Angles In & Out in Pool

Video Transcript

"OKay, exploring our tangent line just a little bit further. We're now going to look at how we can position the cue ball in other respects when we're not trying to do something like avoid the scratch in the corner pocket or something like that. Now we can look at the tangent line as to what it will tell us as to the angle that the cue ball is going to go into a cushion, which is then going to give us an idea of the angle that it's going to come out. And, that's going to lead us to deciding on how to get the ball to get the position that we need for the next shot. So in other words if we've got this shot right here, here's our line coming through, that means our tangent line is running this direction right there. Which now tells us, if the cue ball's going to start from this position here, that it's going to come over there, follow that tangent line for a very short distance once again. And then it's either going to go diverge forward off of that, or slide along that tangent line, or arc back this way depending on are we going to put top spin on it? Are we going to put a sliding action on it? Are we going to put a backspin on it? All three of those things are going to change the direction that it comes in so that it gives us an idea how to predict angle in and angle out. So if we've got an angle going in this way, it will give us an angle coming out, relatively the same, which will bring us down for a nice shot on the eight ball. Another way that the tangent line can be used is to give you an idea of, well, say we've got a shot that's very close to the cushion. Now, we've got that line of travel like that, our tangent line running like so, that doesn't give us a whole lot of options as to how that cue ball can come off because we know the tangent line is going to bring it right in there which determines our angle it's going in, which pretty much determines the angle that it's going to come out. That's how we use the tangent line for deciding how to move the cue ball around the table."