Drag
Historical Notes
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The drag shot is rarely seen during the televised professional tournaments due
to the very fast tables that are used. The average player though, playing in clubs
with thicker, slower cloths, will find drag to be an incredibly useful tool.
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The diagram shows an example of a position where
the drag shot might be played.
Playing slowly to pot the red and stay on the black is
much too dangerous. The cue-ball could easily drift
away from your line of aim and miss the red completely.
So the drag stroke is the answer. The shot can be
played with more strength to keep the cue-ball
running straight, yet when it reaches the red it will
have slowed enough to retain position on the black.
So how is the drag shot played?
Hold the cue softly so it deadens the impact, and strike the cue-ball quite
strongly below centre. Perhaps a little higher than if
you were playing screw, but with less follow through
of the cue.
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As it travels towards the red, the cue-ball will slide or 'skid' during the first part
of its journey until friction with the cloth causes it to run normally. Between the
initial skidding and the final normal running of the cue-ball, there appears what
can be best described as a kind of pause in the movement of the cue-ball.
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Though drag is most often played for shots similar to that shown in the diagram
above, it can also be used in a completely different way.
In the first diagram the intention was to deliver the cue-ball at a slow pace
when it reached the object-ball. But in this diagram the intention is to drive the
object-ball to the top cushion and back into baulk, and for the cue-ball to just
slip gently behind yellow and green.
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The description given above mentioned the fact that
the cue-ball starts fast, seems to pause, and then
runs normally.
By playing the shot in this diagram as though the red
were another four feet or so further away, the cue-
ball should strike the red at about the same time as the
pause in its motion takes effect.
The cue-ball will still have plenty of momentum left
which will be transferred to the red on impact, driving
it on; but the cue-ball, having no back-spin or
forward rotation to speak of, will just trickle off to
the side. Hopefully behind the yellow and green to
obtain the snooker.
Stay down and watch what happens to the cue-ball
when you play this shot. You need to be able to
predict where this pausing effect takes place to play
shots such as this.
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Drag can also be used on relatively close shots when
a less powerful shot has to be played.
This is much easier said than done, and it takes a good player to play the short drag shot well.
So this diagram gives two examples that you might
find very useful to practice.
Experiment with drag and side-spin and you will find
that played correctly, more side-spin is retained later
in the stroke than you would expect if you just
played slowly without drag. This gives you great
control over the cue-ball and can be invaluable in
tight positional play.
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Drag can also be used to great effect in safety shots.
This last diagram shows an example of a position
where the player doesn't want to risk disturbing the
yellow and black too much, but needs to swing the
cue-ball right round to the other side of the table.
There are many opportunities to use this in a frame,
usually when there are still many reds left on the table.
Until you have become confident with this shot you
may find yourself playing rather negative safety shots
to avoid moving the object-ball too much.
When you can play the shot well though you will be
able to turn your safety play into shots that really
attack your opponent. And just one well played
saftey can decide the outcome of the frame.
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Historical Notes
(From "Hints on Billiards" by J.P. Buchanan, pub. 1895.)
Putting on "drag" is another method of striking the ball which is of
very great use. Drag not only makes a ball run very true, but it has
the effect of retaining side in the cue-ball for a very long distance.
Its use in thus retaining side is chiefly shown in making long run-
through losers in the top pockets, where the object-ball is over one
of them, and where it is desired to bring it into the middle of the
table, as a little reverse side materially assists these strokes.
The cue-ball is struck low down just as if for a screw stroke, the
only difference being that the cue is held loosely, as for ordinary
strokes. The cue is dug well into the ball with the following-on
motion before explained, the ball starts off at a rapid pace, but the
drag, which is the effect of the ball's being hit below its centre,
causes it to rotate towards the player, and this rotation is all the
while checking the velocity of the ball. It is exactly the same as
when a locomotive is suddenly reversed - the wheels are indeed
revolving backwards, but their forward motion is only gradually
checked.
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(From "The Badminton Library: Billiards" by Major W. Broadfoot, pub. 1896.)
A heavy drag stroke played the length of the table by Roberts will travel nearly twice as fast as one struck by any other man, yet the object ball will often be found not to be harder hit.
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If the stroke be played the length of the table close observation
will disclose a different behaviour of the ball from that which
results from a plain stroke. In the first place, the ball will start for
an equal transit or length of path with greater initial velocity, it
will slow down much more abruptly, will apparently stop for a
moment, and then continue its course till it comes finally to rest.
Analysing this path, the first portion is traversed by the ball with
inverse rotation and under the influence of a stronger stroke than
would have been necessary had it been struck in the centre; the
slowing down is the struggle between the screw or backward
rotation artificially given and the spontaneous or forward rotation
naturally acquired; the momentary check or stop is when the one
rotation exactly counterbalances the other, and the ball on an
instant slides forward without any rotation; and the final part of
the course is when (the backward rotation being dead) the
spontaneous rotation has conquered, and in turn dies with the
force of displacement or translation.
That is what is seen when a master of the art plays with drag.
He uses it to overcome irregularities in the ball or bed, and is by
its means enabled to combine the advantages of a strong and
gentle stroke. If ball 1 cannot be trusted the length of the table
for a slow hazard or cannon, the player strikes it comparatively
hard with drag; the ball then runs fast over the greater length of
its course, but pulls up in the manner and for the reasons above
described, and reaching ball 2 with gentleness does not displace
it to any great extent.
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