Billiard shooting tip - Banking on Bank Shots

What is a bank shot? A bank shots hitting the object ball with your cue ball into a cushion and it bounces off to the position where you want it be, or maybe drop a ball. But when you hit the cue ball with your billiard cue stick into a cushion and bounces off the hit an object ball that is a “kick shot”. If you think that bank shots are anything but easy, you are wrong.

Remember geometry back in the school days, that is almost exactly what bank shots are all about. Imagine you are looking down on the billiard table from above, where you have a plan view. Now, imagine again that you have a cue ball and an object ball distant apart. So now you want to execute a bank shot, you will divide into half the distance in your mind between the cue ball and the object ball, that will be your center between them. With that center, draw it to the cushion with your mind, now hit the cue ball with your billiard cue stick, it bounces off in almost the same exact angle as the approach angle, that is a “mirror effect”. So now we have established that the “approach angle” and the “bounce off angle” is the same.

When you hit the cue ball and it bounces off in a bigger angle than the approach, that is call shortening the angle or coming off short. If the cue ball bounces off in a lesser angle it is called lengthening the angle.

In order to execute a bank shot or kick shot, you must have a pretty good imagination. You got to imagine the billiard table in a plan view and plan your shots. And the accuracy of the bounce of angle to the approach angle also depends on the “newness” of the billiard table, and also the condition of the cushion. That is why, a bank shot is not as easy as you think it might be, not very predictable.

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