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Chapter 23. COMMON FAULTS AND THEIR CURES

In billiard playing, so very much depends on the avoidance of all too common faults, that I think this matter deserves a chapter to itself.

It may be that sundry matters now dealt with have already been touched upon here and there, as my book progressed. If so, I am by no means sorry to refer to them again in a clear and concrete form. My experience as a billiard coach teaches me that, if given time, oft-repeated instruction is sure to sink in; but that "once telling", during the course of a lesson or two, is very apt to slip out of the memory of most men; although there are exceptional individuals who will retain instruction so imparted.

Therefore, without any further preamble, I will now proceed to deal with certain of the most common of billiard faults and their remedies.

Stance and Weight Distribution

When shaping at their shot, many people try to distribute their weight more or less equally on both legs. This is wrong, it prevents that decided forward lean of the body from the hips upwards which is inseparable from a correct stance. To remove this fault, you must throw the left leg well forward to give you plenty of support when you lean over the table to get down to your ball. At the same time, you stretch your left arm as nearly straight out as you can, thus providing a firm and steady base for your bridge hand, and generally solidifying the whole of your stance.

Sighting

Sighting a stroke is not easily done in the proper way. There is plenty of room for error, and the most common fault in sighting the object-ball is to start the cue moving while attempting to gauge how the object-ball must be hit. This is asking your eyes to do two things at one and the same time.

The moving cue-tip must distract the eye from the object-ball, and I strongly advise you to be on your guard against this handicap to good play.

When your cue-tip is stationary, it may or may not afford excellent guide to your actual point of aim. For instance, if I were aiming to play a plain half-ball stroke, my cue-tip, then identical in direction with the line of the stroke, would point straight through the centre of my ball to the point marked by a cross on the left-hand ball shown in Fig. 80. But if I were playing a half-ball with strong "check" side, my cue-line would be directed towards the cross shown on the centre ball in the diagram. This is because, although the ball-to-ball contact is the same as in the first case, the side I am using compels me to move my cue over to the right. The same general reason would compel me to move my cue so far to the left, if I were using "running" side, that its line would then be clear away from the object-ball, as shown near the right-hand ball in my diagram, where the dotted line terminating in a cross indicates the cue-line in this instance.

Variation in Cue Line and Line of Aim

Thus, you see, the line of the cue varies widely in three strokes played to hit the object-ball in exactly the same place, and in only one of these strokes, the plain half-ball, does the line of the cue coincide with the line of aim. This element of variation is constantly at work in billiards, and ignoring it is one of the commonest of mistakes. Innumerable strokes are missed through attempting to get the cue too near to the line of aim when playing strokes demanding the use of side, and there is also a constant tendency to mix the line of aim with the line of the cue when sighting these strokes. These faults are not readily apparent to the absolute beginner, who finds the theory of them rather puzzling. But the player who makes his thirty or forty breaks fairly often, can see these faults if he takes the trouble to think of what must be happening when so many of his strokes go wrong, if played with pronounced side on the cue-ball. The remedy is very simple-it is just this-never forget that the line of aim is always through the centre of your ball to the point aimed at, and that it is quite unaffected by what the line of your cue may be when you are imparting side to your ball.

I find that the way to avoid faults in sighting is to begin by taking a rapid general survey, which decides where you want to hit your cue-ball to produce a given effect from the contact you estimate to be necessary with the object-ball. Then you align your cue on the spot where you desire to hit the cue-ball, keep your cue quite still, and fix your eye on the object-ball, as you actually make your stroke. This seems a lot to think about, and makes more show on paper than it does in actual play. In time, the whole thing becomes almost subconscious, but it is well worth analysis when faults have to be detected and checked.

"Jumping at the Stroke"

Another common fault is the tendency so many players have to "jump at their stroke". That is, they jerk forward and upward long before the correct swing of their cue has exhausted itself. In very bad cases it is not unlikely that the jerk will begin before the cue touches the cue-ball.

There is no need for me to stress the deplorable results which must accrue from such erratic behaviour, but I will say that it spoils any approach to good billiard playing.

The worst of it is that this habit is so very difficult to break. The only remedy I have ever found of use, is to school yourself to remain perfectly steady until your ball has either scored or failed to do so. This may mean rather a long wait at times, especially when an all-round cannon is the objective, but it is worth it, very well worth it, if it eradicates a fault so detrimental and so frequently met with.

Faulty Screw and Stab Shots

Faults in screw or stab shots are very common, and tend to occur at uncertain intervals, even when the cue-delivery is right enough, so far as checking the cue the moment it strikes the ball, is concerned. Then the trouble is always due to playing with what we call "too long a cue". That is, the right hand is too near the butt, and the left hand too far from the ball for these strokes. The normal cueing should be modified accordingly.

Hold your cue "short", bring your right hand forward a little, advance your "bridge" appreciably nearer the cue-ball. This will steady your cue-delivery in a manner necessary when playing screw or stab shots, especially if you are naturally very free in your cueing. You get greater control of your cue by holding it in the manner I advise, but do not fall into the habit of relying on it for ordinary stroke play, or you may cramp the whole of your cueing with disastrous results. Incidentally, some players find that shortening their cue in this manner helps them when potting a ball, especially when playing at slow or moderate strengths; but I should not care to do more than commend this to those who may find it helpful in remedying personal faults in winning hazard striking.

Incorrect Cue Delivery

As regards cue-delivery in a general way, I have already written so much that I hope my advice will result in that prevention which is better than any cure as regards billiard faults. However, if it seems that in spite of everything, faulty cue-delivery is more or less persistent, here is a remedy which I have seen work wonders in very bad cases. It is based on the fact that the swing of a billiard cue resembles the swing of a golf club to this extent-that good forward swing is but the reverse of correct backward swing. Still borrowing from golf, we take "slowly back" in a billiard sense, and make the backward movement of the cue as slowly as can be.

This gives ample time to see that the alignment of the cue is straight, and when the cue is delivered, the tendency to reproduce the line of the slow backward swing often gives marvellous results. It is well worth trying and persevering with when cue trouble seems to be intractable, and is greatly helped if care is taken not to draw the cue back a fraction of an inch further than is absolutely necessary.

You need not draw your cue back nearly so far as is often done in order to get enough impetus to let your cue go well through your ball, which is all you want it to do. More than this is merely waste power, and sudden attempts to stop this surplus energy from doing harm result in jerky cueing-a fatal fault.

Marking and Scoring

I propose to finish this chapter with a few remarks on faults in marking the game. The proper way to mark a game of billiards is to call the full score as each stroke is made, always calling the score of the striker first.

When the game is longer than a hundred-up, the full scores should be called as each hundred is reached and passed, the score being called between the hundreds, without mention of the full total, unless either of the players should ask for, "The full score, please", when it should be given in an instant. The total of any break worth noting should be called as soon as it is finished. The marker should return the cue-ball, spot the red, and hand the rest, half-butt, or long-rest, to the striker when they are asked for.

A good marker is always prompt and accurate, and never guilty of that intensely irritating pause between the completion of the score and calling it, so noticeable when the marking is second-rate, or worse. Should one of the players detect a mistake in the marking, he is entitled to call attention to it as soon as it occurs; but it is neither seemly nor fair to hold an "inquest" on a disputed score some time after the mistake was made, if it were made at all. Faults in marking are mainly due to slackness or inattention; but amateurs, who may "oblige" by marking a game in the absence of a regular marker, will find it confusing to call and mark in proper style, and are very likely to be at fault if they attempt it. They can scarcely be advised to put in enough practice to qualify for a berth as an efficient marker, and I think the best thing they can do is to compromise by calling the break only as the striker makes it, reckoning it point by point until it ends. Then it should be added to the total score, which should be called before the next man takes his turn. The marker acts as referee unless a separate referee is appointed, and in every case the referee has a perfect right to give any decision either with or without appeal from either of the players; in fact, it is his duty to do so. The decision of a billiard referee is final, and no sportsman ever questions it. Should a referee be in any doubt, the rules permit him to request spectators, who were well placed to see what actually happened, to assist him in giving his decision.