Grady's Grad School

By Grady Mathews

Jumping off of an Object Ball

I made myself a rule for the type of jump shots shown in this month's article. It's "I won't attempt these shots unless the cue ball is within a foot or so of the object ball I'm going to contact first." If the cue ball is farther away, it's too difficult to control both balls.

In Diagram 1, my pocket is "A." I need two balls, and my opponent needs four. I would like to give him the 5 ball, but I won't kick at it, because the 4 ball has me blocked. So I will elevate the cue stick to about 45 degrees, make a thin hit o­n the 3 ball, and with medium speed and low left english, the cue ball will jump over the 1 and 2 balls and pocket the 5.

Diagram 2 uses the same principle. Use about a 45-degree angle of elevation and low left-hand english to pocket the 9 ball. I would make a thin hit o­n the 1 ball and use medium speed. If I wanted to strike the 1 ball and jump over the 3 and 5 balls to pocket the 8 ball, I would make a thicker hit o­n the 1 and try to apply just a touch of draw o­n the cue ball.

Obviously, this concept has applications for o­ne-pocket and 9-ball. There also exist quite a few of these jump shots where it is workable to pocket a ball and then jump over a ball for position.  Don't forget my rule of "The cue ball needs to be a foot or so from the object ball" for this to be a high-percentage play.

In Diagram 3, I need all eight balls. The 3 ball is dead if I can strike the 4 o­n the side where the 11 ball sits, but not o­nly can I not do that, there is no kick shot.

There is an aggressive but rewarding choice here. I'll attempt to bank the 8 ball o­ne rail into the underside of the 4 ball. At the same time, I'll make the cue ball jump over the 13 ball and go down to the end rail at about Point "X" and continue o­n to make a billiard o­n the 11 and 12 balls. A 45-degree angle of the cue and a just-above-center hit with a little right-hand english works best here. This shot should be hit pretty firmly.

If you think about it for a minute, this principle explains in part why the cue ball jumps off the table sometimes when breaking the balls in 9-ball. When a player hits down o­n a cue ball and puts some real velocity o­n the cue ball, it goes into the air and then hits down o­n the object ball, and will then sometimes fly off the table.I suggest that you practice these jump shots until they are second nature to you. Next month, I plan to show a few more of these interesting plays.

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