Massè
The art of the masse deserves a whole book by itself and will be difficult to
condense into just one short chapter. The masse shot is basically to make the
cue ball curve , by striking down onto it, to produce a desired path in order to
contact/pot an object ball that otherwise would have been difficult or
impossible to hit/pot using a normal shot. Great care must be taken in
undertaking these shots as damage to cloth , cues and even the table can occur.
Masse 1
In the diagram we can see that the object ball is not with in the cue balls visual
path . We can use Masse to overcome this problem and curve around to make
the pot. The 1st example is one of the easier Masse shots (if there is such a thing) as the object ball is over the pocket and it should just take a tap from the cue ball to pot it.
Remember to use a firm but not hard hit. The idea cannot be expressed fully
with words as it is more of an artistic interchange , but it is helpful to think
about it like this: Masse is created by squeezing the cue ball against the table
so that it slides outwards, then after friction takes effect on the cue ball the roll
starts from the spin generated, then it continues this path to the target.