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PLAYING
THE GAME TO WIN
SCREW-SHOTS ( 7 minutes )
All
the shots and strategies we have covered so far involve hitting the cue ball
directly in the centre - the elementary ‘plain ball’ strike.
If
you are mainly employing plain ball tactics during your competitive pool, you
will probably at best be potting two or three balls in a row.
In
order to progress to a four or five ball run, and maybe even the elusive eight
ball clearance, having looked at the control of the body and the control of the
cue, you must now move on to the next stage - controlling the cue ball itself.
There
is no mystery about cue ball control at pool, it is simply a combination of
particular strokes.
To
make sizeable runs regularly, you must possess potting accuracy and the mastery
of certain skills and techniques which will gain you reasonable position for the
next ball.
Reasonable
position
is the appropriate phrase here, because the best anybody can hope for is to stop
the white in a general area of the table.
To
stop the cue ball on a sixpence is virtually impossible - even for
professionals.
The
first of these techniques we shall analyse is called the ‘screw’ shot.
This
stroke involves applying backspin to the cue ball, which hopefully has the
effect of making the white travel back towards you after it has made contact
with the object ball.
The
interesting spectacle of a ball rotating backwards, but moving forwards,
which is what actually occurs during the screw shot, can be nicely illustrated
in slow motion using a striped ball.
As
Jason demonstrates a few basic screw shots, turn your attention to the graphic
in the corner of the screen.
This
depicts the cue ball itself, and the flashing blue circle represents the exact
point on the white where the professional is aiming in order to perform the
controlled positional strokes we are witnessing.
In
order to effectively strike the cue ball below centre like this, it is important
to lower your bridge hand and not simply raise the butt end of the cue,
which can lead to spectacular mistakes.
Basically,
the bridge is the only part of your body that alters when you play a screw shot.
You
must lower it as much as possible, as we can see here in close up, and drop the
cocked thumb slightly to allow for a smooth follow through.
The
amount of backspin you will achieve when playing screw shots depends on the pace
of the shot, and where on the white you actually make contact with the cue.
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