Today let’s learn how to shoot with Jump Bank. In this example, let’s pretend that I’m solids and to make my shot, I’m going to need to bank the shot but, oh no, there’s a striped ball in front of me that’s blocking my shot. We’ve all seen this happen: A great, relatively easy shot is obstructed by an opponent’s ball. What do we do? Jump Bank to the rescue!

Jump Bank is just like it sounds. Basically, your doing a bank shot and the ball is going to jump over another ball (or two) that otherwise would have been in your way. I sometimes call this a “chop shot” as well. Here’s how to do the technique yourself:

You first want your cue stick to be elevated and go through the center of the cue ball. You’re basically hopping the ball, you’re not jumping it though. That jump will happen when you hit the rail so don’t try to do it before then. It’s just a little hop. So, once you’ve got your hop down, you want to line it up just like your regular bank shots. Hit it with the hop and it should jump right over the ball that’s in your way.

Summing up: the key is to elevate and shoot through the center of the ball. Take your shot just like a regular bank shot and you’re all set!