STAGE 1: KICKING (TO CONTROL)

“Please note for the purposes of the diagrams below, that solid lines during kick shots are where the kicks go with no english and the dotted lines are where I kicked after applying spin.”

In my first match of the second day I had to play a top Puerto Rican player who’d come over from the island with a few other players to compete in the event. He was supposedly their top guy and had made his way through day 1 undefeated. As an unknown player he received a 1 game spot from all of our top guys and many people were chatting as him being a favorite to win the event getting a 1 game spot. I of course didn’t know any of this until after our match which I suppose helped me out mentally. In any case a couple situations popped up in this match which I’ll share in a few of these stage outlines. The first being a 2 rail kick safety that came up during the match. My opponent had played a decent safe squeezing the cue ball behind the 8 ball on the head rail but leaving the 1 ball very near the corner pocket. as shown below.

A safety with a not so obvious optimal escape…

The cue ball was not frozen to the object ball so the initial inclination is to kick 1 rail directly up table and back down to the 1. The problem with, and why that pattern is the wrong way to approach this kick, is because the scratch is obvious and a very big possibility. Both the one rail ball first contact and a potential 2 rails glancing off the 1 make the scratch highly probable. That would give the opponent complete control and in a short race that’s the last thing you need. So the approach has to be to find a pattern that leaves the 1 ball in a much more favorable, big ball position but also keeps the cue ball safe because your coming from a different direction altogether. Here was my solution.

A little more than 2 tips reverse english does the trick!

This 2 rail glancing kick out of the top right corner (as you view it) gives you the shooter a much more favorable position in returning this kick with a response for safety or potentially pocketing the 1 altogether. Plus the 1 ball becomes much bigger with contact happening on the short side, and far side of the kick. You could even spin too far and make contact off the third rail as well so the kick is actually way more forgiving than you would assume. I’d venture to say it’s easier than the 1 rail option for the above reasons.

The key factor about this kick that must be stated is that in this range, you’re getting induced spin from the rail because of the sticky cloth conditions. That’s to say that putting no english on the cue ball actually equates to putting 2–3 tips of english on whitey after contact with the rail and forces the cue ball to naturally take the 3 rail pattern. To get yourself on the correct line to go directly to the ball, you have to put 2–3 tips of reverse english. 2 tips reverse got me to the high side of the 1, 3 tips would’ve possibly pocketed the 1 ball, but since my cue ball was so close to the bottom rail, I could only reasonably manage slightly more than 2 tips of left english without getting into slight masse territory. Nonetheless this shot turned the position for me and won me this game as I regained control after my opponents next inning.