When a player is first learning to play, the main strokes are those that produce follow, draw and stop shots. But once you gain a full understanding of those shots, one of the most important additions to your arsenal is the stun-follow. The stun-follow is essentially a stop shot with a touch of follow.

Don’t confuse the stun-follow with a traditional follow shot. On a follow shot, the cue ball needs time and space to generate forward momentum. And that has to do with speed. In straight pool, if you hit a break shot with softer speed, the cue ball will have time to generate follow even before it hits the break ball. If you hit the same shot harder, the cue ball doesn’t have enough time to develop that forward roll before it hits the break ball. That’s stun-follow. And in straight pool, that will often result in the cue ball getting glued to the rack.

Similarly, if you have a straight-in shot that is eight feet away and you want to stop the cue ball, you have to strike it low enough and hard enough so that the reverse spin holds for almost the entire distance but begins to slide with no spin just before it strikes the object ball.

With stun-follow, the harder you hit the cue ball, the longer the stun lasts before it changes to follow. It literally has no spin on it for a greater distance. It “walks forward.” With straight follow, the cue ball “runs” forward. With stun-follow, you don’t want the cue ball to begin its forward roll until it hits the object ball. With pure follow, you want the cue ball to have a forward roll before it hits the object ball.

To test this, set up a straight-in shots to the side pocket, with the cue ball a foot away from the object ball. Hit the cue ball hard, with stun-follow, and the object ball will rocket into the pocket. The cue ball will trickle forward after the hit. If you strike the same shot softer, the object ball and cue ball will move forward at the same pace.

As a practice drill, set up any straight shot you want, from any distance. Shoot a stop shot five times. Then shoot the same shot at the same speed but move your cue tip up a half tip. Stun-follow is a shot at stop shot speed but struck a half-tip higher on the cue ball.

The reason stun-follow is such a valuable stroke to learn is that you sometimes find yourself in a position where a straight stop shot will leave you hooked, and a pure follow shot will have a similar result. Your best result would be to have the cue ball move forward but only a bit. Trying to accomplish that with pure follow is a tall order. Your stroke would have to be very soft and delicate. In general, top players avoid slow-rolling balls because they are unpredictable.