How to aim at billiards with the 3-cut system

The aiming system used by the world’s most successful players in all cue sports is the “Three-Cut System”. Simply put, it’s the purest and most scientific aiming system out there, and it’s based on pure geometry. There are really only three cuts you need to learn to master ball bagging. They are: cuts of ¼, ½ and ¾. All other cuts are slight variations of these three.

In geometry, the degree of angle that these cuts represent is:

¼ = 49 degrees

½ = 30 degrees

¾ = 14 degrees

The basis of this aiming system is to imagine the object ball (OB) with four equal cuts, starting with a perfect cut in the middle representing two halves of a ball and then to the left and right of the ½ ball cut, creating thus the ¼ and ¾ ball slice.

How do we use these references in a game?

Recognizing the degree of angle that the (OB) must take to enter the desired cavity, we simply have to cut it using one of these three “lines” as a reference.

This is extremely important to understand: in a perfectly spherical object, the only absolute reference is its edge. Absolute from the observer’s point of view, that is, in our example, it is from the point of view looking at the (OB) from behind his cue ball (CB).

So here’s the magic. From the point of view of your (CB), the left and right ends of the (OB) represent perfect ½ ball cuts in both directions. In other words, by pointing your (CB) directly at either edge of the (OB), you will send the (OB) at a perfect 30 degree angle. So if you analyzed the angle correctly (which you will do with practice), you will pocket the ball every time. The same rules apply to all other cutoff shots in a game, whether ¼, ½, or ¾, or slight variations of them. Once you start estimating the angle correctly, it is simply a matter of using the outer edge of the (OB) as a reference.

So start learning the ½ ball cut and work your way from there. This system works and that is why all the best professional billiard players use it.

To speed up the learning curve in this system, I recommend the pool coach. It teaches you to see these angles.

SOURCE: How to Play Big Pool, by Paul Turner (inventor of the pool goal coach)

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