The Making of a Billiards Champion - Part 4: High and Low English
High English
Set up your straight in shot again at a 12” distance. This time, hit higher up on the cue ball. Now the cue ball will roll forward after it makes contact with the object ball. Next, using the same cue tip location, shoot the shot at an angle. Notice that the cue ball will first travel down the tangent line, but then bend forward. How do you know when the cue ball will bend? Will it travel 5” or 9”down the tangent line before it bends? The higher you hit on the cue ball and the quicker you accelerate through the ball, the sooner it will bend forward. On the other hand, the more force you use, the longer it takes for the cue ball to bend forward. In other words, imagine driving your car at 80mph and then trying to turn a corner. The car won’t change directions because there is too much force. The tires can’t grip the street, just like the cue ball can’t grip the felt right away because of the force.
Low English
Do the same exercise as above, but hit low on the cue ball. The cue ball will come back towards you. Low english or “draw” is similar to throwing a hoola hoop and watching it come back to you because of the spin put on it.
If you can consciously alter the variables; cue tip location, force and quickness, then you can predict the cue ball position. DO NOT move on to the next article until you can do this. You can get almost anywhere on the table by just using center, high and low on the cue ball’s vertical axes. It is very important to master this first before going on to left and right English in the next article.