Why does even a good player so frequently put a period to a long and excellent break by failure at a comparatively easy shot? Is it not, indeed, the fact that, in the majority of cases, a player breaks down at a stroke the unexpected bungling of which causes the spectators, and even himself, to gasp? In the daily sporting papers during the billiard season it is so usual to read: "The break came to an end through failure at a simple winner," that the sentence might almost be kept standing in type. If all this be true, as we believe it to be, the subject chosen for this article, in the "Things that Matter in Billiards" series, would seem to be not inappropriate.
But it is not, of course, to the skilled professional or amateur that anything that we may have to say is intended to be addressed. We are seeking to enforce the prime necessity of extreme concentration and precision in striking when playing any billiard stroke, simple or complex, at near or far range, and of this necessity all good cueists are well aware. When, therefore, such players break down it is not from ignorance of this absolute essential in the game but from a momentary slackening of vigilance which they are the first to recognise and anathematize. With the ordinary player, however, the case is often quite different.
He sets himself to the stroke, and handles it in such a way as to induce the belief that he must be expecting aid from some supernatural source in the subsequent running of the balls rather than from anything that he is himself attempting to do.
Whether this is, or is not, a reasonable assertion can readily be proved by anyone who cares to watch closely the game of two players who require from half-an-hour to three-quarters of an hour for the compilation of fewer than 200 points between them. In making such an investigation frequent opportunities would arise for testing the following essentials: (1) Correct alignment and delivery of cue, (2) correct contact of cue with cue ball, and (3) correct position of body in relation to the intended stroke.
Of these three things the easiest to acquire at the outset of one's study of the game are the correct cue alignment and body positioning. The most difficult is the cue contact, which in more cases than not resolves itself into the question of true central striking. Not that what is called a "straight cue" is less important than true cue contact.
It is easier to acquire and makes less demand upon the thought and attention; that is all. When the learner has grasped the two cardinal principles of striking, namely, that the cue must, at the moment of contact with the cue ball, be exactly in, or parallel with, the line of the intended travel of the ball, and that the cue forearm must be swinging vertically above the cue, only practice is required to ensure that the cue swing shall, henceforth, be automatically correct. But with cue contact the case is very different.
Let the amateur who doubts this assertion make a few simple experiments. Let him first try plain ball striking— in other words the striking of the cue ball dead in the centre. For the purpose of this test the ball should be on the centre spot in baulk; the cue should be lying on the black spot in the bottom rail with its tip against the dead centre of the ball; the bridge hand should support the cue along the same line; the upper part of the arm should be horizontal and the fore part vertical above the cue; the ball of the right foot should be where a plumb-line from the cue would reach it; the face should be square with the table, with the chin over the cue: and the left foot should be where it feels most comfortable. If now the cue is freely swung without deviation, the cue ball must take its course up and down the table over all the central spots. It simply cannot help it. If, however, the cue has been ever so slightly deflected in striking or if the dead vertical centre of the cue ball has not been struck when the cue was straight, the ball will return wide of the centre baulk spot, either on one side or the other. When the body positioning and cue direction for the plain stroke have once been acquired, it will before very long, become automatic and instinctive.
But not so, as we have already said, with cue contact off the centre, which has to be varied a score of ways and times in the course of even a modest break. The student has, consequently, to know exactly when and how much to grade the side, screw, and top, or the combined side and screw, or the combined side and top, in order to produce certain effects, but he has to be sure of striking the cue ball with the cue-tip at precisely the desired point and to do this every time. If a professional be watched closely it will be seen, no matter how fast and free his play may be, that his attention is fixed, above all other considerations, when a plain ball position is not on, upon this accurate contact of cue with ball. He knows, from long and exacting experience, especially with comparatively close play, that in order to ensure a desired grouping of the balls, the cue ball must be struck "just so." He has also to take care that no shifting of the cue tip from the centre of the cue ball in order to supply side shall have the effect of altering by a hair's breadth the normal contact of the cue ball with the object ball.
Just how exacting this is may be tested by a simple experiment. Place the cue ball at the extreme rear of the D, the object ball on the centre spot, and pot the object ball into one of the top upper pockets. When the exact ball contact for this stroke has been found continue the practice but strike the cue ball below the centre and place the third ball at the part of the side cushion that the cue ball reaches. Now continue the practice with the view of still potting the red ball and also of cannoning dead on to the third ball with the cue ball. When this dual shot can be brought off every time a fine degree of accuracy at short range has been attained. Although a screw stroke the vertical centre of the cue ball is not departed from in this test, severe though it be, and the serious student of billiards will not rest contented until he can regularly pot the red ball, as described, in a stroke in which side is combined with screw, and the dual shot is accurately negotiated after the cue ball has struck the side cushion and rebounded on to the third ball to effect the cannon.