Masse shots come in all shapes and sizes. Once your discover that you can elevate the cue, strike down on the cue ball, and create such a massive amount of spin, your creative mind will begin to wonder what exactly you are capable of doing with such a stroke.
I’ve been preparing to compete in the 2009 ESPN2 “Trick Shot Magic” competition which films September 16-17 at the ESPN Zone in the NYNY Hotel in Las Vegas.
In this issue’s instructional article, I want to teach you the concept of Circular Follow. When I was on “ESPN 3 Cushion Grandmaster,” the first shot I performed against Semih Sayginer was a form of Circular Draw well known in 3-cushion billiards. In our professional Artistic Pool competitions we have adapted such a concept to the pool table to perform the bottom shot in the diagram. To perform the circular draw shot, you must capitalize on the rebound of the cushion and the effect that follow and sidespin have on the cue ball’s trajectory when a significant amount of spin is maintained. As you begin to work on this shot, please do not get discouraged. My first rule in studying artistic pool is to “change one variable at a time,” a lesson I learned from Rick Malm, creator of the Artistic Pool CD-Rom. The problem with this shot, however, is that there are so many variables to consider that it is difficult to fine tune your stroke so as to be able to duplicate it with relative consistency. Admittedly, this shot is not a hanger, even for me.
By Eric “The Preacher” Yow!
This issue I want to show three easy set-up shots that will surely impress the passer-by. In my shows of “Eric Yow’s Trick Shot Madness” I perform a variety of shots, some easy, many hard, and everything in between. To get the show started, I often have a few shots setup, ready to go, which are almost sure makes just by virtue of them being set up properly. As illustrated, these are three of the shots, each requiring three balls, which are nice novelty shots to both warm up a crowd and arouse interest in what else you may have up your sleeve.
