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Kicks and Banks - Part III (putting it all together)

© Copyright 2001, Jim Loy

This article is now in three parts: Part I (calculating), Part II (complications), and Part III (putting it all together).

Ball speed:

Pretend that you are shooting a simple bank, cross corner (or cross side perhaps), as in the diagram. You have chosen a method of aiming the red ball (in this diagram) as in Part I (calculating). You do not want to think about the complications in Part II (complications). You shoot this shot rather hard (crisply or medium hard) as you shoot all of your simple banks. Why? First of all, if you always shoot simple banks the same speed, they will react almost exactly the same, every time. Your banks will be predictable, and you will make a high percentage of them. Secondly, this crisp speed (probably harder than most of your other shots) seems to make the angle off the first rail nearly true. You probably aim at a point on the rail, instead of at a diamond, because of this faster speed. And with practice you can become very accurate with this one shot, from a great variety of angles. You have compensated for a large number of complications, without hardly (see comment below) thinking of them. You know about the complications, but you don't have to think about them on this shot.

Let's soften up the shot considerably, just hard enough for the red ball to definitely make it into the pocket. How do we shoot that. The angle is different. The shot will go longer, so we have to aim shorter. The diamonds are inset a ways from the rubber surface of the rail, for this purpose, apparently. So, you can use the same method of aiming that you did above, but this time you aim at the diamond instead of the point on the rail. So this shot should be as easy to do as the harder bank above.

So, one of these two banks (crisp or soft) is your main weapon in this situation, the simple cross bank. I contend that you must be good at both. Sometimes one is appropriate. Sometimes the other is appropriate. Remember that your job is not just to make balls, but to position the cue ball (and maybe other balls).

Other complications:

Be aware of all of the complications (Part II (complications)). When you are presented with an unusual position, you may have to use side English (running or reverse), or draw or follow, or extra ball speed, to change the angle and get around an obstacle. So you should have some idea just how each of these complications affect the angle. So you should probably practice each of these on all kinds of banks and kicks.

Safeties:

Certainly you should expect to make these banks. But they are not 100% guaranteed, are they? As with any relatively difficult shot, you should consider safety to some extent. Certainly, make the bank and run out. But leave your opponent a tough shot if you miss. And consider missing the bank, or not shooting the bank, if it will lose the game for you.

Comment: Above I accidentally said "without hardly." Believe it or not, this is a Double Negative, and should logically mean "with" instead of "without." I am leaving it in this article, as a good example of a colloquial expression which means something different from what it says logically.

Addendum:

This is similar to a shot in one of Mosconi's books. The red ball is on the spot. Mosconi says to shoot it directly at the diamond, as in the diagram. In order to make it, he must be shooting very hard, as far as I can tell. For a long time, I thought that was a typo.

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