Category: Instructional Articles

It was day two of the tournament and he was on the b-side. He had played poorly, missing shots and hooking himself. He admitted that he hadn’t played well, but all he could talk about was how much he hated that heavy bar table cue ball. It didn’t do what he wanted and he kept getting into trouble. Being more accustomed to the red circle cue ball, he was having difficultly adjusting to the heavier bar ball and the smaller tables. He was complaining about the conditions.

The basic principle

Here is the secret of the frozen-ball shot reduced to a minimum. How often can you run the 8-ball the rail past the side pocket and into the corner? Two or three times out of ten tries would be commendable for the uneducated. Now that you know the secret of hitting the rail slightly first, you should be able to make it seven or eight times out to ten. (I just tried it and made nine out of ten, and I’m not a great shotmaker.)The cueball will carom off the 8-ball roughly as indicated by the solid line. Why this works is explained on page 24 of Byrne’s Advanced Techique in Pool and Billiards (1990).

The shot is also makeable by hitting the 8-ball and the rail at the same time using outside (left, in this case) English to eliminate the throw effect. This approach brings the cueball off the rail along the dashed line. Throw is eliminated by outside English because the cueball rolls off the object ball instead of rubbing against it during the millisecond of contact.

If you can set this shot up and tap it into the table before your mark shows up this makes a good One Pocket proposition. Freeze the 2 and 5 balls together as you see them in this diagram. The 2 ball is near the foot-rail a ball or two beyond the center of table on your opponents side. The 2 and 5 are aimed directly towards the first diamond on the long rail on your opponent’s side of the table.