When I first began to really study how to play pool, I struggled with understanding how the tangent line worked, how to find it, how to use it. The tangential definition didn’t really befuddle me, as I understood the concept, but man, I just couldn’t apply my “how to find tangent” homework to my actual shots and get the results I thought I was supposed to get. Let’s explore some of the flaws in my fundamentals as a beginner that made things more difficult than they needed to be, and lets put those lessons to work helping you learn how to find a tangent line that does what it’s supposed to do.
Tangent Definition
Wikipedia has this to say: “In geometry, the tangent line (or simply the tangent) to a curve at a given point is the straight line that “just touches” the curve at that point (in the sense explained more precisely below). As it passes through the point where the tangent line and the curve meet, or the point of tangency, the tangent line is “going in the same direction” as the curve, and in this sense it is the best straight-line approximation to the curve at that point.”
And the tangents definition for a curving surface: “Similarly, the tangent plane to a surface at a given point is the plane that “just touches” the surface at that point.”
How to Find Tangent Line For Pool and Billiards
So, in regards to shooting pool, we look for the tangent line that is identified by the contact point between two pool balls. We can apply this concept anytime we want to figure out where two balls might travel after colliding with each other, but we need this knowledge of tangential definition most specifically for determining the path the cue ball will travel after completing a shot. Once we know where the contact point is supposed to be, we can then decide if we want to influence that tangent with draw or follow. Top-spin and back-spin can bend the path of the cue ball forwards or backwards in relation to the tangent line.
OK, OK, so how do we find it? This is where our friend the ghost-ball can really help us out:
- During your practice session set up a shot with a decent angle, and then place a pool ball up against the object ball at the contact point needed to sink the ball. This will physically represent the ghost-ball until you are ready to shoot.
- Visualize the straight line that runs through the center of both balls and the contact point. Now imagine a new line that intersects the first line, at the contact point, on a 90* angle. This is your tangent line if you contact this point with the cue ball accurately.
- Remove the phys-rep of the ghost-ball, after fixing its position in your mind’s eye. Now your job is make the shot with a center-ball hit, aiming such that the entire cue ball will occupy the space of the ghost-ball. If you are accurate, the object ball will drop in the pocket and the cue ball will travel exactly along the tangent line you imagined.
Where Did I Go Wrong?
For the longest time THIS was where I was getting hung up. I thought I understood the tangent definition, hell, I DID understand the tangent definition, but all sorts of crazy things would happen with my shots because nothing I did was very consistent. I’d miss a shot because my aim was wrong, or I had hitched my stroke, or I had put unintended side-spin on the cue. OR I’d make a shot, but the cue ball never travelled along the tangent line as I had defined it for myself – a case of making adjustments to my aim to compensate for my poor fundamentals.
And there’s the rub: I still had poor fundamentals. My stance and stroke were still unbalanced and inconsistent. Because nobody I played with could point out the deficiencies in my fundamentals, I made compensations that improved my accuracy based on my flaws. This, in turn, made a mess of my studies into how to find the tangent line and utilize it properly. I built shot patterns based on my flawed skills, and even managed to implement rudimentary draw, follow, and side-spin to move the cue ball around the table – all of this built on flawed knowledge and bad fundamentals. Nobody I interacted with in my pool league could help me sort it out because most of them were in the same boat! They were all amateur players, playing with crippled fundamentals and frustrated at their own lack of consistency, with no clue why it was, or how it got that way.
Don’t Get Stuck Where I Did – Build Strong Fundamentals EARLY
I overcame many of my deficiencies through sheer determination. I studied everything I could about how to play pool for beginners. I studied other players that were better than me. I read a lot of books from Barnes and Noble. I traveled to other pool halls, and I constantly searched out the best players I could find to help me sort out the gold from the dross. And over time I slowly began to identify my flaws properly and tried to fix them.
Now, I am no A+ shooter by any means. Many of my flaws still recur when I’m playing lazy or tired. But I’m better educated now, and I know how to build good fundamentals, and I’ve learned to recognize that there are a lot of areas where my wisdom and knowledge are often much greater than my skills. I have no inherent talent with the game of pool. I built skills and knowledge through sheer force of will – heheh. Blood, sweat, and tears took me as far as my natural talent would let me go. But I’ve been pretty dang successful, and the things I’ve learned I can now teach to those who are beginners struggling with the things I once struggled with.
So, learn from my mistakes. Don’t rely on some Magic Eight Ball Online Free service to get crackpot answers to your important questions! Instead, study hard! Build a solid base of fundamentals in your stance and stroke. Study the draw shot, follow shot, and most especially the center shot.
If your fundamentals are sound then you will get the results you expect to get during practice sessions. If you cannot get the results you expect, analyze your fundamentals first, don’t question the veracity of the tangent definition, or any other pool theories. They are not flawed. The tangential definition is not flawed. Only your fundamentals and/or current knowledge of the sport may be flawed.
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