Once you reach a certain level in pool, the more you realize how important playing safe is. Not giving your opponent a chance and then getting back to the table with ball in hand is a winning pool game. Too many times I see players taking flyers at shots that they are not supposed to shoot at.

Let's look at some safety ideas that you may not have thought about or seen before that will up your safety game and win percentage.

Here is the first lay out:

9- Ball Safety Diagram

The idea I want to give you is that by hitting the rail first with a rolling cue ball, you can slow the cue ball down and get it behind the 2 and 6 ball wall and pushing the one up table. The physics is that that a rolling cue ball near the rail keeps some of the topspin, slowing it down. Try hitting the 1 first and then try the kick. I think you will like the kick here as just going into the one straight makes the cue ball a little hot and hard to control.

Next is another rail first shot that is easy to overlook, but very strong when done well. Here is the diagram:

9- Ball Safety Diagram

The trick here is to hit the rail before the object ball again. This sends the object ball slowly towards the middle of the end rail, and keeps the cue ball hot, sending it two or three rails to the other end of the table. I have found aiming at the mirror image works well for these type of shots.

The last rail first safety I want to look at is well known to one pocket players. We want to drive the object ball away and keep the cue ball frozen to the bottom rail. We could hit the object ball directly, but sometimes the angle we want requires a rail first hit.

9- Ball Safety Diagram

Hit this with low and inside spin. The cue ball kicks the 1 ball away and stays right there, driving the one to the other side of the table.

These three ideas of playing safe by going rail first are much harder to see than execute. Practice these for an hour and you will be soon laying down some strong safeties!

See you on the road.