Pure safety shotsPlacing the balls against the opponent when there is no point

Difficulty FREE🖨 Drill cards

ScalesReference linePath

Reference position

Spinside 0 · low

1/1

Ball fraction1/1

Speed2/5

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The yellow is right next to the red; there is an easy layout for the opponent. White hits the yellow full (1/1), slightly low and without spin, at speed 2. The yellow goes up the length of the table and stops in front of the top short cushion; white stays at the point of contact. So the yellow is alone at the top end, white and red in the middle of the table. The green area is the target for the yellow; the red area is the dangerous zone the yellow is taken away from. Mistake: hitting high and sending white after the yellow.

In some layouts there is no reasonable scoring path. At such moments, instead of a desperate attempt at the point, you play a safety shot aimed only at the final position of the balls. In most rule sets, not touching any ball is not a foul; the turn simply passes to the opponent. So the aim of pure defence is clear: leave the opponent's ball far away or on a cushion, and leave the red and the cue ball in places that are difficult for the opponent. White is your cue ball, yellow is the opponent's ball.

When? When the chance of scoring is very low, when trying for the point would leave the balls ready for the opponent, or when the opponent's ball is next to the red in an easy layout.

Tips

1Learn the stop shot: hit the yellow (the opponent's ball) completely full (1/1), with slight draw (a hit below center), slowly. Because the white arrives sliding at the moment of impact, it stops where it is and all the speed passes to the yellow.
2If the yellow is next to the red, play the yellow, not the red, and send it to the far short cushion. Moving the yellow away is safer than moving the red; the opponent has to play two distant balls.
3If the yellow is near a long cushion, bring the white along a long path slowly (speed 2) and touch the yellow at 1/2 ball. The yellow is pushed to the cushion and stays frozen, and the white rolls on near the red.
4Leave the white on the line between the yellow and the red. The opponent cannot play the red directly; and if they play the white, they risk hitting the red, i.e. a kiss (an unwanted collision of the balls). In the example the red is hit at 1/4 ball, very slowly.
5Leave the yellow frozen to the cushion. The opponent cannot lower the cue comfortably behind the ball; in many rule sets, playing directly into the cushion it is frozen to is also a foul, so the path options narrow.
6If the red is behind the white and the yellow in front of it, hit the yellow with draw at 7/8 ball, very slowly (speed 1). The yellow travels as far as the far short cushion and stops against it; the white is drawn back and returns next to the red.
7In pure defence choose slow speed (1 or 2). The less distance a ball travels, the more precisely you know where it will stop, and the chance of a kiss also drops.

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Watch outDo not leave the opponent's ball frozen to your ball or to the red; in most rule sets the opponent can then have the balls spotted on their starting spots.

Watch outDo not make pure defence a habit: if there is a reasonable scoring path, play that first, defensively.

Watch outThe paths are drawn with ideal reflection without spin; for the cue ball to stop on a full hit, it must be sliding at the moment of contact (neither rolling forward nor spinning back).