Prerequisites to Position Play

While it is always a good idea to try to take advantage of position, it will be very hard to actually control your position if you do not have the following:

• Object Ball Control
• Cue Ball Control
• Knowledge of the Physics of Pool

Mainly you need to be able to execute what you intend to execute relatively easily. Now at first this sounds rather obvious. You would probably now point out that if you could execute what you wanted to then, of course, you would simply run the table every time. Well, that's not quite what I mean. Let's start by assuming that we can execute certain shots, that we will call easy, repeatedly. So lets talk a little about how to rate shots.

Rating Shots

Easy and hard tend to be qualitative, let's try to make our terms quantitative by defining them as:

• Gimmees - You would sink them 10 out of 10 times.
• Easy Shots - You would sink them 8 out of 10 times.
• OK Shots - You would sink them more than 5 out of 10 times.
• Hard Shots - You would sink them less than 5 out of 10 times.
• Very Hard Shots - You would sink them less than 3 out of 10 times.

Now that probably seems like a lot to think about, don't worry, what you really need is a grasp of what is an easy and an OK shots. Everything else is not very important. Obviously what is an easy shot to one person may not be an easy shot to another, but that is not nearly as important as you would think. The first step to position play is understanding how you would rate your shots since the whole goal of position play is attempting to play the game so that you only ever have to shoot those two key shots, easy and OK shots.

So while it may be good to work on your basic shooting skills to expand the range of your easy shots and maybe even some of your hard shots, you really shouldn't be that focused on it once you have the two prerequisite skills mentioned. So let's look a little closer at them.

Object Ball Control

Well this one means simply that you need to be able to sink balls relatively easily and accurately. This does not mean from anywhere on the table, but let's at least start by saying that any balls in corner squares in front of pockets must be considered easy from anywhere on the table (except for impossible shots such as larger than 90 degree cuts).

        1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9

   a    X-------------------X-------------------X
        |[a1] ............................. [a8]|
   b    |   .................................   |
        |  ...................................  |
   c    |.......................................|
        |  ...................................  |
   d    |   .................................   |
        |[d1] ............................. [d8]|
   e    X-------------------X-------------------X

Balls in a1, a8, d1 or d8 should be easy!

        1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9

   a    X-------------------X-------------------X
        |                                       |
   b    |         b3...................         |
        |                                       |
   c    |                                       |
        |                                       |
   d    |                                       |
        |                                       |
   e    X-------------------X-------------------X

You might consider the ball at b3 to be an OK corner shot from anywhere along the b line from b3-b7.

Cue Ball Control

Now cue ball control is a little bit easier to describe. You should be able to on ANY shot apply at least 9 different types of spin on the cue ball. Without necessarily being able to control the level of spin, just the type of spin. Each of the nine spins must at least be distinctly able to be applied. These spins are:

• DC - Dead Center (no spin)
• T - Top (forward spin)
• B - Bottom (draw)
• L - Left (left english)
• R - Right (right english)
• TL - Top Left
• TR - Top Right
• BL - Bottom Left
• BR - Bottom Right

OK, so now that we can do what we intend to do, we need to figure out what we should do!

The Physics of Pool

I will not get into the details here of what these mean (maybe later), but you should know at least the following terms and what they mean:

• Squirt (see Squirt Hurts)
• Push
• Throw
• Running English
• Reverse English
• A Dead Stop Shot
• A Massé Shot - You don't have to be able to do one, but it helps to know why it works so that you know when a shot is not doable without it.

Now if you don't have the physical skills mentioned above, go play some pool, you will get better. Play a little by yourself, it can actually be a lot more fun than with a partner, afterall you won't have to wait for them to shoot which could be most of what you would be doing since you aren't that good yet.

Once you have those skills, make sure you understand the terms above and know what to do about them and then start right away on your position play exercises! Don't waste too much time trying to get better by making minor improvements in your physical skills. As you will see later on, pool is a game of chess, you just need some preliminary skills and then your are ready to learn tactics and strategy. Once you start playing position, pool will be a whole new game that you never even imagined existed. Happy shooting!