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Making kick shots is similar to banks as far as the mirrored angles go. You still have to sight in the path the cue ball needs to take to reach its objective. The more you do it, the better you will get at it.

At first you want to try these shots with no spin, until you get your angle sighting abilities developed. Try these shots over and over and over until you can get the balls to travel on the path you want them to.

These types of shots are fairly easy to understand, but to master them takes a lot of practice. Repeatedly trying shots with differing degrees of spin is really the only way to judge how much spin to put on the cue ball to achieve the desired amount of rebound deflection for a particular shot.

How hard you hit the cue ball also has an effect on how it will rebound off the cushion. If you hit the ball fairly easy when you bounce it off the rail, it will have a greater angle of rebound, because the ball does not sink into the cushion as deeply.

Adversely, a harder hit into the cushion will produce less angle on the rebound. Again, practice trying different strengths of hit until you become familiar with how the cue ball will react.

Another thing that will affect cue ball travel in a kick is whether you use top spin or bottom spin. Top spin will have a similiar effect to hitting the ball easy, in that it will cause a greater rebound angle when the cue comes off the rail. Top spin causes the ball to roll faster in the direction of travel, so it will have more "legs" and get more bounce off the cushion.

Bottom spin on the cue ball will have the effect of dampening the travel on the ball. A cue ball bouncing into a cushion with bottom spin on it will tend to rebound less forcefully, and this will cause the cue ball to come off the rail at a lesser angle.

Admittedly these last few concepts are fairly advanced. Work your way into them at your own pace. You'll know when you are ready by the level of your playing abilities.

Hopefully, the preceding pages have helped you understand and learn more about aiming in the game of pool and billiards. That's the theory, now you need to put it to good use. The best way to improve your skills in this wonderful game of pool is, you guessed it, PRACTICE! Good luck and may you win many games.

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