How do I shoot hard down the rail and pot balls on tight pockets?

RAIL SHOTS
How do I shoot hard down the rail and pot balls?

6 Pages 4-8-04 rev I, 1-22-05, rev 6-12-06, 11-23-07, CR, Fast Larry
Guninger all rights reserved. Published in DC, bpn, czm, upp, ppt,
flp, btt, rsb.


REMEMBER THIS RULE: Running English puts safe inside on the OB. Try
and Always use the English that will transfer to the OB English that
will keep it hugging the rail and not bring it off into the outside
point of the pocket. Image putting your cue tip on the object ball
and putting English on it towards the rail, inside, now put the
opposite English on your cue ball.
English does transfer. Put right on the CB and it throws the OB to
the left. Put left on the CB and it throws the OB to the right.
Its gets real confusing fast. In the first diagram we are shooting a
draw on the left long rail. To make the shot you need left inside on
the CB which will transfer the opposite English to the OB, which is
right and unfavorable because it is now running and comes off the rail
into the point to blip out. The proper safer English would be running
on the CB which puts inside reverse check on the OB which keeps it on
the rail and away from the outside point.

If we were shooting this same shot on the right long rail the safe
shot would be left running on the CB putting right inside on the OB.

http://CueTable.com/P/?@4Gbhm2HJEh1POIH4QeEy1RJtk4bbhm4bYWq1kOIH4karX4kcON2kblv1kIGj@

http://cuetable.com/P/index.html

Here we have an example of a trap shot. On big pockets you can make
this shot by using inside low left draw, 7:30 and hitting the OB
first. On tight pockets it blips the ball out. Hit the rail and OB
at the same time, you do half right, pot and not get down table. Same
if you use 6:00 or favorable throw 4:30. The lesson is when you go
into tight pockets some of your old regular shots you must give up
because they will not go. Learn how to play snooker then you will
understand.

Instead of the draw which is doomed to fail hit a spin shot. You hit
the OB and rail at the same time, throwing in left into the pocket and
using 2 to 3:00 2 tips out the CB goes 3 rails and down table without
hitting it hard. This is the proper shot to choose in this case.

http://cuetable.com/P/index.html

http://CueTable.com/P/?@4GbQa2HHQh1PPfE4QciB1RQWj4bbQa4bcAX1kPfE4kbQI4kbQI4kHxl3kbNs1kOKi@

WEI TABLE

http://CueTable.com/P/?@3AATV1PYLh3UATV3UYfX1kYLh4kBJJ@boogeydodoo.

You will see a long line of codes with funny numbers that make no
sense. To open the
table and see the shot place your cursor on the bottom line and left
click twice and the
shot should appear. If not try this.


Left click and blue in starting on the right side of the first line,
blue in the entire line and
drag your cursor all the way to the left until the entire line is
colored , then right click
and hit copy.

http://cuetable.com/P/index.html

Put your Cursor on 2nd shorter line in the middle and hold down ctrl
button on bottom
left side of key board and right click mouse at the same time. The
green pool table now
appears. Put your mouse cursor on the bottom rail at the side pocket,
now move it right
and there are two buttons l l/2 diamonds right of the side pocket.
When the cursor goes
over the first Green button it displays import data left click it and
ok to the next box,
the shot then displays.


A few years ago most tables for bangers in pool halls had 5" pockets
in the corners. A few years before that some were 5 l/2", which was
the table Mosconi had his high run on.
The tables for the better players and pros were 4 3/4" pro cut. You
could order either one. On 5" you could get by with murder, use lots
of English and be a real shot maker. On pro cut you had to back off
some and be more careful. Today they want to save money and only have
one set of rails so now all you see are the pro cut. 5" is not longer
sold by most.

In just about every pool hall where there was action the one pocket
gamblers would set up one or two tables with 4 l/2" pockets to trap
the poor guy coming in to play that had been on 5" the day before.
Play on 5" pockets for several days and then go on 4 l/2" and you are
dead for several hours until you readjust to them. Pocket sizes have
varied over the years and in Greenleafs time they were 4 l/2", Mosconi
had all these high runs playing into 5 and 5 l/2", we went to 5, to 4
3/4 and it continues to go tighter and tighter. On tour I see a
different pocket size at every event. I see 4 l/2 and 4 3/4" if the
tables are set up new in an arena.

This forced me to triple shim my gold crown at home in order to learn
how to shoot into them and I am 4 3/8". I practice with pool balls on
a 5x10' snooker table into 4" pockets now and then before an event
just to lose my fear of long shots. You need to go into a new table
and fire the cue ball using no English down the rail just hitting it
before the pocket to see how much speed it will take before blipping
out. You need to roll a ball down both long rails to see if a side
pocket point sticks out and will deflect the shot. Any time I see
pockets below pro cut that means my entire game must change. I have
to stop using English and If I have to use half what I normally did.

It now becomes a very soft shot game and its all about producing what
Greenleaf called the Golden angle where you play angle to angle which
enables you to then use all center ball. You just keep producing that
slight 20 or 30 degree cut so you can stun and slide back and forth or
use the long rails. You avoid any power shot. You accept some power
shots your opponent may leave you just can't be made with a high
enough percentage to take them on. You play safe on them. It's an
entirely different game and mind set you must go into. You learn to
slow roll OB's down those rails. You learn to never hit a long rail
going in. You train to learn how to hit the center of the pockets.
If I see a side pocket 5 l/2" I shoot a lot into them but if it's 5"
or less I stop and go down into the 4 corners instead. You can catch
a table with normal corners and way too tight sides and the locals
sometimes set them up that way to trap you. Never gamble on another
mans table. Make your game, then insist you move to a neutral table.
Do not get trapped on the action table they set up to beat you on
which has all kinds of quirks they know about.


You have to know the type of table you are on as well. A Gandy big G
pots great and accepts hard shots. The Gold crowns have sharp
punative points and are not my favorites. I prefer Diamond and
Olhausen pros. It is very important you carry a 6" rular in your case
and measure the corner pockets point to point and also the sides.
Just shoving two balls in the corner does not give you a correct
measurement. Table specs are so wide open they are useless and every
table is different. The Chinese and Koreans are taking over pool and
running it
And they come from a Snooker background they want to turn pool into a
tight pocket game which gives them a huge advantage. This explains
how a 16 year old Chinese could become world champion playing in 4
3/8" pockets. If they were 4 3/4 I doubt he would have won.


I can spot the hustler real fast. He gives off signals. I pick him
up the way he holds his chalk, grips the cue and moves. I just smell
the guy, feel him. One of the big tip offs is when he hits a cut
down the rail. Bangers make these shots but they go in sloppy usually
hitting the rail first. The real player makes them perfect, clean.
His ball goes down the rail and does not hit the long rail, right into
the outer facing and falls nicely. These boys are great at these
shots. So if you are playing a stranger and he runs a couple of nice
cuts down the rail dead perfect, a red flag should go up the flag
pole. Just set up several cut shots from simple to very hard and
spend 20 minutes a day shooting them. Do not accept a pot unless it
goes in dead perfect, which is not hitting the long rail. Do that for
a month and you will be a deadly rail potter as well as your brain
will now see the proper cut angles. When you learn to hit those shots
well and get them off perfectly tables wear little troughs along the
rail and the OB will run and stay in them.

The $64 dollar question is do you hit the OB first or the rail?
There is no answer to this. The top player or pro after a decade of
experience and 2 million balls potted does it without thought. He
just sees and fells the shot and his cpu lines it up for him allowing
for the deflection. The newbie has to calculate this and be aware of
the different tangent angles these produce. I spend over an hour
teaching the RHCLD drill which shows you how to make some shots where
you must hit the OB first and fat, but soft enough to not blip out the
OB. Others the rail and ball must be hit at the same time. You must
master both shots. On the shot coming up where we are potting a ball
up table and then have to draw back down table the best way to do that
is hit the OB first and that works on 5" pockets, but gets dicey on
pro cut and fails on 4 l/2". There are so many variables on these
shots it becomes a major study.

Set up the cut on the one ball where the cue ball is on diamond one
and the one ball is on diamond 2. When you pot 3 in a row perfect,
then keep the cue ball where it is and just keep moving the one, OB up
another diamond until you make 3 in a row again. The shot just keeps
getting longer and harder. .

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http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/~wei/pool/pooltable2.html


First you must understand that English transfers and that is not a
myth and no bull. Hit an OB full and you can transfer a lot. Hit it
half ball and you can transfer very little but some. Before we get to
that, set your cue ball next to the long rail just a couple inches off
of it. Your cue ball is now below where the balls rack up on the
right side of the table just below where the balls rack up. Now shoot
down table to pot and in off the cue ball in the corner 8' away. Just
scratch and pot the Cue ball hard with force. Aim to hit the long
rail a few inches in front of the pocket. This is to show you what
happens when you hit the long rail first shooting very hard. You do
not want to do this. You want to hit the outer facing instead but
reality is you will hit the rail cushion coming in more times than you
will hit the outer facing. You must understand how and why this now
reacts.

I had been feeding Bob Byrne tons of shots and data for years and all
I got back from this guy was jealousy and abuse. He was taking my
work and making money on it and kicking me in the nuts to say thanks.
Where I cut him off was when he published you cannot transfer English
to an OB. So little does cross over it becomes useless. I sent
Boobie a diagram where I have a CB in a corner, shoot the OB into the
long rail where it reverses twice and goes up and down table staying
on the same rail 3 times and posts. I said, explain that. He said,
impossible, I said video in the mail. Ring a dingie, did you get the
video. Yes, and, impossible. The eyes don't lie boobie. I don't
care how you did this, it can't be done, impossible. I went then you
are saying I cheated, I am a liar, if you can't admit when you are
wrong, or can't learn anything new from me, listen to what comes after
Hasta La Vista boobie, dial tone. In the same Mag, another ding dong
Mike Sigel writes there is no such thing as throw. Get used to it, in
your main mag, two big names are selling you things that do not work
because they don't know. How scary is that one. They are not the
only two doing this, the game is ripe with it. It probably never
occurred to you that you could be fine, the reason you cannot play is
bad advice, bad methods, bad teachers.

http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/~wei/pool/pooltable2.html

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Shoot first hitting one tip high left, note the ball will blip out on
pro pockets, 4 3/4" almost every time, the running English hits the
rail, jumps out wide to hit the pocket point which causes the blip
out.

Now do the same exact shot, hit the same point short of the pocket
again, this time using high right reverse. Note, no matter how hard
you hit it, this shot pots every time. What you learn here is that
running English on the OB kills you and causes you to miss, the other
reverse English allows you to drill the shot and get by with it. One
works and should be favored and used, the other one avoided. The
reverse holds the ball on the rail and avoids the point and blip out.
The OB now hits the facing and pots and comes in away from the point
that causes the blip outs.

Put the cue ball in the left corner pocket to the left of where the
balls rack up and now shoot into diamond two, the 2nd diamond down on
the right long rail, use one tip left medium speed, on most tables the
shot will go 3 rails and pot in the bottom right hand corner. That is
called putting running English on the cue ball. Note on a bad table
the aim point could be 1 to l l/2 diamonds, new table, new rubber &
new simonois, it could be diamond 3 as this plays short always. The
point is running English makes the diamonds connect and the diamond
system work. Once you know this, then you face a shot where the
object ball is now where your cue ball was and you must shoot your cue
ball into that object ball. You desire to transfer to it running
English. Yes you can transfer a little to the OB by shooting the
reverse of what you put on the cue ball. If before you hit the cue
ball with running left, you now strike the cue ball with 2 tips right,
which transfers running left on the OB. The fuller you hit the OB the
more English you can transfer. A full ball hit using 3 tips out
transfers a lot. A half ball hit using one tip out transfers almost
none or very little. Shoot into A, diamond 2 and go 3 rails and pot
the 9 in D.


http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/~wei/pool/pooltable2.html

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Back to the shot on the rail, shooting table length 7' away wanting to
pot a ball at diamond one that is one foot out of the right top right
pocket. Your CB is again below the rack spot on the right long
rail. You need to hit this shot with great force in order to pot and
come all the way back down table. This can be done two ways, with a
force follow or a force draw.

Now go back and think about the 9 thousand times you have faced this
shot. Here are the real ugly facts; you screwed this up 8, 900
times. You rarely pull this puppy off and usually that shot is the
difference in your winning or losing a game or a set.

You pot the ball and don't get back down table for the shape. You hit
it hard, blip the OB out for the miss and get down table for the
shape. You rarely perform both together. Come on, come clean, do not
lie to me here, just face the facts here and learn and get hip. To
make the shot you must hit it perfect which you rarely do unless you
are a top pro making a thousand balls a day in practice. If you are
just a club player you will fail far more than you will succeed.

Let us now examine now why? Go to the right long rail, you are below
the rack spot, you are shooting up table. You have two shots
available to pot and get back down table. The force follow using
10:30 or 9:00 left which produces good right reverse English and makes
the pot and produces the shape. The 4:30 draw which is right produces
running left which produces the blip out if hit very hard and that
shot fails a lot. When faced with this draw, use 6:00 instead and
take less shape but you make the pot and do have a decent shot from
it. Practice using 7:30 and see where that ends up at. Just imagine
in your mind what English you want on the object ball to help it pot
and if you know that is right side reverse on the object ball then you
hit left on the cue ball and it transfers to the OB. In that case any
shot hit left draw or follow is on and any shot where you have to hit
right on the cue ball to get shape is in great danger of missing if
hit hard. You must remember and memorize this simple rule so you use
the right English automatically without thinking in the future.

On the right long rail, the draw down table is again 4:30 which again
produces bad running left English on the OB. Use again 6:00 and 7:30
and you will find on many of these shots they do not get you all the
way down table or will scratch in the side pocket. The only shot that
does is the 4:30 with the high risk of the blip out. But a spin shot
using 10:30 or 9:00 force follow produces favorable English to the OB
and comes around and all the way down table. It is the best shot so
don't always thing draw, you do have a choice.
Practice hitting that shot with simple low 6:00, you will find you
show up at about the same place as 4:30 with out the throw problems.
If you do not hit that 4:30 draw dead perfect with a soft perfect draw
most of you are doomed. Players have that shot mastered. For the
club players, you are toast on this shot.

Now go to the opposite long rail and shoot up the left side to pot a
ball 7' away froze on diamond one. 4:30 draw is bad, 6:00 or 7:30 is
better. The best force follow option is 1:30 or 3:00 and that
produces good English and pots well.

Faced with having to hit the shot that transfers the wrong English on
the OB and will give me lousy odds of potting the ball I would then
not take the shot and play safe instead and hope to get lucky. Why
take a shot, you know you are doomed at. Now that you know why you
have been doomed shooting this shot for so long. When you are set
with this shot and the wrong English is on, duck. Now you finally
know, why you make some of these, and miss some of these, because
nobody ever explained how these work to you before now. Send
donations to my retirement fund at the Mirage Casino in Vegas. Mail
checks to the pit boss Vito on craps table #1, he comps me in the
joint.

The most asked question by beginners and intermediate players is on a
rail shot, ball frozen to the rail, how I shoot it. I go, man that is
an hour lesson in it self. That answer can be very complex. To try
and make that answer simple for you here, if the scratch is not on,
hit running English every time, it helps throw the ball down the rail
to pot. It puts the reverse transfer of English on the OB. Shooting
down the right long rail from the head of the table to a frozen ball
on the right long rail to pot you would apply left, 9 or 10:30 and
that again apply a transfer of reverse English on the OB. At the foot
of the table shooting at a frozen ball on the right long rail you
would apply the same running English, 9 or 10:30. To prevent a
scratch in the left corner or for positional purposes, some times you
use center ball, draw 6:00 or even reverse English.

They must all be practiced and mastered. The hardest one is hitting
the cue ball and the rail at the same time, avoid that one if you can
because that is hard to do. You think you do this, but the truth is
you are screwing it up usually hitting the rail first or the OB
first. If you are not an A player, you do not have the skills to pull
this shot off so stop using it.

Many of my advanced drills I teach especially on draws and on some
force follows are only made by hitting the OB first before the rail,
cheating the pocket and getting by with it. You hit the OB fat, but
by loading up the cue ball with opposite English, you throw the OB in
the pocket and produce new tangent angles you never dreamed
possible. I cannot teach that in print and that can only be learned
one on one with me privately.

The rail balls are not your friends; they end your runs and make you a
loser. Learn to make them and ID where they are right after the
break.
Get at them early. My every move is to attack them, get shape on
them, and bump them free as early as I can. When I clear them, I can
then run out with ease. Leave them on the rails for your last shots
and you usually doom your self. The minute you see a rail ball, get
on it at once.

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