Today I’m going to show you how to properly break a game of 8 Ball. There’s definitely a technique to doing it correctly, so here’s my general routine when I play 8 Ball. So, it’s your break so you can put your cue ball anywhere you want on the table. Pick a place you’re comfortable with. It’s mostly going to come down to the force of your body and not so much the placement of your ball. Note that you’ll still want to hit the 1 ball full-on with maximum force.

We’ll starting with your body stance; you shouldn’t be too wide with your feet, just a regular stance is enough. Lean your body weight back. The reason for this is so that when you lean forward, you have room to move without suddenly hitting the pool table. When you strike the cue ball, bring your body forward which will add extra force to your shot. Now, since you’re going to be moving your mass forward this will mean that your cue stick will rise. To compensate for this, aim low on the cue ball that way, when you take your shot, the cue stick will naturally rise and hit the ball center.

It’s very important to lean forward so that the shaft goes through with your body weight. Finally, a benefit to putting on those few extra pounds! After you take your shot, you should notice a fairly even disbursement of balls around the table (if you did the break correctly). If you’re lucky, you probably even got a few balls in.