A simple drill to prevent you from missing your lines.

I see so many league and amateur players miss their lines. And by “missing their lines,” I mean they aren’t sure where the cue ball is going after contact. Knowing the physics of the cue ball path after contact is absolutely critical to taking your game to the next level.

In particular, players become fixated on the 90-degree tangent line and don’t take into consideration shots using natural roll. The truth is, you play more shots rolling the cue ball with follow than any other cue ball action, and that path does not follow the tangent line.

Here is a drill that, if practiced consistently, will help your game jump to the next level. This drill has several versions, and in this issue, we’ll look at Version One. It’s easy to set up and it will test your skills and more importantly improve your game by helping you understand the importance of using the rails to help you with speed control and coming into the proper angles.



This is a rotation drill, so all the numbered balls are at the diamonds. You get ball in hand on every shot and the object is to pocket the object ball and bump each ball in rotation. The caveat is that every shot must have high natural rolling cue ball only. No punch shots or draw. No spin.

This looks simple and easy but, trust me, it’s not. I usually put the cue ball one or two feet from the object. Don’t get further away than that. Just a nice angle to contact the 1 ball. Same thing on Shot 2 with the 2 ball, using that natural line.

Shot 3 is a little tricky, using high cue ball with no English. Line this up just off straight.

Go to the other side of the table to find the natural path to hit the 4 ball. Same with the 5.

For the 6, go back to the opposite side again for the same angle as the one used for Shot 4.

For the last three balls, use the same paths as Shots 3, 2 and 1, respectively.