How to aim a one-rail kick
A kick is a bank shot with the cue ball. When your opponent hides the ball you need to hit, you can't go straight at it, so you send the cue ball into a rail first. Missing is a foul, and in most games that means ball in hand for the other player. A good kicker turns their opponent's best safeties into nothing.
- Use the mirror. Picture the yellow ball reflected on the other side of the rail, the same distance past the cushion as it is in front of it. Aim the cue ball at that mirror ball. Where the line crosses the rail is your kick point.
- Aim at the cushion's nose, not the wood. The ball's center bounces off a line half a ball width inside the cushion. That's the line this game uses.
- Medium speed and center ball. Sidespin and hard hits change the rebound angle. Learn the pure angle first, then adjust on a real table.
- Just hit it. In 9-ball and 10-ball you only need to contact the lowest ball, then a ball has to reach a rail. A thin legal hit beats a full miss every time.
Practice it for real with the kick drill, learn when to play safe in safety play, and try the bank shot trainer for the same geometry with the object ball.