Playing pool with balls racked backwards for the break

I was at a social gathering Saturday evening and noticed a mother and daughter attempting to play pool. The mother was attempting to do the break,but was having problems hitting the balls. She then told her daughter to re-rack them only to put the wide end facing her so the 5 balls across were at the front rather than the back. It was like in bowling how the pins are positioned before the break,only backwards. Has anyone ever seen this attempted? No alcohol was served and it was traditional 8 ball. I may not have done the best job explaining this so bear with me. I know their are some pool players on the forum. Just thought it was interesting.

Quote: avianrandy

I was at a social gathering Saturday evening and noticed a mother and daughter attempting to play pool. The mother was attempting to do the break,but was having problems hitting the balls. She then told her daughter to re-rack them only to put the wide end facing her so the 5 balls across were at the front rather than the back. It was like in bowling how the pins are positioned before the break,only backwards. Has anyone ever seen this attempted? No alcohol was served and it was traditional 8 ball. I may not have done the best job explaining this so bear with me. I know their are some pool players on the forum. Just thought it was interesting.

Yeah my ma tried to set them up like that before when we were playing pool. My uncle saw that and was like wtf and fixed it. But this is back when I used to be a youngin’.

I'm only a casual player, and I've never seen it, except for a guy doing trick shots.

Was the mom more successful with the rack this way?

What's interesting is that the lady thought the balls would be easier to hit by rotating them.

Quote: standbymyman

What's interesting is that the lady thought the balls would be easier to hit by rotating them.

I have seen this a few times.

I'm not sure why it would not be easier to hit?

When racked and set up properly, people tend veer left or right of the head ball and end up nicking the other balls near the back side with little or no spread. That feew extra inches the ball isn't veering might give them a more solid hit.

Aiming at the center of a five ball line is much easier than hitting a single ball. I'm not sure your odds of pocketing a ball improve, but the chances of wigging go way down.

When I lived in Puerto Rico, in some bars they took the two end balls of the last row and moved them up so it rack resembled a crown. Never seen it played like that elsewhere.

Once I heard her tell her daughter to re-rack the balls this way,I did not stick around to see the break because I knew I would either laugh or make an inappropriate comment because I knew it would not be good.I did not want to cause hurt feelings.When I went by a little later,it looked like the balls were mostly around one part of the table and she was complaining about the pool stick needing more chalk.I have played some pool in my time,but not any good at it...definitely cannot call shots for anything. I had just never seen this done in all the different places I have shot pool and thought this would make for an interesting thread. Thanks everyone for replying.

You don’t need a physics degree to understand that this is a terrible way to rack the balls. But, yeah, it will make it easier to hit the balls on the break.

But then the problem is, if she’s having trouble hitting one ball on the break, what is she going to do after the break with all the balls spread out?