Understanding the Dangers of Using English in Pool and Billiards
Article by jobo
Welcome back. So we’ve discussed basic billiard stance and the need to maintain a straight stroke through the entire execution of your shot by keeping all your moving parts within a single plane-of-motion. We’ve also talked about how to play pool better by having a proper understanding of billiards shots like the center-ball hit, the draw shot, and the follow shot. I think next, I’ll go over some billiards lessons concerning English.
Very early on, every eager amateur player wants to learn how to play pool using English to move the cue around the pool table. It’s seems like a natural progression: learn some basic on how to shoot pool, and then jump right into spinning the cue ball all over the place. Yet many of you don’t realize how dangerous and uncontrollable English can be, even after witnessing poor position results and missed billiard shots over and over again. Learning to control side-spin requires an enormous amount of practice.
Amateur players would serve themselves well by forgetting that side-spin even exists, yet since that will likely never happen, I am going to do my best to lay out some pros and cons about the proper use of English in your pool game.
PROS:
* A gentle application of side-spin might help you make your next position, allowing you to hit the cue ball with less force than if you tried to reach the same position with a center-hit.
*English might dig your cue ball out of a hole when you are out of other, more comfortable, options like center-ball draw and follow.
* English can quickly spin the cue around several rails where a billiard shot with only draw or follow might fail to get you where you want to go easily.
* English can actually be used to throw an object ball along the proper path when you otherwise might not have enough of a shot to make the ball.
CONS:
* English is difficult to measure. Very difficult. A simple miscalculation of how heavy you strike the cue ball, or how far to the side, and you can discover the cue ball spinning away down the table, miles from your desired position.
* The effect of English on the cue ball’s desired travel path is also difficult to measure. Too heavy a hit, or too far to the side, and you will see the cue ball deflect far from its intended path, resulting in a very inaccurate shot.
* The effect of English on the object ball is difficult to measure. Too much force or too much spin (or not enough) can send the object ball way off of its intended path, ramping up the difficulty of otherwise simple billiard shots.
I weigh heavily on the cons because I was once one of the young guns just getting hooked on the game. 8 ball, 9 ball, straight pool, you name it and I was studying it. And when I finally figured out how to use English just a little bit, boy did I start having fun! But it was temporary…
English is a double edged sword, and it burned me during my pool league matches more often than it served me successfully. It has always been a beast that is fun to ride, yet wildly difficult to keep under reign. Strike the cue ball with left spin, and the hit pushes it to the right before sending it along its path. That fact alone can wreak a lot havoc with your accuracy. Then you add in possible curve, masse, that can arc the path of the cue if it happened to pick up some topspin or backspin along with that side-spin. Curve AND deflection along its path before it even gets to the object ball? Dear lord. Finally you’ve got to guess, factor in, the throw. That is, when the cue finally hits the object, the English will grab the object ball and THROW it off course from its natural direction.
It only takes a few millimeters to miss a billiards shot. So I finally had to ask myself “Do I really need English to reach my next position?” I kept asking myself this question during every shot that I wanted to spin a rail or two around the table. And you know what? I realized it was too much work, too much risk. If I could land my position with simple center stop, draw, or follow, then that’s what I did. By simplifying my position selections, I took much of the complicated guess work out. Without side-spin, I could just focus on making clean and accurate shots,
In those beginning years in my 8 ball league, I learned a great deal about how to play pool for beginners. Teammates like Reggie the River taught me fantastic pool lessons just by representing their own successful styles of play. Learning how to use English, and then how NOT to use English was one of the biggest advances I made initially. I hope I’ve translated this understanding to you with this article.
About the Author
I am the author of Joboworld.com, a fun blog discussing and teaching how to play pool for beginners, and how to improve your pool game, all geared towards helping amateur players.
If you enjoyed this article about billiards shots, then you really must check out some of my other writing designed to help you.
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by admin on April 23rd, 2011 Tags: Billiards, Dangers, English, Pool, Understanding, Using
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