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Chapter 2. How To Strike A Billiard Ball

There are a few people who have a natural cue action which enables them to strike a billiard ball properly without any training. This applies to about one player in a million, I should say, the remainder have to be taught how to hold a cue and swing it to advantage. The first thing I want you to understand is that you must strike your ball so that you make it both move and spin.

For plain ball shots, the spin will be directly forward. If you put side on your ball, the spin will be in the direction of the side imparted. Should you use screw, you will require backward rotation. These ball movements are often seen in combination, and there are others I might mention. But I have said enough to make my point clear, which is that for the vast majority of billiard strokes your ball must spin as well as move in any required direction.

It will not do if you merely move your ball from place to place like a curling stone skidding over ice.

There are a few strokes, stabs, stuns, and the like, where inert running of the cue-ball is essential. These can be treated as exceptions; for the rest, which will comprise by far the greater number of your strokes, some form of lively rotation is necessary.

Cue Delivery

Now, if you think for a moment, you will see that you cannot make your ball spin by pushing it or poking at it. By using force, you may propel the ball a fair distance in either of these ways, but there will be no life in it.

Your stroke will be dead and of no account in a true billiard sense. Consequently, you must allow your cue to go through the ball to impart whatever spin you may require, and it must go through with freedom or spin cannot result. Like every other teacher of billiards, I am constantly telling my pupils to "let the cue go through the ball", and as I find it very helpful to explain the reason why the cue must be trusted to do its own work, I have elucidated the matter in my preceding remarks. Never be timid about relying on the cue to do the work. Remember that it weighs a pound or more, and that its sheer weight is sufficient to send a billiard ball anywhere you wish it to go, and at the same time to impart whatever rotary movement may be desired. There is no need for you to use distinct muscular effort, in fact, it is fatal if you do. All you need is a smooth, swift, accurate forward movement of the cue, and this is gained by light handling.

Correct Stance

It may seem rather strange to say so, but the first thing you must do to handle a cue correctly is to get your feet in the right position. Stand firmly yet comfortably on both feet, throwing the left leg well forward to give you plenty of support when you lean over the table to get down to your ball. The main weight of the body should be on the left leg, which should be slightly bent, the other should be straight. Stretch your left arm as nearly straight out as you can to provide a firm and steady base for your bridge hand and generally to solidify the whole of your stance. Your height will decide the exact distance your feet should be apart, as it is very obvious that a tall man will want more space between his feet than a short man will to enable him to "get down to his work" in the modern way. The old style players favoured the upright stance, but the leading cuemen of to-day bend their body so that their chins nearly touch their cues, except when playing short range shots. I advise you to do likewise, as there can be no doubt that this low stance gives you the best obtainable sight of the balls.

How to Hold the Cue

When you hold your cue, do so as lightly as possible. For a number of years I used to think that it did not matter very much how a cue was held provided it was not gripped in the least. I was led to this opinion by observing that no two great players hold the cue in exactly the same manner. They bring a varying number of fingers to bear on it. Of late, however, I have discovered that by holding my cue between the thumb and forefinger only, as George Gray did, I am able to swing a better cue than I ever did before.

At first, no doubt, it is more difficult to control the cue when it is held in this way, but I am convinced there is so much in it that I advise my readers to try their level best to play by holding the cue as I do. If a fair trial proves that the method is unsuitable to the requirements of any individual, he can hold his cue how he pleases, provided he holds it so lightly that a very slight tap from behind will knock it clean out of his hand.

Making the Bridge

Stand at the table and hold your cue as I have described. Bend over, extend your left arm freely and boldly and arch your left hand to make the familiar bridge over which your cue must slide.

In contrast to your cue-hold, which can scarcely be too light and lissom, your bridge-hand must be firm and steady. By pressing your thumb against the side of your forefinger, you make a kind of ledge or groove over which your cue moves as you strike the ball.

This should be as rigid as if moulded in concrete, as the slightest shake or wobble turns the cue at that critical fraction of time when your ball is struck, and then anything may happen. I do not think it is much use saying more about making a bridge, important as it is. Hands differ so very much that what might be perfect detail for one man would be worse than useless to another. The one and only thing that matters is to get a firm support for the cue to work upon, and if your bridge gives you this, there is nothing the matter with it. Sometimes you will see players slide their cue under the forefinger of their bridge hand, the finger being looped to allow this to be done.

This bridge is very useful when playing slow screw strokes at close quarters, and some very fine players use it for big screw-backs, for long range pots at top speed, and for a few other individual strokes which require exceptional execution. Speaking generally, it can be said that this bridge gives great accuracy but is apt to cramp cue delivery. Therefore, I do not advise you to attempt to do anything with it until you are perfectly at home with the ordinary bridge.

Then, if you so desire, you can experiment with the other one, and gradually work it into your game as you find it helpful.

Use of the Rest

When you have to strike a ball which is tight against a cushion, or nearly so, you must play to allow your cue to slide over the cushion rail as far as possible, merely using the finger and thumb of your bridge hand to prevent it from skewing sideways. To go to the other extreme, there are many occasions when it is impossible to get near enough to your ball to make your bridge. Then, of course, you must use the rest, the half-butt, or the "long one". Never be afraid of these implements.

Adjust them carefully as flat on the table as you can, and as nearly in the line of the stroke as possible, reverse your cue-hand, and play as confidently as if you were cueing over your usual bridge hand.

Confidence, and a little practice, will soon give you control of the rest.

It is an awkward implement at first, making you feel as if your cue were slipping away from you. For this reason many beginners refuse to persevere with the rest, get to "hate the sight of it", and in consequence are tremendously handicapped.

Cue Action

When you draw your cue back preparatory to striking your ball, do not draw it back too far. If you do, your cueing will be pokey and inelegant, and will also lose efficiency. You can gain all the power you want by holding your cue well towards the extreme end of the butt, a difficult thing to do with accuracy, but most effective when you have mastered it-the cueing of Tom Newman is an object-lesson in this respect. If you find it of any assistance, you can draw your cue back as slowly as you please within reason, but it must always go forward with effortless ease and rapidity. No other movement is allowable; be the stroke a forcer or a nursery cannon, the cue action is always a free swing forward.

Regarding preliminary movements of the cue before the ball is struck, I advise you to reduce these to a minimum-that slithering backwards and forwards to assist in gauging momentum and direction. A little of it is all very well, but the best of players do not waste much time in thus addressing their ball. With them it is a case of one or two little swings at the most, and then "pop" as the cue does its work-this is an example I advise you to imitate.

A Common Fault

Above all, when you do let your cue go, let it go far enough. Do not be afraid to let the cue drive well through the ball. This is where so many average amateurs fail; it is easily the most common fault in ordinary billiards. Countless thousands of players flinch a little as their cue comes into contact with their ball.

It looks as if something has occurred to them just as they are about to make their stroke, and instead of swinging straight through the ball with their cue, they check their cue delivery ever so slightly as if striving to remedy some mistake before it is too late.

This is utterly and hopelessly wrong, and is the cause of more bad billiards than all the other billiard faults put together. You cannot strike a ball where it should be struck or how it should be struck in this hesitating way, and I earnestly advise you to do all that you possibly can to guard against this all too common fault.

Correct Cue-Swing

Keep your cue down as much as you can when striking your ball-the nearer you can keep it on a level with the cushion the better -and if you have an opportunity to get it down almost to the level of the bed of the table, do so. Swing your cue straight, if you can do this you can make big breaks. Many important strokes become almost automatic if you can swing your cue straight every time.

It is the grand secret of billiard playing, but it is not an easy thing to do with consistent accuracy. You must practise it as long as you play billiards. It is never absolutely mastered; even the best of players watch their cue swing with great care to check the first sign of the least inaccuracy. Remember that this all-important cue-swing comes from the elbow downwards of the cue-arm. The shoulder may move when a hard forcing stroke is played, but not otherwise. When you strike your ball, the whole of the upper part of your body may go forward as the momentum of your stroke exhausts itself naturally, but your body should not move before your ball is struck. Until then, your cue-arm, working from the elbow with smooth precision, gives you all the movement and power you need to swing the weight of your cue forward and to allow it to do its work.

I advise you to study this chapter very carefully-it describes the mechanism of cue delivery; in my next chapter I propose to tell you how to apply it.

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