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The Mad Professor’s Shooting Bible
Part 15
Frequently Asked
Questions – Chapter One
In this article: Release-point
Follow-Through
Initial
Landing-Zone Target Areas
Dice-Outcome Correlation
How important is Release-Point
Follow-Through?
Release-point Follow-Through is very important in terms of executing a
consistently smooth dice-
release.
The toss arc that your fingers/hand/wrist/lower arm combination is
following right at (and after) the
point of release (as well as where they
continue to arc to in your post-release follow-through) is of
critical importance in not only
determining spin-rate, but also in determining the
smoothness of
the release and the
smoothness of the spin-inducement itself, but also the wobble-free
evenness of the dice-launch
and subsequent flight-path.
Though most people would argue that once the dice leave your hand they are
on their own and
therefore your follow-through shouldn't
have any effect on them...they would be partially correct but
that isn't the full picture.
What they don't understand is that if your follow-through is ragged or
abbreviated (abruptly stopping
once you release the dice), or the
follow-through arc of your fingers/hand/wrist/lower arm
combination at the point-of-release is in
transition to either a different arc than the initial release-
point flight-path or it is already in
preparation to slow down or stop as soon as the dice come off
your fingertips; then there's a high
likelihood that consistent dice-results will continue to evade that
player.
I'll give you an example:
Ø
If you are using a Low, Slow,
and Easy Toss; then your follow-through (once you release the
dice),
should follow the EXACT same flight-path and trajectory that you released
the dice on
until
your arm is fully extended.
Ø
Think of your release-point
follow-through as the parent who is teaching their child to ride a
bicycle...where the transition from mild assistance to initial full-release
is a smooth and
gradual one.
This method is especially effective for users of 3, 4, or 5-finger grips
because of the amount of
fingertip skin contact they have on the
dice just prior to the critical release-point (when initial spin-
rate and launch-smoothness is being
imparted).
Where
is the ideal landing zone target area for the dice to first make contact
with the table?
Your Target Area is pretty much determined by how well your toss conforms to
the bounce-
characteristics of the particular table you
are playing at. There are some general rules of thumb,
but they are only guidelines that have to
be modified to match your own toss-dynamics to the
specific table-types you normally play on:
Ø
On most tables, I like to
land my dice about 6" to 8" from the backwall.
Ø
Depending on how they react
to that toss, I may have to dial-down my throwing-energy
or
alter the trajectory at which the dice are thrown.
Ø
Equally, I might
increase or decrease the amount of spin (either backspin or forward-
spin
depending on which way I am throwing the dice), in order to compensate for
the way
their impact
with the table is counter-reacting to their initial contact.
Ø
As well, I may adjust my
initial-landing Target Area a little closer or a little further away
from the
backwall.
Ø
Each one of those elements
have to be adjusted in harmony with the others. For example,
reducing
your throwing-energy (the force with which you toss the dice) is almost
always the
biggest
enemy of a reliable throw-after-throw on-axis, primary-face outcome; so
throwing-
speed is the first thing I
recalibrate.
The less opportunity you give to the table to disturb the dice, the
better your chances of a high
consistency outcome:
Ø
The less energy and
the less undissipated descent-speed that the dice impact the table
with;
the more likely they are to end up with a result that we intend.
Ø
Generally, the lower and
shallower the flight-path trajectory is, the further away from the
backwall you can throw the dice.
Ø
For example, a low trajectory
throw (like the Low, Slow, & Easy Toss that we discussed here
http://www.dicesetter.com/mp/mad105bible3.htm
and here
http://www.dicesetter.com/mp/mad105bible5.htm
, will not decelerate the dice as much as
a
higher-trajectory landing will, and therefore the dice will maintain more of
their forward-
speed
(but with the side benefit of usually maintaining their axial and facial
integrity quite a
bit
better).
Ideally
the initial landing zone Target Area is one where the dice will make their
SECOND low-remaining-energy contact with the table at the smooth lower
non-bumpy margin of the backwall and
not higher up into the
random-inspiring alligator-pyramids.
Needless to say though, you'll have
to experiment a bit to determine exactly how close or how far
from the backwall your initial Target Area
landing zone should be in order to move their second
low-remaining-energy contact-point right to
the base of the backwall.
If for example, the first bounce launches them high into the backwall
alligator bumps; then obviously
you can reduce your throwing energy as well
as moving your initial landing zone quite a bit further
from the backwall. If on the other hand,
their first contact sees them barely dribble in and almost fail
to make contact with the backwall; then
obviously you can move your initial target-area a bit further
down the table and closer to the backwall.
What is “Correlation” and
what role does it play in dice-influencing?
"Correlation" is a
mathematical way of describing any difference from independence.
Here's an example that
Stanford Wong provided to me when we first started discussing this subject
a couple of years ago:
“Suppose you have enough
control that over the dice that you can get the left die to stop on the
“3-face” 25% (one-quarter) of
the time and the right die to stop on “3-face” 20% (one-fifth) of the
time.
Question: Does this
show correlation?
Answer: Not enough information is given to figure it out.
Yes you have control,
if you are getting frequencies of 25% (1-in-4) on one dice and 20% (1-in-5)
on the other when random is
1-in-6.
However, to know whether or
not you have correlated outcomes, you also need to know how often
you get that same 3-3
outcome.
Ø
Independence
between the two dice would give an outcome of 3-3 about 5% of the time
with a frequency of 1-in-20
(which is what you get by multiplying the frequency of seeing
each face individually).
Ø
If the
appearance of the two faces together happens significantly more than
1-in-20 or
significantly less than
1-in-20 (more than 5% of the time or less than 5% of the time); then
you have correlation.
Dice tosses with
correlation but without axial control means each die comes
up with each
number 1/6 of the time, but
certain combinations of two dice come up significantly more
or
significantly less
than the randomly-expected 1/36 of the time.”
Good Luck &
Good Skill at the Tables…and in Life.
Sincerely,
The Mad Professor
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