Aiming and potting
Aiming and potting
Pot straight balls reliably, then gentle cuts.
The line of the pot
To pot a ball, the white must strike it at the point exactly opposite the pocket. Picture a line from the centre of the pocket through the object ball. Where that line comes out of the back of the ball is the contact point.
On a straight pot the white, the object ball and the pocket all lie on one line, so you simply hit the object ball full in the face. These are the shots to learn first: they show at once whether you are cueing straight.
The ghost ball
On a cut, you cannot aim at the contact point itself, because the white would arrive too far round the ball. Instead, imagine a second white touching the object ball on the line of the pot: the ghost ball. Send the real white to where the ghost is, and the object ball goes toward the pocket.
The bigger the angle between the line of aim and the line of the pot, the thinner the contact and the less of the object ball you see covered by the white.
- Full ball: aim at the centre of the object ball. The pot is straight (0°).
- Three-quarter ball: aim a quarter of a ball's width off centre. The object ball goes off at about 15°.
- Half ball: aim the centre of the white at the edge of the object ball. It goes off at about 30°. This is the easiest cut to judge.
- Quarter ball: aim the edge of the white past the object ball's edge, a quarter overlap. It goes off at about 49°.
Throw: why slow cuts finish short of the angle
Friction between the two balls at contact drags the object ball slightly in the direction the white was travelling. On a half-ball cut this throw is a degree or two, which is enough to miss a long pot. It is largest on slow shots and at angles around half ball, and smaller when you hit firmly.
Allow for it by aiming a fraction thinner on slow cuts. Most players learn the correction by feel rather than by calculation, which is why practising cut angles at different paces matters.
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At the table
Set up 10 straight pots of medium length and count how many you make. Then try 10 half-ball cuts. Write both scores down every session.