When doing #1 and #3 are the cue ball and object ball parallel to the side rail or diagonal to each other across the table?
It doesn't matter much; it's a similar distance. I tend to put the CB 0.5 to 1.5 diamonds from the side rail. Just make sure you place it where you can have a comfortable bridge.
But here's a tip based on my shooting around 15,000 stop shots over a year and a half: Don't use "donut" paper hole protectors for practicing stop shots. I love them for practicing any other shot, but not stop shots.
Here's why:
1) The constant friction, along the same shot line, will create a visible white burn streak in your cloth.
2) That burn streak actually works like a grove in the cloth and makes the CB tend to stay in that grove as it goes down the table. So after a few weeks you suddenly start pocketing 100% of your stop shots and you think you are great. I once pocketed 150 long distance stop shots in a row, only to later realize it was because of the groove!
Instead, just manually set up the shot each time, and slightly vary the shot line each time. No groove streak will develop.
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