My name is Charlie. I have shot pool off and on for over 30 years. I play in several leagues and deeply love the game. I am an above average player at best and you will never see me on ESPN, but that doesn't diminish the importance of the information presented here.

If you're reading this document then you want to play better pool. The information provided here will definitely help you accomplish this goal. You must read these paragraphs carefully and practice the material presented to see results. I personally guarantee that if you apply just the information presented in the first 3 chapters your game will improve. For some the improvement will be dramatic. Study the entire book and your world of pool will be changed forever.

Topics:

1 Equipment: Regardless of your skill level in the game of pool, you can eliminate many errors and missed shots just by following a few simple guidelines. Always keep your equipment in top condition for optimum play. Keep you cue shaft(s) clean. Your concentration should never be broken because you are worrying about how smoothly the shaft slides through your hand bridge. Routine maintenance of your cues should be at least a weekly ritual. Use alcohol on a clean cloth to remove dirt and grime. You may also want to lightly sand your cue with a synthetic sheet or 600 grain sandpaper. Use these papers sparingly though and lean towards the thorough cleanings. It is also important to wash your hands and dry them thoroughly.

The tip of the cue should be well maintained. I recommend a leather tip at least 3/32 of an inch thick. If it gets any thinner then think seriously about replacing it. The edges of the tip should be even with the ferrule of the cue. Don't let it mushroom out. This can be avoided by using a secondary cue for break shots. I suggest a jump break cue, which serves three purposes. You preserve the life of your primary cue's tip by breaking with the jump break cue. You have a specialty cue for jump shots if you have reached that skill level. Lastly, you have a back up cue if you damage your primary during leagues or tournaments.

The hand bridge is the hand you use to hold the small end of the cue. Keep your hands clean at all times and even consider wearing a specially designed glove for your hand bridge. The hand you use for your hand bridge should always be clean or gloved to allow the shaft to pass through or over easily. Use whatever handbridge you prefer, open or closed but always keep the butt of your hand firmly on the table.

2 Stroke: A good stroke is smooth, efficient, and precise. This is accomplished by minimizing movement in you body. A good stroke starts long before you attempt to shoot a ball. First, you must examine the table and select a shot you want to make. Determine if the shot requires any english and decide what speed you should use on the cue ball. Don't approach the shot until you have decided these two things and chalked your cue. Next, you must position yourself for the shot. Try to avoid leaning over the table or standing on one leg. Position yourself in such a way that if the table were removed, you wouldn't fall over. In other words, always stay balanced. When you bend over to shoot take two or three slow preparatory strokes. Your head should be aligned directly over the cue. You're stroking arm should be locked at the shoulder. Arm movement should be limited to the elbow down. The forearm should be straight down and the butt of the cue should be directly under your forearm. If you're hand is curled in or out and the cue is not directly under you forearm, adjust your hand until this alignment is achieved. It may feel awkward at first, but your accuracy will improve dramatically if you do it this way. Your preparatory strokes should me smooth and precise. To get a rhythm going, inhale slightly when pulling back; exhale slightly when moving forward. On the final, actual stroke pull back slowly again. Don't freeze in the back position. Proceed forward immediately with a smooth, fluid motion, exhaling fully while you do so. Keep your head down through the shot. A common mistake people make is immediately jumping up and watching all the balls roll. This is a mechanical flaw that will lessen the accuracy of the shot. On the follow through, don't try to jerk the stick back after the shot (don't jab). This places tension in the stroking muscles and impedes a good straight stroke (even draw shots require a good follow through to get maximum reverse english). Shoot easy! Almost all players try to over power the cue ball. See how softly you can shoot. There are many benefits to this. Your accuracy will improve. You will be able to see off center hits on the cue ball and correct your stroke. You will be able to see the effect english has on the object ball. It will also be easier to maintain your form. There is one more thing you need to do. Hold the cue as level as possible. The higher the butt of your cue on off centered hits, the more you will deflect the cue ball. We will talk more about deflection later but basically it means if you hit on the right side of the cue ball it will squirt to the left a little and vice versa. This affects the accuracy of your shot.

Remember: Minimal body movement on every shot. Stay balanced through the entire shot. Don't dip your shoulder while shooting or twist your body in any way. Stay down and exhale on the follow through. Do not OVERPOWER the cueball! Learn to feel the stroke of the stick by shooting easier. Exaggerate these points until they become second nature.

3 Warm-up: All things being equal, the player that warms up will prevail over the one who doesn't. It is very import to practice for at least 10 - 15 minutes before any match. Pool is a finesse' game and it's important get both mentally and physically attuned to the environment you are playing in. Stay focused and try to reduce the size of the room to the pool table. Don't let anything distract you externally or internally. Concentration is paramount in this game. Stand at the rack end of the table with a single striped ball. Place the ball on the rack spot and stroke it to the center diamond on the break (opposite) end of the table. Freeze your cue at the end of the stroke and see if the ball returns to the tip of your cue. A true straight stroke will cause this happen. Secondly, note how far the tip of your cue extends passed the spot. This is a visual indicator of how much follow through you are getting on your shots. Work for a five to eight inch extension through you shot. Practice shooting a few draw, follow, and english shots from the same starting point. The striped ball will allow you to see how much spin is being applied. Strive for consistency. Place the ball near a corner pocket and try shooting a 3 rail shot to the adjacent corner pocket. Try shooting this shot just hard enough to make the ball. The minimum speed required to shoot this shot is the most speed you will need for any shot during actual play. I'll say it again. Most players over power the cue ball. Use this three-rail bank shot as a guide for maximum power for your stroke (including draw shots).

4 Aiming: Most players have trouble making certain types of shots. Some players are good at straight in shots while others are good at cutting balls. To play good pool though you need to make all types of shots. It is relatively easy to make a ball as long as you can see where to aim. We will discuss the various types of shots you will encounter and tricks you can use to make aiming easier. First though, we will discuss the various things that can make any shot go wrong.

Deflection: Whenever you apply any left or right spin to the cue ball there is going to be some amount of deflection of the cue ball caused by the off center hit. You might not notice it on short shots where you have a wider margin of error to work with, but on longer shots the deflection will burn you if you don't account for it. For example: Lets say you want to shoot a ball three feet away and cut it to the right with left english. You will need to over cut the ball slightly or put another way aim farther to the left than the point of contact needs to be. The deflection caused by hitting the cue ball on the left side will push it slightly back to the right and give you the proper hit to make the ball. Understanding the effects of deflection on the cue ball will help you adjust your aim to make balls more consistently.

Throw: Whenever you strike an object ball with a center hit it will slide forward momentarily before leaving in the direction dictated by the point of contact with the cue ball. To compensate for this you must do one of two things. First you could overcut the ball. For example: Lets say you want to cut a ball to the right in the corner pocket. Aim so that it looks the object ball will fall in the right side of the pocket. The throw effect will 'push' the ball to the center of the pocket. Secondly you could eliminate the throw effect by shooting the cue ball with left english. The left english will spin the ball in accurately but don't forget to account for deflection of the cue if you try this on a long cut shot.

Straight in shots: These shots are easy to aim but often times difficult to make.

5 Jump shots: Full masse' jump shots require much skill and practice but lesser jump shots are easier to do. In fact, you're probably already doing it without even realizing it. To demonstrate this point, place a coin on the pool table. Gently roll the cue ball over the coin with your hand and note the sound and feel. Now shoot the cue ball over the coin with the butt of the cue just slightly elevated. Can you see that the ball jumped the coin(s)? Practice this shot using two or more coins to learn the range you currently have. The reason you need to know this is because even though you can't jump completely over a ball yet, it is still useful to jump the extreme edge of another ball to complete a shot. For example, if you have a short straight-in shot, but the edge of another ball occupies the path the cue ball must follow, simply elevate the butt of the cue like you have just learned. The cueball will seem to magically pass through the blocking ball.

There is a variation of this jump shot that is even more powerful, just as simple execute, and many advanced players don't know it or don't see it. Suppose you have a straight in shot. The path between the cue ball and the object ball is unobstructed. However, between the object ball and the pocket there is a trouble ball with its edge looming in the path you need. Shoot the same jump shot with just a touch more power. If you strike the object ball with the cue ball while it's just slightly airborne (diagram 5-b side view and diagram 5-c top view), the object ball will hop neatly over the edge of the trouble ball and your opponent will be stunned. Just smile, say you got lucky and keep shooting. It will be your secret weapon.

Side view of object ball jumping:
Top view of object ball jumping:

A final variation of this jump shot will actually allow you to jump an entire ball quiet easily. This is a desperation shot though and should be used only as a last resort. Suppose you need to hit a specific ball but a blocking ball is directly in the path and you don't have the skill for a full masse' jump. What do you do? Shoot in the opposite direction as we have just been describing directly into the rail. If you can hit the rail with the cue ball slightly airborne, the cue ball will jump back through the air and over the ball you are trying to avoid.

6 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.

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 will discuss banks. But remember; bank balls only when you have no other reasonable option.

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 below 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. This is one way to change the angle of rebound. 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 right english will cause the angle to open up or get wider when banking to the left. Inside spin or left english will cause the angle to close up or get narrower when banking to the left. When banking a ball the length of the table, you can actually shoot the object ball straight into the rail and use the english of the cue ball to cause the object ball to angle back towards the pocket.

7 Draw shots: The two most common mistakes on draw shots is shooting too hard and not following through the shot with the cue stick. Line up a shot for the side pocket and practice shooting a ball in using a striped ball for the cue ball.

First just concentrate on making the ball. Next try making the stripped ball stop after pocketing the object ball. After you develop some proficiency with this make the cue ball come backwards a little and finally learn to shoot with such pure straight draw that the stripped ball will come backwards and scratch in the opposite side pocket. Mastering this simple shot will put you beyond the skill level of most pool players.

8 Breaking: Your shooting too hard! I'll bet you didn't expect to see that statement here. Slow down even on the break. The break is a precision shot that only requires a smooth center ball hit. Practice breaking with smooth center ball so that the cue ball backs up to the center of the table.

9 Pool players mantra:

A Start with clean and well maintained equipment
B Chalk up
C Select a shot
D Stay balanced
E Get down low over the cue stick
F Use the appropriate hand bridge
G Take 2 or 3 warm up strokes
H Exhale on follow through
I Don't shoot too hard
J Stay down through the shot