As you can see, you can’t kick off of either of the long rails—both are blocked by the 8-ball. You could kick off the rail on the right in this picture, but that’s a tricky shot as you would have to use a bridge and would be cueing over the 8-ball. The best shot in this situation is to kick two rails at the 1-ball. In order to determine where to aim, we first need to understand how to measure the rails.
In the diagram above, make note of the numbers across the two rails. You’ll first envision imaginary lines from each number to the corresponding number on the other rail. It’s important to notice that when you measure these lines, you measure them from the diamond (half way from the rail to the outside of the table) rather than the edge of the rail. Then determine which line the cue ball is on. In this case, the cue ball is lying on the number 3 line—aiming anywhere directly on one of these lines will send the cue ball straight to the corner pocket. In this situation, you would aim at the 3 on the short rail and always use “running english”. This means when you’re aiming to the left you use one tip of left english and when you’re aiming to the right you use one tip of right english. For this shot we’re shooting to the left so we’ll use left english like the diagram below.
Let’s now look at how you should aim the cue ball if it’s not laying exactly on one of these imaginary lines. Suppose it’s lying between lines like the diagram below. In this case it’s between the number 4 line and the number 5 lines so the point we’ll aim is between the number 4 and the number 5.
Now that you understand how to measure the kick shot when the object ball is lying in or near the corner pocket, how do you adjust the shot for situations where the object ball is not in the pocket? When the object ball is located further up the long rail (rail in the bottom of the diagram) you’ll first find which line the cue ball is on just as you did with the previous shot situation. But instead of aiming directly on this line, you’ll adjust your aiming spot based on how far away the object ball is from the corner pocket. When the object ball is located along the long rail you’ll aim at a lower number and when it’s further up the short rail (rail on the left side in the diagram) you’ll aim at a higher number on the rail along the right side. You should test this system on the tables you compete on to get a better grasp of how much the path of the cue ball changes when you aim at higher or lower numbers from the original line so you can become more comfortable with how to adjust your shot.
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Cristina De La Garza Cristina De La Garza is a WPBA Touring Professional from Austin, Texas. Cristina joined the APA in 2004 and competed in several top regional and national APA tournaments. She made her WPBA debut in 2008 and through her finishes in the 2009 season, earned her Tour card for 2010. She will share how her experiences in the APA shaped her development and taught her important concepts that she still applies to her game today. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
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