One of the most rewarding and physiological parts of the game is the break. The majority of pool players say that the break is the most important shot…not true! The ability to understand the most important shot, "the stop shot", and to incorporate this knowledge into your break is the key.
The break can lead us to defeat or victory in that split second moment, especially in the game of nine ball. So how do we master this moment? First and foremost we need to understand things backwards, so we'll start at the end of all motion. What has happened? Energy has been split and split and re-split again until all has neutralized. As we send our cue ball crashing into the rack, energy is dispersed. How much and how fast it transfers is most important. Basically, we want all the balls in the rack to have fractions of the energy totaling up to the energy the cue ball had at impact. If all the energy is transferred into the rack, as in a stop shot, the cue ball can remain very close to the center of the table with no energy, therefore no movement, while the remaining object balls come to rest. Energy in equals energy out. Seems simple, right? Well it is… We all make it seem difficult because we all think that if we don't create this massive explosion on the table, that we can't pocket any balls. Power is not the single answer, Aim is not the only answer, Speed is not the exact answer; CONTROL is the answer!!
