Billiards Complications Kicks And Banks

Pool is the most commonly played billiards variant in the entire western hemisphere. In pool you are not allowed to strike an opponent's ball before your own; this leads to a lot of necessary kick and bank shots.

A kick shot is when you hit the object ball into the rail (side of the table) to, hopefully, rebound it into a pocket. A bank shot is when you strike the cue ball towards the rail trying to get it to bounce onto a trajectory toward the intended object ball.

These are both necessary shots to learn, especially if you want to call yourself a good pool player. Most people learn how to do the simple strike and cannon shots, it is only the adept players that learn how to use the rail to their advantage.

In theory using the rail is easy. There are a few different techniques that are quite common: the mirror technique, the dot technique, and the algebraic cross technique.

All three of these are going to give you the right line to hit your cue ball on, but only practice is going to make your shot effective. When you are rebounding from the rail, you have English and velocity to worry about.

English is the intended (or unintended) spin on the ball. While hitting the ball across the table, English isn't going to have a lot of effect on the course of the cue ball.

But when hit against the rail, the English is going to toss the ball either to the right or the left of the objective area. To avoid English you have to hit the cue ball directly in the center, thus avoiding any spin at all.

When the ball has a spin and it makes contact with the rail, the abrasive surface of the rail catches the ball and tosses it in the way it spins. Rarely is English ever used for any reason whatsoever; it is the most unorthodox and inaccurate technique to use, especially when dealing with rails.

Velocity is the other thing you are going to worry about. You see the harder you hit the ball against the rail, the more the trajectory is going to be thrown off.

Unfortunately there is no real way to measure correct velocity when striking the ball. So you just have to practice and get the feel for how much force is needed in the strike.

Remember to keep these concerns in mind when playing a kick or bank shot. Also, if you are not aware, check out some of the different formulas for finding the right angle to shoot at.