Pieces Of Eight - Tip
Of The Week
Number:
89 Jim Tellier July 2013 Summer
2013 Session
TOPIC: The
Lag Shot
CATEGORY: All
Skill Levels
INTRODUCTION:
When
most players lag for the break, they do two things:
Use
a center ball hit, and
Try
to bounce off the end rail, to return as close as possible to the near rail.
While this isnt a bad way to lag, it has
been proven (see Dr. Daves website, where the following diagrams were
borrowed J )
for the full explanation that its better
to do this:
Hit
the cue ball a little bit above center, as shown in Diagram 1, and
Use
enough speed to cause the cue ball to rebound off of both the far
cushion, and the near cushion when it comes back down the table.
TECHNIQUE:
The reason for the first
recommendation is simply that using a little bit of follow on the cue ball
causes it to roll immediately after it is hit.
Why is that
important? Getting speed consistency is important for the lag, and having
the ball start out already rolling gives more consistency, from one shot
attempt to the next.
The
second recommendation involves the fact that, when the cue ball hits a rail it
generally (for the speeds were talking about with a lag shot, anyway), loses
about of its speed. When you look at the details in the 2nd
diagram, you can see that the average final ball positions are different for
each of the 3 approaches to doing the lag.
The important
thing to understand about this comparison is that, if your average speed has
the CB rebounding off the cushion by a small amount, both the shortest
and longest positions will then be closer to the cushion as a result of the
rebound speed-loss effect. So, statistically, shooting a lag shot to
intentionally rebound off of the near cushion gives you a slight advantage.
In a game where you are trying to eliminate as many variables as possible, it
might help to give this approach a try!
Diagram
2 Comparison of lag styles
A
couple of very useful links to instructional materials are:
http://www.azbilliards.com/2000instruction.php
http://www.billiards.colostate.edu
Shoot well, and keep your opponent in
his chair!
Capn
Carom
ARRRR!!!! J