Basic technique

A billiard shot is a straight push. Everything else in the technique exists only to protect that straight line: the body holds it still, the arm produces it, the hand guides it, the eyes check it. What's left is the one decision that really changes the outcome — how much of ball 2 you are going to take.

Written for a right-hander: if you're left-handed, swap left and right everywhere. The facts set out here are common to every carom billiards teaching; the presentation, the outline and the diagrams are this site's own. See About for the rule applied to sources.

⎙ Printable A4 sheet The five points of basic technique on one page, to keep in your case.

Standing

There is no model position to copy. Body shapes differ, and so do sensations, and an imposed posture hinders more than it helps. The only judge is the result: a posture is good when it holds you still during the shot, lets your forearm swing straight back and forth, and places your eyes where you can judge the ball fullness. Three conditions, nothing else.

Where the feet go

The right foot lands in the cue's vertical plane, roughly crosswise. The left foot goes to the left of that plane to open the body and free the arm. The stance width depends on you, but also on the shot: tight balls are played from a shorter base than a big, sweeping shot.

The single-plane test

A correct posture is checked with a single question: does one same vertical plane contain your cue, your line of aim, your right arm, your gaze, all at once, and exit through your right foot? If so, nothing pulls the stroke sideways. If not, something will have to compensate during the shot — and what compensates varies from one shot to the next, so it fails sooner or later.

Another, less visible point: your forearm must hang vertically, so it can swing freely under the elbow. If it leans off to one side, the stroke traces an arc instead of a straight line.

What an outside eye spots

Four flaws spoil an otherwise correct posture, and none of them can be felt from the inside: a stance too narrow for the intended swing, both feet planted on the line of aim instead of straddling it, a grip held too far back on the butt, and a cue that dips instead of staying level. Have yourself filmed or watched: it's the fastest way to spot them.

Swinging the arm

This is the billiard motion, the one that sets a player apart from a beginner. The right hand closes around the butt as around a bird: it holds it, it doesn't crush it. The wrist stays in line with the arm, bent neither up nor down. Gripping tight means stiffening the whole arm and losing the straight line.

Dosing power

You only have two controls: how much you swing, and at what speed. Short and slow gives a weak shot; long, fast, or accelerated at the last moment almost always gives a shot that's too hard — and that final acceleration is the most common flaw of all.

There is a third setting, which acts upstream of the other two: where you hold the butt. Hand near the end, the swing is long by construction, and so powerful. Hand brought back toward the cue's balance point, it shortens on its own. That's the real secret of soft shots: you don't hold back your stroke, you position yourself so it's naturally short.

Practice swings

The back-and-forth motions before releasing the shot are only useful if they rehearse the stroke to come: same length, same speed. Three quick, nervous strokes before a slow shot prepare nothing at all.

A rhythm that works: one full swing, a clear pause with the tip near the ball, then the second one leaves and carries the shot through. The pause happens at the front, never at the backswing's furthest point — stopping at the back breaks the swing and costs you over a series.

Also remember this consequence of the swing: what you follow through after the ball equals what you drew back before. The follow-through isn't extra effort, it's the pendulum's return.

What damages the stroke, from most to least frequent: a choppy back-and-forth replacing the swing, accelerating just before contact, stopping at the back of the swing, and a hand that grips too tight.

Guiding the cue

The hand resting on the cloth acts as a rail. Your fingers decide where the cue passes, and so at what height the tip is going to strike ball 1 — in other words the hit. A rail that moves during the shot ruins everything else: the hand stays flat on the cloth until the stroke is finished.

The distance between that hand and the ball follows the intended swing length: a long shot needs the hand further back; a short shot, the hand moved forward. Players call this giving or taking back bridge length.

One shape per hit height

• Low hit. The hand flattens, palm on the cloth; the cue passes through the loop of the thumb and index finger, resting on the middle finger. The ball leaves spinning backward from its direction of travel.
• Center hit. The middle finger slides under the thumb and raises the rail one level. At this height, the ball leaves the tip with no rotation.
• High hit. The hand stands up on its edge, the last three fingers supporting the loop. The ball already leaves rolling forward.
• Very slow shot. No loop needed: the cue simply rests in the hollow between thumb and index finger.
• Ball against the cushion. The hand lies flat on the cushion itself; only the index finger caps the cue, which ends up held from three sides.

A glove makes the glide more consistent, especially in humid weather.

Looking correctly

Aiming means checking with your eyes that three things line up: your cue, your ball, and the point you want to reach. For that check to mean anything, the head must come above that line — that's what brings your dominant eye onto it, or the midpoint between both.

The line is chosen standing up, before bending down over the table. Once bent over, you no longer judge, you confirm. The classic flaw is right there: a head set off to the side of the line, which makes you aim with a constant offset the player never notices.

Deciding the ball fullness

This is the idea that governs everything else: what portion of ball 2 your ball comes to cover, seen from your line of aim. It is decided first, standing up, even before choosing the hit and the spin; body placement comes afterward, to serve that decision.

From finesse to full: the cue ball arrives on the dotted axis, the yellow ball is more or less covered.

Don't aim at a point on ball 2. From a distance, the eye can't locate a point on a sphere with that precision. The contact point isn't something you choose, it's a consequence: it follows from the fullness you take, and it's what steers ball 2.

Fullness also splits the energy

The same setting decides how much speed each ball carries away:

• Full: almost everything goes into ball 2. If your ball has no rotation at the moment of contact, it stops dead — that's a stop shot (carreau).
• Half ball: the split is roughly even.
• Finesse: your ball keeps most of it and gives up only a little.

Ball fullness therefore governs both directions and speeds. Hence billiards' two-part learning curve: knowing which fullness a position calls for — that's studied — and knowing how to take it for real while playing — that's worked on at the table. Both are necessary, and the second one takes longer.