What Causes a Kick in Snooker?

[wolram]

There is some controversy about what causes the ball to jump and cause a kick, what is your opinion?

 

[newjerseyrunner]

There is? When you hit the ball at a downwards angle, it gets depressed into the felt, which pushes back because it's springy, causing the ball to jump. I've done that trick a thousand times. What do you mean kick? Giving it english? That's friction from it's sideways spin, no different than the hook of a golf or bowling bowl.

 

[wolram]

Hi
newjerseyrunner
A kick in England means the object ball lifts of the table and veers of line.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

If I remember correctly (I usually play billiards, not snooker) the cue ball is slightly larger than the colored balls, so the resulting force of all collisions with the cue ball will include a small downwards vector.

 

[Borek]

Kick is something that seemingly happens at random (that comes from someone that never played, but has spent hundreds of hours watching snooker on Eurosport). So it can't be just a simple repeatable physics of the balls collision. I know players complain that kick can be an effect of a chalk piece left on the ball.

 

[wolram]

Kick is something that seemingly happens at random (that comes from someone that never played, but has spent hundreds of hours watching snooker on Eurosport). So it can't be just a simple repeatable physics of the balls collision. I know players complain that kick can be an effect of a chalk piece left on the ball.

It can not be chalk on the ball as it happens when the ball has just been cleaned.

 

[Borek]

It can not be chalk on the ball as it happens when the ball has just been cleaned.

Not exactly - it may happen after the ball was cleaned, but it is not like these things are related. Even a clean ball can pick up chalk from the table.

Nothing unusual for players to ask the referee to clean the ball, and Polish commentators often say that is done to avoid the kick.

 

[jon kartel]

The chalk will transfer to a just cleaned white from a (heavily chalked) cue tip during the shot: although it is unlikely that this one mark will be at the point of contact with the object ball, it will inevitably happen from time to time.