Ken,

I'm too lazy to go downstairs and get the book, but if I recall correctly what BB considers to be of "little use in actual play" is any SPIN transferred to the object ball. I think he does point out that this transferred spin can have a big impact on bank shots, but not on regular shots. I don't think BB feels that "get-in-english" is a viable tool.

Throw is of course different than transferred spin and I'd bet large amounts that BB points out many times how throw can be very useful.

Also, BB just posted here about some billiards research he's doing, so maybe he'll answer your question himself.

As long as we're on the topic of instructional books, I have a small gripe. Most, if not all, of the books I've read state that english on the cue-ball does not affect the path the cue-ball takes after contact. I've always felt this was a little misleading. The cue-ball path will always start out perpendicular to the line-of-centers at contact, right? What all of the books fail to mention (in this context) is that when you use english you've got to adjust the contact point to allow for the change in throw. This adjustment changes the line-of-centers, and that changes the tangent line that the cue-ball takes. So in a roundabout way using english DOES affect the cue-ball path after contact.

Of course, I've never written any books, let alone made any videos, so IMHO IMHO IMHO IMHO.