How To Play Billiards

HOW TO PLAY BILLIARDS

CHAPTER I

AN INDISPENSABLE PRELIMINARY

PLEASE do not skip this chapter. You must begin at the beginning if you wish to play billiards in a manner worthy of the game. This is obvious to the tyro, but I wish to impress the truth of it on the mind of the amateur who has made a false start in his billiards. Taking amateur cuemen as a whole, this type is the rule rather than the exception. Never having started on the right lines, they ruefully admit their chronic inability to acquire more than a strictly limited degree of proficiency. Once in a way, they may make a twenty or thirty break. It is probable that they have been doing so for years, and it is a mystery to them that they cannot improve even if they play billiards fairly frequently. They attribute their ineptitude to lack of inborn cue-power, lack of practice, or any other reason except the correct one, which is that they have never learned the first thing about the rudiments of real billiard-playing. This is no didactic disparagement of the skill of countless good sportsmen who handle a cue indifferently well; it is a fact which can be accounted for, both easily and convincingly.

The explanation of any amount of poor billiards lies in the curious circumstance that not one in a hundred of the average type of player has ever been taught to handle a cue properly. When a player of this kind began, if he cares to call to mind the time and place, he will remember that he picked up a cue and gradually learned to handle it in his own way to his own satisfaction. He may have had a few hints from a friend who knew how to make sundry strokes and occasional breaks, but knew nothing of the business of a billiard coach, which is quite a profession by itself. Consequently, the beginner, unless he happened to be the one man in a thousand, perhaps ten thousand, who had a natural stance and cue-swing so good that it needed little alteration or improvement, never had a sporting chance to play real billiards. He simply played on, handicapped as a young cricketer would be if he was never shown how to play a straight bat, or a golfer would be if he attempted to handle his clubs without expert tuition.

A billiard-cue demands quite as much correct manipulation as any cricket bat or golf club, but the strange thing is that so few average cuemen realize the truth of this observation. They go on playing, year in and year out, and never improve, and they never will, unless, with the tyro, they begin at the beginning. The problem they have to solve, the first great problem every billiard-player has to solve, is to propel his cue with perfect truth and freedom when striking the cue-ball. Unless this is done, no real aptitude at the game can be hoped for. Cue-delivery means a great deal more than I have ever seen expressed in print. If I placed the balls for you—if I told you exactly where to strike the cue-ball—if I told you what ball-to-ball contact was required, and if you grasped and obeyed all my instructions, it is by no means certain that you would make many strokes I could show you; not difficult strokes, but strokes you ought to make. Everything would depend on your cue-delivery. If that was good, all would be well; if not, the strokes would beat you. The momentum and direction of your cue at the moment when contact is established with the cue-ball is to your stroke what correct timing is to the cricketer—it means all the difference between facile and fluent scoring and stodgy work which can never give more than mediocre results. Knowing this, I am extremely anxious to instil full directions regarding cue-delivery before passing to those strokes which are so often dealt with after a cursory reference to this indispensable preliminary.

The most helpful thing I can do, I think, is to use my own stance and cue-delivery as a standard of comparison. Just that; nothing more than that, please. It will defeat my purpose if you strive to copy my stance and style with slavish exactitude—I wish you to adapt it to your individual requirements. Very well, I am 5 feet 9 inches in height. My general physique can be estimated from the photo of my playing attitude, but I may point out that I have rather long arms for a man of my height. Now I must ask you to take a little trouble, to make a few measurements, and acquire for yourself facts and figures which will help you to shape properly when addressing a billiard-ball. First of all, I place the spot-ball on the centre-spot of the baulk line, take up my cue, and stand ready to play the ball straight up the table, over the line of spots. When I am in position for this stroke, the following measurements show exactly where I stand.

(1) The centre of my right foot is 32 inches behind the face of the baulk cushion (you can measure this distance quite easily by placing the half-butt on the floor at a point exactly beneath the face of the cushion).

THE CORRECT PLAYING STANCE

(2) The centre of my left foot is 12 inches behind the face of the baulk cushion.

My right leg is straight, my left knee slightly bent, my right foot is turned a little outward to give natural support to my body. A line in continuation of the longitudinal centre of the table (there is usually a spot on the centre of the rail of the baulk cushion by which this line can be determined) would intersect my feet as shown in Diagram 1, and I am anxious that my pupils should keep their feet on this line while shaping at this particular stroke. They can move their feet backwards or forwards to bring their body comfortably into position when bending forward to complete their stance, the distance the feet will be apart will vary according to the height of the player, but in making what foot movement may be necessary on this account, the right foot will be moved backward much more than the left foot is advanced. On no account, however, should either of the feet stray appreciably to the right or left of the line shown in the diagram.

Having placed your feet and legs correctly, you have done something which is as important to a billiard-player as footwork is to a boxer. Now, I want you to pause and memorize that your feet and legs must move in conformity with any appreciable variation of the line of direction you wish the cue-ball to take. Suppose, for example, that I wanted to direct my ball into the right top pocket instead of straight up the table. Then my feet would be as shown in Diagram 2, which offers a most instructive comparison with my first diagram. Many amateurs do not bother about these foot and leg movements—if they do not feel properly in line for a shot, they lean the upper part of the body sideways to make the requisite correction, which is often the one thing which prevents them from scoring; the proficient cueman moves his feet until he is satisfied that they conform with the line of direction of the cue-ball. There are exceptions; at short range one can occasionally command the balls to an extent by leaning the body to the right or left without moving the feet, and there are positions where the lie of the balls compels one to lean over side-ways to make the shot. But as a general principle there is no sounder rule in billiard-playing than that which demands the moving of the feet to get the correct line for varying requirements of stroke direction. and the all too common neglect of this rule is a sure sign of indifferent cuemanship.

DIAGRAM 1

DIAGRAM 2

Leaning over the table, I make my bridge as shown in the photograph. But I want you to note very particularly that a spot on the cloth immediately beneath the knuckle of the forefinger of my bridge hand is exactly 13 inches behind the baulk line. This is when I shape at the ball on the centre spot of the baulk line, and is almost the forward extreme of my stance, the position of my right foot marks the other extreme. Now, if you get these two extremes right, the forward lean of your body will fall naturally into the correct position for a good stance. The lateral position of my bridge is easily ascertained because it is exactly where the cue slides over my thumb straight at the centre of the cue-ball. Obviously, unless you happen to be of the same height and general build as myself, you cannot follow in your own person the measurements I have given. But they will serve as a useful general guide. If you are shorter than I am, even if you are about the same height but more stockily built, you can bring your right foot closer to the table, you may even move your left foot a little in the same direction. If you are taller than I am, you remove your feet, especially your right foot, further from the table, always provided you do not splay them so far apart that unsteadiness is even likely. Above all, whether you move your feet backwards or forwards, keep them on the line.

HOW I MAKE MY BRIDGE

The permissible margin of variation in the position of the bridge hand is not by any means so great, even relatively, as is the case with foot movement. You can move your feet within any reasonable limits backwards or forwards, if you keep your right leg straight, and do not bring your feet so close together or move them so far apart that you feel the least wobble in your body when you shape at the stroke. If you compare my height with yours, the measurements I have given will enable you to work out a proportional position for your feet, but guard against any excessive bending of the left knee; if you are decidedly on the short side you need scarcely bend it at all. As regards the position of the bridge hand, however, you may get an inch or so nearer to the ball if it gives you more confidence, but do not overdo it or stodgy cueing is sure to result. I do not advise you to place your bridge hand further from the ball than mine is according to the measurement given. If you do, you will acquire what is known as a long bridge, which may at times give you more cue-power, but renders consistent accuracy of cue-delivery much too uncertain for my liking. It is very important indeed to settle the normal distance between your bridge hand and the cue-ball, because it brings you to the one unvarying factor in first-class billiards. No matter what variations in stance or cue-delivery may be noticeable in any professionals you have ever seen, they are all absolutely identical, as alike as scientific practice can make them, as regards what happens when the point of their cue slides from their bridge hand to send the cue-tip into contact with the ball. The swing and precision of this movement, which immediately precedes actual cue-contact, cannot vary if the stroke is first class. The distance the cue travels during this movement is of material import, which explains why I am anxious that the distance between your bridge and the cue-ball should approximate to mine. This distance may vary at times, you may have to shorten your bridge for certain strokes, but it is nevertheless essential that you should decide, from the data I have supplied, the normal distance between your bridge hand and the ball.

Normality in stance and the position