Amazing physics of billiard stunts
In the billiard room in Hoboken, New Jersey, Andy "The Wizard" Seagal leans on the table, lifts the cue into the air and hits from top to bottom. The ball jumps into the air and lands on the felt covering, rotating and rolling backward, touching each of the 10 balls in a row in turn before the ball with the number 8 is hammered into the corner pocket.
This is a blow- "machine gun". Welcome to stunt billiards.
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For a long time, the stunts on the pool were new. Players gathered in basements and billiard rooms, showing each other the tricks invented by them. But today it has become a special sport - separate from the traditional pool. He even has his own tournament on ESPN: “Trick Shot Magic”, where such as Seagal, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, demonstrate four jumps with a jump, or Florian “Poison” Kohler, a licensed optometrist , gives a "sexy" trick, sending the ball into the flight over the model's knees, seductively located on the table.
If you think that these tricks are just a test of the skills of the blows, you do not understand what the matter is. They are more like subjects for research in a geometry lesson or in a physical laboratory. Or at a billiards lecture. Yes, students at Harvard are actually learning The Dynamics of Rational Billiards. Williams University "Geometry, Surfaces and Billiards." At Stanford "Lagrangian relations and linear billiards."
David Alciatore, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado, has already done a lot of work on this sport, with an emphasis on scientific explanations of tricks, and even includes billiards in his lectures on energy, friction and rotation. Talk to him about billiards for about five minutes, and you will sink in mathematical formulas. You will learn how the impact ball acts on the one with which it collides, how it transmits rotation, how balance controls the bouncing ball, and how various forces work during a massé strike.
Analytical understanding is given intuitively to master tricks. They can visualize complex kicks that ordinary players will not approach - and then practice and practice to sharpen them. “Imagine a swirling blow, or a kick with a bounce,” says Alkyator about Kohler’s “sexual” curve and Seagal's four-hop jump. “Those who have not practiced their implementation will not be able to repeat them. If you do not have the technology and experience, it is almost impossible. You can understand all the physics of the world, and still it will not help you. "
Tim "The Dragon" Chin, one of the best tricks in the world, was the artistic tricks champion in the 2014 championship held by the World Pool-Billiard Association, WPA. Chin, like Alciatore, has a degree, only he specializes in materials, not mechanisms. Like many modern stuntmen, he is not interested in the traditional pool. He was enticed by the analytical tasks associated with stunts, and he follows his passion from one tournament to another, competing with the best players for a small amount of money relative to other sports (prizes here range from $ 2,000 to $ 30,000). He also organizes exhibitions and consultations.
“I first saw billiard stunts on ESPN in 2000,” he says. “It looked like a trick, only nothing was hidden - everything was in sight! It became a mystery to me, and its solution was my task. ”
Alciatore, or as he calls himself Dr. Dave, divides these puzzles into two categories: a blow with preparation and a blow to skill. The first requires the balls to be placed in an ideal position so that they react correctly to the blow - even when the beginner hits. The second requires an experienced player with great experience in terms of technology and experience.
Chin agrees with such a division, but most of all he likes the blows “to knowledge” - those that no one has seen before. As an example, he cites Will DeYonker, with the unique ability to come up with new strikes and quickly master them. “I don’t think you can show a punch more than in two tournaments in a row before Dayonker sees it,” Chin says.
Will Dayonker
Deyonker, a 24-year-old student of videography at the University of Madonna in Michigan, beat 16 rivals and won the WPA championship last month in Oklahoma. He also has an innate sense of geometry, but for an unusual reason. Deonker, who is sponsored by his mother, chiropractor Susan Blaskay, was diagnosed with moderate autism at the age of 4 years. He showed typical signs: he did not meet his eyes with others, he avoided people, had difficulty expressing emotions. In 2006, stumbled upon Trick Shot Magic, he was mesmerized by moving balls. He began training many hours a day in his home.
Dayonker, known in the world of stunt as the "Gentleman", says that his autism allowed him to immediately understand this art. He considers himself "more visual than verbal person", and therefore, when developing a trick, he first draws it on paper - marks out and counts it in his head. “I have a three-dimensional map in my head,” he says. “When I walk up to the pool, the map comes to life, and I just know in which direction the cue ball will move, and how to hit it, and from what angle, and so on.”
Dr. Dave is not surprised at Deonker's success. “In general, geometric vision is a necessary skill for playing billiards,” he says. - People capable of high-quality three-dimensional visualization will play better at billiards. You need to visualize the angles, the ball, and imagine a blow in the head. ”
Now, when tricks on billiards have occupied their niche, what is their future? According to many of the best performers, the competition is full of people intuitively approaching science - and possessing an unsurpassed geometric vision. So imagine the unrepresentable.
“Tricks have already evolved since the days when these were standard and well-known blows,” says Chin. - One of the ways to stand out is to invent a new skill and master it. Take a bounce with a bounce - at first it turned into a one-handed blow, and this put some rivals into a dead end. Then people started doing it with their left hand, so they had to become ambidexter. And now they do it with one hand behind their backs or from under their feet. ”
As for the favorites, Chin argues no more than his rival, Gentleman. "Will Deyonker managed to quickly master the blows," he says. “He is destined to dominate this sport in the next 15-20 years.”
This is a blow- "machine gun". Welcome to stunt billiards.
')
For a long time, the stunts on the pool were new. Players gathered in basements and billiard rooms, showing each other the tricks invented by them. But today it has become a special sport - separate from the traditional pool. He even has his own tournament on ESPN: “Trick Shot Magic”, where such as Seagal, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, demonstrate four jumps with a jump, or Florian “Poison” Kohler, a licensed optometrist , gives a "sexy" trick, sending the ball into the flight over the model's knees, seductively located on the table.
If you think that these tricks are just a test of the skills of the blows, you do not understand what the matter is. They are more like subjects for research in a geometry lesson or in a physical laboratory. Or at a billiards lecture. Yes, students at Harvard are actually learning The Dynamics of Rational Billiards. Williams University "Geometry, Surfaces and Billiards." At Stanford "Lagrangian relations and linear billiards."
David Alciatore, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado, has already done a lot of work on this sport, with an emphasis on scientific explanations of tricks, and even includes billiards in his lectures on energy, friction and rotation. Talk to him about billiards for about five minutes, and you will sink in mathematical formulas. You will learn how the impact ball acts on the one with which it collides, how it transmits rotation, how balance controls the bouncing ball, and how various forces work during a massé strike.
Analytical understanding is given intuitively to master tricks. They can visualize complex kicks that ordinary players will not approach - and then practice and practice to sharpen them. “Imagine a swirling blow, or a kick with a bounce,” says Alkyator about Kohler’s “sexual” curve and Seagal's four-hop jump. “Those who have not practiced their implementation will not be able to repeat them. If you do not have the technology and experience, it is almost impossible. You can understand all the physics of the world, and still it will not help you. "
Tim "The Dragon" Chin, one of the best tricks in the world, was the artistic tricks champion in the 2014 championship held by the World Pool-Billiard Association, WPA. Chin, like Alciatore, has a degree, only he specializes in materials, not mechanisms. Like many modern stuntmen, he is not interested in the traditional pool. He was enticed by the analytical tasks associated with stunts, and he follows his passion from one tournament to another, competing with the best players for a small amount of money relative to other sports (prizes here range from $ 2,000 to $ 30,000). He also organizes exhibitions and consultations.
“I first saw billiard stunts on ESPN in 2000,” he says. “It looked like a trick, only nothing was hidden - everything was in sight! It became a mystery to me, and its solution was my task. ”
Alciatore, or as he calls himself Dr. Dave, divides these puzzles into two categories: a blow with preparation and a blow to skill. The first requires the balls to be placed in an ideal position so that they react correctly to the blow - even when the beginner hits. The second requires an experienced player with great experience in terms of technology and experience.
Chin agrees with such a division, but most of all he likes the blows “to knowledge” - those that no one has seen before. As an example, he cites Will DeYonker, with the unique ability to come up with new strikes and quickly master them. “I don’t think you can show a punch more than in two tournaments in a row before Dayonker sees it,” Chin says.
Will Dayonker
Deyonker, a 24-year-old student of videography at the University of Madonna in Michigan, beat 16 rivals and won the WPA championship last month in Oklahoma. He also has an innate sense of geometry, but for an unusual reason. Deonker, who is sponsored by his mother, chiropractor Susan Blaskay, was diagnosed with moderate autism at the age of 4 years. He showed typical signs: he did not meet his eyes with others, he avoided people, had difficulty expressing emotions. In 2006, stumbled upon Trick Shot Magic, he was mesmerized by moving balls. He began training many hours a day in his home.
Dayonker, known in the world of stunt as the "Gentleman", says that his autism allowed him to immediately understand this art. He considers himself "more visual than verbal person", and therefore, when developing a trick, he first draws it on paper - marks out and counts it in his head. “I have a three-dimensional map in my head,” he says. “When I walk up to the pool, the map comes to life, and I just know in which direction the cue ball will move, and how to hit it, and from what angle, and so on.”
Dr. Dave is not surprised at Deonker's success. “In general, geometric vision is a necessary skill for playing billiards,” he says. - People capable of high-quality three-dimensional visualization will play better at billiards. You need to visualize the angles, the ball, and imagine a blow in the head. ”
Now, when tricks on billiards have occupied their niche, what is their future? According to many of the best performers, the competition is full of people intuitively approaching science - and possessing an unsurpassed geometric vision. So imagine the unrepresentable.
“Tricks have already evolved since the days when these were standard and well-known blows,” says Chin. - One of the ways to stand out is to invent a new skill and master it. Take a bounce with a bounce - at first it turned into a one-handed blow, and this put some rivals into a dead end. Then people started doing it with their left hand, so they had to become ambidexter. And now they do it with one hand behind their backs or from under their feet. ”
As for the favorites, Chin argues no more than his rival, Gentleman. "Will Deyonker managed to quickly master the blows," he says. “He is destined to dominate this sport in the next 15-20 years.”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/399799/
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