TIPS & TRICKS

CHALK FOR EVERY SHOT

Chalking your cue isn't just so idle players have something to fidget with. The purpose of chalking your cue is to add friction between your cue's tip and the slippery surface of the cue ball. This allows your cue to better grip the cue ball and allows for a more consistent and predicable shots. But after a shot, most if not all the chalk will have fallen off your cue. This is why every professional and experienced pool player chalks before every shot they take. Don't take chalk for granted, it's there to help you!

CHALK PROPERLY

Now that we know why its important to chalk, it's important to know how to apply it! It may sound pedantic, but most laypeople apply chalk in a way that is useless and wasteful. DO NOT twist the chalk on the cue like you're sharpening a pencil. This not only wastes chalk and uses it up faster, but it actually provides no real benefit to you. This is because it tends to only chalk the outer edge of your cue tip, not the center. The center is the most important area to chalk as that is the only area that comes into contact with your cue.

To Properly Apply Chalk: Gently drag the chalk across the tip of your cue in a straight line. Periodically between strokes you can rotate your your cue a few degrees to ensure even application. Stop when the center of your cue has a nice even layer of chalk.

Fun Fact: You can always tell when folks chalk incorrectly if the chalk cube has a large hole or crater in it. When properly applying chalk the cube will wear more evenly.

USE PROPER FORM

Everyone's shooting style tends to be a bit different, but here's some universal tips that help everyone...

Keep Your Wrist Straight

When gripping the cue, make sure your wrist stays straight and perpendicular to the floor. Do not curl your wrist with the cue as you might be tempted to.

No Death Grip

Many players have a tendency to grip their cue like their life depends on it. This isn't necessary and makes it harder for you to make straight shots. Instead, grip the cue securely but gently. If you struggle with a death grip habit you may find it useful to try shooting with only a three finger grip for awhile until you've broken it.

Get Your Head in the Game

Centering your head over your cue when lining up and taking a shot can be a tremendous improvement to success. To do so, make sure your head rests so that your cue passes right under your chin. Additionally, it helps with aiming to get your chin as close as comfortably possible to your cue without touching or dipping bellow it.

Keep Your Stroke Straight

Making straight shots is vital to your success. You may not realize it but many inexperienced players accidentally make crooked shots. It is important to keep your shooting arm straight and pivot from a single point. 

An easy way to test and practice the straightness of your shots is a practice technique called the Striaght Line Drill. Using an empty pool table, take a cue ball and shoot it into the rail farthest from you. After you make contact with the cue ball hold your cue still. If your shot was straight, the cue ball should come right back to the tip of your cue. 

CUE BALL CONTROL

A big step to improving your play is being able to control the cue ball. You can impart different motion on the cue ball based on where you strike it. More advanced techniques rely on striking the cue ball to one side or another to impart sideways spin, but the more basic and most useful techniques described bellow rely on striking the cue ball in the middle of the x axis but varying on the y. 

Many players find it helpful to use a marked training cue ball when first practicing cue ball control. The club has a few training cue balls that members are welcome to use.

Stop Shot

As its name implies, stop shot causes the cue ball to come to an instant stop upon contact with another ball. To execute a stop shot, strike the cue ball just slightly below the center.

Draw Shot

Also called a return shot, a draw shot is used to return the cue ball back toward the player a certain distance after impact. To perform a draw shot, strike the cue ball a bit farther bellow the center than one would for a stop shot. Be carful not to strike too close to the bottom of the cue ball, as that can cause it to jump off the table. One can vary the power of their stroke and lightly adjust the location of their strike to vary how far they wish the ball to return after impact.

Follow Shot

If you want the cue ball to follow the ball it just contacted, strike it above the center. Be careful not to strike to far up the cue ball, as that can cause your cue to slip or "miscue" off the cue ball upon striking it. Much like the draw shot, you can vary the distance the cue ball moves by changing the power of your stroke and how far up the cue ball you strike it. 

PLAN AHEAD

Once you've mastered the fundamentals it's time to start thinking about what the pros call "position play". That is, much like a game of chess it's important in pool to think a few moves, or in our case shots ahead. Once you've got the basics of controlling the cue ball down you can use it to your advantage. Players practiced in position play plot their route around the table, pocketing one ball in such a way that the cue ball is lined up in an ideal way for the next and so on.

DIAMONDS AREN'T JUST DECORATIVE

Every pool table has some form of markings along the rails. Traditionally these are diamond in shape but can also be other shapes. The point is these markings is not just for decoration, but rather are there to help you make accurate shots banking off the rails. You will find that they are evenly spaced all the way around the table. Along with the pockets, they form an invisible grid on the table. Whatever angle a ball strikes the rail is the same angle it leaves it. Knowing all this, and being engineering students who know their way around geometry, we can use table diamonds to line up our banking shots. Once you get the hang of it you add a very useful technique to your skill set which can help you out in many tricky spots!