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"How to Pot a Ball"

of contacts between the cue-ball and the first object-ball. But there is no such margin of choice when you play to pot a ball. Then you must hit the object-ball in exactly the right place or your hazard will certainly be missed. What is the right spot to aim to hit when potting a ball? That is the question you want answered at this stage. Hundreds of pupils have asked me this question, and I will explain how I answer it. If you place the red on the pyramid spot, with the white ball touching it and dead in line with the top pocket, as shown in Fig. 27, you have only to place your ball on the right-hand spot of the "D" to be ready for your aiming lesson.

Now I am about to ask you to do a rather strange thing. I want you to take careful aim to hit the white ball dead full. Having done this, pick up the white ball and take it away, and play to send your ball to the point you have aimed at, where the centre of the white was before you moved that ball. If you do this correctly, you will pot the red for a certainty. The same rule holds good no matter where an object-ball may lie. You have only to imagine another ball touching it and dead in line with the pocket, and play to hit the imaginary ball absolutely full, when the winning hazard becomes automatic. The above, I find, is a most helpful guide to potting with the great majority of my pupils, but there are some who never seem to benefit by it. If this happens to be your predicament, try making a line through the centre of the object-ball to the centre of the pocket, and endeavor to knock the object ball along this imaginary line. Do not experiment with this at anything like long range-try it with the red ball about eighteen inches from the cue-ball to begin with. If this does not help you, imagine a line taken from the centre of the pocket through the object-ball and extending for half the width of that ball away clear and straight over the table. If you make the centre of your ball hit the end of that imaginary line, you have another automatic aid to potting which cannot fail if you use it correctly.