triplany.icu

Often referred to as ‘Artistic Pool,’ Trick shots have become much more popular over the last few years. This entertaining and demanding discipline of pool can be categorised into two types, The first of these are Setup shots, in which the balls are set up in a specific formation to steer them towards the pocket. Volunteers from the audience are often selected to try these shots as they are difficult to miss. The second type is the skill shot. These require a good stroke with the que hitting the target ball in the precise place needed to cause the ball to ‘whirl’ around the table. Some Advanced skill shots include Jumps and Masses, where the ‘que’ or white ball, curves on its own.

In a Competition setting these Shots are broken up into 8 categories; These are Trick and Fancy which consist of Setup shots, and example of one fancy shot is having several balls set up so all balls go into different pockets with one stroke of the que.

The second Competition category is Prop, Novelty or Special, These shots are the least likely to come up in a regular game of pool as they often require use of the Rack as a prop or hitting a moving ball or shooting one handed or speed shots which involve hitting several balls within an allotted time.

The Draw and Follow shot requires precise angling in order to hit the que ball in an exact place so it travels in a prescribed way. For example back toward the competitor or continuing along the path it is taking rather than rebounding off any other components on the table.

This is done by causing the ball to either topspin or backspin. The Bank and Kick requires the ‘object ball’, the ball the que or white ball hits, or the que ball itself to hit the rail a prescribed number of times before entering the pocket. The Stroke requires technique as well as control, as in these shots the balls are often very close together possibly even touching. Jump shots are when the que ball leaves the table to avoid an obstacle. The final competition category is Masse. When the ball has so much spin it deviated from the expected line of play without hitting any obstacles.

There are many different champions giving hints tips and demonstrations on the internet.

How to breed a racehorse is a question that has been around for centuries! Breeding a thoroughbred is easy, but racing horses, now that is quite a different thing. Just as betting on a race is a gamble, so is running the gauntlet of picking the right sire and dam who might produce the next elusive, legendary racehorse. Many theories have been written on how to breed a champion varying from careful and statistical analyses, guess work, luck and superstition.

An old book many years ago was what first took my interest in the racehorse; it was about the Godolphin Arabian, one of the three founder stallions of today’s race horses. It’s self an intriguing story which also highlights how difficult it is to predict what will breed a champion.

When we look back at the bloodlines of the modern thoroughbred we find three stallions, the aforementioned Godolphin Arabian, the Burley Turk and the Darley Arabian these are said to be the founding stallions of today’s racehorses. However, other people believe it is through the dam line that the winning gene’s are carried.

The best way to trace the bloodline is through the distaff or female line, dating to the beginning of the General Stud Book (GSB). Sheer practicalities promoted this as mares produce far fewer foals than a stallion. Therefore thoroughbred stud books throughout the world trace ancestry through the maternal line and not the parental line.
And let us not forget that the racehorse is but one type of racing horse. Let’s not forget the trotters, pacers, Arabians, Mongolian ponies and the flapping ponies to name but a few. The trotting horse is bred to develop a specific gait where diagonal pairs of legs move at the same time with a moment of suspension between each beat the best tend to show this as their natural gait and the same is true of pacers. But when breeding to win, we look not only the performance of both the sire and dam, but at their pedigree as well. Most societies have blood stock records from which you can study bloodlines and with the internet to hand it is relativity easy these days to find a performance record of your desired potential parents. But even when you pair the perfect match as in anything to do with racing you must still run the gambit, the birth, the training, illness, injury and the final result.

But one can only dream of breeding the perfect horse and it is this that keeps the true horse lover going. To breed a racing horse, we pair the best and just pray for the rest.