating the stroke with the same contact, his ball, instead of stopping dead, returned to him down the table. When at length it dawned upon him that what he had actually done was to strike the ball high up and that it was expending its forward rotation in vain efforts to get through the top cushion a whole phase of advanced billiards in the shape of follow-through, ricochet, and other shots, would be opened to him. Simultaneously, by a process of inverse deduction, he would realize that if, instead of leaving the cue ball against or near a cushion or bringing it heavily away from it he wanted to secure a good rebound, he must strike low instead of high, whereupon further valuable weapons would be added to his future billiard equipment.
Our advice to a beginner at billiards who desires to excel is not, however, to knock the balls aimlessly about at his first visit to the table, and we have only instanced this too common practice by way of showing that even from such conditions good might be evolved as the fruit of observation.
What ought really to be sought before a ball is struck is tuition in body positioning, bridge formation, and cue swing and alignment. These three things are the base on which billiards is built and unless the foundation be properly laid at the outset the subsequent billiard edifice will always be a tottering one.
Afterwards, however, the billiard player's best tutor will be his own observation, and every mistake that he makes will be a potential lesson. Aiming quarter ball but doing it so badly that he runs through the object ball, he will find that he scores just the same but that the course of the object ball is radically changed. Henceforth, when he wants to drive the object ball instead of cutting it he will play through it. Finding that a shot made gently in certain positions invariably leaves bad position he will increase the strength and leave good position. Observing that thin contact moves the object ball less and fuller contact more he will, in controlling the object ball, use more or less strength according to the degree of contact in order to obtain the same amount of travel Other instances might be given, but the student to whom an article of the kind is likely to be of any service at all can educe the same for himself. He will make mistakes, no doubt, but if he only makes each mistake once he will progress rapidly.