Traditional Straight Pool Opening Break Shot

Straight Pool (or 14.1 Continuous) is a game in which all balls must be called, even on the opening break. So, unless you are able to accurately predict what might fall and in which pocket on a power break, such as that made in the game of Eight-ball, you will need to master the most common and fundamentally defensive traditional opening break of Straight Pool shown in the diagram above. When executed "perfectly", each of the corner balls can actually end up coming back into the stack in the exact same positions they were in before you shot. Although it is not easy to do, and certainly you should not even expected it to happen each time you shoot it, I have achieved it myself from time to time. So, it is possible! Regardless of whether the "perfect" outcome occurs, what you can more commonly expect to have occur is what is shown in the diagram above, or perhaps even the diagram below where more balls come out of the stack. If you get something more like what is shown below, then you probably hit the corner ball too full which is easy to do on a table length shot such as this.

Even with this result, you have still left a difficult leave for your opponent, who must now either think of a safety play, or take a risky shot by trying to pocket the 11 ball in the lower left corner pocket.

Because it can be difficult to sometimes control how many balls will come out of the stack, the most important aspect of the opening break is that you must learn to get the cue back up table and as close to or preferably ON the headrail as shown. Focusing on placing the cueball on or as close to the headrail as possible will make any potential shots left for your opponent much more difficult to execute. This should be your main goal on the opening break!

It's A Matter of Focus by Denny Stewart

Concentration is not something that you can force, or control. Matter of fact if you’re even trying to concentrate that means your not concentrating! Fighting your mind does not work, you can't will a state of mind, or we'd all be willing dead stroke every time. It just doesn’t work that way. What you can do is FOCUS the mind. It works like this, as you achieve your focus, the mind quiets automatically. A quiet mind only picks up what is relevant in the here and now. You will get into a state of relaxed concentration.


Having the proper rhythm helps the player to keep their MIND & BODY
Working together as one unit and to develop the sensation of Deadstroke. Ask yourself this question. Have you ever shot a shot when you weren’t ready? This is one small example of what happens when your mind and body aren’t working together.

Each routine has a starting point called a SWITCH. By having these defined starting points for various routines, it becomes easier to “start over” whenever necessary. Once these starting points have become a habit, it becomes easier to keep the mind and body working together. This starting point becomes a SWITCH that triggers specific responses in the mind and body that helps to keep your rhythm smooth and intact.

Let’s try this now, when your at the table and going into your PreShot routine, or planning a shot, then executing it, it is relatively easy to focus because your actively engrossed in what you’re doing moment by moment. But you are very vulnerable between strokes, shots, or when you’re in the chair.

Something that might benefit you for when you have those stray thoughts of winning, losing, who's there and what if I miss etc. (basically all chatter) is to focus the mind on your breathing. Nothing is more "here and now" than your breath. It also has a beneficial calming effect. So now you have some tools to keep your head in the game. Focus on the here and now while you’re at the table and running balls, and for all else you can erase with some focus on your breathing. It will keep you in a lot more games.

Next time when you’re getting ready to practice try this.
Set up a straight in shot to the side pocket. You’re going to stop the cue ball when you shoot it. Now once you have decided on what tip position and speed you’re going to shoot it at, close your eyes and I want you to feel it, hear it then listen for it to go in the pocket.

Try it and see and feel the effects of it.


This article was provided compliments of Denny Stewart from the Ohio Pool School.

For more information about Denny, visit his website at http://www.myspace.com/ohiopoolschool or email him using the email address shown above.

Open V-shaped Bridge

In order to be a good pool player, you need to have a good solid bridge hand to stabilize your cue as you shoot. The bridge hand will assist you in hitting the cue ball accurately and applying the appropriate english (or center ball hit). There are two basic bridges:

(1) The open v-shaped bridge

(2) The closed bridge

Regardless of which bridge option you choose, remember that your bridge hand is always made with your non-dominant hand and must be firm!

The open v-shaped bridge is the easier of the two bridge styles. However, as you become a more proficient player, you will find yourself using both bridge styles depending on the shot.

The following visual guide is for beginning pool players who want to know how to form an Open V-shaped bridge:

1. Make a fist on the surface of the table with your non-dominant hand

2. Without losing the elevation of the knuckle area of your hand, spread your fingers out

3. Raise your thumb up and pinch it against the first finger/knuckle area

4. You should see the formation of a "V" shaped groove

5. This "V" shaped groove will form a stable bridge for your cue stick to glide over your hand

Object ball frozen to cushion

In this shot, the object ball is frozen to the rail and you have a very steep angle with the cue ball.

The secret to making these kinds of cut shots is to actually aim to miss, just a little, and play the cue ball into the rail first with low english in the direction of the object ball. The cue ball will rebound off the cushion and into the object ball to make it into the corner pocket. This is actually much easier to execute than to try to cut the ball in.

Try it as shown. As you get more proficient, move the object ball further down the rail until you reach a point of difficulty or low proficiency that would not benefit you in a game. Practice this shot and know you percentage for making it one diamond out from the pocket, 1.5 diamonds out, 2 diamonds out, etc. That way, when it comes up in a game, you will know whether or not you should shoot it, or play a safe instead.

Pocket Billiards 101: How to throw a ball with english.

In the above diagram, you are solids and you need to make your last ball, so that you can play the eight in the lower corner pocket. The problem is, your opponent still has a ball on the table (the stripe 12 ball) and this ball is preventing you from hitting your object ball at the cut angle you need in order to make it into the upper left corner pocket. Cue-ball diagram The answer to your problem is to "throw" the ball into the pocket using some right side-spin/english as shown in the cue-ball diagram above. By putting right side english on the cue-ball, the object ball will be thrown off it's trajectory slightly to the left of it's intended path. This occurs because the right hand spin (a counter clockwise rotation on the cue-ball) will transfer to the object ball in an equal and opposite manner, Think of two cog wheels interacting. When one turns in one direction (clockwise), the other turns in the opposite direction (counter-clockwise) This is exactly how english transfers from one ball to another. The friction created when one ball hits another allows for a transfer of spin (known as English in billiard terms). Left english on the cue-ball will throw the object ball to the right. Conversely, right english on the cue-ball will throw the object ball left.

Executing a simple Stop-shot

In the above eight-ball game situation, you are solids and your opponent is stripes. It is your turn to shoot. The out is simple. Just make the 6 ball straight in the corner pocket, stop the cue ball dead on impact, and you will have easy position on the 8 ball for the win. How to execute. Simply aim below center on the cue-ball, as shown in the diagram and be sure to use a moderate speed, but crisp stroke. If you hit the shot too softly, or aim to high on the cue ball, the cue-ball will roll forward after impact and you may be snookered from the 8 ball by the 11 ball. If you hit the cue-ball too low, the cue-ball will come backwards. This is called "draw". In this case, it would be unintentional draw. Remember that the cue-ball's reaction after impacting the object ball always tells you what happened in the stroke, so pay attention to the cue-ball.

Aiming: Why we miss

So, you've aimed the object ball into the pocket you intend to make it in and established center point on the other side of the ball that you need to hit in order to make the ball go in the pocket. The trouble is, you aim at that spot and for some reason miss! Why??? The answer is pretty simple. The point you have visually put all of your focus on is in-fact the "point of contact" which is not the same as where you should be aiming. If you ended up under-cutting the ball, this is probably what happened. In the above diagram, the cue ball was aimed at the point of contact and not the point of aim. As a result, the cue ball actually ends up making contact with the object ball earlier than expected because of the spherical nature of the two balls. Since the cue-ball ends up contacting the object ball earlier than expected, the line drawn from the two centers indicates that the object ball will in-fact miss the side pocket to the far side of the pocket. We call this an "undercut". Undercuts are the most common aiming error made in pool, so don't feel bad if you have been making this mistake. Okay, now that we understand the problem, lets examine how we can fix it. The correct way to aim this shot would be to aim the center of the cue ball to the center of the "Ghost Ball". In pool, the "Ghost Ball" is referred to when an imaginary ball is used as an aiming tool in determining where to drive the cue-ball in a given shot. This imaginary ball represents where the cue-ball would be at the exact moment of impact in order for the object ball to travel in a particular direction. When two balls are touching, the centers of these two balls form a line that show what direction the object ball will travel. If you shoot the ball using the ghost ball aiming point instead of the point of contact, your shot should look like this.