Man, don’tcha just love that ‘natural’ english? Running english is predictable, normal, and easy. In our first illustration we show a shot where most players are very comfortable using natural (running) english to obtain shape. This shot, hit with a moderate stroke and a tip of right-hand spin will travel the three rails reliably and give you the position that you need.
But sometimes there are traffic jams out there that prevent you from taking the familiar road. So what do you do? You go the other way! For this shot, instead of going three rails with right spin, just go two rails with left spin instead. Hit this shot with a tip of left spin (with no top or bottom, just left) and with a firm, sweet stroke. The cueball should strike the object ball in the same spot as for the running-english three-railer, just to the right of center so that the object ball is cut slightly into the left side of the pocket with a smooth, level stroke.
The cueball will strike near the center of the first rail, then the second rail at about the first diamond. The cueball will then ‘straighten out’ and come straight back uptable, missing all the traffic and getting the same great position as the running english shot. Change your stroke speed, initial contact point and amount of english and you can alter the path of the cueball to suit a lot of needs. Put enough juice on that baby and she will kiss the first rail twice, once on the way down and once coming back up the table. Learn this shot, it appears in all sorts of forms and is often overlooked by amateur players. Pros never mess with traffic while amateurs try to drive through it all the time.
Another situation where you need to go the other way is shown just above in diagram #3. We have all gotten shape as shown in this diagram, but situations can arise where this choice is unwieldy. When there are potential blockers, or where it is really advantageous to be traveling down the line of position rather than across it, the path below can be the road best taken.
Here we have just used a tip of left english to propel the cueball along the three-rail path that results in the cueball running in a window that is as wide as is available. This avoids the possible oops scenario where you have snookered yourself behind another ball or have crossed the line of position and wind up in a situation where position on the next ball is hairy. Frankly, many players find the sidespin so much more predictable than the draw shot that this becomes their favorite option. Again, move things around and practice your own variations of this shot. It pops up often and can keep you firing when others might duck or shoot themselves in the foot.
