Last week I showed you how to run the object ball down the rail when both balls are frozen against it. This week I’m going to show you how to run the ball down the rail when your balls are much closer to the pocket AND you need to get your cue ball down to the other end of the table to get shape. There are two different ways to accomplish this. You can do it by aiming low or you can do it by aiming high.

Lets start with aiming low. To get shape on a ball at the opposite end of the table, you’ll want to aim low. But you’re not simply hitting the ball directly low, because that won’t get the ball to the other side of the table. What you want to do is aim low, but aim for the crack between the cue ball and the object ball. This aiming technique, when combined with some inside English, will help to not only sink your object ball it will also get good shape on the ball.

The other way to get good shape on the ball is to aim high. As before, it’s not enough to hit directly high or else you’ll scratch. Instead, use high right English and stay perfectly parallel. Do not cut in either direction. The right hand English is going to force it to deflect left which will make it compress into the rail. This will help you make the shot and get good shape on the ball. You can hit the cue ball as hard or soft as you want, the only difference that will make is how far the ball travels down the table after you make your ball.

There are plenty of games where you’ll have a shot where you’re close to the pocket, straight in, the balls are off the rail and you need to get the cue ball to the other end of the table. Although it looks like a real unlikely situation, this is another shot that’s not as hard as it may seem. The trick lies in The Two Finger Rule.

If you have not yet seen my explanation of The Two Finger Rule, take a moment to check out my earlier explanation here on the Billiards Direct Blog. Now that you’ve got the idea for what the Two Finger Rule is, let’s go over how we can use it to make the shot I mentioned earlier.

Take your two fingers to the ball you want to make and create a reference point on the rail to aim at. Now, go back to your cue ball and aim straight through to that point. Ordinarily, this would be all you’d need to do to make your ball but in this situation we also need to get shape at the end of the table. We’ll need to introduce a new element to our shot: Draw.

Draw is an easy way to help get your cue ball to the other end of the table. However, by adding draw to your shot, the cue ball will lift off the rail sooner. To compensate for this you just want to aim just a little bit further up past where your Two Finger Rule mark was. Move that imaginary mark slightly closer to the object ball. The amount you aim will be a little bit different for everybody because everybody has a different draw. You can also experiemnt using less/more draw to see how far you can make it down the table.

If you want to use high, just move your Two Finger Rule spot a little closer (towards your cue ball). The same techniques apply as before. It’s all a matter of your shooting style and what you’re comfortable with.