somms69 said:
The cue that Bob is playing with has no more than 1/8" ferrule if that. It might very well be leather on wood, you can see this in the follow thru. The deflection police will have to splain the rest. ...
Actually, there is a fiber pad between the tip and the shaft to keep the shaft from splitting. Removing the ferrule (which first happened by accident/clumsiness) got me a low-squirt shaft about 20 years before Predator existed. Most ferrules weigh a lot compared to wood.
As for cutting the ball in the side instead of the corner, that should be about the same difficulty, and would make a more interesting proposition -- you could let the offeree pick the pocket.
The shot is useful in a few situations. Many people are willing to bet that the shot is impossible. At one pocket, for either a straight-in or a bank shot that's more than 90 degrees, as long as you hide the cue ball, getting the object ball close is enough. If you get lucky and make the ball you might get a few more. The shot is a good demonstration of the effects of throw and spin transfer (for the bank version). If you haven't already seen Joe Tucker's impossible bank, search it out on YouTube.
A few other things about the shot: In the second shot in the clip, I over-cut the five ball, sending it towards a spot about half a diamond on the short rail from the pocket. Most of the time I miss the shot it's because I miss the object ball completely, although it feels like I'm aiming too full. The shot shown on the video took about 30 tries. I've also made it on the second try and after an hour of missing. If you work out the geometry, the cut is about 93 degrees.