Are You a Straight Shooter? by  Frank  "TheBarber" Almanza ãTricks of the Trade Inc.

 

Are You a Straight Shooter?

               

               

There’s the game winner, just sitting there, waiting to be knocked into the hole. So what are you waiting for? Just do it! What? You say there’s one little problem, it’s straight in, and you know how you hate straight –in shots. You wish it wasn’t so perfect. Seems that many players have a phobia to these shots.

               

                I’m sure you’ve heard people complain as to how they missed a straight in shot that caused them the game. They say they prefer that the balls have a little angle, anything but straight in.

 

                When you play position for the game winner surely you try to get position for as straight as possible. In trying for a straight in it will allow us the luxury of being off with position one way or the other and still insure us of a decent shot on the game winner; subsequently we wind up many times with a straight in. So now that you find yourself with a perfect shot, and you don’t like it?

 

                Seems that we remember the missed shots that were straight in because they were important. We hardly remember the ones that were missed that weren’t critical.

 

                Let’s see if we can dissect this shot and get to the grits of the matter. We are not going to concern ourselves with the shots that have the object ball very near the pocket. We will deal with the ones that have the object ball about three feet or more from the pocket. The ones that are near the pocket only have a couple of choices for us to choose from. Either stop the cue ball with a firm stroke to insure that the cue ball stops. Or aim to sink the ball to either side of the pocket, as if to cheat the pocket, with a natural roll on the cue ball (above center on cue ball), thus creating an angle for the cue ball to deflect one way or the other.

 

                Now back to the straight-in shot that is not a hanger. Let’s put ourselves in the mindset of a game. We have just positioned the cue ball for a perfect shot on the case ball. We’ve fought too hard to get to this point to give it away now. We address the table with confidence. There’s our game-winning ball just four feet from the pocket and our cue ball two feet from it and straight in.

 

                As we get into position for the shot we now start to evaluate the ingredients that are necessary for success. We run them through our mind and try to put them into some kind of order. 1. Stay calm  2. Nice level stick  3. Stop the cue ball with a little below center   4. Hit the ball with just enough power to hold a good line to the pocket and no more. Be careful not to use excessive power because if object ball rubs the rail or the point of the pocket, it may not go in. This proper speed may allow us to slightly err in our aim and still succeed in pocketing the ball. Looks like we have it all together now and we’re ready to pull the trigger. Whoa! Maybe not. What’s important here is to understand this shot and know what may go wrong and try to insure that it doesn’t. Now the Barber speaks…

 

                To execute this shot picture perfect like we intend to, we need to operate our mechanics like a well-oiled machine. A slight deviation from our blueprint and we lose the shot. If we examine the recipe we have just put together in our head we should realize that we have just about put together a formula that is conducive for a perfect throw shot. The only ingredient that is missing is a touch of side English. With that English we now have the best conditions to maximize throw on the object ball to either left or right.

 

                When we finally impact the cue ball with the tip of our cue and it’s not dead center at vertical, Houston we have a problem! Just a speck off center left or right and we have a possible missed shot. Now you see why people don’t like the straight-in shots.

 

                If we decide to strike the cue ball much lower to minimize the transfer of English we now chance a miscue. Transfer of English from cue ball to object ball is at its best when cue ball is struck nearest the middle. The cue ball maintains it angular rotation longer because it’s axis is more perpendicular with the table and with the diminished forward speed there’s more traction between the two balls because of longer contact time, thus more throw. If the cue ball has side English and strikes object ball to an angle it will not transfer as well as when it drives object ball straight ahead.

 

We could opt to strike the cue ball at dead center, this will allow the cue ball to slide to the object ball, but this will require a much firmer hit to keep the cue ball from losing it’s slide and begin to roll. If whity gets lazy and decides to quit sliding and starts to roll then we might have problems and lose control of it. To eliminate this problem we will need to use more force. But do we want to chance rubbing the rail or hitting the point of the pocket with excessive speed and maybe not pocketing the game winner?

 

                Is there a quick fix to hitting the straight-in shot? Not that I know of. My personal choice is to hit low on the cue ball with minimal speed, staying away from the center of the cue ball, while making sure my tip is well chalked. If you prefer more to the center of the cue ball, take care that your stick is level and be careful not to hit off center to vertical, even the slightest. If you hit cue ball dead center on vertical and still miss the pocketing the ball then blame your aim and nothing else. Practice, practice, practice.

 

                For those of you that didn’t understand much of this, at least maybe you learned how to throw the object ball.