AudreyK and I watched some incredible women’s pool play today (why is it we only see women’s pool on ESPN? Is it Jeanette Lee and the leather pants?), and some questions came up. Some of them even had to do with pool.
Jump cues. How are they different from normal cues? Besides, apparently, being shorter.
Masse and other trick shots. Are they banned from being used during (tournament) competition?
Push outs. If your opponent can pass his/her turn after one (leaving you with a nasty shot if you went for a safety), what’s the strategic advantage to 'em?
Jump cues are lighter. If the cue has too much mass, it will tend to power through the ball, rather than bouncing away from the ball so it could jump.
Masse’ shots are legal in all pool leagues and tournaments that I know of. Some pool halls forbid them because of potential damage to the cloth, but it’s not a tournament rule. For one thing, it’s very hard to say what is and isn’t a masse’, because lots of shots wind up putting a bit of swerve on the ball.
However, some leagues and tournaments ban jump cues.
If you can’t see the ball at all, then you either shoot at the ball and risk a foul, or you call a pushout. Since, as you say the other player can refuse and make you shoot, the object is to push the cueball into a position whether the object ball can be hit, but with no real options for making a shot. That way, if you are forced to shoot again at least you won’t foul.
The reason you see women’s pool and not men’s pool is because the women are much more organized and professional. On the men’s side, there are always rival organizations trying to grab the players and TV markets. The women are unified, have a dress code, etc. Women probably make more money at pool than men do these days, simply because the men can’t get their act together.
I guess one can do trick shots in a tourny if the balls are positioned in such a way that there is now straightforward solution and as long as they don’t violate any rules of the game that they’re playing. Every now and again you’ll see many players masse the cue ball in a match (Efren Reyes), since it’s a very useful strategy if you can maintain control of the cueball.
If you go for a push-out after the break, and your opponent passes their turn and puts you back at the table, I’m guessing their strategy would be to gamble and take a risk. The risk being that you could mess up your shot at safety, leaving them with a chance at a better shot than what they had initially.
I’m not quite sure how to reconcile the two rules below regarding jump shots as they seem to be at odds with each other. One seems to say a jump to avoid an obstructing ball is illegal and the other seems to say a jump is ok. Why you would want to jump except to clear another ball is beyond my skills.
Generally masse (jump) shots are forbidden in bar pool as it is hard on the table and the cue and the balls (as they often sail of the table and careen around the bar). Bar rules should not be confused with tournament rules as they do tend to differ somewhat.
As to any other trick shot I don’t see why they wouldn’t be legal as long as they follow the rules of the specific game being played.
The link below points to general rules for pool but you can also follow links to rules for specific game types from there.
Whack-a-Mole: A lot of players are under the impression that a jump is done by digging the cue under the ball and ‘scooping’ it into the air. Or just forcing it into the air by digging the cue underneath it. That is a miscue, and is indeed a foul. That’s what 3.26 is all about.
3.27 says that causing the ball to jump in the air is not illegal, as long as you don’t violate 3.26.
The way a jump really works is that you strike the ball along its center, but in a raised plane. This causes the ball to compress into the cloth, and then jump into the air at an angle perpendicular to the angle of the raised plane. If there were no cloth on the table, the jump wouldn’t work and the cueball would just skitter along the ground.
Right, and most good players who attempt a jump shot can only get the ball off the table about 2 inches. Not enough to completely clear another ball, but enough to get over the side of another ball.
Well I just wrapped-up my first season in a 9-Ball league, so I’ll throw in some observations.
There were a few guys in my league that used jump cues. They were shorter (around 36 inches maybe?), and they all were “awesome” with them. They could easily clear a ball (not just the side). And I would say 90% of the time they didn’t just make contact with their object ball, they managed to sink it!
So jump shots and masse’s were allowed during regular season play and in the tournament. But we rotated venues and in some pubs there were signs stating there was to be no masse or jump shots made. But because we were in a league (ie: professionals) we were allowed to do both.
Also in our league, a push shot could only be called on the first shot after the break.
I’m guilty of doing the “scoop” jump in pool. I’m very good at it but never realized it was illegal (always played with friends).
Would jumping require a huge amount of force to get the ball to compress the cloth enough for a 3 inch (or more) jump? Is that the reason for the jump que?
Great answers all around. Kinda disappointing that the men can’t get their act together but, hey, it’s not like I want to see Steve Mizerak in leather pants, so I won’t complain too loudly.
Hm, interesting side question - in your experience, are guys any better at pool than women? I’m thinking that perhaps the (near) ubiquity of pool tables in bars leads to greater exposure of guys to pool, and practice makes perfect. Or perhaps not. (And most of 'em would be “bar size” tables anyway, but whatever.)
KKBattousai, the league I played in was mixed, but it was probably 85% male 15% female.
I don’t consider myself to be a ‘excellent’ player, maybe very good and I can pretty much beat anyone of them hands down.
I’m from a town of about 100,000 and haven’t seen any women play that were any where near excellent in my town. But pool should make absolutly no difference when it comes to gender.
I’m sure there are thousands of woman who could kick my ass rather handily!
A jump cue is also much harder than a regular cue, with a harder tip. This causes it to bounce from the cue ball quickly and get out of the way.
Jumps are legal AFIK, and can indeed clear another ball.
The strategy to a push-out is in putting the ball in a position where you have a relative advantage over your opponent. You have to know his weaknesses.
A skill I learned recently is to jump the object ball. You can’t raise it up very much, but you can enough to clear the edge of another ball and give you a shot at a pocket that would otherwise be barely blocked.
I’m trying to work on my masse shot. At the moment I’m hopeless, but does masse-ing (sp? sounds cool, but probably wrong) require a similar technique to jumping the cueball? How should I position my cue?
For a masse to work, you need to elevate the cuestick and strike the ball along an elevated plane. Here’s an interesting fact: If you drew a line between the contact point and the center of the ball, the angle it makes will be identical to the direction the cueball winds up travelling after the masse has had full influence on the ball. Of course, if the backspin from the masse is lost before the ball finishes changing direction, it will just go straight from that point.
The trick to a good masse’ shot is to get the cue elevated to the proper amount, and then hitting the ball accurately. For most people, you’ll find an elevated cue more controllable if you shoot ‘sidearm’ - if you keep your arm parallel to your body you have to really reach to make that angle - even tall people have to stand on their tiptoes almost to get a good angle. Shoot sidearm and practice is, and you can make elevated-cuestick shots from a solid, comfortable stance.
For the masse, you want to hold the cue at a large angle to the slate, like 60 degrees, and hit with lower, side english. The cue striking on one side of the cue ball will cause it to initially go off-course in the opposite direction (this is OK - it helps clear the blocking ball) before it then curves the direction you want. What you’re really doing is putting side-spin on the cue ball, like how a curve ball in bowling would spin.
To jump, you hit with less of a cue angle, like 30 degrees, above the center of the cue ball, so that the ball starts off going down, then it springs up by doing a regular old bounce. I disagree with an earlier poster - I think the felt isn’t what causes the bounce, but the flexing of the slate under the ball, just like if you drop a ball on the table and it bounces.
According to Byrne’s Standard Book of Pool, the exit angle of the ball is determined by the ramp angle of the compressed cloth.
If you have access to a cueball and a cue, it should be easy enough to test - just take a ball outside and put it on the sidewalk and see if you can make it jump.
I will point out, at least regarding the masse according to BCA, VNEA, and APA league rules, one must not elevate the stick over 45 degrees to the table surface or it is a foul.
