[Diagram at Bottom]

In October’s column I discussed a shot that comes up frequently and offered a technique for playing it. The shot I diagrammed and discussed is a draw shot that I suggested could be played more successfully with a follow stroke. Last week I received a letter from a reader who is a little confused by my mixing of the two concepts for one shot. This month we shall work further with this very important principle while I attempt to clear up any confusion that I might have left with you last fall.

Most dedicated players learn early that there is far more to pool than pocketing balls and begin to acquire the skills needed to control the cue ball for position play. After a player learns to identify, distinguish, and execute the various strokes that make up a complete game he is ready to move beyond the boundaries that limit many players. One of the most common limitations that pool players place on themselves is the idea that hitting the cue ball in a certain place will produce a certain result. Many otherwise sound books and videos perpetuate those ideas and lead the studious player to greater confusion and tighter limits. Before looking at the diagram or taking a shot, spend a moment thinking about your draw shot and how you hit the cue ball rather than where you hit it. Think more about the way a draw shot feels than the way it looks.

When you can remember how a draw shot feels in your shooting hand you are recalling your draw stroke. Once you have distinguished your draw stroke you can separate it completely from the draw shot or the result that you normally associate with it so that you have it distinguished as a stroke instead of a shot. This is your draw stroke and it’s yours to use anywhere you want to apply it. You can use it to extend your hand to someone for a handshake or to throw a bum a dime. You can even use this stroke for a pool shot that does not require the cue ball to draw.

Now imagine a follow shot, a long one that’s nearly straight but not quite. Imagine yourself hitting it with a straight, level, and smooth follow stroke and watch the cue ball move quickly and powerfully, despite the absence of a lot of effort, down to the bottom rail and back up to the top of the table for position. How would this same shot look if you did everything else the same except that, when you hit the cue ball at its top, you use your snappy draw stroke instead of your smooth follow stroke? How is the cue ball going to track compared to way it moves with a follow stroke? Can such a track be useful at all? Let’s shoot a few shots to find out.

Look at the diagram, set up the shot and mark the balls’ positions. Be sure that you are cutting the solid ball only slightly to the left and that the shot is almost straight in. You may have to play around with the striped ball to get it into a spot where it can interfere but will also allow the cue ball to pass on both sides. Place a second, solid ball in the middle of the short rail. When you are down looking at the shot, the striped ball should appear as a definite obstacle, as though the cue ball would hit it on any kind of follow shot.

Play the shot at first to pocket the solid ball and follow the cue ball inside the striped ball to play position for the second solid ball into pocket A. In order to track the cue ball inside the striped ball you must hit it high with a level cue and a very smooth follow stroke. When you are comfortable with this shot, you can play a follow shot that goes wide around the striped ball for a shot on that solid ball into pocket B. The best way to play this shot is to hit the cue ball above center, perhaps high, and use a draw, or firm, punch stroke. Pay attention to the fact that you are hitting the cue ball in nearly the same place, but altering its track by changing your stroke. Play the shot until you are moving the cue ball into a position across the table on or near the short rail. Both shots are follow shots but drastically different from each other. The smooth follow stroke gives a much tighter track than the snappy punch or draw stroke will yield.

When you are comfortable with the shot and its underlying principle, that you can alter the cue ball’s track by altering your stroke, you may want to think for moment about what you have just accomplished and the effect that this may have on your game. Your whole approach to position play may change as you begin to consider the stroke you will apply in addition to where and how hard you hit the cue ball. You may also see how other variables and combinations of them can push the limits out even further. As you become more aware the number of choices you have you may begin to experience a pool shot as an invitation to possibility rather than as a problem with one answer.