How to Practice English
When you can successfully hit the cue ball within millimeters of the center, then you can start practicing English. But before you get into details of practice, you should familiarize yourself with these definitions:
Vertical axis: The imaginary line that runs top to bottom through the center of the cue ball.
Horizontal axis: The imaginary line that runs from left to right through the center of the cue ball. Another term that commonly defines it is “equator line.”
Follow (topspin): Hitting the cue ball above the horizontal axis.
Draw (backspin): Hitting the cue ball below the horizontal axis.
Half tip or one tip: The distance your cue tip strikes from the center of the ball. A cue tip is typically 13 millimeters wide, so half tip means you are striking the ball 6fi millimeters off center. One tip means you are striking the cue ball 13 millimeters off center.
Striking the cue ball on the right or left of center is English (or sidespin).
As you're first learning to apply English, it's a good idea to try and hit the cue ball just half tip off center. Using this trick of the trade will allow you to understand how striking the cue ball just a tiny bit off center will affect your aim. The further off center you strike the cue ball, the more off line your aim will be.
To begin using English, try using a striped ball as your cue ball with the stripe as a guide.
The stripe will help you to visualize the vertical axis of the ball. Try hitting the striped “cue ball” dead center and then try aiming just a tiny bit to the right or left of the center of the cue ball, and see what happens. This will take a few tries, but keep going — this is the first step to learning English.
Hitting the ball with your cue stick on the left and right edges of the stripe (vertical axis) will apply sidespin to the ball. Try placing the ball on the foot spot and shooting it straight up and down the table. If you struck the ball on the right side of the stripe, you should see it head to the top rail in a fairly straight line and then after it hits the rail, it should come back to your right. Do the same with left English and the opposite should occur — the ball should come back to your left. Once you're able to visualize what you're doing, replace the striped ball with a real cue ball and keep practicing.
Hitting the ball to the right of the vertical axis is called “right English” and hitting the ball to the left of the vertical axis is called “left English.”
Now picture the horizontal axis of the cue ball. When you hit the cue ball above the horizontal axis, you apply “topspin,” otherwise known as “follow.” When you hit the cue ball below the horizontal axis, you apply backspin, otherwise known as “draw.” Both follow and draw are not English when used along the vertical axis. English is sidespin, not topspin or backspin.
Hitting the cue ball to the north or south of the equator (an imaginary horizontal line across the center of the ball) gives the ball topspin (follow) and backspin (draw).
