In this article, I will discuss how english affects the direction of the cue ball after it hits the rail cushion. As illustrated in the picture below, when left english is applied on the cue ball, it will bounce to the left side after hitting the cushion. Similarly, when the cue ball is hit with right english, it will bounce to the right side after hitting the cushion.
Now, with this newly found knowledge of pool, let's take a look at an example about how this works. See the illustration below. The cue ball is hit with center ball stroke. Note that "center ball stroke" here means that the cue ball is hit in the middle of its vertical axis whereas "english" is when the cue ball is hit either on the left or right of its horizontal axis. (see the previous articles on Stop, Follow, Draw, and English for more explanations). Now let's go back to the article in hand, the illustration below shows 3 different positions of the cue ball after it hits the cushion.
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Position A is the result of hitting the cue ball with center ball stroke and applying left english. Notice how the use of "left" english cuts the angle severely from its normal path.
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Position B is the result of hitting the cue ball with center ball stroke and NO english. This is the normal path of the cue ball.
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Finally, Position C is the result of hitting the cue ball with center ball stroke and applying right english. Notice how the use of "right" english increases the angle from its normal path.
Once again, there are numerous things that you will need to keep in mind in determining how much angle will the cue ball have off the cushion. Here are some guidelines to help you gauge the angle:
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The condition of the cushion is one factor. Newer cushions tend to have more "bounce" than older cushions. Therefore older cushions tend to produce less angle on the cue ball off the rail.
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The amount of spin on the cue ball. In the illustration above, if you applied more left english on the cue ball, then the angle would be less than the one shown in Position A. With more right english, the angle would also be more than the one shown in Position C.
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The speed of the stroke. Generally, the stronger the stroke, the less angle will be generated by the cue ball off the cushion.
