In this video 4 times World 8 Ball Pool Champion, Gareth Potts, explains how to line up a shot correctly when using side spin, taking into the account the bend in the line the ball takes due to the spin imparted.
Video Transcription:
Andy: Okay, so we got another Facebook follower question for
you. This time it's Andy Price. And he'd like to know how to
line up a shot correctly when using side. He said that often
when he uses side, it gets the position he wants or frees up a
ball, but misses the pot by a fraction, which makes the bit he
got right useless, because then it's the opponent's shot.
Gareth Potts: Yeah. Well, playing with side is one of the hardest things
to do. And what people don't quite understand is when you play
with sidespin, it's actually swerving the cue ball offline
before it actually gets to the object ball.
So when you play a shot plain ball, obviously the cue ball goes
where you hit it, or where you think you hit it. So that's quite
easy.
When you start playing with sidespin, then before the cue ball
gets to the object ball, it's swerving in whatever direction
you've played to the side, which means it's going to throw
offline before it's going to get to it. So you have to
compensate for that, depending on which side that you're playing
with.
So in this instance, which you've set up here, I'm going to be
potting the red ball into the middle, playing with a trace of
right-hand side, so when the cue ball hits the cushion, it's
going to come down nicely and land on the black.
Now, if I didn't play with any right-hand side, I couldn't get
close enough to the black. But I also need to understand that
the cue ball is going to swerve off slightly before it gets to
the object ball, so I need to allow time. And what happens is
this is quite a short distance we've set up here. If we were to
be playing with side over the full length of the table, of five
or six feet.
Andy: Yeah.
Gareth Potts: Then the cue ball's going to swerve off further, depending
on the distance. It's not going to be quite as bad here,
because, you know, there's about only a foot or so between the
balls. If there's five foot between, you need to allow for the
cue ball to swerve more, depending on which sidespin you're
going to play with.
So like I said, I'm going to play with right-hand side. So when
the cue ball hits the cushion, you'll hopefully see the spot
spinning on the right-hand side, which will take the cue ball
down to land on the eight ball.
Andy: Yeah. If you wanted to play this shot, and you just played
it natural, where would the cue ball end up?
Gareth Potts: Well, let's play it natural. We'll play it natural first,
and show where the cue ball goes with no side, and then we'll
play it with some side and see where it goes. So firstly, this
is with no side. This is where the cue ball goes. There, okay?
So as you can see, the cue ball landed a little bit short and a
little bit . . .
Andy: Yeah.
Gareth Potts: . . . further up the table than we wanted it, really.
Andy: Whereabouts?
Gareth Potts: Really, we're looking for the cue ball to be pretty much
straight on the black. Which, with no side, the cue ball can't
really get there.
So this time, I'm going to play with right-hand side, so when the cue ball
hits the cushion about here, you'll see the spots on the cue
ball spinning that way, and hopefully take it down somewhere
near the black.
So just with right-hand side. Don't forget, I'm allowing a little bit of
time for the cue ball to swerve off before it gets to the ball,
in order to make sure that I don't miss the pot, like I said.
So, right-hand side. No.
Andy: That's the difference.
Gareth Potts: Yeah.
Andy: Great.
Gareth Potts: Which makes, then, the black obviously a lot easier to
pot, as opposed to having the cue ball up there.
Andy: Yeah. Superb.
Gareth Potts: Okay.
Andy: Thank you. So, for more pool coaching from Gareth Potts, please visit
HomeLeisureDirect.com/TV.