Total Pool Tables: Play like a Professional
Not many places on earth enclose the purity and perfection of a pool table. The proper table, everything happens for a reason. There are no surprises. Good fortune doesn’t exist. What others describe as fortunate, I portray as mistake. A scratch, for example, usually prompts surprise and anger. The truth is that ALL scratches are predictable, and avoidable. Balls don’t go where you want them to. They go where you put them.
Balls run after some very simple rules. A cue ball with neither forward nor reverse spin which strikes an object ball WILL move away from the collision at a 90 degree angle. Some players call this the amaze angle or “the 90″. A cueball which strikes the object ball with a forward roll (called Follow) will move through the collision at an angle less than 90 degrees (more forward). Alternatively, a cueball which hits the object ball with reverse spin Draw will move apart at an angle greater than 90 degrees more backward. Changing the speed and the intensity of the Draw or Follow will enable you to move the cueball along any line in a 180 degree arc. Truly, you must subtract the angle of approach from both ends of the arc, but for the sake of this little lesson, it’s safe to assume that the cueball can get to wherever you want on the table if you learn how to put it there. It’s that simple, and this object works every time.
Lateral Spin or “English” adds another dimension; twilight to the shot. Let’s just say that a cueball strike with Left English hit on the left side will curve to the left like magic. A cueball with Left English (clockwise spin) which strike an object ball will “Throw” the object ball to the Right of the centerline path. So using English means you must adjust your shot to counteract for the curving cueball and the adjusted angle of departure from the collision. It can do to 6 months of missing straight-in shots to learn this.