This book is written for the aficionados of pocket billiards, the weekly recreational & league players, the Pro-players, the action players, and even the actor players, playing players in movies or TV shows. We must also include the backbone of pocket and carom billiards. A most unlikely group of people that play pool so casually that they don’t even consider themselves as players. It is just something to do while waiting for something else to happen. These billiard characters reside in the mysterious back corners of my mind. Over the last few years they kept driving me, at odd hours to, "go ahead Doc, write it down, don’t let our billiard knowledge just die out and fritter away". I listened. To list all these players, writers, supporters and industry suppliers that influenced me is not practical, but they were all subconsciously urging me on. Some were mere shadows of memories or ghosts flickering through the murky mental back roads. All had a part in this. God bless them all for those parts that they played.
THE BAREFOOT CUE BALL
An easy entry into the magic world of cue ball manipulation and some entertaining pool stories.By Paul A. "Doc" RutterAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 Paul A. "Doc" Rutter
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4670-3901-7Contents
Two Disclaimers......................................................2Style................................................................3The "Bare-Foot" Cue Ball.............................................3Ahem, Does This Microphone Work......................................3Pocketing Balls......................................................4Physics..............................................................4Energy Management....................................................5Stopping The Cue Ball................................................7Side Spin, On The Cue Ball...........................................11Observing Some More Physics..........................................13Drawing The Cue Ball.................................................14Short Power Draws....................................................16More Cloth Tricks....................................................19Relaxed Draw.........................................................19Ninety-Miles Per Hour................................................20Fun With Relaxed Draw And Some Other Stuff...........................22More Dead Ball Stuff.................................................23Adding Spin..........................................................25Learn By Watching, Now...............................................26Some Cue Ball Magic..................................................28Body Lock Stance.....................................................29Natural Slip Stroke..................................................30Jacked UP Cue Stick..................................................31Masse................................................................32More Balls And Cloth Info............................................33Squirt...............................................................35Bohemian-Gypsy Curse Of Knowledge....................................37Practice.............................................................38Practice Drills......................................................41Around The English Clock.............................................42Jumping The Cue Ball.................................................42Spins And Throws.....................................................43Push Throw...........................................................45Dead Combinations....................................................46Multiple Ball Throws.................................................46Frozen Kiss Shots....................................................47Unfrozen Kiss Shots..................................................49My Nemesis Kiss Shot.................................................50Inertia..............................................................50More Energy Management Stuff.........................................51Eight Ball Pattern Shooting..........................................53Back To The Pattern Test.............................................56Practice Pattern Drill...............................................58Banking..............................................................59Pinch Bank...........................................................62A Simple Three-Rail Education........................................63Small Table Eight Ball America's Game................................65Minor Strategies And Spurious Info...................................68Jedi Mind Trick......................................................71Focus................................................................72Pause Stroke.........................................................73The Zone.............................................................74Incentive............................................................76Break Shots..........................................................78Rack Your Own........................................................81Straight Pool........................................................83The Quadrant Theory..................................................84Safety Play..........................................................88Personal Instruction.................................................91Three Cushion........................................................92Strategies...........................................................93Social Order, Girls And Leagues......................................95Dress Codes..........................................................97Poolroom Etiquette...................................................99Zanesville, Ohio, The Arcade Poolroom................................99Billiard Life Influences.............................................100Martha M Rutter, My Martie...........................................100Duard Schmelke.......................................................100Arved "Red" Jones....................................................101The Rutters..........................................................101Bill "Weenie Beanie" Staton..........................................102Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter..............................................103Conrad Burkman.......................................................104George Fels..........................................................104Robert Byrne.........................................................105Nick Varner..........................................................105Cecil "Buddy" Hall...................................................105Robert Runde.........................................................106Jimmy `The Kid' Wetch................................................106Jackie Gleason & Paul Newman.........................................107Jesse Engel..........................................................107Phil Capelle.........................................................107Things I Learned, Just Watching......................................108Pool Stories I Must Share............................................111Spring Lake Park, Minnesota..........................................111Las Vegas, Nevada, The Riviera Casino................................111Somerset, Wisconsin, Rendezvous Bar..................................112Somewhere In The Usa.................................................112Louisville, Kentucky, The Executive West Hotel.......................112The Poolroom Philosophy, Adapted By "Doc" Rutter.....................113
Chapter One
TWO DISCLAIMERS I respect the women in our Game/Sport, but I am not going through the tiresome, politically correct, he/she gender reference every time it comes up. I will use He, Him, or Player. If you are female, please mentally insert your own gender in the proper place. I have a great respect for Allison Fisher, and I don't want her admonishing me.
STYLE
You will observe that I write with "Style and Grace". The Style is pure "Ohio River Valley Redneck". The Grace comes from my Bohemian, and Scotch-Irish ancestry.
For your edification, a Bohemian is a Gypsy, with a job, and puzzled about it.
I will use Quote marks excessively and some Redneck country boy slang on occasion, and Capitals where ever I choose to put them, for some slight emphasis.
THE "BARE-FOOT" CUE BALL
When you get down to the nitty-gritty, and take the Shoes and Socks off the cue ball, we find that, "The Bare-Foot Cue Ball, Is The Game".
Players are lead astray by the relatively easy job of shooting the object ball into a pocket. Then they think, I am playing now, "How much more would I have to know", to be a great player? It is impossible to imagine something that you don't know!
In the Twin City area of Minnesota, some local players know the cue ball as "Mel", short for Melbert. This info is good for Friday night Bar-Bets and general, half inebriated arguments. The real secret to pocket billiard success is to Control "Mel". We all know easy shots are easy shots. If a player can learn how to play superior position, then the object ball shots are easier; hence we now start to look like a really good player.
Gee, and you thought this would be difficult. Well, there is a lot of info that you are going to have to absorb and methods to practice. Let's get started.
As a player of experience, by now you have read a few books on the subject and have viewed some instructional videos. You may have learned a great deal that, just maybe, you don't completely understand. With the shoes & socks out of the way, just how, exactly, does the Cue Ball work? I'm going to tell yah!! Read on Cashmere.
AHEM, DOES THIS MICROPHONE WORK
The game of Pocket Billiards is a combination of complications. It is a direct application of Physics and Artistry, tied together with your logical and emotional, "Jedi Knight" mysticism. All great players Slide the cue ball, in some fashion. The cue ball only rolls after the kinetic energy wears off. That concept will be elaborated on, in various forms throughout this book The mystery & magic of the cue ball is what keeps the players intrigued by the billiard games throughout their lifetime. Never bored, nevermore.
The speeds and spins that can be applied to the cue ball, are infinitely variable, within the friction range of the cue balls spherical surface.
The game is not constructed of big cement blocks of knowledge, but is more like a pile of sand. Many, many little pieces of knowledge that have to be each assembled in different, variable sized groups, for each separate task that is to be accomplished at each separate time. I wish that I could make it easier.
POCKETING BALLS
First major item is pocketing balls. If you are having trouble pocketing balls, take up tennis, checkers or that cash absorbing, "Black Hole", Texas Hold-um poker.
After the ghost cue ball method of pocketing balls is shown to you and you are in the ballpark, it is trial and error. Start with short shots and as you get better, work up to harder ones. Most players show a natural, ball pocketing talent. You most likely have been there and are past that by now.
PHYSICS
Don't panic, this is the most sophisticated word I will use in this friendly diatribe. I promise to avoid "Tangent Lines, Fortuitous, Disingenuous and Fruition", and other such Media Speak.
Normal Cast Phenolic balls are two and one quarter inches in diameter and weigh six ounces. There are no significant differences, other than color and the regulation cue balls are the same. These balls are tough and you can bounce them off of a smooth concrete floor.
This sameness relationship between the cue ball, and the object balls is what allows you, by the use of the basic Physics Phenomenon, inherent in these round objects, to have much more control of your position play, than you, at first, realize.
Note. Nonstandard balls of other sizes, weights or materials will require some common sense modifications to your playing application. Ivory, metal—flake, or oversize balls will give different results but may be workable with enough practice.
Different materials will provide different physics characteristics. Various cue balls have decidedly different resilience and as a results play much differently while appearing to look similar.
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Two sources of energy are applied directly to the cue ball by hitting it with a cue stick. They are, (1) the driven "Kinetic" energy, and (2) the spin energy. High or low spin only.
Right or left spin on the cue ball doesn't add or take away energy, (it just confuses the object ball).
High or low spin applied to the cue ball, will alter the exit path of the cue ball after contact with the object ball.
Line up five object balls and freeze them to the foot rail, then with one hand slam the cue ball into the end of this line of balls. You will observe that only one ball goes flying into the corner pocket, and it travels at about the same speed that the cue ball was traveling when it arrived. This is a basic physics phenomenon. The mass out of the impact zone equals the mass in.
You may notice some slight movement of the next to last ball in this line. This is due to the resilience of the cue ball. The phenolic plastic used to make the balls, gets very slightly compressed by the impact with the object balls. That slight compression, then releases immediately after impact, and causes the other balls slight movement. Clay balls don't do this.
It is an action that has almost no bearing on the big picture, and is considered insignificant. Since it occurs, I have taken the time to explain it. It does have a direct bearing on jumping the Cue Ball.
A mass driven into the pile of balls, by your hand power, will cause a mass of an equal amount to pass, through and out of the pile of balls, no more, no less.
The cue balls energy is transferred, for our purpose of explanation, 100% through the pack of balls. The speed, in this short distance, is also consistent.
Other than some microscopic drag from the cloth, our incoming cue ball's speed is also transferred; let's say 99.5% through the pack of balls.
This information will probably make you wonder about breaking a rack of balls.
When you hit a break shot, all you have to work with is the mass and weight of that one ball. The only variable that you can influence is the speed. That one ball's mass and weight is scattered throughout the pack. This is why a tight rack is desired, so the energy flow is uniform. I don't know who is in charge of the actual energy sharing, as it happens too fast to see, ha.
If you continue this basic experiment by hitting with two balls in, you will observe, two balls fly out. Three balls in gets you three balls out. It is important to do this so your subconscious mind forms a picture and the relative power transfer of this, mass in, same mass out, action.
By now a glimmering of the cue ball's power and your job of expending and controlling that power during a normal shot is starting to form. During any shot, you will expend some, or most all, of the cue ball's energy into an object ball. The rest of that cue ball's energy is absorbed by, the other balls, the rails, and/or just runs out of gas, on the cloth's path to infinity.
This also helps explain why some of your cluster or break shots are not always as effective as you had anticipated.
STOPPING THE CUE BALL
You must learn to stop the cue ball. If you can't, stop reading now and give up the game. This is the ground floor of cue ball control and all else is based on this one simple act. Physics dictates that only one way works consistently.
You must, with your dead level, consistent stroke, (which you have been working on); slide the cue ball straight into an object ball. You do this by striking the cue ball 100% in the middle, (up & down, at the equator) and then hit your object ball 100% in the middle (side to side).
If you do that correctly, the cue ball has to stop dead, every time. All of the cue ball's kinetic energy has just been absorbed by the object ball, which you just shot in, hence no energy left, in the cue ball, no more movement is possible.
Any deviation, up, or down, on the cue ball, or sideways, on the object ball, will cause the cue ball to roll, back up or go sideways, which are unsatisfactory results.
The physics phenomenon transfers the energy 100% from the cue ball to the object ball. We have established that the balls are equal in size and weight. Since all the energy is transfer 100% and there is no spin energy applied the cue ball must, and will stop dead, just like it died!!!
Many players during their uneducated previous play have learned to hit the ball below center (somewhere) and then try to estimate how hard or soft to stroke it to try to make the cue ball stop. This method will only be about 80% effective.
By using the correct way, you become about 99.5% effective. Okay, I am allowing for an occasional 0.5% mistake on your part.
At one of the "Bank & One Pocket" Hall-Of-Fame dinners, during the Derby City Classic, several players were telling stories about a great young player from around San Francisco. This player had died young. One of his great strengths that the players were expounding on was his ability to "kill" his cue ball in all different type of shots.
He obviously understood the physics of what I am explaining to you here. Absorb the cue ball's energy and it doesn't get away from you.
Back up a second or two. Think about the relative Honesty of the cue ball. It is not like your high school girl friend. The cue ball cannot and will not lie to you, Huzzah.
After shooting a few of these, if you notice that your cue ball drifts slightly to the right on most of them? Then trust your cue ball. You must be hitting the object ball slightly on the right.
Did you notice it rolling slightly forward on some of them? Trust your cue ball. You are either putting just a little bit of high English on the stroke or you are hitting it too soft and the cloth is giving you just a bit of forward roll, which is a form of high English.
To make the cue ball stop, you must develop the discipline to always hit the cue ball hard enough to slide it to the object ball with no spin.
The cloth rubbing on the bottom of the ball is always there, working against you, unless you get smart enough to make it work for you.
Learn to control the physics of this ball & cloth friction action.
Start with short shots. Don't hit three, to, five shots and think you have got it mastered. No, no, Cashmere, this is where the artistry and the sub-conscious mind training comes into play. You have to shoot dozens and eventually hundreds of these at various distances to teach yourself the "Feel" of this stroke. Sliding the cue ball, under your control to make it do what you want off the face of the object ball. Check out the illustration below.
NOTE. Every section of this document can be elaborated on with fine-tuning and further explanation. I have tried to explain each section to the point that you have enough information to understand what I am trying to teach with out speechifying and boring you to tears. If you need further info on any part, E-Mail your question to (docshot08@msn.com)
When you are in your local poolroom, game room or bowling alley, and you and your friend/opponent are playing for the imaginary Tuesday afternoon 8-ball championship of the World, you must know how the required stroke "FEELS". Shot by shot, there is no "Mulligan", (a free replacement shot) given. You get one chance, each time, to get it right.
After you screw it up, all the long-winded explanations in the world, of what you know and what you intended to do is just so much, "Who Shot John". You and your opponent and the Tuesday afternoon sideline game Sweaters all know it.
However the well practiced, and well-executed, proper shot/ stroke speaks silent volumes about you're abilities to all the "Cheap Seat Critics" watching. Now think about the pros and cons of that, Herschel.
SIDE SPIN, ON THE CUE BALL
If your target ball is close to a pocket, you can probably use a lot of sidespin, and since you are close to a rail, the sidespin will be visually dramatic, and effective, and you will get away with it.
As your target ball gets farther and farther away from the pocket, your shot pocketing error angle diminishes.
You must be more accurate just to pocket the ball. The amount of throw transferred to the target ball, by the sidespin, on the cue ball, is inconsistent, and may be difficult, or impossible to estimate. (See spin throws later)
A rule of thumb is, if an object ball is close to a pocket, gamble, go for it, but as your target ball gets farther away from the pocket, tone down your risks, with very little or no side spin.
This exercise will prove the power of high and low English on the cue ball. Lay your cue stick across the side pockets just over the right side corners at the edge of the side pockets. Place two pieces of chalk under the cue stick, about a third of the way across the table. Remove the cue stick. Push down on the chalks and spin a mark down into the cloth, leaving a blue swirl mark under each chalk. These marks easily brush away. Remove the chalks. Put your cue ball on the mark closest to you and an object ball on the mark the farthest away. Now wouldn't it be a miracle if you could shoot that ball into the side pocket across from you and make the cue ball go to all of the designated paths, shown by the dotted lines in the illustration.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE BAREFOOT CUE BALLby Paul A. "Doc" Rutter Copyright © 2011 by Paul A. "Doc" Rutter. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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