pool sidespin--squirt & swerve revisited

[drtrotter74]

I do this little drill on almost every table I play on at a bar, etc. It helps get a feel for the cloth on the table, and how lively the rails are. And people that don't understand how english works will stand there amazed and wonder how you get the cue ball bounce off the rail so far to the left or right from a straight line hit.

[drtrotter74]

Ad by pivoting your aim point, I mean pivoting the butt of the cue left or right around the fulcrum of your bridge. You are actually aiming the cue off center from the desired point on the foot rail, but the squirt/deflection of the cue causes the ball to take the path to the center spot on the rail. After a while, it becomes intuitive, just like picking the contact point on an object ball for a cut shot.

[drtrotter74]

You will need to start pivoting your aim point in order to keep hitting the center diamond on the foot rail. If you find the right amount of pivot, and get a feel for it, you start to hit this shot without even realizing what you are doing to compensate. It is possible to put enough english on the cue ball to spin it off the rail and almost bank it into the side pockets. This is a good way to judge english/sidespin on rail shots and kickshots,

[drtrotter74]

Here is a simple drill to understand and apply the lesson here. Place the cueball on the headspot . Hit the cue ball with center english, aiming for the center diamond on the foot rail. Just like you are breaking from the head spot and aiming for the center of the rack, except just aim for the center of the rail at the end of the table. Then, keep repeating this shot, but increasing the amount of sidespin you apply to the cueball by hitting left or right of center on the cue ball.

[ShadowDatsas]

How do you use these techniques? I am still an amateur and you dont show us hot to actually hit the ball. I imagine that this video would be good to a intermediate - semipro player but if you'd showed us hot to hit the ball, it would do good to amateurs too!

[bigkillapimp]

Come on man,"squirt''. Pretty lame. Who did you hear that from? Are or you making it up?

[boegybangerboy]

@bigkillapimp 'squirt' is an actual term used in cuesports

[aardvaark069]

all sports, at highest level require the same amount of dedication and are all equally difficult to master in their own particulars.

[liamisdebom123]

I also create squirt with a stick and balls.. Another kind of squirt though

[kirtanpatel8]

watch me play pool on my channel myn is sik

[midoweimar]

wow this great, a nice way og putting it. I loved the extra weight apparatus.

[bassamalnaji2010]

I have been playing pool for 35 years, i have yet to see a pool player playing with pivot style. I agree with some of the comments posted, you must keep cue parallel to ob path then there will be no deflection what so ever, as far as swerve, if cue is not level you will have swerve. . I have been playing with $15.00 cue for almost 30 years and won few tournaments , i aim before i go down, if shot needed English i will go down with English in mind and automatically my stick is parallel,

[ProdigyKimXP]

@bassamalnaji2010 All players I've seen use pivot. Keeping cue parallel to ob path is the reason cue ball deflects.

[drtrotter74]

@ProdigyKimXP exactly........doesn't matter what kind of cue you have, if you don't pivot, you will have deflection. I think the terminology is confusing people. When you are pivoting you are just changing the line of aim that the cue itself takes through the cue ball. The cueball then leaves the point of contact in the direction desired. The stroke the cue is still parallel and straight. It is NOT like you are swooping the cue motion or anything.

[Griever3216]

Very well explained tutorial.

[Compantino]

silly sport

[ProdigyKimXP]

@Compantino How so?

[Compantino]

@ProdigyKimXP how so not?

[ProdigyKimXP]

@Compantino It requires immense physical control over your body, a lot of planning in your patterns, a lot of skill, and hours and hours of practice.

It's a skill some can develop that dazzle people because only a small small small percentage of people in the world can do what they do.

[Compantino]

@ProdigyKimXP I belive you. I myself play table tennis on a high level and know what it takes to develop skill. Table tennis is probably the hardest sport in many categories.

[ProdigyKimXP]

@Compantino Never got into table tennis. I really don't like saying one sport is harder than the other. To truly be something in any sport, it takes the same dedication and difficulty to do so.

[randompop101]

Your video is amazing and extremely helpful. However, English isn't my first language, so it was a bit tough for me to understand the first few times. If you could make the video with a slower speech, many more foreigners would benefit from it.

[bushputz]

The easiest way to find the squirt pivot point of your cue is to do this:

Place the cue ball on the head spot. Aim (with center ball) directly at the center diamond on the foot rail. Now, move ONLY your back hand left or right so that your cue pivots around your bridge hand. Remember to keep your cue as level as possible.

Shorten or lengthen your bridge length until you find your quirt pivot point (cue ball consistently hits the center diamond on the foot rail)

[AllTooAmorous]

I don't think you addressed how speed affects squirt, but great video nonetheless.

[sof2finchy]

cool video.

[gabrieljosset]

Very well done - I've never seen a better illustration of these points. May want to slow down on the pivot point explanation, as it seems to have confused some of the viewers who think it has to do with rotating the cue around it during the shot...

[forestkelley]

The last diagrams describes a problem that I have been trying to understand, which is, when using side spin, are you supposed to pivot (as the diagram suggests) from your straight aimed cue position, or, instead, simply move the cue as a whole to one side but keeping it parallel to its original position? Wouldn't keeping it parallel reduce swerve even more than simply pivoting? Thanks.

[cchmaness]

You must keep the ball parallel when using side. Any pivoting of your aim is changing the direction of force, in effect changing your aim. The mass wants to move away from the force at 180 degrees. To keep it simple, keep the direction of force the same as if you were hitting center ball.

[drtrotter74]

@forestkelley you need to pivot, and the amount depends on how much your cue squirts. After you shoot a few shots, it becomes intuitive where this aim point it, and you don't even realize you are doing it. It can vary also for longer shots.........the squirt doesn't change, but the margin of error does, and you will get away with squirt on shorter shots and miss longer shots because of it.

[drtrotter74]

@forestkelley Some people use Predator shafts which are supposed to squirt less, but my opinion is that these are hard to get used to unless you re-learn your stroke on these types of cues. If you are a new pool player, maybe it is the way to go because you are not ingrained in a certain stroke.

[forestkelley]

@drtrotter74 Wow, I'm just reading the reply to this two years later. Now that I can answer my own question, the answer is that you move your cue in a parelel motion to one side or the other. However, after that general motion, you will likely need to pivot your cue (mostly the butt) a little to compensate for squirt (when hitting without top or bottom spin) and also for swerve when using any top or bottom spin. But, low deflection cues reduce the amount of backhand compensation you will need.

[drtrotter74]

@forestkelley Yes, exactly. And, more importantly, if you can figure the the precise pivot point for the shot you are making, you negate the squirt completely. Try practicing with just a cue ball. Place the cue ball on the head spot and try to hit the rail at exactly the center diamond on the foot rail. Now keep adding sidespin to your shot, and pivot as necessary to keep hitting the center diamond on the foot rail.

[ipscjoe]

Due all cue modifications have to be internal?.........If a person was allowed to add ringed weights to the shaft you could tune the cue.......Just curious.

[pepamethodman]

This is useless,all depends on the cue and feeling,there are some specific cues when you hit the sidespin the cueball goes straight as rope

[r3xx]

Excellent explanation, very thorough and helpful. I just have one quick question about the pivot point mentioned, and if its representative of the hand? Thanks

[brassoGB]

A great post for pool players who want to know the theory as well as just knocking a few balls about.

[boomgungun]

I've a question, does the pivot point of the cue relate to the bridge somehow?

[robhayes69]

Haha u r an absoloute joke!

[theflake90]

nice video

[theshredator]

I have to say that once I got a predator 314 shaft, my precision jumped up, and my game started improving at a faster rate. I also went up 2 APA handicap levels within about 1 year (a scale of 1-9). I'm no expert on cues, but this is a pretty good demonstration on why it's just a better cue to use than many others.

[guitarslf132]

boring!!!!!!!!!

im nearly dead.

[bazcoch]

Hilarious!!

[itissany]

u made the most amazing pool tutorial. please keep on posting . YOu are AMaZiNg!!!

[ThanatosMORTIS]

whoh, you mention the squirt pivot point, but how do you test your cue to see where it is on that particular one?

[dieuxroux]

Nicely explained/diagrammed. Thank's!

[forcefollow]

Great video. Keep posting.