I thought I’d try the aiming without aiming thing again Friday night in my weekly pool night at the bar. It didn’t work that well for me before, but maybe tonight…..

The first few games didn’t go that well, although I did win a couple. My opponents weren’t that tough so that helped. I just wasn’t playing too impressively.

As the night wore on I started to make some much better shots. My brother usually comes by for some games on Friday, and I had him shaking his head at a couple long 8 ball banks that I made to win some games. (I love it when he shakes his head). 8^)

As my play started to get better and beter, I remembered that I was going to try the no-aiming thing. I had just naturally reverted back to my tried-and-true method of shooting that I have established over the years.

As I approach a shot, I first mentally draw a line through the object ball to the pocket where I want to sink it. I then take note of the spot on the object ball where that line exits, so I know exactly where I have to hit the object ball with the cue ball to send it towards the pocket. I then focus my attention on lining up my shot on the cue ball to get the correct aim, and where I want to leave the cue ball for the next shot.

At this point I drop my head down over the cue to actually finish aiming and take the shot. I realized that it was at this point also that the aiming without aiming best works for me.

In the past, there would be a little anxiety as I took the shot as to whether I had the angle right, or If I hit the cue ball too hard, or if I didn’t have the right english, etc. When I let go of this anxiety and just let my subconscious mind take over, the ball usually did the right thing.

So, instead of letting the mind take over the shot completely, I lined everything up as I always have and just trusted in the mind to take over the actual physical part of taking the shot. It worked pretty well. I played better than I have in weeks and I enjoyed the games I was playing more.

This, of course, ties into what Paul Rod Turner said in the last blog post of controlling the mind. As I have said before, once you play pool for a few years and have made just about every shot hundreds of times, the game becomes 95% mental. When you’ve got your head together you play much better pool than when you are upset or distracted.

I make it a point to get myself into a relaxed state before I start to play pool. I find that I always play better this way than when I am riled up about something. If I start to get anxious during a game - then I put the magic weapon to work.

Do you have a magic weapon that helps you get back on track? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment and let the world know what yours is. I’ll reveal mine in a future blog post. Until then, good luck on the table!

The 10 Ingredients of Playing Great Billiards - Ingredient 1 - Controlling the Mind
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Paul_Rod_Turner]Paul Rod Turner

Ingredient 1 – Control the Mind

The most important ingredient, and therefore the first ingredient to playing better pool is: Control the mind. All the best fundamentals in the world will never compensate for a wayward or mischievous mind. You can have perfect alignment and know exactly what to do, but if your mind says: “You can’t get this,” you will miss.

The fact is, success of anything begins in the mind. All the world’s greatest buildings, art masterpieces, music, books and sporting achievements started with the right mindset. You must learn to see your success in your mind before you can expect to execute it on the physical plane.

The mind is the king of the senses and therefore it controls the physical body. All of us have at one time heard of a fantastic story of some person who was told he would never walk again, only for them to defy the doctors and start running marathons! In every example, the person who was able to surmount his/her physical obstacles did so with the help of their mind. They ran that marathon in their mind over and over again. And then one day they did it.

So in pool, we have to see ourselves pocketing balls effortlessly. We have to see ourselves escaping hooks with the greatest skill and confidence. In our mind we have to see ourselves raising the trophy, accepting the prize money, being congratulated for a great win, etc, etc.

The mind can be our worst enemy or our best friend. It is up to us. We always have a choice. You see, above the mind is the intelligence and above that is consciousness. So we do have power over the mind if we choose to use it.

So start to see your mind as another tool to help you play better. Don’t let it dictate to you. Tell it what you want it to do. Use your intelligence and your free will to direct your mind to positive thoughts of success, confidence and empowerment.

When you understand the power of the mind to positively impact your physical experience, and know that YOU actually have the power to direct it, you align yourself with all the greatest thinkers, artists and sports people in the world. Every single one of them had or have good mind control.

Never underestimate the importance of controlling your mind in every aspect of our life.

Okay, so you agree with me. You have probably heard or read about some of these things before. So how do you actually do it?

The first thing is to start paying attention. Start observing how your mind is reacting to things that happen to you when playing. Like a detached observer, start listening to what your mind’s current response is. Make a concerted effort to separate yourself from what the mind is saying and you as the “observer”. And then slowly start correcting it. The good news is that the mind can always be trained, no matter how old your physical body is!

The best way to correct negative thinking (Some call it “Stinking Thinking”) is to replace it with “Success Thinking.” It is a generally accepted rule that one will always give up a lower taste if a higher taste is presented. Similarly, we have to start training our mind to think like a winner by speaking like a winner.

A thought can be the seed of inspiration or discouragement. And sound can be the seed of creation or destruction. Every world war began with sound. And every great achievement began with some voicing their dream to friends.

When we think negatively we sprout seeds of discouragement which are initially expressed as negative talk. This negative talk is like a seed of destruction and just keeps us struggling. However, when we think positively, we generate seeds of inspiration, which grow into expressions of success thinking which then spring forth seeds of encouragement and creation, leading to a happier life and more success.

The next time you play and you miss a shot, instead of saying: “I am so useless. I always miss.” Say: “I may of missed this time, but I know I can get these shots.” Then slowly replace these positive excuses with positive affirmations like: “I always shoot straight. I am a great shot maker. I know how to run out. I am a winner. I was born to win. When I play pool, the balls always role in my favor.”

In this way, you will start to make your mind your best friend. Instead of the mind reacting negatively to a challenging situation, it will start to react positively and give you the power to execute a perfect solution.

Just like any part of the body, we also need to feed and exercise the mind. Success talk is one effective way to do that. However, for it to be truly effective, you must first understand that the mind is not you. It is a tool - a sense - that you can use to help you or hurt you. It can be your friend or your enemy. Just a like a knife — in the hands of a criminal it can hurt, but that same knife in the hands of a trained surgeon can save a life. So the knife is neither good nor bad. It is how we use it. The same goes for the mind. Make it your friend from now on and start playing better pool!

Paul (BATman)

Paul Rod Turner, is the inventor of the Allison Fisher Billiard Aim Trainer (www.billiardaimtrainer.com) and president of The Billiards Training Company. He is a recognized semi-professional pool player, entrepreneur and also directs a non-profit called Food for Life.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Rod_Turner http://EzineArticles.com/?The-10-Ingredients-of-Playing-Great-Billiards—Ingredient-1—Controlling-the-Mind&id=559917

I thought I would mention to folks an experience I had recently with my computer.

I went to the local pool hall and shot some instructional pool video footage so I could make some clips to put on my  websites. Things went pretty well and I did some segments on choosing a cue stick, how to do bridges, how to rack the balls, etc.

My video camera comes with a USB cable to hook it up to the computer. Since Movie Maker software comes with Windows XP, I figured  I would use it to make up the individual video clips. I hooked the camera up and used Movie Maker to download the raw video.

When I went to play back the video, the audio would begin immediately, but the video portion would start about 15 seconds later. Needless to say the voice didn’t sync up with the picture of me flapping my mouth! Nothing I did would make the two elements play in sync.

As is the case in my job as a computer tech, when all else fails go to Google and do a search right? I happened to come upon a Windows Movie Maker forum and posted a question as to why I couldn’t get my clips to play right. Some nice gentleman responded back that Movie Maker wants to work with video that is captured with Firewire and not USB. Oh.

I searched again and found the following Firewire card at SewellDirect.com - http://sewelldirect.com/FireWirePCICardwithUlead.asp  It includes the card, the cable to hook it up to my video camera, and some video editing software, all for $21 and change. I ordered it and it came to my door in about 3 days. I popped it in the computer, rebooted, and Windows came right up and installed the card effortlessly.

I hooked up the cable and downloaded the video footage again and BINGO!, my mouth goes with my words. Much better. Now I am able to edit the clips and will soon have them on YouTube and on my Pool For Beginners and Pool and Pocket Billiards Resource sites. I haven’t even tried the editing software yet since Movie Maker is doing what I need to do.

The main reason I mention this is to save people some money if they ever run into this situation. When I went to my local Staples to buy a Firewire card they wanted $60 for just the card and $30 for the cable! Instead of $90 I ended up paying $27 with shipping. Quite a difference.

http://sewelldirect.com/FireWirePCICardwithUlead.asp

I went for my usual Friday night pool-playing session this week. I thought I would try out the aiming method that Aditya described in his article that was published in this blog last week. His premise - aim for your pool shots without consciously aiming at all. Let your subconscious mind take over the aiming for you.

This is actually not so far-fetched as it may look at first glance. I have done this without really meaning to, or realizing what I was doing, in the past.  Sometimes I will be practicing and make some fantastic shots without really trying. I just mentally set the pocket I want the ball to drop into and quickly hit the cue ball without really aiming. In it goes.

I have had discussions with other pool players on this subject in the past. If you have played pool for a number of years, you know how and where to hit a ball to put it in the pocket. The main problem is the lack of consistency in being able to make the same shots over and over again on a regular basis.

You mentally know that you can make almost any shot that comes up. Why do you miss so much when you have made the very same shot hundreds of times in the past?  What’s the trick?

This is what intrigued me when I read Aditya’s account of his aiming without aiming successes. He seems to have bypassed the conscious mind that seems to hold us up in our quest to make consistent pool shots.

So anyways, I played pool Friday night with the attitude of letting my subconscious mind do the aiming instead of consciously trying to aim as I usually do. I took less time to aim, I didn’t try to viualize where the cue ball would end up as much, and I just kind of had an I-don’t-care attitude.

I did make some pretty amazing shots. Those table-length cut shots come to mind.  I also made a few banks that had my opponent shaking his head. Hey, there might be something to this! However, I did  scratch on the eight ball twice, and I didn’t win as many games as I usually do. My game seemed a little too loose and out of control.

Of course Aditya did say that he has used this system over the course of three months, so I guess I can’t make a sound judgement yet. I’ll have to give it another month or so and see if my play improves without aiming.

I did come to some conclusions though. It seems my play Friday night suffered from not paying enough attention to my cue ball position after the shot. I often ended up in a difficult spot or in an impossible position to make another shot. I did notice a slight increase in the ability to make long cut shots. Shooting these shots without sweating them so much did seem to help them go in easier. This method did take a little of the anxiety off.

It seems that if I paid a little more attention to my position play and don’t think so much about how I am aiming for the ball, I might get the best of both worlds. You still have to leave yourself right for the next shot or two if you want to win games. But, worrying less about how you are aiming can only help your attitude and enjoyment of the game.

I’m going to give this “aiming without aiming” some more time to grow on me. If I can play just as well, or even better, without sweating the small stuff as much, then I’m all for it. After all, pool is supposed to be fun as well as challenging.

If you try shooting this way I’d love to hear about your experiences. Leave a comment and let me know how it goes for you. Thanks.

I got a nice comment today from a reader named Aditya Ravi Shankar. He sent a link to an fascinating article he wrote about how he aims for the balls during a pool game and his success with his new method. I received his permission to reprint it here. I know what I’ll be trying the next time I play pool….

Nice website. I had an interesting insight in pool that shot up my pool game in the last two months. From a guy who shot maybe a couple of balls at a time, and  was rated a 2 in my APA league, I am now able to run racks and have beat 5’s, 
6’s and 7’s in my le ague…. 

The art of aiming without aiming :)  

 http://enlightenedgeek.blogspot.com/2008/08/aiming-without-aiming-how-to-shoot-pool.html

Aiming without Aiming - How to shoot pool like a pro in three months

Some time back I heard the term “subconscious-competence” and about the subconscious mind. This is the same thing that allows us to walk without having to logically plan every muscle that needs to be raised to take each step - We just look at where we want to go, decide we want to go there, and then automatically end up there. It is also responsible for the times when we might get distracted while driving, thinking about all kinds of other stuff, and suddenly realize that we have reached home without remembering any of the turns, traffic lights or other cars on the road.

I don’t think that we were ever really meant to be conscious learners. The conscious mind can handle about 5-9 things at a time after which it zones out. The subconscious mind can apparently keep track of EVERYTHING, including things the conscious mind wouldn’t even dare try.

The only thing the unconscious mind really needs is
1. The initial desire or thought from the conscious mind - Creating the goal
2. Trusting signals from the subconscious mind - following your instincts
3. Allowing the subconscious mind to learn and train itself for the goal - Allowing mistakes to happen without labeling or judging them and not getting frustrated by them
4. Getting out of your own way - Letting the subconscious mind do everything instead of trying to take over the wheel while it is doing its work.

Three months ago, I wrote down in my notebook, a thought addressed to my subconscious mind - “I refuse to aim. You do it otherwise we both miss”. For three whole months, I did not aim. I just looked at the pocket I wanted the ball to go, and just shot the cue ball without aiming with any system… Talk about a crazy, unrealistic, leap of faith…

A few days after I began, when the first difficult shot went in without aiming, I was pleasantly surprised. I assumed it was just luck. Over the next few days as more and more people started noticing my consistent shooting “luck”, I started getting an ego. If I did miss, I forgot rule 3. I didn’t realize that when I missed, it wasn’t that my plan wasn’t working, it was just that my subconscious mind hadn’t trained itself for that particular shot yet. It took several days just to accept any misses and not try to control with my conscious mind.

Now days every shot is “easy”. I spend exactly 0 seconds planning the shot. I just look at the pocket, look at the ball, wait for that “YES” signal in my head, and shoot. It goes in on its own. I don’t aim or shoot. My subconscious mind does. I don’t take credit for the shots since I never really shot them. I saw it shooting some amazing shots which blew my mind. It was almost like my subconscious mind was a different person, who was shooting through me. And as it overtook me with its skills, it earned my trust and respect. I no longer dared to compete with it or try to take over the steering wheel again. I knew, that as long as I stayed out of it’s way, it would do the job better than I could have ever hoped to.

But this wasn’t the real shock. Now that I could shoot without shooting, I wanted to see how far I could take it, and what limits my mind had. My next goal was to run a table (run all 7 balls, and the 8 ball in one go without giving my opponent a turn).

Again, I wouldn’t plan it or think about it, just make a goal and trust my subconscious to do whatever was needed. Over the next few days, I found myself wanting to shoot one particular ball versus another, without any logical reason. I would just look at the table, see a particular ball and think to myself- “I like that one, that is what I will shoot next”. Trying to logically decide which was the best ball to shoot actually messed things up.

One week later, I broke and ran the entire table when playing with my team captain - or rather my subconscious mind did. Now days, running 4-5 balls is almost a regular occurrence. Three months ago, I would have laughed at that possibility.

The funny thing is, I don’t even have to be paying attention to the table while I am shooting. I can be thinking about taxes or some movie I watched. In fact, anything OTHER than aiming the shot. The balls just go in on their own. I seem to get so zoned out, I seem to lose track of time and place. I can now play entire pool games and not remember shooting even a single shot.

With the success in pool, I had to push things further. I now started setting broad goals for all areas in my life, just trusting my subconscious mind to handle it. Since then, I’ve had more synchronicities in my life than I can count. Accidentally finding about just the book I needed to read, talking to the one person who can help me with a project. All I have to do is stop wanting my goal or trying to get it. Just do what I feel like doing. My subconscious mind seems to take care of ensuring that I feel just what I need to feel to achieve my goal. Every few days I have to adjust my goals to make them harder and bigger. Frankly, I don’t think the subconscious mind has ANY limits.

I think some people call it being in the zone. Some people call it instinct. Some people call it muscle memory. Some call it trusting a higher power. Whatever you choose to call it, trusting your subconscious mind can let you live life the way it was always meant to be - effortless

There are three common and different sizes of pool tables - 7 foot, 8 foot, and 9 foot. 7 foot tables are considered small and are usually used in homes where the room size does not allow a larger table. The 8 foot is the most common and is used in bars and pool halls. The 9 foot size is often used in larger pool halls and pool tournaments.

A pool table consists of legs, a body, a slate bed, rails, and pockets. The legs attach to the body of the table and bring it up to the correct height for playing.

The slate is attached to the body, which has strong cross bracing to support the great weight of the slate. The rails mount directly to the slate, with the pockets attached to the rails and joining them together.

The legs of the table can be individual or partition-style and are built very ruggedly to support the great weight of the pool table. There are hundreds of style of legs made and they, along with the style of the body, are usually classed along the lines of architecture styles.

The pool table body is made of good structural wood such as poplar, while the outside surfaces that show are made of fancier woods such as maple, oak, walnut, or mahogany. The diamond inlays on the rails can be made of a great number of exotic materials such as abalone shell, ivory, brass, plastics, and wood veneers of all types.

The slate usually 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick. Slate us most commonly made in three matching pieces to make handling and transportation of the slate much easier. India and Brazil contribute some of the best slate in the world.

Rails are made of a similar structural wood as the body with a body-matching hardwood on the top surface and side apron. The rubber cushions are bonded to the rails to provide the bounce for bank shots and to protect the balls. The pockets are joined to the rails and are installed at the same time. Pockets can be the individual web type or built into the table, as is the case with coin operated tables.

Pool tables came in two basic formats - those with individual pockets and those with pockets that allow the balls to drop into channels that funnel the balls to a central collection area. With individual pockets, the balls must be retrieved from each pocket manually, while the channel-type table deposits all the balls into the collection area for easier retrieval.

The slate is covered with billiards cloth or felt. This provides a smooth, soft surface for the balls to roll on. The felt covers the entire slate bed and the cushions on the rails.

Depending on the weave of the felt, some tables may be said to be fast or slow. A high quality cloth will have a finer weave, which will allow the balls to roll easier and will be called fast. A lesser quality cloth will be a coarser weave and will hinder the roll of the balls somewhat, thus the slow designation.

A pool table is designated as regulation size  when the length of the table is exactly twice as long as it is wide. Most pool tables are made to this specification.

Pool tables are generally very heavy because of their solid build and the heavy slate bed. They should be placed on a solid floor that will support their weight without bowing or moving when people walk around the table. If you are not sure of your floor’s integrity, have an expert inspect it before setting up a pool table in your location.

For a more in-depth and expanded version of this article, please see my pool table webpage at http://www.pool-and-pocket-billiards-resource.com/pool_tables.html.

I went down to my usual Friday night pool-playing session the other night. I play at a little local bar “where everybody knows my name” as the saying goes. I’ve been playing there for years.

Right next to the table I was playing on, a large screen TV sits on the wall about 6 feet off the floor. The Red Sox were playing the Yankees. Anybody familiar with these two teams knows that, when they have a match-up, it is usually a good game.

At this stage of my life, I can play 8-ball pretty well if I do say so myself. However, this past Friday found me losing games that I certainly should have won. I was missing shots that I normally could make in my sleep.

Between shots I was watching the game, especially when a good hitter would come up. I normally never watch baseball on TV, but with that big screen right there in my face, I couldn’t resist.

After a while I started to get a little perturbed by all the shots I was missing. I mean I was missing straight-in shots from halfway down the table and simple cut shots. What the heck?

Then it hit me - concentration - or the lack of it to be exact. I wasn’t giving my sole attention to the pool game, but was sharing it with the television. It really made a heck of a difference in my pool playing.

And it’s funny, because even when I realized what the problem was with my shooting, I still couldn’t get myself to concentrate fully with that darned TV distracting me. Try as I might, even when I thought I was concentrating better, I still didn’t play up to my usual level.

Because I often play in a bar, I have learned over the years to tune-out the background noise and distractions. Boisterous drunks and loud music normally just pass through one ear and out the other. Not that night though.

Why was this ball game distracting me so much? I don’t know. Maybe I got swept up in the attention spans of the other 10 or so people attentively watching the baseball game. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for playing pool that night? Maybe the Chinese food I had for lunch didn’t sit right? Whatever.

I do know that without my concentration working properly, I simply do not shoot anywhere near my best pool. I knew this before of course, but Friday night just really hammered home the message - if you want to shoot your best pool, you’ve got to give the game your full attention. You can bet that’s what I’ll be doing next week.

Good thing  they don’t play football on Friday nights. 8^)

The Pool Table
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Gibb]John Gibb

Bars and recreation venues in rural or urban areas offer to their visitors the excitement and the sportsmanship of a famous table-played game, called pool or billiard. On the billiards table’s totally flat surface, pool game fans strike, with the use of a specially designed long wooden stick known as “cue stick,” colorful balls moving them around the table’s area. Pool games attract a variety of publics from around the world, who enjoy the exhilaration of calculating angles and estimating how many strikes it will take them to accomplish their winning goal.

Pool tables are mainly separated into two categories, called carom and pocket tables. In fact, the word “billiards” when standing alone refers to the carom games played on a table without pockets, as opposed to games played on pocket billiards which people recognize as “pools” or also known as “snooker” tables. In Britain and Ireland though, the word “billiards” denotes the “English billiard” exclusively, which is the version of the table with the ball pockets. The difference between the two types is that carom billiards tables do not have six openings –four at each table corner and two at the middle of each of the table’s largest sides– in which the pool player is called to direct the colorful balls on the surface of the table by striking each one of them, or more than one at a time, with a white ball. The white ball acts as the “mediator” between the cue stick’s point and the round surface of the colored ball the striker aims to hit. If the striker manages to hit the white ball with the right speed and from the right angle then it will in turn hit the colored one which will be directed to fall into one of the tables’ holes. Pool table fans generally refer to pocket billiard games, such as 8-ball, 9-ball, straight pool and one-pocket.

Found in many sizes and styles, billiards or pools are tables in a rectangular shape and are generally twice as long as they are wide. When someone refers to the number of a pool table’s foots this actually denotes its longer sides’ length. Mainly a function of space, the pool table’s length varies. English billiard tables, for example, are 12 feet long, while bars typically offer 7-foot tables. Pool halls tend to have 9-foot tables for more professional players, whereas the once commonly found 10-foot tables are now considered collectible items. Finally, the “felt” or “baize” is the cloth that covers the pool table’s exposed surface and he higher its quality the faster the balls run on its completely flat surface.

While the word “billiard” has presumably originated from the French word “billart,” which means “mace”–an implement that was the predecessor of the modern cue–the game did not remain constricted in Europe. Evolving from an outdoor to an indoor game, billiard became known as “pool,” which originates from “poolrooms” where people gambled off their money betting on horse races. Since billiard tables were commonly found in this type of venue, pools became a synonym of billiards and gained fanatic supporters in every continent.

John Gibb is the owner of   pool table resources
, For more information on pool tables check out http://www.pool-tables-resources2k.info

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Gibb http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Pool-Table&id=289423

Billiards FAQs
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Eddie_Tobey]Eddie Tobey

Billiards is a fast growing leisure sport played on a billiard table, with a stick known as cue stick, usually 58 inches in length, and weighing 18 to 21 ounces. The cue stick is used to hit the balls, moving around the table.

1. What are the benefits of playing billiards? Billiards is a game that increases eye-hand coordination, focus and concentration, and even practical application of physics and geometry.

2. What are the essential equipment required for billiards? Balls, rack, table, cues, mechanical bridge, scoreboard, mirror lights, dart boards, and chalk.

3. What is the standard size of a billiard table? Billiard tables are available in four basic sizes. They are 7 foot (39 inches by 78 inches), 8 foot (44 inches by 88 inches), oversized 8 foot (46 inches by 92 inches) and 9 foot tables (50 inches by 100 inches). These names refer to the interior playfield dimensions.

4. What are cue balls? In billiards, cue balls are the balls that a player strikes with the cue stick. These are made from ivory, wood, and various synthetic materials. Today, phenolic resin is also used for manufacturing these balls.

5. What is Billiards chalk? Billiards chalk is one of the most important accessories in billiards used to reduce the friction between the cue shaft and the bridge hand caused by perspiration.

6. What are the essentials needed to decorate the billiards room? Billiard clocks, posters, billiard signs, CD holders, movie stills, sports figurines, wall art, decorative furniture and cabinets, chalkboards, and pool table lights.

7. What is the difference between pool and billiards? In pool, there are 16 balls including one black, one white, seven red, and seven yellow. Billiards involves only three balls: one red, one black, and one white.

8. What is the Billiard Congress of America (BCA)? Billiard Congress of America is a national nonprofit organization located in Colorado. It is the governing body that controls the billiard industry. [http://www.i-Billiards.com]Billiards provides detailed information on Billiards, History of Billiards, Rules of Billiards, Billiards Supplies and more. Billiards is affiliated with [http://www.i-pooltables.com]Pool Tables for Sale .

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eddie_Tobey http://EzineArticles.com/?Billiards-FAQs&id=354400

The Bridge In Pool And Billiards
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ernie_Reynolds]Ernie Reynolds

In pool and billiards, the bridge is what supports the cue shaft when taking a shot. It’s important to have a good, solid bridge to ensure that the cue tip doesn’t have any sideways movement that will adversely affect your aim.

There are several types of bridge - open, closed, rail, and what I call the over-the-ball bridge. For shots on the table that you have trouble reaching, there is also the mechanical bridge.

The easiest bridge to use, and probably the most popular, is the open bridge. This is formed by laying the bridge hand on the table with the fingers spread, pulling the four fingers back to form an arch with the knuckles in the air, and tucking the thumb up against the index finger. The cue shaft is supported by the “V” between the index finger and thumb. The height of the cue tip to the cue ball can be adjusted by raising or lowering the arch of the hand.

The closed bridge provides a more secure grip on the cue shaft and is preferred by more advanced players. This bridge is formed in a similar way to the open bridge, with the difference being that the tip of the index finger and the tip of the thumb are held together to form a circle or loop. Some shooters hold the fingers tip to tip, while others will overlap the thumb nail with the index finger. The cue shaft is held in this loop, and the index finger and thumb are squeezed around the shaft to support it securely, as the shaft slides through when shooting.

The rail bridge is used when the cue ball is so close to the rail that there is no room to place the bridge hand on the table. The bridge hand is held a couple inches over the rail and the tips of the index and middle fingers are placed on the rail, the width of the cue shaft apart. The thumb is tucked up out of the way. The cue shaft is place directly on the rail between the two fingers and the stick is stroked in this manner.

When the cue ball is touching or very close to another ball, it may not be possible to use the open or closed bridge. This is when the over-the-ball bridge is used.

This bridge is very similar to the open bridge, except that the palm of the hand is raised up off the table. This raises the “V” of the bridge that supports the cue shaft. The thumb is tucked up higher next to the index finger knuckle instead of along the shaft portion of the index finger. With the “V” higher, you are able to reach over a ball that may be in the way of the cue ball, and contact it with the cue tip to make the shot.

Whichever of the three bridge types you use, it is important to spread out the fingers that are touching the table as wide as possible, to provide the maximum support and stability to the bridge. The bridge must not move at all when taking a shot as this will negatively affect your aim and result in missed shots.

The mechanical bridge is made of plastic or aluminum and attaches to a spare cue stick. This device allows you to position the bridge near the cue ball when it is not possible to reach the cue ball to shoot in the normal manner. It features grooves that are made to hold the cue shaft as it is stroked for the shot.

Ernie Reynolds is a long–time pool and billiards player. His site — http://www.pool-for-beginners.com/pool_bridge.html is evidence of his love for the game and his desire to share the wealth of knowledge he and others have acquired over the years. Pool and Pocket Billiards Resource A site for pool and pocket billiards players, where game descriptions, equipment care and maintenance, playing tips, pool accessories, billiards history, links, how–to videos, and more are just a click away.

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