15 Levels of Pool: Easy to Complex

I'm Tony Robles, and this is 15 levels of pool.

[upbeat music]

All the shots and techniques

and fundamentals that we're learning today

are applicable to most games in pool,

but we're going to be focusing

on the game of eight ball today.

Level one, basic fundamentals.

In order to master the game,

you must have a solid foundation

and that's the bridge, the stance and the stroke,

the V bridge or open hand bridge is what is used

for about 60 to 70% of the shots on the pool table.

You form a fist, take your thumb, attach it to the knuckle

spread the fingers so that you create like a letter V

and that's what's gonna help support,

the cue stick going back and forth nice and smoothly.

Whereas a closed hand bridge,

your fingers are nice and loose.

You don't wanna keep them too tight.

Then the cue stick is going to rub on your fingers,

when you're trying to stroke, the cue stick back and forth.

The stance is making sure that,

you line up your body with each and every shot.

A stroke is like a throwing motion in the game of pool

but the most important aspect of it,

is to make sure that you always come back nice and slowly,

pause for a second or two

before you decide to accelerate as you're going forward.

Best way to confirm that your fundamentals are intact

is to practice a drill called the center ball drill.

So you're basically striking the cue ball dead center

and making sure it goes in a direct line to the cushion

and then in a straight line back, to the tip.

Once you have your fundamentals down,

it's time to take it to the next level.

Level two, aiming the cue ball using the ghost ball method.

The way the ghost ball method works is,

you want to line two balls, frozen together

in a direct line to the center of the pocket.

Then you get down on your shot and you line up

the center of the cue ball,

to the center of the ball that represents the ghost ball.

The cue ball will strike the object ball

where the ghost ball was lined up.

Once you've mastered the ghost ball method,

you'll gain a lot more confidence

and start pocketing balls more consistently.

[pool table balls clacking]

Level three, controlling the cue ball.

There are three ways to control the cue ball.

The follow shot, the draw shot and the stop shot.

The follow shot is when the cue ball strikes the object ball

and follows it after contact.

After striking the cue ball above the equator,

it gives it what we call instant forward momentum which

allows a cue ball to continue to roll forward after contact.

A draw shot is when the cue ball comes back towards you,

after striking the object ball.

In order to achieve the draw shot

you must strike the cue ball way below the equator

in order to give it backspin so that after contact

the cue ball will draw right towards you.

A stop shot is when you strike the cue ball,

send it to the object ball

and have the cue ball come to a complete stop.

In other words, it has no forward momentum or no back spin.

You're going to strike the cue ball

anywhere from the equator to as low as you can go.

And what happens is,

in order to achieve what we call the slide effect,

you must strike it

so that the cue ball starts with back spin.

Once that cue ball runs out of backspin,

it starts to slide for a very short period of time

before it starts to pick up forward momentum.

It's at the point that the cue ball is sliding,

that you must contact the ball

in order to achieve a stop shot.

Understanding how to master the stop shot

is all intuition and experience,

as well as a lot of practice.

But if you're trying to shoot a stop shot

and the cue ball draws back a bit,

that means you either hit it too low,

or you hit it too hard.

If it goes forward, that means you hit it too high

or you hit it too soft.

The cue ball always tells you the truth,

it never tells you a lie.

Let's see how these shots would work

in a real game situation.

Level four, basic positional play.

Positional play is planning where your cue ball will end up,

after executing a shot.

The way I play position is I always plan three shots ahead.

We're going to use the shots that we just learn, the draw

[pool table balls clacking]

[upbeat music]

The stop [pool table balls clacking]

And the follow shot.

[pool table balls clacking]

And as you can see here we are now in perfect position

for the eight ball.

[pool table balls clacking]

Level five, the tangent or 90 degree angle line.

You're not always going to have a straight shot.

However, if you need to cut the ball in,

things work out differently.

If you're cutting the ball with stop shot speed,

the cue ball will not stop.

It will follow a 90 degree angle.

You can also change the angle coming off the object ball

by using a follow or a draw shot.

A follow shot will go in front of the tangent line.

Whereas a draw shot will come behind the tangent line

[pool table balls clacking]

Level six, the carom shot.

A carom shot is used when, you are coming off a ball

that doesn't have access to a pocket

and you want to come off that ball and use it

almost kind of like a cushion

to bounce a cue ball off of it,

in order to pocket another ball.

In this shot here the 14 doesn't have a clear shot

to a pocket and neither does a nine ball.

So I'm going to send the cue ball off the 14

to the nine ball in the corner pocket.

Level seven combination shots.

A combination shot,

is when you hit the cue ball to an object ball,

in an attempt to pocket a second ball.

The simple version is

when you have a straight combination shot,

you're striking the center of the cue ball

to the center of the first object ball

to the center of the second object ball

to the center of the pocket.

But rarely are you going to have

that perfect of a combination shot in the game.

The ghost ball method can also be used

to shoot more complex combination shots.

It's the same technique, but instead of one ghost ball,

we now have two.

It may seem simple,

but seeing two ghost balls as opposed to one

is a skill that comes with time and experience

and lots of practice.

Now there's a few more advanced shots

that I want to talk about.

Level eight, the kick shot.

A kick shot is basically a follow shot

that comes off the rail.

To understand how a kick shot works,

It's basically same angle in and same angle out.

And that means that the angle that the cue ball hits a rail,

will be the angle that comes off the rail.

So for one rail kick shots, we use a diamond system

the white dots that they have on the pool table

that we use as a guide to give us a better idea of,

how to achieve a certain angle that we're looking for.

Anytime you shoot, let's say a kick shot,

and the object ball is by the pocket,

that is considered zero.

And then every diamond that we go above that

we do it in increments of 10.

Corner pocket to the first diamond, that would be 10,

the second diamond 20, the third diamond 30

and the fourth diamond which is a side pocket 40.

So what you do is you divide it by two

and that'll give you a true same angle in

and same angle out.

So half of 40 is 20,

so all you have to do is go to the opposite rail

on the opposite side of the table

and send in the cue ball towards 20.

Common mistakes with kick shots,

is when a player either strikes a cue ball too hard

or they accidentally add side spin to the cue ball.

If you do use side spin,

you will not get that same angle in and same angle out.

Instead, you get a completely different angle

whether it's longer or shorter.

level nine the bank shot.

A bank shot is when you send the cue ball to an object ball

and the object ball comes off the cushion

towards the pocket.

It's basically the same angle in and angle out.

So when a bank shot is struck with too much speed,

it comes short of the mark.

Struck too soft, it actually lengths the angle a bit.

It's very easy to mess up the speed.

If you are unfamiliar with different types of speed

in the game of pool.

level 10 defensive shots.

You're not always going to have a clear shot

in the game of pool.

When that happens, you're going to have to learn

how to shoot defensive shots.

The most basic defensive shot in pool,

is when you strike the cue ball into an object ball,

while trying to hide the cue ball

and leave your opponent a very bad shot.

There are many types of defensive shots

but we're not going to get into those today.

Level 11, side spin.

All the shots that we've discussed to this point,

have been struck on the cue ball

on this vertical axis right here, up and down.

Now we're gonna talk about

the horizontal axis of the cue ball,

which is called side spin.

With a kick shot, the cue ball basically comes

same angle in and same angle out off a rail.

But when we applied side spin things work differently.

It actually widens the angle coming off the rail

or shortens it, depending on which side you hit.

Some of the common mistakes people make is

they end up either hitting it with not enough side spin

or too much side spin.

So I recommend going in half tip increments

to the left and to the right.

So that way you familiarize yourself with how much

does it affect the angle coming off the rail

with a little bit of side spin versus a lot of side spin.

level 12 masse shot.

A masse shot is an extreme curve shot,

that is shot with almost a 90 degree angled cue.

When you strike the cue ball at a 90 degree

it actually causes a cue ball to go around

almost like a U-turn like.

I like to use a masse shot or a curve shot,

whenever there's a ball in front of the pocket

and I have an interfering ball that's blocking me

or preventing me from hitting the ball directly.

This shot requires a lot of confidence

but with practice comes confidence.

So you should always start off

with just a slight bit elevation,

see how much you can curb it from there

while trying to maintain a lot of spin on the cue ball,

whether you're hitting it on the right hand side

or the left hand side.

And as you start getting familiar

with how much a ball is curving,

you start elevating the cue stick a little more,

a little more until you were

finally able to get a full blown

masse or curve shot around the object ball.

Level 13, the jump shot.

It's a misconception that a jump shot

is when you scoop underneath the cue ball.

When in fact that is considered a foul, in the game of pool.

A real jump shot requires you to come at an angle.

It sends all the momentum to the bed of the table

which bounces it over the object ball.

And speed is very crucial because if you strike it too hard,

you always run the risk

of either jumping the cue ball off the table

or both balls off the table.

Now that we've covered a long list of shots

we are ready to play a game.

level 14, the break.

The goal of the break is to give yourself the best chance

to run the table.

The ideal break, is when you send the cue ball

in a direct line to the lead ball.

[pool table balls clacking]

This sends the momentum of the cue ball into the rack

spreading the balls across the table.

This will give you the most options

for the first shot after the break.

There are two ways to learn how to break.

First you must learn how to break with just your arm,

no body movement whatsoever

until you learn how to get

an accurate dead square hit on the head ball.

Once you've done that,

then you're gonna learn how to throw your body forward

with your arm to get more powered.

Once you've mastered the momentum of throwing your body

into the break, you have the ability to hit it much harder

and increase the chances of pocketing a ball on the break.

Now let's play.

Level 15, advanced position play.

When I run the table,

most times I end up using

the techniques that we discussed today.

Whether it's a draw shot a carom shot, a bank shot,

90 degree angle shot.

All these shots, are tools that need to be mastered

in order to run out the table consistently.

Whenever I assess a table,

I always look for a pattern

that is going to minimize the movement of the cue ball

as much as possible.

By thinking backwards, I first start looking at the eight

and pick a ball that I think

will be the best candidate to get me

to the eight at the end of the rack.

And once I figured out that shot, I pick another ball,

that would be the best candidate to get me

to the shot before the eight ball and so forth.

[upbeat music]

We've covered a lot of shots and techniques today

but there's always more to learn.

Every game is different

and will require different shots and techniques.

No two games of pool are played the same way,

but with the knowledge that we cover today

you should be well prepared to win.

Thank you for watching,

and I hope this improves your game.