What are the Best Brands for Billiards Supplies

Billiards is as much a game of skill as darts, hockey and even archery. Training, practice and tips from pros will make all the difference in your game. When you are new to the game of billiards it will seem like the other guy gets all the lucky “breaks” in the game. But practice does make perfect and by becoming proficient in just a couple of shots you can improve your game rapidly. Firstly you need to have a proper break. If playing snooker you need to tap the corner red ball, left or right side, and bank of the top rail (cushion), the left (or right) top side rail them back to the bottom rail and smoothly behind the yellow or green ball. Practicing getting behind the line of green, brown and yellow balls is what is important off the break. If you are playing 8-ball or 9-ball the breaking open of the rack is most important. Many players have a specific, heavier cue for the job of breaking the balls open. Practice for these games, off the break, should include a steady, straight and solid stroke to the head ball. The second shot you need to practice is the long, table wide shot into the corner pocket. Own the shot and you’ll own the game.

For some players rolling pool cues on a table tells them if their cues are straight or not. This is not an accurate test of “straightness”. There are many parts of wood that go into the manufacture of even the simplest, most inexpensive billiard cue. As these parts of different woods are formed into a cue and coated with resin for decorative and longevity there may be defects in the butt end of the cue that will not allow the cue to roll straight and even on a billiard table. A cue that does not roll straight may very well be the straightest shaft in the room. The accurate method to checking the straightness of a billiard cue is to “eye” the shaft at eye level. Carefully roll the shaft in your hands at eye level and look for curves, bends and sharp ends. If the part of the shaft that you use, the section between your “cueing up fingers” and your “stroking hand hold” needs to be straight to allow you accurate shooting of the cue ball. Look for straightness and stop blaming the cue for your “miss-cues”.

Many people think that because a ball is round it will roll properly, given a specific flatness of a surface. Indeed, even a billiard table is rarely “flat” as the wear and nap of the cloth may cause a ball to not roll straight. But, even more important to understand is that a billiard ball must be balanced as well as round. There are different qualities of billiard balls as well as different qualities of billiard table cloth. The better the quality of balls, slate, table structure and even billiard cue, the better the player will be able to deal with the variances of the game. Billiard ball manufacture has come a long way from the Scottish beginnings of wooden balls on a grassy plateau. Some even think that billiard playing was a precursor to the game of golf, but that still needs to be proven. These days’ billiard balls are made of a durable phenolic resin, polyester or acrylic to maintain a very high standard of balance and longevity as opposed to the earlier ivory made balls that most people identify as billiard ball material.