The secret to playing great pool is pocketing balls. And the secret to pocketing balls is always getting closer to your next shot. We do this by “playing position”. In this article I want to look at the types of position plays we can make and the skills involved in making these plays. Understanding what skills you need to play great position and then what skills you need to work on will help improve your position play, and your win percentage.

The first kind of position that we can play is the simplest, stop ball position. Here is a simple triangle of balls that we can take off by just using a stop shot.

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As you can see from this diagram, all we have to do to pocket these three balls is shoot stop shots. The skill set required here is to be able to shoot stop shots at varying distances. A great way to practice this is to just throw balls on the table and randomly shoot stop shots. You aren’t trying to make the balls, just shoot stop shots at various distances. Not as easy as it sounds.

The next type of position is similar to stop ball position, but requires sophisticated cue ball manipulation. Punch forward an inch, draw back a diamond, hold the cue ball inside a certain line, etc. There are many tricks to learn in how to control the distance and direction the cue ball moves that you will learn from experience. Here is an old time exercise that will help you learn the types of skills you need.

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The object of this drill is to pocket all the balls and keep the cue ball in the center of the circle. This will force you to manipulate the cue ball small amounts and keep the correct lines on shots. You must stay in the circle and not bump any balls when doing this drill.

The third type of position play is angles and speed position. Here we want to make sure we get on the right side of the shot line so all we have to do is pocket the object ball and roll the cue ball to our next position. The skill required here is having the ability to roll the cue ball a desired distance. Here is this type of position play:

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Notice in this diagram that we are on the wrong side of the one ball!! To have a greater margin of error we would rather be above the shot line here so that we can roll two rails and be coming down the line of the shot, giving us a much greater margin of error for speed control.

In this example, we need to be able to roll our cue ball to a much smaller target shown in the circle. Understanding the difference between coming down the line, and how precise you have to be, and coming across the line is a key concept in using angle and speed position. Try practicing this shot as in the diagram to hone your ability to precisely control a rolling cue ball. It is always better to be coming down the line, but it also nice to know that you have the skill set to roll to a precise spot when you have to.

And the final type of position is execution position. That is when you have to make a heroic shot to bail yourself out of a jam. A table length draw with inside spin or something equally ridiculous. You would be better off playing safe when you have to do too much with a shot.

Good luck understanding these types of position.  Know what you are weakest at and practice.

See you on the road.