The Figure below shows you a situation using a draw shot with a straight-in shot. The cue ball position for the draw shot (indicated by a black circle) draws the cueball a few inches and still gain acceptable position for the eight ball.

Figure 1

So how does the cue ball react when using a Draw stroke on a shot with a cut angle?

Refer to the illustrations below. On a below center ball hit on the cue ball, the cue ball will travel at more than 90 degree angle from the direction of the object ball. This will vary depending on the amount of cut or angle and the amount of draw or underspin that you put on the cue ball. As you can see on the first illustration, the angle of the cut is more or less around 45 degrees so the direction of the cue ball after impact is slightly over 90 degrees. But on the second illustration, there is very little angle so the direction of the cue ball after impact is almost up to 180 degrees! 180 degrees is of course a straight in shot using draw (see animation on the Draw Shot lesson).

Keep in mind that as the angle of the cut increases, the direction of the cue ball after impact decreases towards (but never reaches) 90 degrees. As the angle of the cut decreases up to the point where it is almost a straight in shot, the direction of the cue ball increases towards almost 180 degrees.

Please continue to the next lesson,
Basic Position Play - Follow