There are several books available that discuss the physics of balls on cloth struck by pointed sticks. A fairly non-technical treatment is in Jack Koehler's "The Science of Pocket Billiards". It has many good observations and plausible explanations but no real theory or equations. For the latter, get Wayland Marlow's "The Physics of Pocket Billiards" which has great steaming piles of equations. It is available from the author at MAST, Wayland C. Marlow, 2738 Ohina Street, Kihei HI 96753-8548, for $41.50 including shipping. Email: Wcmarlow@aol.com A 100-page online discussion is in Ron Shepard's "Amateur Physics for the Amateur Pool Player" available at the download section of PlayPool.com at http://www.playpool.com/download.php Also available there is Shepard's 19-page analysis of the causes of squirt. These include theory and equations and diagrams, along with useful worked examples. If you have access to a college physics library, many "mechanics" texts from around 1900 have entire chapters devoted to billiards physics (Williamson or Routh). The granddaddy in this field is a 176-page book by Coriolis (1835) in French. It has recently been republished by Jacques GABAY in Paris, ISBN 2-87647-081-0. A recent book in French is "Billard - Theorie du Jeu", ISBN 2-7027-0573-1, by Regis PETIT, published by Editions CHIRON/CASTEILLA, 128 pp., price: 98FF. In Canada, available from PROLOG (Bois-Briand QUEBEC), for $31.95 It contains material for the player as well as the theoretician. Some results of recent measurements: The tip is on the ball for about one thousandth of a second. During this time the ball moves no more than a few millimeters on a typical shot. It is unlikely that the grip hand can have much effect on the shot during this brief time. The tip has only one contact with the ball. The fastest cue ball reported (shot by a martial arts student) was about 35MPH (15.6 meters/second). More typical break speeds are around 20MPH. The energy in the ball goes up with the square of the speed, so the first is about three times as energetic as the typical break.

go to http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/pool/normal_videos/index.html he has high speed clips to and they are very helpfull

You can read any of the instructional books written by Rober Byrne. He's awesome and his info can be proven. Actually, most of it is proven by his buddy Bob Jewitt, a fella with functional gray matter.

I used to be a very average player. Recently I purchased my own pool table, and received a great instructional DVD with the table. The DVD taught me how to determine which was my dominant eye, and how to use the dominant eye to sight down the cue stick. It also included a lot of basic information about how to shoot angle shots. I'm now one of the better players in my pool league. Based on my experience I'd recommend you get a similar instructional DVD. The one I've got is called Perfect Aim (http://www.perfectaimbilliards.com).