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How to Shoot the Ball Straight

Rather read than watch? Read How to Shoot a Pool Ball Straight below:

The Strategy

Today we're going to go back to the basics and look at how to shoot your cue ball straight. It's a very good lesson for you new players and probably a good refresher for you seasoned veterans. The first thing you want to do is find the vertical axis of the cue ball. One of the most effective ways to do this is to point and find the bottom of the cue ball where it touches the table. Being a sphere, by default this point is going to be your vertical axis. Once I found the bottom of the ball with the vertical axis I'm going to step into my shooting stance, pivot the tip up to just above the equator and with a very slow deliberate backswing and shoot straight through. Then I'm also going to look at where my tip and my cue shaft is in relation to the spot. If it's straight over then I've gone straight through. If it's off to the side in one direction or another that means that I've steered the cue at some point and chances are the shot was not straight. A good way to practice is to take your stripe balls one at a time set them on the spot, with the stripe sitting vertically. This gives you a good visual cue for where the vertical axis is and where the vertical axis and the equator intersect. If I hit this straight it's trying to look like a tire rolling down the table. If I hit it with any side spin there'll be a visible wobble.