Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 Excerpt: ...COME FROM LANDING ON THE SECOND BALL TOO SOFTLY TTERE, again, the "freeze," "line-up," and "tieup" can be avoided in close play by a little care and imaginative foresight. It is merely a matter of get ting the force of the stroke right. Plate 93 shows a position where nearly all beginners line the balls up. They try to hit the ball very thin, and either miss it entirely, or count and leave a line-up. This is shown in B. Try rather to hit the first ball a wee bit Fuller than the second, just barely grazing the second, in fact, and hardly stirring it. The first ball will move out a bit and result in a favorable position, with balls facing the corner. This shot will take considerable practice, simple as it looks, for you will be so afraid of missing the second that you will not hit the first full enough. Practice it till you overcome that fear. This, too, is important. This shot often enables you to get on the other side of the balls, so that you will be facing the corner. Plate 94 shows an obvious example of avoiding a "line-up." Playing too softly, as in Diagram A, lines the balls on the rail. A little more force, but not enough to scatter the balls, brings the first object ball out from the rail again. Diagram C shows a frequent position where the line-up is to be avoided by using slightly more force and a trifle more English. Plate 95 also illustrates a like point. In this case, however, one can avoid the line-up not only by using a shade more force, but by landing on the carom ball a wee bit farther to the right. Plate 96 shows how the player drives the object ball across the table and back. The amount of force needed to drive a ball a certain distance is known sub-consciously, perhaps. On such shots as these, we, w...