Archive for the ‘Tutorials & Guides’ Category
How to Set-Up Your Billiards Room
It could be a dream came true for someone to have his own billiards room in the house especially if he is a sporty fan of game that enjoys entertainment as well. But setting an entertaining billiard room is not an easy task at all. You should not settle for anything less especially the quality of every essential piece just to have it done. The idea is to have enough space to fit the billiards table where you and others can freely move around during the game while creating the perfect atmosphere for the game itself and its accessories. This grand luxury can utilize an old dining room or large basement area to set your pool table as a distinct artistic masterpiece that will just need some lighting, paints and furnishings. You can have lots of choices for designs like billiard prints, neon signs and even mini-refrigerator so that everyone can be impressed.
pic via thirlestanecastle.co.uk
Online Bankshot Billiards Game
Developed in 2005 by PixelStorm, the software game Bankshot Billiards offers choices such as Euro 8 Ball, 8 Ball, 9 Ball, 3 Ball, Cutthroat, 14.1 Continuous, Time Trial and Golf that can be played by anyone. Aside from multi-player game, this entertaining game has good graphics and friendly controls. This game of bankshot billiards utilizes the property of the bank to bounce back the contact ball and even changes its trajectory.
pic via thaihandheldsgame.com
Difference between Billiards and Snooker
In basic terms, this article would like to give you an insight on how the two famous games in a playing table differ. First and foremost, billiard table has larger holes that complement its larger balls in comparison with snooker table. Moreover, the billiards balls have numbers on it. Aside from that, billiard game aims that one player win over the other by shooting his set of target balls earlier than the opponent while with the snooker game the idea is to get a higher point at the end of the game by shooting the colored balls with higher value more often than the other. The rules for both games also have lots of differences like on potting and replacing the target balls after every shot that is evident on a snooker game. With regards to ball types, billiards has white, yellow and red while snooker has 15 red balls, a cue ball and 6 colored balls.
pic via topnews.in
Practice: Basic Ball Setup
If you want to practice trick shots, you need to do the exact shot on the same exact billiard ball configuration to perfect your technique while analyzing how the shot works. To be able to do this, you need to setup and position both the object balls and the cue ball by tracking the balls’ alignment even in clusters. You can use the center-to-center lines of two balls or the tangent line between two balls as well as having these as reference points on the table. You can also make a diamond intersection or ½ diamond increments to make smaller adjustments. Lastly, you can tap the balls gently into place that will create a small divot in the cloth that you can find later because the balls are frozen. Having the shot videotaped can also help you analyze the missed shots.
pic via downarchive.com
Pool and Billiards’ Mental Game
If you want to make a shot, you need to consider a lot of things that include gripping of a cue, appropriate posture, cue ball command, correct english and aim. But most importantly, you should not forget to consider your psychological capacity to play. Just like other aspects of life, mental attitude affects your action that needs to be synchronized to produce a desirable effect. You need to set your mind in focus to be able to concentrate on the game. If you compete in a tournament with a pre-occupied mind you won’t be able to maximize your full potential as a player. Relax and stay with a clear mind as a natural habit just like maintaining good coordination and good eyesight, and the proper mental position.
pic via harveybenge.blogspot.com
Making Adjustments
Being a pool player allows you to adjust numerous variables while shooting. These would include the setup of the balls including cue ball position, your aim when having a shot, the bridge height and distance, the speed of your stroke and even the elevation of your cue stick before you shoot. You can also alter the english or the spin that you need to apply on the cue ball. It could make your cue ball follow, draw or go to the left or right. Lastly, you can also change the extent of your follow through when you shoot. Before you make adjustments, you need to establish a repeatable stroke to be able to determine the effect of one variable to another as most of it is interdependent.
pic via adikus.com
Think Twice Before The Shot
You may think that hitting a ball with the cue and shooting it in the pocket, is what all it takes to play the game of pool, but there’s a lot to it once you dominate the table. Making that shot in pool is a common urge, and predicting where the cue ball will stop is a challenge, however knowing how to strike the object ball with your cue ball is the secret to winning.
Many amateurs would think that every ball is all set to make the shot as long as its proximity to the pockets is high. Beginners eagerly take the attempt if they immediately see the line of fire to the hole, not knowing the complications it will make. The next thing you’ll know is you’re into a situation when you can’t find a good way to hit the cue ball into the object ball and make that shot even worst.
Professional pool players will find first their correct cue before they make the attempt, they take a few moments walking around the table, checking the cue ball in various angles in relation to object balls to be hit, and this is what they call a preshot routine.
Here are a few reminders that can help amateurs improve their pool playing routine. First, learn to control the cue ball, keep in mind where you want it to stop on the table after your shot, and then look for the aiming point as well as the collision point. Set your hit on how fast you want your cue ball to move then focus before making the strike.
Just think twice before you make the hit and don’t hesitate to make your own playing strategy.

Why You Need to Keep Your Butt Down

By raising the butt of the cue, the shooter, especially a beginner or intermediate player, invites serious problems. It will be very difficult for a student to learn how to aim if the ball does not follow a straight line. Advanced players use curve and massé shots to their advantage, but they know how, and it is not an accident. Beginners should never curve the cueball, and raising the butt of the stick invites just such a mistake.
Don’t start off with bad habits. Keep the butt of the cue stick as level as possible for all shots. When you become advanced, you will learn when and how much to raise the butt for specialty shots, such as curves, massés and jump shots. One side benefit of keeping the stick level: you are less likely to be charged with the cost of replacing the cloth. Driving the stick downward can force the tip into the cloth. The cloth, on most tables, is not glued to the top, but stretched across it. It can easily be torn.
Side Spin

Many top players suggest that the use of side spin (right or left english) is not critical to shooting good pool. I agree. Most of what can be achieved with side spin can be accomplished with top or bottom, if there is a clear path to the position point. However, knowledge of side spin can offer alternative “paths” to the position desired if the preferred path is blocked.
It is not the spin alone that makes it possible to alter tangents and rebound angles. It is the combination of spin and speed that makes the possibilities infinite. Consider the following:
1) Using top spin will bend a tangent path forward.
2) Bottom will bend the tangent path backward.
3) Shooting hard will close the rebound angle off the rail.
4) Shooting easy will widen the rebound angle off the rail.
By combining the appropriate top or bottom spin with the right speed, the shooter can send the cue ball off the object ball to about any place on the table, assuming interfering balls can be avoided.
Speed Test

Speed relates to distance. With a 3/4 hit, not only will the cue ball deflect at 25%, and the object ball at 75% of the contact speed, the object ball will travel 3 feet for every 1 foot traveled by the cue ball.
In the diagram above the cue ball was stroked with a speed that would send it 4 feet. When it hits the object ball (a 3/4 hit) the object ball is sent 3 feet, and the cue ball 1 foot. The distance is equal to the percentage ratio (3 /1 ft. = 75/25%.)
You can test this for yourself. Put an object ball on the head spot. Place the cue ball between the object ball and the head rail so that the inside edge of the cue ball is lined up as shown below. The inside edge of the cue ball is lined up to intersect a point 3/4 the distance from the outside edge of the object ball (25% from the inside edge.) If this is confusing, just set up as shown below.
Stroke the cue softly with a center ball hit. Drive the object ball 3 feet, and then measure the distance the cue ball traveled after the hit. It should be 1 foot.
If you drive the object ball 6 feet with this same set-up, the cue ball should travel 2 feet (6/2=3/1 ratio, or 75/25).






