This scenario came up for one of my students earlier this week. Perfect teaching moment! This person now has the "tools" to execute and choose correctly, but didn't "put 2 and 2 together".
Many of you have the same problem. You know things, but fail to use them to their fullest potential. This may help you use your knowledge correctly. It may get a little long, but I believe will be worth it.
O.K. Here's your main choices.
1. Make the 6 and play for the bank on the 7.
2. Make the 6 and play position to cut the 7.
3. Make the 6 and play position for the safe off the 7.
4. Make the 6 and play position to break out the 7 or 8.
Looking at #1- Correct choice if you are playing one pocket. You aren't. Way too much can go wrong here. Not a good choice. Immediately discarded.
#2- First, define the target area. Draw a line from the ghost ball on the 7 90º out, and from where you estimate the uptable side of the ghostball to be to where you will clear the 8. That line is app. at the upside edge of the 9. That is the triangle you would have to get into. Not a very big area, but the cb doesn't have to travel far to get there. You can also make sure you go into the 9 softly. Doing that, you give yourself more room for the cb to go 3 rails for the 8, and you hold the cb from going past your "line".
Downside to running into the 9 is you have to hit it fairly square, and NOT go behind it.
This choice has a lot of merit, as you should still be able to play a good safe on the 7 if you can't make it. Downside is coming up a little short in the triangle, not moving the 9, and you get a tricky, touchy shot.
#3-Viable choice here as well. Providing that you can reliably shoot the 7 and replace it with the cb using some speed. Downside, 3 balls left, do you really want your opponent to have another shot at the table??
#4 Another very viable option. However, most are going to take this one for granted, and have a good chance at hitting the 7, or missing both balls.
This option is the reason for the thread. So, how do we KNOW how to hit the 8? You use what you already know, or should know from previous threads on here. If you have been practicing correctly, you can do the "calculations " fast, and in your head. It took me 12 seconds to KNOW where I was going with this shot. That leaves plenty of time on a 30 sec. shot clock to actually shoot it.
So, let's break the shot down into what we already know. The first thing I look at is where is the tangent line going? That took about 1 second to determine. Next, I'm using the rail, so the shot is essentially a kick shot. Same principles apply for the most part.
So, I mentally take the distance from the 8 to the "zero " diamond, which is even with the end rail, and double it. I now mentally draw a line from that spot to the 6, and and see where it hits the rail. That is the spot I would want to hit if I was just shooting the cb from where it will be as a ghost ball to make the 6. This part took about 7 sec. to do.
Now, I compare the tangent line spot to the imaginary kick spot, and see if they match up. They don't. But, I have another tool I can use. Draw. How do I know where the draw shot will go? First, I go center cb to center of the 6 and mentally mark that spot. Then, I go from where I want to hit the rail to the center of the 6 and mentally mark that spot. I now have two mental marks on the 6. I cut the distance between them in half, and that is where I would want to hit the 6 with 6:00 clock draw. Now, I just look at that spot, and see where the 6 will go.
I can see that the 6 will hit just barely inside the point of the pocket. I want to hit more to the center of the pocket, so I have to make an adjustment. Adding just a touch of left will widen the angle off the rail, and put me right into the 8.
Now, we don't have a lot of room from the 6 to the rail, and we want to change the angle from the tangent line. That means that we don't hit the shot hard. We just want to go into the 8 and move it a ball or two off the rail, not send it flying to who knows where. Using a softer stroke, we can get the draw to take, and change the angle from the tangent line. KNOWING where we are going to go with the cb, NOT guessing.
Writing it down, it takes quite awhile. Once you practice checking out the things you know, you will find that the mental calculations will pay off big time for position play. This whole process took less than 30 sec. for me to decide on which route, and how to aim it, and to shoot it. My first attempt had me gently rolling into the 8 and replacing it. Bump the 7 into the corner, shoot the 8 into the opposite corner up table, good position on the 9.
My 2nd attempt I hit the 8 on the inside table side, 8 came off the rail about 3 balls distance, the cb went up table a little bit, great angle on the 7, easy to get on the 8. All using what I KNOW. Knowledge is worthless if you don't put it into practice at the table. Use what you do know, and expand on it. Learn to put 2+2 together to make a 4. Don't be stuck on just having a "2".
Here, I used my knowledge of tangent lines, kick shots, and draw shot positioning and speed to achieve what I needed to do. Making a potentially tricky situation easy.
