The Billiard Cue
A little thought will show that no man can calculate the exact number of ball-to-ball contacts utilized in billiard playing. 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. Place the red ball on the center-spot of the billiard 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.

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.

The “Six Shot”
To make the six shot very easily, you must raise your billiards cue and strike your ball high. 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.

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. 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 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.

Black Belt Instruction

So many amateur billiard players, as soon as they see how extremely helpful pocket side is on occasion, fall into the deplorable habit of using more or less side with all sorts of shots which ought to be made by plain ball striking and accurate division of the object-ball. The Short Jenny

You may make the long jenny even if your ball bumps along the side cushion before reaching the pocket. Some billiards instruction is needed to perform this valuable move.

The least graze on the near jaw of the middle pocket, never mind the side cushion, will cause a short jenny to fail. If you play slowly enough, your ball will drop if it strikes a portion of the far jaw of the pocket, but this is as much as you can trust side to do for you when you attempt a short jenny.

It is much better to play them as far in the centre of the pocket opening as you can, which is an excellent rule to adopt when playing for any pocket, as it is slovenly billiards to trust to your ball “bumping in” after a perfectly needless contact with the jaws of the pocket. The best remedy or billiard tip, of course, is never to play except on a standard table.

Alternative Methods

To revert to our short jenny, place the cue-ball 3¾ inches inside the left spot of the baulk-line. Put the red 3½ inches from the right side cushion and 25½ inches from the baulk-line, and you have the stroke arranged to perfection. To play the shot, you hit the red half-ball with as much right-hand side on your ball as you can impart to it.