Nick Prinsloo has been playing pool for a total of 21 years, 15 years competitively. Originally a pro-level snooker player and instructor, Nick discovered 9-ball and came to the US in 1998, where he has been playing on regional tours ever since. Lately, Nick writes more about the game than he actually plays. Nick was the Guide for Billiards at About.com for almost four years. Nick's column archive is located here.
	Se Habla English? By Nick Prinsloo Introduction No, you haven't found an online guide to speaking English for Spanish people. Sorry to disappoint you. What you have found, though, is a guide to using english (spin applied to the cue ball) on a pool table, which could be just as tough to learn as learning to speak a foreign language. I say "guide", because that's all it is. I can only tell you what it is, how it works and when to use it. Exactly what the cue ball will do when you apply english to it, is impossible to predict. The effects of english vary from table to table, cue to cue and player to player. There are just too many variables involved, and when those variables are combined with other variables, it becomes a total crapshoot. (My advice to you is just to forget about the whole thing. Don't bother to read the rest of this 15-page discourse. No? You insist? Alrighty then, read on.) You will have to take what I present to you here, and find out for yourself - by experimenting, observing, more experimenting and observing, and a great deal of practice. Originally coming from a snooker environment, it has taken me more than a year to get a firm hold on english - the way it effects the cue ball on a 9 foot American pool table. And I'm still learning. And believe me, the difference between playing with english on a 12-foot snooker table differs vastly from playing with english on a 9-foot Brunswick, or a Diamond, for that matter. But we won't go into that now. Before we get to the goodies, there is one more thing I need to say about playing with english, or applying what I am about to show you. If you are still learning how to pocket a ball, or other basics of the game, stay away from using lateral english. Playing with english drastically complicates making the simplest of balls. The angles change, and you may suddenly find yourself hitting the object ball into the rail, instead of into the pocket, as I will demonstrate later. The lowdown is, UNLESS YOU CAN CONSISTENTLY MAKE ALMOST EVERY POCKETABLE BALL ON THE TABLE, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE ENGLISH. The only exception to this rule, is when the object ball is right in front of the pocket, and when there is almost no way that you will miss it. Okay? With that understood, let's cut to the chase: What is english? Previous Features Copyright © About.com