Here’s a shot that comes up periodically. Basically it’s about following the ball in or “following the combo”. Imagine you’re playing a game of 8 ball. You’re on the 8 but your opponent has a ball in front of the pocket. So you can’t get your 8 ball by that other ball. Since you’ve got the 8 ball, you want to hit both balls into the same pocket and end the game.

You can can accomplish this shot by putting draw on your cue ball. Draw, which is essentially “backspin”, will hit the 8 ball and immediately give the 8 ball forward spin. This forward spin is what will propel the 8 ball all the way into the pocket after hitting the other object ball. The two things you need to make sure with this shot are: that you hit low on the cue ball and that you hit the object ball full and square. You need to be dead-on with this shot or it won’t work. Take your time lining up this shot, it will be well worth it.

Once you’ve lined up your shot and are confident in your stroke, take your shot and (ideally) both balls will make it into the pocket. This shot is simple to set up, so I encourage you to spend some time practicing it with different amounts of draw put on the cue ball. This will definitely help you to make not just this shot but a variety of others.