A little thought will show that no man can calculate the exact number of ball-to-ball contacts utilized in billiard playing.
They are infinite, and are the main cause of that variety which is the great charm of the game.
But in a playing sense, for instructional purposes, it is usual to divide the object-ball into sections, and to explain what happens when the different ball-to-ball contacts are established.
I endeavor to do this, and help you learn how to achieve freedom with the billiards cue.
Full-Ball Contacts A "full ball" is made by striking the cue-ball so that the center of that ball comes into contact with the center of the object-ball.
It is an easy shot, and useful for training purposes in a manner I propose to demonstrate.
Place the red ball on the center-spot of the table.
Put the cue-ball about a foot behind the red and dead in line with the center of the middle pocket facing you.
If you strike your ball clean in its center and the red "full ball," you will pocket the red, and your ball will run on after it into the same pocket, or very nearly so.
It all depends on the freedom of your cueing.
If your cueing is in the least cramped, your ball, struck centrally, will scarcely run through at all, it will stop after rolling drowsily onwards for a few inches.
What I want you to grasp is that if you can hit your ball in its center, and run through after the red into the middle pocket, then you are swinging your cue with that smooth facility which you must acquire if you mean to play billiards.
If you cannot do it, or even get anywhere near it, there is something radically wrong with your cueing.
You must be flinching at your stroke.
Your cue is not going through the ball as it should, and until you remedy this fault your billiards may get worse, but it will never get better.
The "Six Shot" To make the six shot very easily, you must raise your billiards cue and strike your ball high.
When you do this, keep your cue level.
Do not try to tilt it at one end to strike the ball high but lift it bodily, so to speak.
Be very careful to strike your ball both high and truly central, or you will put on side, which may spoil everything.
Cue freely, with a nice forward swing, and if you strike your ball with force enough to send the red into the pocket with precision and celerity, you will see your ball make a distinct pause after its full contact with the red, and then rush forward with increasing speed towards the pocket.
This simple six shot will give you an invaluable insight into the action of "top," as it is called in billiard parlance.
It possesses the peculiar power of giving your ball a fresh start after a thick contact with an object-ball, and for this reason is indispensable when you have to play a long follow-through cannon.
If the object-ball is fairly close, and your ball has to travel a long way to make a cannon by means of a follow-through, you cannot make your shot without the help of "top" and plenty of it.
But it is so very difficult to control "top" with any approach to precision, that I advise you never to use it indiscriminately.
If you can "get through" an object-ball by free cueing, and a central cue-contact with the cue-ball, by all means do so, especially when playing for a pocket.
The six shot we are now dealing with for practice purposes is a little misleading in this respect.
The pocket is as "open" as it can be, the balls are in true line, and it is easy to follow through into the pocket by striking your ball high.
But if the cue-ball were a little out of the straight line, and the red were closer to the pocket, you would be able to run through with much more certainty by using free cueing and central ball striking, a method which you should always adopt in such cases.
Practice your shots with your billiards cue and you will become a better player.