Pool Instruction: CueTips - An Important lesson to Improve our Pocketing Skills

Keeping your cue level is one of the most-overlooked fundamentals, but you can see it strongly held by the pros.

By NYC Grind Contributor, Mark Finkelstein



Players are from many different places, but one thing they all have in common was that they rarely played with a level stick. I know you might be thinking that you know this and your stick is level, but I challenge you to practice for a day paying particular attention to how level your stick really is.



Now when you are shooting draw or stop shots, your stick will point down a little, but for those long cut shots that most people tend to miss, having a really level stick, increases your percentage a lot. Try it, you might like it.



What happens if you are hitting down on the cue ball is that it jumps in the air. Dr. Dave has some great high speed video of this. In fact, he jumps over 4 pennies with a level stroke!!



When the cue ball is airborne, it tends to over cut the shot. In fact, I learned this from Stefano Pelinga. When you aim at jacked up shots, always aim a little fuller because the airborne cue ball tends to over cut the shot.



Here is a good practice exercise for those long cut shots that are easy to miss. Reset the cue ball after every shot, use no English, and roll the cue ball. This is the kind of practice that will win you games.

Remember, one key to consistently pocketing these shots is using a level cue stick and not over-hitting the shot. Roll the cue ball.



Let’s look at one example from a nine ball rack to see how this skill applies to a real game.



Here is your situation–It is hill hill and you are at the table:











You could play the six with low left and come back, but most players either scratch or come too far, leaving a tough cut on the 7 and a difficult position play to the 8.



Rolling the six and the 7 gets you a perfect angle on the 8 to get to the 9. The advantages of this are you are not hitting the balls hard, and using speed and angles to play position. If you don’t believe me, try playing the six with low left on a Diamond table and keep track of your percentage!



So remember this when you are playing on tough tables, level stick and rolling ball. Good luck

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