How Would You Play This? Kick To Win

Jude Rosenstock

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The forum is a bit slow today so I figure I'd kick off the final hour of the work day with a hanging kick shot. Make the 1-ball and you should run out, miss it and you might as well get ready to rack.


What's your kick-route? If you don't like kicking, what would you do to improve your chances of winning? Enjoy!


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I'd probably shoot towards the other side pocket about an inch with a tip of right and it should come right back at the tittie to knock the 1 in.
 
It's dead 2 rails with automatic shapes....

I never kick 1 rail if I can go 2.... more consistant
 
Kick to the right end rail with left english.

Otherwise, tie up the 3 and 4.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
The forum is a bit slow today so I figure I'd kick off the final hour of the work day with a hanging kick shot. Make the 1-ball and you should run out, miss it and you might as well get ready to rack.


What's your kick-route? If you don't like kicking, what would you do to improve your chances of winning? Enjoy!


QUOTE]
No kick for me. (too tough) I send the four ball to block easy potting on the three ball.


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JoeyA

But if I did kick it woud be two railer;
http://CueTable.com/P/?@2AbUP3BXAd4...XarL4XXWp4kDSI1kCtL1kbJv1kUnk2kani2lMAJ1lata@
JoeyA
 
Joey, you are simply too good a player to even consider giving up ball-in-hand here. In my opinion, of course :).

- Steve
 
If you've seen (or preferably bought) Little Joe's kicking DVD, this one is d@mn near a hanger 2 rails. There's a pretty big margin for error this way as shown by the red-shaded area.

It's at the limit of the system though as any closer to the 1, you'll catch the point of the corner pocket.

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Depending on your table, you may have to kick a little deeper into the corner. Anything else is unnatural and requires you to be very exact on your english off a rail. It's been over a year since I have been able to practice any three cushion or any regular kick shots on a pool table, so my angles are probably way off...

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And if you don't like the kick.. If you execute this correctly, it requires your opponent to get a very slight angle (but not dead straight!) on the 2 to be able to break out the 3/4. There is a lot of distance between the 1 and 2, so easier said than done.

Warning: Unless you freeze the 4 to the 3, you opponent will be able to play the 1 and 2, and have a dead nut safety on the 3, banking it three rails out and freezing to the 4. It's a tough situation...

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If you don't like THAT, here is another option:

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I actually like this move, but would go for the kick. The key to this one is not to kick the 3 past the side, but get the 3 far enough away from the 4 to prevent an easy combo. (I'm smarter than I look...:))

Russ
 
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Jude Rosenstock said:
The forum is a bit slow today so I figure I'd kick off the final hour of the work day with a hanging kick shot. Make the 1-ball and you should run out, miss it and you might as well get ready to rack.


What's your kick-route? If you don't like kicking, what would you do to improve your chances of winning? Enjoy!



Hard to tell with the diagram, but, I believe the one is just touching the rail. Although I wouldn't be troubled if I was shooting clean at this with the cue ball, I believe kicking at it would cause problems unless you hit the one exactly.

I therefore would probably play safe and take JoeyA's option. Coming off the 2 it would be hard to break up that cluster.
 
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If I were going to kick, I would seriously consider this route in addition to the others mentioned. This kick is harder to judge than some others, but the 1 is pretty big from this angle, plus there's no risk of following the 1 in the side or having an awkward angle on the deuce if you kick it in this way.

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Even if you tied up the 3/4 as diagrammed, it would be trivial to go into them off the 1 with BIH. Even if the break out turned out poorly, the 2 is hanging so you have options to recover.

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Also, would it be wrong to just play for the bank on the 3?

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txspaderz
I'm really not big on "shoot[ing] towards the other side pocket about an inch with a tip of right" simply because you're jacked-up over the 8-ball. You're playing a masse admittedly it's small and predictable but still hard to be very accurate.

BPG24, mosconiac, Russ Chewning
I wish in my world things were "dead" going two rails. As I suspected, this is a very popular answer but not the approach I would choose. I can see going this way and being successful but I don't see it being the best approach.

jsp, steev
This would probably be my second choice since it shouldn't be terribly difficult to judge. To give you a hint, my first choice isn't much different than this.

JoeyA
There's no way I'm giving up ball-in-hand here. I gotta think I'm the favorite to make this shot most of the time. By tying up the balls, I'm turning the game into a coin-toss, at best.

Russ Chewning #2 & 3
If you are going to deliberately foul, you have to go with your second choice and not your third. By placing the 4 on the left side of the 3ball, you're taking a huge chance at leaving a combination. If they don't freeze it up, you lose. If you freeze it dead for the corner, you lose.
 
You could also kick underneath the 5 and 7 with low, inside english and bend the cue ball off the bottom rail. At least if you go that route, and you make the 1, you'll be coming off the 1 at a better angle and you will most likely have position on the two. I don't think position is close to being automatic with the other kick options. Tying up the 3/4 is okay too, but you will be giving your opponent a couple decent options to break them up. With ball-in-hand, you can either pocket the 1-ball in the side and slide between the 8/9 directly at the 3/4 cluster or, probably the better option, you could pocket the 1-ball and play the cue ball to the foot rail with outside english and spin into the bottom of the cluster. Kicking probably isn't a bad option.
 
Jimmy M. said:
You could also kick underneath the 5 and 7 with low, inside english and bend the cue ball off the bottom rail. At least if you go that route, and you make the 1, you'll be coming off the 1 at a better angle and you will most likely have position on the two. I don't think position is close to being automatic with the other kick options. Tying up the 3/4 is okay too, but you will be giving your opponent a couple decent options to break them up. With ball-in-hand, you can either pocket the 1-ball in the side and slide between the 8/9 directly at the 3/4 cluster or, probably the better option, you could pocket the 1-ball and play the cue ball to the foot rail with outside english and spin into the bottom of the cluster. Kicking probably isn't a bad option.


Bingo and for the exact reasons you spell out. Going one rail with bottom right straightens out the cueball along the rail making the 1-ball HUGE and giving you auto-shape on the 2. Although you can be successful with every other option I've seen in this thread, I think this one will lead to victory more often than the others.
 
Neil said:
I am doing the same thing Aaron-S did. It may be a little unconventional, but for me , it is not a hard kick. Nine out of ten it is in on a hit. The other one time it will hit the far point and come out a little. But the 5-7 are blocking the corner pocket, so he would have to play safe anyways.

I don't like going to the side rail for the kick, the scratch off the one is pretty big, and I'm over the 8 to start with.

Some people really prefer 2 rail kicks. I will ALWAYS go one rail if given the option. To me it is much more controllable.

Going one rail inside the 5-7 is an option. an not a bad one, but again, I prefer using a lot of right and hugging the rail on the outside of the 5-7. I think it is more controllable and eliminates some of the table variables.


Yes, the key is to use bottom-right. It's actually very easy once you get the hang of it.
 
mosconiac said:
If you've seen (or preferably bought) Little Joe's kicking DVD, this one is d@mn near a hanger 2 rails. There's a pretty big margin for error this way as shown by the red-shaded area.

It's at the limit of the system though as any closer to the 1, you'll catch the point of the corner pocket.

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I have a question. I am not familiar with Joey V's video or system, but, I wonder why you would take a natural angle from the corner pocket, (5-1=4 {side pocket}) and go deeper into the corner to achieve the same outcome. It seems that you are putting english on the shot to overcome the sharp angle that you are unnecessarily creating.

The margin of error seems the same on either system going two rails. In fact, I would probably kick a little before the 1st diamond because of the side of the pocket that the one is on. I am not criticizing your method, I sure it is a very valid system by other posters statements on AZ. Just wondering.

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