Pieces Of Eight - Tip Of The Week

 

Number: 52 Jim Tellier May 2012

 

TOPIC: JAWS! - Not the movie!!!

 

CATEGORY: Intermediate - Advanced

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

OK, so you have a hanger sitting in the pocket. Low-hanging fruit? Or Snake-In-The-Grass? HUH? Thought those were no-brainers?

Think again!

 

Most players underestimate the difficulty that hangers really present because they look so deceptively simple. But the problem comes in predicting the path of the cue ball after pocketing the simple shot. Because a ball hanging deep in the pocket usually requires such a THIN hit, most of the speed of the CB is NOT going to be absorbed by the OB, but will cause the CB to continue on its path after contact often way too far beyond what the shooter intended.

 

TECHNIQUE:

 

Because of the difficulty in predicting cue ball path and travel distance after a thin hit (which is what most pocket hangers require), what you want to focus on is:

         pocketing the OB without scratching, and

         get some kind of general, workable position on whatever ball you want to shoot next.

In simple terms, the key is: dont bother trying to play perfect position from a hanger You will almost always lose that battle! The reality is, trying too hard will generally work against your natural abilities to just get reasonably close, which should work well most of the time.

 

There are a couple of things that you can do to improve cue-ball control when shooting hangers, however. A couple of them are counter-intuitive, but you should practice using these techniques, because they are solid, useful tricks to have in your arsenal.

 

1.    Play the CB off the rail before contacting the OB hanging in the jaws. This is a BIG advantage, compared to a direct, thin hit on a ball, for one simple reason: it creates an angle that can be seen, measured, and capitalized on!

2.    If you have the opportunity to hit the OB straight on, remember that you can use draw to put the CB straight back on the aim line, or cheat the pocket a little bit, to pull it back to the left or right of center line. For this you want to practice close-quarters (short distance CB-OB) draw shots, and vary the cut angle a little bit off-center.

When the distance between the CB and OB increases, the difficulty of the shot increases. But when the OB is a hanger, the difficulty of playing position to the next shot increases tremendously, as that distance increases. Moral of the story? KEEP IT SIMPLE!

 

Dont take hangers for granted!!!

 

 

Capn Carom

 

p.s. - Theres always a lot of information on Dr. Daves site: www.billiards.colostate.edu

 

May your Next Shot be on the 8-ball!