What are the effects of spin on a cue ball?

Question

Would someone be able to throughly explain how spins effect cue balls and how they behave when hitting cushions or other balls. Not just left and right spin, but also top and bottom spin as I have no idea how that effects the cue ball when bouncing off the cushions. Also, if you put right spin on a ball (right spin = hitting cue ball on the right side = right english?) do you have to aima bit to the right of your original aim?

If someone also has a simple way of remembering all the effects, it would be great because I can't seem to remember how it all comes together.

For example,

If you put right spin on the cue ball, it will spin counter-clockwise, bouce off a rail to the right, and make any other balls go to the left? Once it hits another ball it is further deflected to the right as well? Is that right?

Thank you!!

Answer 1

Took a long time to learn those things, are you going to learn them by me or anyone else telling you?. You going to have to learn them by playing, the more you play the easier you learn.

and you will feel them, you will understand.

EDIT-Hey! big man on the wall, your last paragraph is wrong

Answer 2

As others rightfully say, go buy yourself a book. And I recommend also find some stronger opponents from whom you can learn. Reading a book alone won't make you a pool shark. You will need to invest some years exercising.

Straight Shooter, you are wrong in one point. Believe it or not, english does transfer to the object ball. That is a fact which cannot be argued seriously.

@ Staight, again:

I do use this effect all the time and I am really surprised that you are not familiar with it. If you know how to apply this you will make bank shots you never thought of as being possible. I would like to demonstrate it to you. Maybe we will meet some day in the real world.

Answer 3

When you hit a cue ball on its right hand side, you are applying a left English (spin), the cue ball will go to left hand side first and then go to the right.(making a curve). when an object ball receive such a cue ball, the object ball will go to left hand side. How much? it all depends on how much English and how much power and how much speed you apply on the cue ball. As the result, you need to adjust your aiming and decide your degree of power and speed when you use English or you will over cut a shot. try it on a table and you will find the different.

General speaking, when you hit a cue ball on the right the object ball goes left, when you hit a cue ball on the left the object ball goes right.

hitting on a cue ball, more English you got when you hit the cue more close to it edge.

Answer 4

Time to go to BCA website for a inst book it would wear out my typing finger trying to explain it

Even a rough explaination would be pages long try some of Robret Bryne's books or there are  others that can get you on the right track

                   Later Johnny

         Hey Dre whats up

Answer 5

All kinds of stuff

Answer 6

It would take several volumes to adequately describe the different effects of spin on the cue ball.  Johnny is right on here.  Seek out instruction and find some quality literature on the subject to supplement it.  One major point that you will need to grasp is that spin does NOT transfer from the cue ball to the object ball.  Left English on the cue ball does NOT transfer right English to the object ball.  Draw (backspin) on the cue ball does NOT put follow (topspin) on the object ball.  I don't care what Dr. Alciatore preaches in Billiards Digest, it's simply doesn't exist to a measureable degree in the real world of pool.

Secondly, you do have to adjust your aim when putting English (sidespin) on the cue ball.  For example, when you hit the cue ball on the right side, the cue ball gets pushed to the left, therefore you have to compensate by aiming to the right of where you would normally aim.  Just how much to compensate will be a factor of how far from center you are hitting the cue ball and with what speed.  This is why English can be a helpful but dangerous tool.  Far too often, I see good players miss shots because they overused English when they didn't really need to.

I've always been a big supporter of staying on the cue ball's vertical axis unless absolutely necessary.  I probably play 95% or more of my shots without leaving the vertical axis.  When you can confidently do a stop shot from various distances using various speeds, you will have a powerful weapon in your position play arsenal.  You will then learn to ride the tangent line and learn to bend the cue ball forward and back from this line by adjusting your tip position and speed.

In summation, there is no ultra-quick way to explain or remember everything there is to know about spin.  Be careful to not put the cart before the horse.  Make sure that your stroke mechanics are in order before attempting more advanced techniques.  Make sure you can consistenly perform a center-ball hit before you veer left or right.  Maybe this wasn't the answer you were looking for, but pool excellence doesn't come overnight.  Give it time and work on the right things when you practice.  The trial and error method of learning will only get you so far and it will take about 10 times as long as learning the right way.  Keep at it, you'll be alright.  M.D.-BCA Instructor/Referee.

P.S.  I think I should clarify.  I'm not saying that the good doctor has flawed science.  He may very well have the research and the formulas to prove his points.  The main arguement here is that in the real world of pool that we live in and experience, his science applys to such a miniscule degree as to be practically nonexistent.  Sure, you can prove that spin transfers from a cue ball to an object ball in a controlled environment, a scientific laboratory setting, in a vacuum, but in the real world it's not something that anyone needs to actually factor into their game.  Mike Sigel was one of the first pro players to publicly state that spin does not transfer from the cue ball to an object ball to any noticeable degree and did he ever cause an uproar in the "established" pool community.  At some point in a pool player's career, they have to make a decision of whether or not they want to play pool or to study pool.  There's nothing wrong with having a healthy dose of science along with the art.  Heck, most of stroke mechanics and delivering the cue is based on scientific principles.  Keeping the forearm at a 90 degree angle to the cue, using an accelerating motion, limiting excess body movement, etc.  There's definitely science behind this.  I think it's funny that even in Dr. Alciatore's videos, he's actually disproving the very points he's trying to make.  He made a high speed video to show the effects of "cut-throw" (check out HSV 4.8 and 4.9), and the object ball went straight as an arrow with no sidespin being transferred.  Even in the second video (which if you look closely appears he missed the mark anyway), the tiniest amount of sidespin transfer can be seen but it won't affect the path of the object ball one bit. And just in case there's any more confusion, I'm not referring to shots where balls are frozen.  That's a completely different story.

Answer 7

right=left...left=right...bottom=draw(de... how you hit it) or stop...center=natural, meaning what the ball would do naturally...high/top=follow...basically, you answered your own question on the bottom section..it's kind of difficult to explain it thoroughly in words..that's why most people "show" what they're doing on videos and personal training..try using different english on the balls so you can see for yourself exactly what they do...a thing to remember is it all depends on how hard you hit the ball and your stroke for the ball's effect to show differently..try the same shot (angle & english) over and over using different speeds and you'll see :)