Great Advice on How to Play Pool For Beginners

Posted on June 10, 2010 | Category: Featured, Games Trivia

Don’t tell me, you’ve begun to play pool just a little bit with some friends, but you’re getting slaughtered and you’d really like to change that fact as soon as possible! You don’t know much about shooting pool, mostly just the basic rules of whatever game it is they have you play, 8 ball, or 9 ball, or some other game. Aiming your shots and holding the cue stick properly are giving you fits because you have no idea what it is you’re supposed to be doing really, and the advice your friends are giving is hardly helping.

So where the heck should you start? Learning how to play pool, for beginners, is a challenging task! Let’s see if I can shed some light on the topic…

First, find the straightest stick in the house by rolling it on the table and looking at the wobble.

Second, once you’ve chosen a stick, keep it well-chalked by swiping the cube across the tip until all surfaces are covered.

Don’t just twist the cube of chalk around and around, as this hardly puts any chalk on the tip at all.

Third, before you actually take a shot, make sure that any curve or warp in the stick is directed either straight down or straight up. Never take a shot when you are holding the stick in such a way that the curve points left or right. Pointing the curve up or down prevents you from hitting the cue ball in a crazy way. It will allow you to hit the middle of the cue ball properly, and improve your chances of shooting accurately.

Fourth, line up your shots while you are standing behind the cue ball! Get the stick, your head, and your back foot all right behind the shot, all sitting on the imaginary line that runs from the cue ball to the spot on the table that the cue ball needs to get to in order to hit the object ball in the right direction.

Don’t settle down into your stance and THEN begin aiming. Do all your aiming while standing up. Find your line, and then get in your stance.

Fifth, to find the place you need to aim the cue ball, draw an imaginary line from the center of the object ball through to the center of the space you want it to go. Then put an imaginary cue ball directly behind the object ball, centering it on the same imaginary aiming-line. That is where the cue ball needs to get to in order to make the shot accurately.

Now Sixth, make a new imaginary line running through the imaginary cue ball to the real one. This is the line you have to aim to make the cue ball hit the object ball where you want it to. Use your stick to mark that line, and do your damndest to keep the whole stick moving only along that line and nowhere else while you are shooting. If the cue stick wobbles off-line when you shoot, the cue ball will not go where you want it to go.

Also important to this, is to always be sure to hit the center of the cue ball. Hitting the sides of the cue ball can give you spin, but your don’t want to use spin as a beginner. The real problem isn’t the spin, though, it’s that the cue ball will deflect to the left or right when you hit it on the side. Deflecting causes the cue ball to not travel on the line that you aimed, which will make you miss. SO, hit right at the middle of the cue ball and you will safely shoot it in a straight line to the point you aimed at.

Finally, and most importantly: Keep the cue stick as level as possible, very, very level. You’ll never be able to make it horizontal, but you want to get as close to that as possible. That means to bring your back-hand down low by your hip. Rest the butt of the stick on the rail of the table if you have to, but keep the whole stick low and relatively level.

Don’t keep the butt of the stick up higher than the tip of the stick, because that makes you shoot DOWN at the cue ball, which makes the cue ball jump and bounce when you hit it, and makes you less accurate.

And there you have it. Some key pointers to take with you the next time your buddies want to play some pool. Use them wisely, practice them diligently, and you will be well on your way to understanding more about how to play pool for beginners!

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