The Stop Shot in Pool and Billiards

In a previous post, Warmup Drill #1 was given to you. That drill requires you to run a series of straight shots. It teaches you to stroke your cue stick accurately and straight.

If you can do tha drill, then it is time to move up. The Stop Shot is next on the list. You need the Stop Shot. It shows up several times in each pool game that you play, and it is relatively easy to do. Finally, the mechanics of the Stop Shot are used in many other shots. Those shots are angled, but from your end of the cue, you do the same thing on those shots as on the Stop Shot.

So it is time to learn the Stop Shot.

Set up the balls for the first shot as if you were doing Warmup Drill #1. But this time, when you stroke the shot, you want the cue ball to stop as soon as it hits the object ball.

To do that, you merely have to hit the cue ball a tiny bit below center. How far below is up to you. It depends on how hard you stroke, what kind of tip you have, whether your stick is level, etc.

Following the drill from Warmup Drill #1, your second shot is a little longer. You have to hit a little further below center. The third shot is even longer. You have to hit even further below center.

You may continue with the rest of Warmup Drill #1 if you have had good results so far, but a lot of people should just repeat Balls 1, 2 and 3. If you do it right, you should be able to get the cue ball to stop completely.

Balls 4 and 5 are long shots. Even pros have difficulty stopping their cue ball on long shots. Don't kick yourself too hard if you experience problems also.