CAN I REACH THE SHOT?
An overlooked fundamental that many players make is playing to a position zone that they can’t reach comfortably. Now we all know to keep the cue ball off the rail, but how many times have we fallen in to the trap of playing position on a ball having to do something with the cue ball and find out that we are stretched out or using a bridge or jacked up over a ball! Not a fun place to be.
The simple answer is to be 6’5” tall or play on small tables, but unfortunately that doesn’t always happen. The key is for you to know your personal no reach zones and do your best to not play positions to those areas. Here is what my zone looks like (This is my first attempt using Adobe Illustrator, so these diagrams will be getting better!):
Now I’m about 5’ 4” so there are a lot of areas that I can’t reach comfortably. Outside this area there are shots that I may or may not be able to reach comfortably, but one thing is for sure, I don’t want to be really stretched out on a key shot.
In the above diagram, I have a choice of rolling the cue ball or drawing it back. I’m not playing position for any particular ball here, just showing you how rolling forward keeps me out of the no reach zone more than coming back. Now here is an example of a real game situation:
I have two paths here from the 7 to the 9. I could use a stun shot with some right spin and get close to the nine along path A, but I could also easily get myself all stretched out and I really don’t want to be stretched out when I’m shooting the nine!
I prefer path B even though I’m not exactly coming down the line of the shot and run the risk of being a little hot on cue ball speed! My thinking is that I trust my feel for speed control much more than I like my chances being stretched out on the table for the key shot to win the game.
With a little planning you can map out your no reach zones and start to plan your runs avoiding these areas. I think you will have more success and miss less keeping yourself comfortable.
Good luck and see you on the road.