A Few Cue Tips
- Care should be taken, when carrying a cue around, that
the point be carried over the table.
- To use a cue efficiently it is necessary that the player
stand firmly on his feet. This is by no means always done.
- Beginners should always avoid playing with the cue
behind the back, as it will take years to learn to strike
with accuracy.
- Unless quite sure of the stroke, avoid very gentle play,
which, following failure, would be sure to set up a game for
your opponent.
- Play briskly and confidently, but never hurry your stroke.
- There is no stroke in billiards, however simple, that cannot
be better played by taking care.
- Very fine strokes at any distance are treacherous. If
you could not quite easily run a coup past the object ball,
even a feather contact would be too risky.
- Aptitude and confidence in playing with the left hand are
soon acquired by practising against one's self and playing
left-handed with one white ball and right-handed with the
other.
- It is rarely that, in a very full follow through with side,
the cue is held perfectly parallel with the intended run of
the ball. These strokes should, consequently, be carefully
practised without side.
- If, when shaping for a comparatively simple stroke, you
feel some doubt as to the result, do not strike. Straighten
yourself up and chalk your cue, and then try again. This
time you will succeed.
- Avoid trying to accomplish too much in one stroke. If
a second score of some kind is foreseen, make the immediate
stroke as simply as possible, and leave the ideal position to
shape itself up a little later.
- In practising the safety play that is necessary after one
miss, decide how you would not like the balls to be left
for yourself, and endeavour, by gentle contact with one of
the object balls, to leave them there.
- Everything that happens to the balls in billiard playing
is according to the fixed and immutable laws of rotation,
concussion, etc. To ascertain and follow these laws is to
take the line of least resistance and the one that leads to
success.
- Cushion cannon play is not so difficult as it looks. The
worst danger is a cover, but close approximation of the balls
greatly aids both precision and strength. The stroke, or
tap, should be extremely gentle, yet crisp, and the object
balls kept in front of the cue ball.
- Before playing any half-ball stroke, always glance through
the object ball from a point half-an-inch inside the edge at
which you are aiming. This will show you the direction
that the object ball will take and enable you to guide it to
a scoring position or to vary the intended stroke if anything
undesirable is looming in the way.