A jump cue is designed to make it easier to bounce the cue ball over an object ball and hit the target ball. It is shorter and light weight when compared to a regular cue. And it does make a jump easier and more controllable. Continue reading
Two shooters play a “4-ahead” race. The first player wins the toss, breaks and runs four games in a row. The second player says he needs a spot. The first player says, “Can’t do that. I haven’t seen you play.” Continue reading
This is one of the more difficult locations to shoot from. Because the cue ball is so close to the rail, it is impossible to contact the ball with other than a top spin. Draws and any variations are impossible, unless you are an expert in shooting masse shots with a near-vertical stick. Continue reading
A good stroke implies following a complete shot routine. The routine begins once a commitment to the shot selection is made. Continue reading
If you are one of the better players on a league team, eventually you will be called upon to coach a playing situation for a new player or a lower-skilled team member. Your superior knowledge and experience is needed to make sense of a confusing table layout. Continue reading
Some players are so wrapped up in their own world, they can’t even recognize other players as being worthy of respect. In previous decades, you could walk into any pool hall and watch some of these arrogant SOBs strut their stuff in their own little kingdoms.
Nowadays, the worst cases have been relegated to little hole-in-the-wall bars and dives. But there are always wanna-be bullies who couldn’t recognize common courtesy if it was <insert an appropriate simile here>. 😉
Sometimes you get into a match with an opponent who takes bad playing situations as a direct insult. It would be funnier, if he simply asked the table directly, “Are you dissing me?” It’s the same thing. Or, he might consider every poor playing situation to be an intentional personal insult from you (as if you have any control over his poor playing and planning skills). Continue reading
Most of the time when you get together with a partner during a practice time, you end up just playing each other with no real goal in mind or anything accomplished. You spend a couple of hours together just to bang balls around and no one’s skills were improved. That’s a wasted amount of time. Continue reading
There are two common techniques when you need to kick to a rail to make contact on the target object ball. One is the ghost table/mirror technique. Another is “Cross the X” Both are easy to implement with the instructions below. Continue reading
Once you have learned the basics skills and developed a decent stroke and have some ability to play position – where do you go from there? There are a lot of answers. One of them is the practice of various types of drills. Drills have a specific purpose. The ball setups are constant, usually identified with paper reinforcement rings or positions identified along the diamond lines (up/down, and sideways). Continue reading
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