Combination Shots made easy - Easy Pool Tutor

Combination shots are shots that are usually avoided unless there is no other alternative. In 9 ball a combo on the 9 can easily win you the game and often gives you a chance to win a match against a better player. If you understand the interaction between the cue ball and the object ball you will greatly increase your chance of making the shot. Object ball deflection is the key to the making the combination shot. If you don't understand object ball deflection please read the lesson How Did I Miss That Easy Cut Shot. This lesson is just a logical extension of the Cut Shot lesson of which I will go over the more important parts again. When the cue ball is struck in the center without appling english the cue ball doesn't deflect off the line of aim and goes directly to it's intended target. This is show in the diagram below.

However if the cue ball contacts the object ball at an angle even without english being applied to the cue ball and the speed at contact with the object ball is great enough the object ball and cue ball will deflect away from each other along the line of aim. This is demonstrated in the diagram below where the cue ball contacts the 1 ball at the correct aim point but is deflected to the right causing the nine ball to miss the pocket to the left.

In the diagram above the 1 ball must be hit a little (1/16" to 1/4" or greater depending on how hard the cue ball is hit) to the right of the aim point to correct for the deflection as shown in the next diagram.