Here’s another combo shot. For this particular example, the balls are frozen but are not quite lined up in the pocket. Since these balls are frozen together and they’re not lined up exactly with the pocket we want to get them into, we’ll need to use throw to make our ball. Throw is a frequently used pool technique. If you’re looking for a refresher course on how to use Throw, here’s a previously demonstrated write-up from the Billiards and Darts Direct Blog.

As you can see, the 4 ball is not lined up directly with the pocket. If we shot it straight thru, it would bounce off the corner of the pocket and we’d miss the shot. So we need to throw the 4 ball. Normally, if the 6 ball wasn’t here, we’d use right-hand English. But, since the 6 is there, we’ll have to use left-hand English. The reason we use the opposite English is that when the 6 hits the 4, it will transfer it’s English to the ball, except it will be the opposite English that it transfers.

So, when shooting frozen combo shots, use the opposite English on your first ball than you would normally and you’ll make your shot just fine. As to how much English to use, you’ll have to determine that on a case-by-case basis but I’d say to put a little more English into it than if it were just one ball since you’ll be losing some of that in the transition. So, in this case, overcompensation is a good thing.