Most Nine Ball Players are in love with the draw shot. Fine. The draw shot is certainly very important to the game. But for the majority of cueists, the draw shot is more difficult to control than the follow shot. Most players can accurately cause their cueball to follow a certain distance while they may struggle in their attempts to draw their rock a precise ten inches. There are simply more variables on the draw shot, more things to go wrong.
Whenever you are faced with a draw shot, take a moment to see if there isn’t a follow shot available as well. In our illustration many players will draw the cueball back to shoot the nine in the corner. But there is a follow shot available here that is easier for many players to execute. By just cheating the pocket a little, the cueball can be sent three rails and then travels down the line of position rather than being drawn across it. Your angle of error is therefor much larger on the follow shot.
Set the shot up and practice it five times both ways, with draw and follow. You will probably find that the follow shot is more predictable. So, while a nice spinning draw shot is the way to impress the crowds, if you want to find out where the nine ball lady lives, you might just want to follow her home!
