"Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment exactly
proportioned to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow, when I know more, I recall
that piece of knowledge and use it better.”
-Mark Van Doren , 1894-1972
What I'm going to talk about in this section is some
situations in billiards that are not covered in the
lessons. So this is like the anything goes stuff.
But you would find these to be quite important and must
to know
things. These may include those difficult
shots and how to deal with them, special cases in
billiards where things would have been a lot better when
you have done it the other way. So like what I
said tips in billiard.
There are times in billiards where easy cut shot is not possible. In this case, you have
no choice but to use the cushion to sink the object ball, which is
called the bank shot. In a bank shot, you have to make the object ball
or cue ball to hit the rail first before it goes to its final destination, the pocket.
This type of shot is quite challenging because you have to deal with some other factors that
would affect the bounce of
the object ball from the rail. This could be the rubber, the spin
on the cue ball,
the strength of the stroke, etc. All of these like what I said will affect the rebound
of the object ball. So as you get more experience in billiard you can get
most of them under control. But for now,
you have to know how to deal with this kind of billiard situation. So the question is,
how would you do a bank shot? Ok, see the diagram
below.
As you see, a bank shot requires some good mental measurement
that because you literally have to do some real geometrical
measurements...and the hard part is...you have to keep it in your
head...use of chalk on the billiard table is a foul. But,
things
will be ok because there's a trick for that. So,
are you ready? You surely are ready. Ok,
the trick in doing a bank shot is to locate the apex
(point) of a triangle where its two sides intersect
through the center of the object ball and the
pocket. In the diagram, one side ( yellow arrow)
intersects with five ball while the other ( white long
arrow) intersects with the pocket. Now, the point
where the two sides meet is the apex. This is
where you're going to have the object ball or cue ball to hit
first (given that you don't apply any English or any
spin to the ball). Now, the problem lies on how you would
find the apex. One good trick is to imagine a straight
line that cuts through the middle of a triangle (orange
line in our billiard diagram above). This line
should cut the triangle in equal half.
As a beginner you can use you the billiard cue for
this. Now
check if the two sides intersect with the object ball
and pocket. If not, adjust the apex to the left
or right accordingly while you keep on checking on the
two sides simultaneously. Once you establish where the apex is,
make sure you can refer back to it when you're about to
make the shot, you can use the reference points on the
billiard table in this case, that what they are for
anyway. This sounds complicated, doesn't? No worry
because as you play more and more billiards, you will get
used it and you will find a bank shot quite easy to execute.
We will include more tips in billiard in the future so
don't forget to check back.
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