How to make a Kick Shot - Easy Pool Tutor

When shooting kick shots, many factors come into play. English and speed, will all play a part in the path of the CB, and may affect the ultimate OB path as well.

To understand the issues that can affect your success, I will first explain the principals of speed and english.

To see the different CB reactions in the speed of a shot, look at Diagram 1. If you center hit a left angle kick shot with no english, medium speed, it will come out at (A), then try to do the exact shot again, only with a harder stroke, the angle of rebound on the CB will come up narrow (B), again with slow speed and the CB will go wide (C). Why? The speed of the ball hitting and compressing the cushion causes different secondary effects. Speed of the kick shot is very important and can be used to advantage.

In this discussion, "english" is defined as only side spin on the CB, it does not include draw or top-spin.

To see the different CB reactions using english (CB side-spin) on a kick shot, look at Diagram 1 again. If you center hit a left angle kick shot with no english (Diagram 1), medium speed, the CB will come out at (A), then try to do the exact shot again, only with a 1 tip of left english on the CB, the angle of rebound on the CB will come up wide (C); hit it again with 1 tip of right english on the CB and it will go narrow (B). Why? Because the english on the CB causes it to come off the cushion at more or less of an angle, depending on direction of CB english.

There are also effects of rebound that occur depending on whether the CB is "back-spinning" or "stunned" (not spinning) off the cushion, but those are more advanced topics not covered here. The assumption is that the CB will begin rolling forward somewhat on all the shots I cover in this exercise.

Diagram 1