![]() You’ll hear how a cue ball “throws” the ball it strikes, how it transfers spin, how equilibrium controls a jump ball, and how different forces are at play during a massé (curve) shot. Speak with him about pool for five minutes and you’ll find yourself neck-deep in mathematical formulas. Students at Harvard are studying “Dynamics of Rational Billiards.” At Williams, “Geometry, Surfaces, and Billiards.” At Stanford, “Lagrangian Relations and Linear Point Billiards.”ĭavid Alciatore, a professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado State University, has written extensively on the sport-zeroing in on the science of trick shots-and even incorporates pocket billiards into his lectures on energy, friction, and rotation. They’re more like case studies out of a geometry class or physics lab. It even has its own tournament on ESPN: Tune into Trick Shot Magic and you’ll see the likes of Segal, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon, demonstrating four jump shots at the same time, or Florian “Venom” Kohler, licensed optometrist, performing a “sexy” trick shot that sends the cue ball over the knees of a model as she poses seductively on the table.Īnyone who thinks these feats are merely tests of shooting skills are missing the point. ![]() But nowadays, the sport has become an art form unto itself-separate and apart from traditional pocket billiards. Players would hang out in basements and pool halls, challenging each other with custom-made maneuvers. Welcome to trick-shot pool.įor years, trick shots were a novelty. The cue ball jumps in the air and lands on the felt, spinning and rolling backward, tapping each of 10 lined-up balls in succession before knocking the 8-ball into the corner pocket. In a billiards parlor in Hoboken, New Jersey, Andy “Magic Man” Segal leans over the back table, angles his stick in the air, and stabs downward.
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