B A N K I N G   ( B A N K   S H O T S )

Banking: Desperate men do desperate things and this is how bank shots goes. The reason you want to avoid banks is because they are not an exact science. Many factors affect a bank shot. The condition of the cushions, the type of cloth you are playing on, the distance from the rail of the ball you are banking, the power with which you shoot and the english you use. Bank shots are a matter of feel and intuition. There are many elaborate schemes for calculating where a ball should be hit to bank it accurately but the best thing to do is learn the dynamics of bank shots described here and then practice. Cushions on a pool table do not always reflect balls like light rebounding from a mirror. Rails are made of rubber and are therefore flexible. You can change the angle of rebound just by shooting the ball harder. The harder you shoot, the more the angle of rebound will close up. Changing the angle of rebound with speed is shown in the diagram above.

Spin on the cue ball will also change the rebound angle. If you are banking an object ball to the left then spin will have the following results. Outside spin or left english will cause the angle to open up or get wider when banking to the right. Inside spin or right english will cause the angle to close up or get narrower when banking to the right. When banking a ball the length of the table, you can actually shoot the object ball straight into the rail and use the english (side spin) of the cue ball to cause the object ball to angle back towards the pocket.

Remember: In addtion to shooting an object ball off center to change the angle of bank you can do one of the following four things or combination of things: Shooting harder reduces the angle of rebound while shooting softer increases the angle of rebound. Shooting with inside spin reduces the angle of rebound while shooting with outside spin increases the angle of rebound. Shooting with top english reduces the angle of rebound while shooting with draw english increases the angle of rebound. Shooting a ball that is closer to the rail has a lower angle of rebound than shooting a ball on the same line that is farther from the rail which has an increased angle of rebound.

With all this to consider, you should learn the art of cutting balls first and then banking. It is okay to bank when there is no cut option available or you need to bank the ball to maintain cue ball position. And since these two conditions do arise we have discussed banks. But remember; bank balls only when you have no other reasonable option.