[astetsoncowboy]

I spent the majority of yesterday with our wise leader FL. One of the topics we covered is the break. I am not going to toot my horn here but rather I'll be give an honest assessment.

Once FL started stating what was expected and how the CB on the break should be kept just as much under control as doing a finesse shot, I was astonished. All I've ever known is just grab a cue, select a spot along between the rail and the headstring or kitchen, and just smash the rack. This is all I've ever known. I've never been taught proper techniques for really any part of the game of pool. All of my prior "lessons" and knowledge have come from the powers of observation only. Enter FL to teach the proper ways and re-groove my old game. Not that my old game was an audience pleaser but I could reasonably hold my own then.

Not only has some of my old game returned and continues to advance with many thanks to FL and his patience with me.

As for the break itself...my own honest critique of myself.....I ABSOLUTELY SUCK. I can smash and smash hard. Personally, I think I have more than plenty of power. Power though, is not always going to provide the result of scattering the balls around the table to produce a break and run. FL had me scale back to 50% of what power I do use and amazingly the results were far better than smashing at full force. This was an EYE OPENER in itself!

My major bugs is that I do lose control of the CB and it's zipping all over the table. Even though I am watching the CB, I'm left of FL's preferred POL system, then the correction would be to set up just a little right. If I set up a little right to compensate for a left drift, I end up drifting right. If I use a little top just above center then I have a massive force follow. If I cue a little low just below center, then I draw the cue back to the kitchen or back to the rail and back down the table but the OB's end up moving right or left indicating the left or right drift.

It is definitely indicators that I need serious work on this aspect of the game and this is certainly not going to be an overnight fix. With all the bad habits I have for the break, this will probably be the hardest to get rid of.

However; my deepest gratitude goes out to FL for his vast amount of knowledge he continually imparts upon me and I hope that I do him justice as he hones me into a good player. His wisdom just astounds me every time we link up.

More to follow at a later time.

[FASTLARRY]

He was doing the master blaster and getting nada, making nothing, when I had him reduce power 50% and learn to hit the center of the one ball correctly, he made 5 on the break.

[astetsoncowboy]

OK. It's a couple of days later following the infinite wisdom that FL passed on to me.

Last night during 8 ball league, the league was moved from the place we usually play at due to the ceiling caving in to a local pool/billiard shop that has tables set up. The allowed us to compete in our league there. For starters, I have played on the table we chose many times before but it has been a while since I've been on that particular table so speed control was ok and nothing to brag about but since this topic concerns the break, I'll start there.

I was paired up against a 6 who is my 9 ball team captain so we both know each other's playing styles very well to include weaknesses and strengths. I'm still a 5 so we have a race of 4 games for me to his 5 games.

Trying to apply the wisdom that FL placed in my care, I kept my power reduced to 50% and with exception of a couple of the games, I was able to at least make one ball to keep me at the table. 1 break went really bad and most everything strayed to the left side but I did have FL's recommended ball count of 7 up and 8 down. A couple of breaks actually produced run out tables but hell.....neither me nor the 6 could actually run a table. Everyone was fighting speed control so I know it wasn't just me and this includes the other 2 next to us that were also in matches. Amazing how playing on bad crappy tables most of the time can be so different playing on good or decent tables.

Anyway, even though I produced a few good run out tables and the lack of being able to actually run out, I put the 6 down 4 games to his 3. Problem was that after the crappy break mentioned before, I ended up unintentionally drawing the CB back up table.

This is still a major work in progress and will continue to be for a while until FL and I can get the bugs worked out.

If anyone else here has good advice/information to add, please do so.

Stay tuned!

[FASTLARRY]

I will have you eating 6's for hors Do vers. They are easy meat, 7's are a different issue, they can be very complicated. You are now a 6, you just dont know it yet. I guess I am the first to tell ya what you now are. What ever you think you R, then you R. U R what U R. If U think U R A losing dog, U R. If U think U a winner, U a winner.
D spell po lice is goin, what dee fook........................................

And d funny thing about all of this shit, is I have a PHD and a 152 IQ.....I am one of the 3 pro pool players hu went to college, the rest of the dumb fooks fluked out of da thoid grade, dis wuz dare senior year.

yo I aint as dumb, as Youse guys think Iz is?

I love, doin dis shit.

[Wink]

Sounds like great feedback. I get the best performance for 8-ball at about 75% power.

Question for ya FL, where do you recommend placing the CB for 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball breaks?
And where do you like to strike the rack?

Example; CB near the head string close to the side rail, strike the second ball in the 8-ball rack as full as possible...

I have heard an read some various strategies for where to break from, and where to aim. Curious as to your thoughts for 8, 9 an 10 ball.

[FASTLARRY]

[quote name='Wink' date='Jul 7 2010, 09:40 PM' post='32078']
Sounds like great feedback. I get the best performance for 8-ball at about 75% power.

Question for ya FL, where do you recommend placing the CB for 8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball breaks?
And where do you like to strike the rack?

Example; CB near the head string close to the side rail, strike the second ball in the 8-ball rack as full as possible...

I have heard an read some various strategies for where to break from, and where to aim. Curious as to your thoughts for 8, 9 an 10 ball.



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Down the middle, break off of the short rail, and if that does not work, slide left or right, l/2 diamond, never more than one diamond. Same on all 3 games.
You get the best spread and more run out tables this way.

I know the pros dont do this, but they are dumb fucks without a clue on this subject.

[FASTLARRY]

Its amazing to me, how everything out there on now to break, IMHO< is wrong.

[Wink]

Thanks FL. I'll do some serious break practice tomorrow and see how it works out for me.

Do you also play 14.1? I seem NOT to be getting the kinds of spreads that I want even WITH a great break ball position and SOLID smack into the rack.

[FASTLARRY]

[quote name='Wink' date='Jul 24 2010, 08:26 PM' post='32401']
Thanks FL. I'll do some serious break practice tomorrow and see how it works out for me.

Do you also play 14.1? I seem NOT to be getting the kinds of spreads that I want even WITH a great break ball position and SOLID smack into the rack.


My HR is just behind Greenleafs, 274, Most break shots, you probably need more angle in, more cut, and use a lot of center ball, or 1 tip high, the CB sort of does a loop and stays in place. Hit the rack harder, the old style was go into it soft, 2 or 3 times. Modern players are going in with more force. You just dont want the CB going up table, and never more that 1 or 2 balls up also. You keep a lot of balls in the rack, to set up the next break shot, bumping them into place.

[RoyZ]

I've been easing off on my break speed and trying to be more accurate hitting the 1-ball on the button. It gets better results.

Anybody else have the experience when you play straight pool that you start shying away from longer shots? Shots you would eat for lunch in 9-ball?

[huebler]

I had read FLs writings on the break about a year ago, and had already started to break 1/2 diamond to the right of center, taking care to hit the first ball dead on and with more control than full speed (but still a pretty hard hit, about 80%). This did get me better results.

However, I noticed that if I hit center ball, the CB would rebound off the rack and end up near the head string. Maybe I was putting some draw on it, but I do not think so. I found that a little follow would help me keep the CB center table. Although, often I would put way too much follow and have the CB end up at the foot end of the table. And if I am careless with where the tip contacts the CB, I often will put top left rather than top center, and will scratch in the left side pocket. No follow and unintended english and I scratch in the top right corner pocket.

When I hit only slight follow with no left or right english, 80% power, I will regularly make one or two balls, leave 4 or 5 up table, and have a pretty reasonable spread. Too much power, and many of the up table balls will rebound back down table. Too little power, and many of the balls end along the rails.

After reading this thread, I re-evaluated how I was breaking. I tired less power, and found that I needed to dial back just 5% to improve my results. Dialing back more than that was too light. But I clearly had started adding back power from when I first read FLs writing on the subject. It is good to remember that too much power is not providing better results.

I also tried to put the CB more center along the head rail, and found that I got better spreads, but made no balls. I got better results making balls with 1/2 diamond to the right.

[Wink]

274!!! Holy cow!

Very impressive. I suppose I need to get more aggressive in going for the break shots. I have to work on end patterns quite a bit in my 14.1 game. As you mentioned, more angle is required which means I need to drill reverse (back) cuts over and over so that I get confident in those for the traditional 14.1 break shot.

It seems at the moment, that I get a much better spread, and stay more out of trouble if I do a back break or a side pocket break, rather than the traditional break shot.

Thanks for the feedback. I look forward to practicing my breaks for each game.

[astetsoncowboy]

huebler, on Jul 27 2010, 12:05 PM, said:

I had read FLs writings on the break about a year ago, and had already started to break 1/2 diamond to the right of center, taking care to hit the first ball dead on and with more control than full speed (but still a pretty hard hit, about 80%). This did get me better results.

However, I noticed that if I hit center ball, the CB would rebound off the rack and end up near the head string. Maybe I was putting some draw on it, but I do not think so. I found that a little follow would help me keep the CB center table. Although, often I would put way too much follow and have the CB end up at the foot end of the table. And if I am careless with where the tip contacts the CB, I often will put top left rather than top center, and will scratch in the left side pocket. No follow and unintended english and I scratch in the top right corner pocket.

When I hit only slight follow with no left or right english, 80% power, I will regularly make one or two balls, leave 4 or 5 up table, and have a pretty reasonable spread. Too much power, and many of the up table balls will rebound back down table. Too little power, and many of the balls end along the rails.

After reading this thread, I re-evaluated how I was breaking. I tired less power, and found that I needed to dial back just 5% to improve my results. Dialing back more than that was too light. But I clearly had started adding back power from when I first read FLs writing on the subject. It is good to remember that too much power is not providing better results.

I also tried to put the CB more center along the head rail, and found that I got better spreads, but made no balls. I got better results making balls with 1/2 diamond to the right.

And therein lies my problems. Thanks for posting some of your results huebler. Like you, if I'm center CB then I end up at headstring. Same with draw but it rebounds and goes back down table. A little top and the CB moves away about a foot and runs through the rack again. I'm using 75-80 % power and though I'm getting closer to the overall objective, it's still very much a fight for me. I had one good example from last night. Playing at a friend's house, I did manage to get it right only one time. The cb moved just beyond the middle pockets toward the headstring but rather than continue to keep running, the CB just stopped dead in its tracks. Had a fairly decent spread with 1 or 2 two ball clusters that were easy breakouts when the time came to open them up. The memory of that particular snap is fully dredged into my memory in terms of appearances but repeating it in action is still going to take much more time than I thought.

[FASTLARRY]

The top player never uses a side pocket break, only if he blows it, and that's all that there is, on this type of break, you cant control the CB, and can hit the side of the rack and scratch, you cant stop the CB from going forward. You cant direct the CB into any single part of the rack with any accuracy.

The top player rarely now uses the back break, but old timers like Ponzi actually prefered it. Its OK, when you cant move a break ball up, many leave a ball down around the short rail just in case, so if they cant produce a side break, they can go down there for one. You just want to move a few balls out, get the CB back to the middle, and go into the rack, a 2nd an or 3rd time, each time softly keeping break balls close in. That is called, the old style of play. Something that an Archer or Efren, would not have a clue on, but Rempe and Segal would.

[Pin]

At the moment I'm finding the snap of my wrist very inconsistent. Sometimes I'm absolutely ripping it through the shot, other times it's pretty slow and no better than a moderate 'regular' break.

[FASTLARRY]

Pin, on Jul 27 2010, 05:24 PM, said:

At the moment I'm finding the snap of my wrist very inconsistent. Sometimes I'm absolutely ripping it through the shot, other times it's pretty slow and no better than a moderate 'regular' break.

I bring the Cb back about 2' just past the side pocket and stop it in that 2' area, the secret is, and why you cant do it, is you guys are jacked up, hitting down into the ball, and you are jumping the ball, skipping it into the rack, you just cant see it, but this is what you are doing, and I am breaking off the rail, keeping my cue, perfectly level, and my ball on the cloth, and into and beyond the ball, I keep level to the bed, I showed cowboy me doing that and putting the tip past the side pockets. I am generally, a half tip, below center. And, do not see the rack, only see the CB on impact. Use the POL to frame the shot and to set up the aim point.

[PB Matrix]

my break has improved greatly after reading this post

[FASTLARRY]

Hold 20% of your power in your back pocket, its all about accuracy and purity of the hit on the one, not brute power.

[FASTLARRY]

BREAK THE SPIN BREAK

3-20-00, rev 1-29-05, 8-3-08, 3pages CR, Fast Larry Guninger all rights reserved. Published in DC, bpn, czm, upp, ppt, flp, btt.

I teach in both 8 & 9 ball to break off the end rail and l/2 diamond left or right of the middle diamond on the short rail. I teach no English, 6:00 and just far enough below center to bring the cue ball straight up table 3 diamonds. This produces a run out table.

When you get house cloth which is thicker than simonis and it’s been on a while you will see 15 nice deep craters where the balls rack. This creates problems and an opportunity. The craters mean many of the balls will not freeze to each other. If you have the balls frozen on top and on the bottom of the 9 ball it goes no where fast. Have some gaps there and it moves out of the rack. If I see that I may go to the spin break. You have to play around until you find out how thick and where you hit the one ball at and what tip position.

If I am gambling with you and I know I can beat you flat, if I play too good I run you off early. But if I keep slopping in the 9 ball, you figure I am just lucky and you keep coming back for more, and more, until I bust you flat. To do that you have to get the 9 ball in position to attack is successfully. Normally it says close to where it was racked in the center of the table where you can do nothing with it. But with the spin break, you are moving it over and around the bottom corner pocket where you can attack and pot it a number of different ways.

This creates a couple of problems, you are losing control of the one ball and this break is not the way to play run out pool. The cue ball stays down table a lot and that is not good. You are not trying to run out here, which is not the point. You are trying to get an early cheap shot at the 9 ball and end it early. By losing the cue ball you will not always have a good shot to pot the one ball which is going up table. And you have moved the 9 over in front of the corner. You want to avoid feeding the opponent your duck 9 ball, which is reserved for just you. So when that happens and I don’t think I can get at it first and he might, I don’t do anything dumb. I can push, play safe, or even take a foul and shoot any ball into the 9 to pot it and then have it spot up, or shoot it out and away from the pocket.

It is not going to work out every time for you and expect it to backfire some. Generally the opponent is too dumb to see what you are doing and he sticks to his normal try and run the table game. You are the stupid one rolling the 9 ball like a real ball banger.

Begin using one tip right and a tad below center. My cue is laying flat on the end rail and I try not to jack up but hit the rack with a fairly level cue. As every table breaks different, I may begin one diamond, or one foot left of center, then I might move over left two feet until I find a spot that works. I may even move over to the left long rail where the pros break 9 ball from.

Depending on how the balls come out, I may use 2 tips, maybe 3 tips on some occasions. The balls open best on 860 Simonis, slower on thicker house cloth. When you do it correctly the 9 ball moves towards the bottom left corner pocket every time. I play a very aggressive form of 9 ball where I attack it a lot early in the game so even if it gets close to the pocket it sets up a combination or carom opportunity as well. By making the 9 on the break and having short racks where I made the 9 off of the 2 or 3 ball on several occasions I have won 10 games in a row in 5 minutes flat. That was how I got the name Fast Larry. I would beat you in a set of 10 games so fast your head would swim.

I have made the 9 in the bottom left pocket A 4 times in a row several times and had it done to me as well by several others. I have heard its been done 6 times in a row which I believe because when I made it 4 in a row the last time on 5 & 6 snaps I hung the 9 in the corner and almost did it my self. I had a very slow cloth or I would have done 6. The only downside of this is you lose the cue ball and do not control it and that’s the trade off. The spin break does not always work well and its success depends a lot on the type and condition of the cloth and the balls you are using. It you want to make the 9 ball and you are racking for your self cheat by having gaps in the two balls below the 9 so neither are touching it and that allows it to escape. Or at least have one of those balls gapped.
You wait for your opponent to leave the table to go to the bathroom and you deep tap in all 9 balls into little craters. You have all the balls frozen except the two behind the 9 ball which you allow a l/16th gap which cannot be seen unless he looks over the rack. Few ever detect this. You also tap in this new rack for you about 1” high, above the spot. This will allow you a better chance to make the 1 ball in the side pocket and it also insures the opponent won’t rack in your holes and accidently make the 9 ball for himself. If you see him find those holes, you tell him the one is not on the spot and make him re rack lower. If he catches you cheating, you just say, opps, sorry, my mistake. Go to confession on Friday, tell it all to father O’Malley, do the rosary, it’s worth it. Leave a nice tip in the poor box on your way out. Show some class.

If you are racking for your opponent have the balls on top of and below the 9 froze and even tap them to insure it. He breaks and the 9 ball just sits there like it’s glued to the cloth.

A Meucci cue is very good on the spin break. It breaks great because it puts a lot
Of spin on the ball. I have made 7 on the break using one at 8 ball. Warning, this cue is not designed to hold up under this type of abuse so do not be surprised when
It falls apart on you. A triangle or Talisman S would be the best tip to use. If you
Only plan to blast them very hard using little or no English then the new Talisman
XX break tip would be your choice.

I do not use the spin break on the UPA world 9 ball tour because we always play on
A brand new cloth which has no craters. You also lose the cue ball and rarely know
Where it is going so it’s not a run out break. I used it for gambling where I wanted to appear as lucky as possible to keep the inferior mark in the game. If your opponent is not a run out top player then this break is smart to use. Begin running racks on a chump and they take off. Slop in some 9 balls and they stay as they view you as just being lucky. You have the chance to make the 9 and win. If you lose the cue ball and he gets to shoot your mark rarely runs out and usually dogs the run leaving you an easy 3 or 4 ball out. You actually want inferior opponents beginning each run to get the congestion out of your way.

When I was the house pro at Mr. Cues II which is the top action room in Georgia we have the top sticks in Atlanta and from around the country coming in there. I had a contest where the house put in $100 to begin the pot and every snap you wanted to take cost you $3 and if you made the 9 ball you got the pot. I survived 189 breaks and the best that should have been was 32. I guess that proves I know how to rack and keep you from making the 9 ball. The guy who did it was some big gorilla who blasted the rack with all his beef, the 9 sits there and it got back kicked up table to pot in the far corner which never happens. He got lucky on me.

The key to this was tapping and freezing the two balls behind the 9 tight on it. If you want the 9 to spin out and try to pot on the snap then create a little gap on either or both sides of it under the 9 ball.

HOW TO OPEN THE OLDER WEI TABLE. Put your mouse on the far right end of the HTML code, left click, drag to gray in, right click, hit copy.

START ( %AN7O5%BL7P8%CJ5O4%DL7N1%EM7P1%FK6P1%GK6N8%HM7N8%IL7O4%Ph5Z0%QB3Z9%UP4P0%Vg4Y6%eC3a7%_D1Z5%`E5X2%aL3O5)END

Now left click and hold at the same time to open the table hold down ctrl and shift together at the same time on your bottom left keyboard. The blue table appears, at the bottom, hit paste, then OK twice, and you now see the shot.

http://cuetable.com/WeiTable/


In every break plan you have a spot you always begin with the cue ball from experience works the best and then if you do not produce results you begin to move it right or left until you find a spot that does yield success. On some tables the spin break works from here.

The 9 ball can also be made in this same pocket breaking off the same positing on the left long rail, using opposite English, low left, so play with it and see what works. You might even try hitting the one ball very full with one tip left above center, with your high racking an inch above the spot, the one ball will pot in the right side now a lot. If you begin making the one, then you don’t want the 2 ball going up table so begin placing the 2 behind the 9 ball which keeps it around the rack area. To have the 2 go up table most of the time, you make it the bottom ball in the rack.

Then there is this postion back to low right again. No two tables are the same and no two break the same so do not be stuck with just one break. Have many options and keep experimenting until one produces. Most pro’s agree, a break with 100 or 150% power does not work. A hard but pure medium power break with some spin is best.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((***)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
)))))))))))))))))

Come chat with me live at www.billiards-pool.net
THE POWER SOURCE POOL SCHOOL “Fast Larry” Guninger
web site www.fastlarrypool.com
POOL LESSONS FROM A GRAND MASTER LEVEL INSTRUCTOR, BILLIARDS EXPERT AND FORMER ARTISTIC WORLD CHAMPION. 770-381-6609, fax 770-381-1916
POOL QUESTIONS ANSWERED AND FREE INSTRUCTION IS ON
www.billiards-pool.net In the ask the pros forum.
“Fast Larry” Guninger and Wonder Dog, trick shot shows and entertainment.
Email fastlarry@bellsouth.net fast larry at bell south dot net

May God bless and peace be with you. May there now be peace between us. If you are a real pool player, then fast truly loves you. May the wind be always on your back and all 9 balls fall.
VENI VIDI VICI, OMNIA VINCIT AMOR. “Fastus Maximus. “ Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered, love conquerors all. Yes I really did do it all and you can believe it, or not. If you don’t believe it, C’est La Vie. " Shoot straight, innovate, never give up, just run out on the other guy then there is no way for you to lose. "Winners make things happen. Losers let things happen
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))))))))))

[FASTLARRY]

BREAK THE WHIMPY BREAK FROM THE 60’S.

3 pages, CR, Fast Larry Guninger, 1-2-07, all rights reserved.

I began playing a pro level game in 1961 but there was no tour to play on. The BCA had closed its doors and all tournament activity would be gone until 1966. I entered a world of gambling. A smart player gambles at 9 ball to win and make it look lucky against lesser opponents. He would play a totally different game if he was playing in a tournament against all run out pros. The gambling game then featured going after the 9 ball a lot trying to combo it in early in the rack. We had money riding on the 5 and the 9. A typical game would be 2 bucks on the 5 ball and 5 bucks on the 9 ball. Remember a $7 game in 1961 is $42 in today’s money. That was a strong game. Breaking and running out usually is stopped by one really hard shot or a ball lying poorly. It is not fair to break and run 6 balls, miss the 7 and lose allowing your opponent to run 3 and out. You make 2/3 rd’s of the balls and got nothing. So having the 5 as a money ball gave you an incentive to begin the run and to get to at least the 5 and if you lost the game you reduced your loss from 5 to 3 bucks. If the 6 ball looked bad you could then always duck on it. If the opponent missed and you ran out you got paid for both balls, $7.
If you broke and made the 9 on the snap, it spotted, you run the 1 & 2 and then combo the 9 in off the 3, its spots, you run the 4-5-6 and combo the 9 in once more off the 7, the 9 spots and you then run out. You just made on that game $22, or $132.

Such a game made you a real gambler and risk taker. You became a shot maker and not a ducker.
As the decade of the 1960’s unfolded the BCA was gone, Greenleaf died, Mosconi had a stroke and retired, Jimmy Caras retired and all that was left was Irving Crane entering tournaments. So the greatest pool game of all time, 14.1 continuous pocket billiards died with them. All the stars and big time ball runners were gone. It took a few years for that death to be official but in a decade it would all but be replaced by 9 ball. The 50’s and early 60’s featured all night sessions playing straight which was the best way to determine who was the best stick. In order to stay up all night long they all became drunks or speed freaks. They stayed up to play to keep their highs going. Some guys played for 2 days in a row before they would crash.

This of course eventually wrecked havoc on the lives of those players. Soon their minds and bodies were trashed and later their neurological systems would collapse from the amphetamine turning them into cripples. After the Jansco gamblers jubilee’s reached their climax in the last 60’s that era of all night sessions began to taper off. As it was now a world of gamblers and no longer one of tin cup players. They favored quick fast wins and 9 ball became the gamblers game of choice against chumps and they played each other one hole.

During the Jansco period Whimpy Luther Lassiter would establish him self as the best 9 ball player of his time. Some say of all time. Whimpy was also a great straight and one pocket player and like most of his time he had to learn the new game of 9 ball which came on the scene in the early 50’s. All of these guys had very soft safety breaks in one hole and straight. You only feathered a ball and lagged the cue ball back up table. When these guys had to begin playing 9 ball and breaking hard most of them did not have a clue how to do that. Irving Crane broke like you see Allison Fisher do today, like a weak woman with no clue.

On my new trick shot DVD I show 32 extreme trick shots on the end after I teach you 26 solid shots. One of them is showing me make 6 balls on the break at 8 ball. What is shows is 6 went because there were 3 late secondary collisions that should hot have happened but lucked 3 more balls in. That is what it takes to make a lot of balls. That and a lot of luck.

Let’s now go back to Paul’s at 46th and Troost, Kcmo in 1961. I am on a 4x8’ which gives you more chance to make balls than the wider longer 9’ table. The pockets are leather, 5” buckets and pot really well. The rubber and cloth is new so the table is very fast which is critical. I am breaking with a soft Champion tip and with a 20 oz Willie Hoppe cue with a brass joint. I am using a lot of English on the break with maximum force. This is why it is so hard to find any Hoppe cues today that are still playable. They worked fine at straight pool but the short weak pins fell apart when we began breaking with them. The Balabushka solved that with a longer stronger stainless steel pin and joint. Back then you broke with you playing cue and your case only held that cue and 2 shafts. When we figured out we were busting up our Hoppes and Rambos we began to use house sticks to break.

A break I use today at 8 ball has a secondary collision and is widely used. You do not hit the top one ball but instead hit the 2nd ball down very full with a lot of low draw English. That pulls the cue ball off the rack after the break, into the long rail and back into the rack for a 2nd break which will drive the 8 ball into the side pocket about 1 in 7 to 10 tries if you are skilled at this. The cue ball stays on the cloth and does not jump or fly around.

Whimpy got the idea to do that break at 9 ball but you have to hit the one ball first. He would break with a little jack up so the cue ball would skip down there, hit the one thinner than normal but actually be jumping so it hit the one high and off the cloth at impact. It would then deflect off into the long rail but would hit high up on the rail, on its edge. If it hit too high it would fly off the table. If you did it perfect the cue ball would come smashing back into the rack for a 2nd time and it would redirect every thing around. You would get some really wild breaks doing this. It was a triple jump and a double break shot.

This is 3 jump shots. You jump the cue ball into the one, it jumps off high on the rail, it jumps back into the rack so when the cue ball is hit on the snap when it gets to within a foot of the one ball it is airborne and it stays in the air off the rail and back into the rack.
If you are Whimpy and the world’s greatest player you can some what control this but can you imagine the chaos that ensued when all the amateur ball bangers began trying to do it as well. Balls are flying all over the joint and the room owners are getting furniture damage, balls going through the front window, cue balls dented and they began stopping this practice. Soon the break just faded into history and was all but forgotten. Thank God. That and the all night long sessions were the two worst things that ever happened to pool IMHO>

I never wanted to explain it because I did not want to see this come back and see rooms get damaged or people hurt by flying balls nobody can control. It is a stupid break and you will scratch and sell out on it more times than it will work and you benefit from it. So read this and forget it.

Yes that was the break I used to make 8 balls on the snap at 9 ball which is a world record that has stood UN tied and unbroken for the last 46 years. Soon after that I stopped using it when I realized it could not be controlled and was stupid.

I was making 7 balls on the break on a 9’ table with pro cut pockets with slow house cloth at Jillian’s on an 8 ball break for several years up to 2005. I was making 5 balls on the break at 9 ball 5 times a day. Not bad for somebody who’s prime was 46 years ago. On both of these breaks the cue ball was coming straight up table with out hitting any rails. I also set the 2nd world record in 1961 when I made 8 balls on the break at 8 ball on that same table and the cue ball did not hit a rail. I can break. I now teach a much softer controlled break where the objective is to make just one or two balls and get a shot and a spread. The king Kong breaks are fun to watch but the truth is you have no clue where any thing is going to end up at.



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