A Few Cue Tips
- It is really less difficult to make a good double or single
baulk than to make an all-round cannon. The thing to do
is first to decide over which baulk pocket to leave the red.
- The stroke now becomes a doubling pool shot and the only
thing left to do is to apply to the cue ball the amount of
top or side that is necessary to carry this ball also below
the line.
- Quite spectacular shots can be made almost with certainty
by quite moderate players and one of them at least is distinctly
useful in a game. The red is, say, on the end of the
baulk line and the cue ball somewhere in the top quarter of
the table on the same side. A hard, straight stroke with
top is almost sure to land the cue ball with a rush into the
baulk pocket and the probability is that the red will be left
up the table in good position. A little pocket side helps
the stroke.
- In billiards the body position is all important. Watch
a good player and you will note that he frequently, when the
stroke is critical, shifts the position of the body rather than
of the cue. Take a very fine cut, for example. It is useless
to expect to get this stroke with certainty if the body is in the
position for a half-ball stroke. If the body is not shifted
the butt of the cue must be brought nearer to, or further
from, the body, and this sort of thing quickly ruins the
delivery.
- Much more important to billiard playing than any question
of transmitted side is transmitted force, and in every stroke
must be remembered that elementary principle in dynamics
that what one colliding body gains in momentum the
other loses, and vice-versa. With fuller than half-ball contact
the object ball gains and the cue ball loses, whilst with
finer than half-ball contact the object ball travels less after
contact and the cue ball more.
- All indifferent position players would double their average
breaks by rigorous observance of the following essential
rule: Make no stroke when playing for a cannon or in-off
without first considering what direction the ball aimed at is
likely to take, and attempt no pot without first considering
what direction the cue ball will follow. When the mind and
eye have become trained in this way decent breaks will
become usual and habitual and object balls will rarely be
lost or left safe.
- With the object balls a few inches apart, one on each side
of the spot, and the cue ball in hand, two courses are open.
One is a full screw cannon stunning the cue ball against the
ball aimed at and bringing the latter back from the bottom
cushion and the othernot easyis a fine slow clip on the
red and a gentle drop back on to the white from the top
cushion. Try each way a score of times and judge by the
result which stroke suits you best and leaves the most.
- To realize the wrong and right manner of aligning the
cue when applying side place the cue ball on the centre baulk
spot and align the cue with the baulk line. Now move the
cue point round a little, without shifting it bodily and
parallel with the baulk line, and it will be seen at once that
the ball if struck would travel wide of the end of the baulk
line. Therefore the way to play side is always to look over
the centre of the cue ball but to place the whole of the cue
parallel with the intended line of travel of the ball.