thinklester . . . The obvious balls do not need to be called. The combinations, caroms, billiard, bank, kick or two or more balls that are candidate of a pocket need to be called.
I'm a 9 balls player and new to this game. One thing I don't understand is why don't the straight pool players smash the rack with more power during the break to spread the balls a little more. Having balls spread out on the table would make positioning much easier.
You don't want to smash the balls because if you miss position or miss a shot, your opponent can come to the table and pocket all those balls, and maybe a 100 more. It's just bad strategy.
Well, there are breakshots when you smash the rack, even Hohmann plays them. But in general it´s more safe not to, because turning the cueball loose is a major violation and can cause loosing the game...
I don’t think anyone explained the essence of why it is done. It is done because this game is call shot. Whatever you make on the break won’t count as a point because you didn’t call the ball and pocket. It is basically impossible to do so on a break. So usually the players would avoid getting to be the one to break because they open up the balls only for the other player to come in and have their way with the perfectly separated balls. This is why they don’t break the rack. They do the bare minimum so the opponent comes back and doesn’t have a shot. And the game turns back to them.
To add to what has already been said, having balls close to each other in the break area gives you a better chance of getting or manufacturing a break ball to continue your run.
