In the another article about Stroke I discussed the ground rules for a solid and reliable stroke. All the good players have a combination of a solid stroke and an exceptional sense of aim. Having learned the fundamentals of a superior stroke, you are now ready to learn the proper technique for aiming and you'll be on your way to becoming a good pool player.

Point of Contact

The biggest question that a new player always asks is "Where do I hit the object ball to make it go into the pocket?". The answer is simple... you need to find the "point of contact" on the object ball. In other words, figure out the area on the object ball that needs to be hit by the cue ball. In Figure 1 below, the "point of contact" is indicated by the arrow.

Figure 1

Cue Ball Contact

Figure 2 below displays where the cue ball should be when it makes contact with the object ball. Notice how the cue ball makes contact with the object ball... this is the "point of contact" that I am talking about. Let's say for example that you have a straight in shot at the one-ball, the "point of contact" will then be at the center of the "one" ball. For a straight in shot, you simply aim straight towards the center of the object ball to make the shot.

Aiming Technique #1

Aiming for a straight-in shot is fairly simple because the contact point would be the center of the object ball. However, aiming for cut shots or angle shots are a little more difficult. Look at the illustrations below... as you'll notice the "point of contact" is no longer at the center of the object ball, instead it is located a little bit on the left of center. One of the most common mistakes that a newer player makes on cut shots is aiming at the "point of contact" on the object ball instead of aiming at the "aim point" as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1

Figure 2

One technique for aiming is using an imaginary ball besides the object ball that lines up directly towards the pocket. Refer to Figure 1 above. The imaginary ball is represented by a dotted circle. Now all you have to do is aim at the center of the imaginary ball as if you are doing a straight-in shot with the imaginary ball (see Figure 2).

It takes a while before you can feel comfortable with your sense of aim but if you spend enough time practicing it you will slowly learn to aim even without using an imaginary ball.