Follow, Draw and Stun

Safety

Keep the bridge hand still and the tip low only as far as the ball allows — a draw stroke that digs into the cloth tears it and can jump the ball.

Steps

Set a straight-in shot at a metre. Hit at centre, medium: the cue ball follows a little — it was rolling by contact.

Same shot a tip below centre: it stops. That is stun; find the height and speed at which it stops dead.

Two tips below, firmer: it comes back. Note how far, then hit the same height harder and watch it come back further.

A tip above centre: it follows through the object ball's place. Watch how it holds the tangent line first, then bends.

Now at half-ball: stun keeps ninety degrees, follow bends to about thirty, draw pulls back to about ninety the other way.

Play position: pick a landing zone before each shot and stop when three in five land there.

The Science

The tip's height above or below centre gives the ball spin — ⅖ mR² of moment of inertia means half a radius of offset spins it about as fast as it would roll — and the collision does not touch that spin: the object ball takes the line of centres, the cue ball takes the tangent line, and only then does the cloth's friction turn its topspin into forward curve (follow) or its backspin into a return (draw). A ball hit at centre skids first and rolls after losing two-sevenths of its speed; hit it just below centre so it is still sliding at contact and it stops dead on a straight shot — stun. Speed matters as much as height: the same draw stroke at twice the speed pulls back four times as far, because the skid distance goes as the square of it.

How It Fails

Decelerating through the ball, so the tip barely spins it. Cueing too low without enough speed: the ball is rolling before it arrives and follows instead of drawing. Judging draw by height alone and ignoring distance — spin dies over a long shot. Elevating the cue to reach below centre, which adds a curve you did not want.