Everyone I know has been in this situation. Here you have overcooked your previous shot and now you lay funny on the five. If you call being on the wrong side of the ball funny. Coulda been an easy out, but you lost control of whitey and now you gotta go round the world riding the rails just to get out.
Lucky for you there are any number of ways to get there. But you need to practice three of them. Knowing these three will give you the foundation to play any combination of them required to get the job done. These three are the 1 oclock, 3 oclock and 5 oclock shots.
The times of course represent where you strike the cueball and the english that results. 1 oclock gives you top running english. 3 oclock imparts a strong right english stun shot, while 5 oclock sucks the ball back with right spin as well.
You need all three of these shots in order to be able to play tables that have intervening balls laid out on one track or another. Practice running all three tracks until you can accomplish the desired position 5 times in a row. Then you will own the shots forever so long as you stay familiar with them through occasional practice.
But, you say, these are risky shots! One track has you headed straight for the corner pocket! Yeah, thats true, you must have speed control to pull that one off and there is risk of losing control with any englished shot. So if you want to avoid risk, dont overcook the previous shot and get on the wrong side of the ball! These are penalty shots that you brought on yourself!
