jack said:
I was talking with a friend recently about breaks, and even though he understands the standard break, he's been trying the one rail kick and freeze in the stack style break...basically, he's not confident with the standard break yet, so in the meantime, he's seen that this break isn't too bad...
I mentioned this on azbilliards and was told its basically a suckers break...evidently there's an easy way to get out of it? Anyone mind showing me, i'm curious.....same thing with rolling the cue and freezing it directly on the first ball of the rack...
I played Norm 'The Farmer' Webber every week for about a year and he exclusively used that break -- of course he wan't really known as a One Pocket player
Playing him regularly did give me a lot of practice at getting out of that break, though. The standard return IMO -- when they hit that break well, which is by no means every time -- is to kick. You might need to kick the long way, or the short way, depending on where the most threatening ball is.
If their most threatening ball is in a good position for a 'ticky' near the long rail, then a long rail kick something like this might be good. Their pocket is 'A'. The idea is to kick to a little behind their ball, nudging it off the long rail and leaving the cue nearly hanging in their pocket, using the ball you just nudged as cover, to prevent them from banking the ball on your side and make them work a little:
START(
%AO3O8%BL7P8%CJ5O4%DL7N1%EM7P1%FK6P1%GK6N8%HM7N8%IL7O4%JK0M1
%KI1Q8%LJ0N1%ML5S7%NF7Z1%OF9K0%PN0M4%QA5[2%UL2Z9%Vr8S1%Wr4S1
%XO0M5%YH4Z8%ZJ5[0%[D5W3%\E8Y4%eB5a0
)END
If their threatening balls are farther away from their pocket, it gives you a bigger area to kick towards. Sometimes you can even avoid the intentional scratch penalty by grazing a ball in the stack, but don't risk blowing the safety to avoid the penalty (unless you are at risk of 3 scratches!):
START(
%AO3O8%BL7P8%CJ5O4%DL7N1%EM7P1%FK6P1%GK6N8%HM7N8%IL7O4%JK0M1
%KI1Q8%LJ0N1%MM4V8%NF6U8%OF9K0%PM7M7%QA5[2%UP1Z5%Vr3I4%We5D1
%XN8M4%Yr2H4%Zf8C8%eB4a3
)END
Often the short rail kick is available too. The idea on the short rail kick is generally to get under or behind their balls -- which can make it tough for them to come back with any kind of strong move:
START(
%AO3O8%BL7P8%CJ5O4%DL7N1%EM7P1%FK6P1%GK6N8%HM7N8%IL7O4%JK0M1
%KI1Q8%LJ0N1%MM4V8%NG1X6%OI4K8%PN0M3%QA5[2%UC9T0%VJ2C7%WJ5D6
%XM4L0%YF2Z2%ZC8U0%eB4`4
)END
Basically, any of these kicks might cost you a ball to get out of their break, but your opponent shouldn't really have strong position left to keep hammering you, because the rail-first break itself doesn't tend to open the rack that well. Any of these kicks are good to get comfortable with for anytime you are buried up against the stack, not just responding to the rail-first break...