I’ve had some questions from the Billiards and Darts Direct channel subscribers. They want to know how to do a long shot, like I showed in an earlier video. Well, you ask for it, you got it. Here’s a how-to on shooting Long Shots.

Since the term “Long Shot” can mean many thing to many players, I’ve set up a situation that I feel best exemplifies the term. Basically, you have two balls, far apart from each other with the cue ball near the rail and the object ball all the way at the end, with a cut-shot.

You’ll want to shoot the ball in just like any other shot but there is one very important thing you can do to improve your chances of making the ball. Hold the cue with your back two fingers (your Ring Finger and your Pinky). This will make the cue go much straighter because you will have fewer imperfections in your stroke.

Of course, if you have to hit the ball in really hard to get crucial shape then you may not be able to do this quite as easily. If you just want to shoot the ball in, nice and easy, then this technique will give you a definite advantage. Go ahead and take your shot at normally and you’ll make your ball.

I’d like to share with you a rule that I have that I like to say. That rule is: “You can’t do Low Slow”. It’s not a standard rule by any means, rather it’s just something I like to say as a general guideline. As with any rule, you’ll likely find an occassion where “low and slow” does indeed work. For the most part though, this rule will hold true for most players.

When you’re using Low on the cue ball, you always have to do it firm. You’ll notice that higher skill level players don’t have an issue with this, but beginners usually do have a problem. They have a shot setup like in the video above and they use low to hit it but they don’t hit low quite hard enough and, as a result, they scratch.

As you can see, when you don’t hit hard enough, your cue ball started to spin backwards but by the time it got to the object ball, it had already started to spin forward. That’s why you can’t use Low Slow.

The other reason why you can’t use Low Slow is if your stoke is not dead-straight, the cue ball will veer off and the shot will not be effective. So that’s another reason why “You Can’t Use Low Slow”.

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.

Pool players often have trouble with drawing the ball. I get lots of players in my store coming in and asking me what they can do to improve their draw. Before I show them the proper way to draw the ball, I first like to go over the mistakes that they are likely making when attempting their shot.

The first mistake players make when trying to draw the ball is to lift the butt of their cue up so as not to jump it off the table. This is a very inefficient technique because of all the wasted energy that your cue is putting into the table. Shooting at a high angle like this also yields poor rotation on the cue ball. A much more efficient and powerful way of drawing the ball is to level out against the table. Shooting at this angle (or rather, lack of angle) will help transfer all of your energy through the ball.

Some people may know the correct techniques but they fail to implement them consistently. I don’t believe that any technique is worth doing unless it can be done every time. The best way to fix this inconsistency is to always start on the felt. Line up your shot using the leveling technique mentioned above. Next, stroke the cue tip on the felt a few times. Once you feel comfortable and you’re ready to shoot, bring it up one tip length. That ensures that you’re not guessing anymore and you can accurately hit the ball where you intend to.

Some players will do all the above techniques properly but when it’s time to actually hit the ball, they hit it just like it’s a normal stroke. That player may sink their shot but the cue ball will not draw very far after impact. To draw the ball properly, you need to snap it while also following through. This will make the cue ball spin backwards after impact.

The common phrase “Practice makes perfect” is a bit misleading. It seems to imply that as long as you keep doing something, you’ll eventually become the best at it. This is flat out wrong. If you continually do something wrong, you won’t improve, you’ll just figure out the quickest and most efficient way to do it incorrectly.

To improve in any aspect of life, you must practice using the proper techniques. Learning the right way to do something and then emulating that is the only true way to attain perfection. So, really a better phrase would be “Perfect practice makes perfect“. That is what I hope to impart on you today with my Pool Technique video.

We’re going to learn about how to properly follow the cue ball. Learning this technique will help you to become much more accurate and that will make it easier to sink balls.

The first thing to do is make sure your stick is level. You don’t want to angle your stick too high and transfer your energy into the table. You also don’t want to go over the top of the cue and transfer your energy over the ball. You want to hit the cue straight on, so that you transfer all your energy directly into the cue.The best practice is to create a reliable pre-shot routine and remember to do it each time you line up a shot.

Begin by leveling out your cue as I mentioned before. Then you want to aim just above the cue ball and then bring it down a tip-length. This will ensure that you are going to be hitting the cue ball straight on and it will transfer nearly all of your energy into the ball. It seems like a simple and obvious thing, but I’ve seen professional players who sometimes forget this relatively easy to grasp technique. Learn this technique and make it part of your daily routine and I guarantee your accuracy will begin to improve dramatically.