Hey gang, it's Brian from FX Billiards. Today I'm going to teach you to become a bank shooter. Not in 15 minutes am I going to teach you everything you need to know about banks. Maybe in four episodes. But from today I'm going to teach you how to develop into a bank shooter and I'm going to give you the tools that you are going to need to be a bank shooter.
Now if you tuned into this video to see me do this... Oh, I hit it with my stick. Oh, shit.
But I made it. No. All of that measuring and parallel shifting and all of that stuff... In the real world, it's bullshit. It doesn't exist.
Okay? If you're shooting two cushion shots, two cushion kick shots, parallel shift is probably the best tool ever. If you're shooting a three cushion shot or, you know, a two cushion kick shot, again, the diamond system is strong.
If you're shooting a cross-side bank shot... And you're parallel shifting and you're doing measurements of diamonds. You're way, way on your way to no man's land. The reason is there's too many shots on a pool table.
Probably 80% of them. that are not measurable and the guys that are teaching you all of that moving your stick around and measuring the halfway point and stuff uh with the exception of maybe dave none of those guys are using that in the real world they're all good players and they shoot bank shots instinctively not one of them is parallel shifting at the pool table This is why. If I need to make that three ball, I can do the math and figure out where I need to hit it.
But I'm not playing it there. I need to play it here. So how do I shoot it?
Shot looks like this. You can't do that with a parallel shift. So I'm going to teach you how to make the cross side bank shot, the cross corner bank shot, and shots that need to be reversed. Whoa, that ball got away. Shots that need to be reversed all take instinct, not math.
So you can't make that ball here with any math in the world. You can make it cross side, cross corner, when they're lined up like this. This is a layup to 90% of high level players in the world. You can make that with the math, but you don't get a lot of those shots. So how am I going to teach you to make those bank shots instinctively?
I'm going to teach it the same way you learned to shoot that eight ball in the corner. You did not get your first pool lesson and somebody put the balls four or five feet apart and said, okay, now shoot that in there. And you said, okay, I got this. And you shot it in the corner pocket.
The way you were taught to make that shot was to make this shot first. And then the distance didn't even increase. What happened was the cut angle increased. And if you're an elite player.
Not only did you eventually get to the cut angle increasing, but you got to putting English on the ball as well. You can't do that with meth. Okay? You have to learn it instinctively.
So, if you came here to see me draw lines on the table and show you halfway points, there's a lot of videos that are going to teach you that. If you want to learn how to become an elite bank shooter, You're going to have to pay attention and learn to do it instinctively. Let's get started.
You are going to shoot shots until they are at the point that they're too easy. So I set this shot up for you to cross corner and let's say you're an APA 5. You say, Brian, this is too easy. Let me knock it out for you. If that shot is too easy for you, then what you're going to do is increase the distance and then you're going to give yourself a cut angle.
But you are going to reinforce the easy shot over and over and over in your head until you can hit it backwards, hit it sideways, hit it reverse. But stay close to the pocket that it's going to and learn to shoot them that way. Some of you advanced players, you don't need this.
This is how you learn to bank. Whether you remember it or not, this is how you learn to bank. You did not learn by initiating that mass, all of that parallel shifting.
You might have been taught that, but if you're a bank shooter today and you don't have any problem with bank shots, you're not sitting at the table doing... measurements and parallel shifts. So I'm going to teach you guys step by step how to get there. As I said, You are going to give yourself a simple cross corner shot, what we call a natural.
This is a natural. If I just hit it head on and hit it soft enough, it's going to come back to this corner pocket each and every time. This is a natural. Give yourself naturals, and then you're going to work up to moving the cue ball back and forth, giving yourself a larger angle, getting further away from the pocket that you're shooting to.
but you have to develop this over hundreds if not thousands of shots and you're not going to have any problem by the time you get to episode four shooting shots with English. Now I bring English into the mix and some of you might even be such beginners you don't even know what I'm talking about. When I say English I'm talking about cue ball spin. Now why do we need cue ball spin on a shot?
Let's go over to the blackboard and work it out. So now that we have our blackboard set up, this is the reason why if you don't learn to shoot bank shots instinctively, you won't be an elite banker because this is an example of why you have to shoot these shots sometimes with English, with no English, sometimes head-on, sometimes cut, sometimes with a double kiss. There's a lot of different options that happen in the real world.
And this is one of them. I just want you guys, especially if you're a beginner, I just want you to see the shot. I don't want you to make the shot.
I don't want you to practice the shot. Please don't spend your time practicing this shot until you've got the simple cross corner and cross side bank shots in place. But before we get to those drills, before you worry about getting to this shot, make sure you can make the simple ones.
Okay? But I want to show you a scenario where... that instinctive shot is the only way to get out in this game. The situation is we're playing a game called 8-Ball.
I am pretty sure that everybody watching this video is familiar with 8-Ball. And we have to get on the 8 after we play the 2. Our opponent has blocked this pocket. I don't like that pocket for a bank anyway.
But we are going to play the 2-Ball back here. Now, how do we get there? We actually hit the 2-Ball.
almost face on with right hand English. And if you learn to bank the way I'm teaching you over these next four episodes, it would have been automatic for you. Every high rank player that's watching this right now knows exactly what I'm going to do.
So I'm hitting it head on with right hand English to play the two ball back here and get my cue ball down this into the table so that I can make the eight. I'd rather have this shot than to have this shot. I know beginners want this.
shot because it's a natural yes the two ball does come back here all you got to do is hit it but in the real world eight ball involves more than making a shot it involves making eight shots so you have to get all of the balls off the table making this two ball from this natural shot does not get you on the eight ball what it gets you is an l because you can't get down there by playing this natural, especially if you're a beginner, without running into all kinds of issues. Now, a high-ranked player might be thinking, yeah, I'd shoot the natural here, and I'd draw it back off of this rail and that rail, and I'd pull up behind the eight, and yes, you probably could do that, but you don't want that shot. Tell the truth. You want this shot. I'll take this shot over that natural any day, and the reason is it looks like this.
Make the two, you're on the eight, you win the game. That's why you can't waste your time measuring half the distance and looking at the diamonds when it comes to one rail bank shots. Two rail, three rail, the math makes a lot of sense.
Parallel shifts make a lot of sense. I teach you guys parallel shifts in one of my videos when I talk about two... I talk about kicks, two rail kick shots, and I talk about the diamond system when I talk about three rail.
If you haven't seen those videos, get yourself to episode one through whatever, we're at 10 maybe, and most have pool shots. But if you are just shooting off a single rail, you need to learn to instinctively make the shots. Let's get to the building blocks right now. So where are our building blocks to learning to be a good bank shot shooter?
They're in the same place that you learned to throw a football, shoot a bat. basketball, etc. You started out with easy shots and you worked your way up. And for some of you, I understand there are no easy bank shots. But I'm going to teach you just how easy they are.
Start out with what looks like a natural. You're banking the 11 ball back into the corner pocket. It's an easy shot.
Don't hit it too hard. Get down in your stance to the cue ball dead center, but a little slightly elevated tip, maybe one tip point, and shoot the shot. When you can do that over and over again, when it is not an issue, when you're making say eight out of ten of them, then you're going to change it up. Give yourself this shot and when you can make this one.
Eight out of ten times. Then you change it up. And for you guys that are intermediate players who are still with us, this is why you can learn to be a better bank shooter even if you take this same approach.
you don't need to start with that cross corner natural. You can give yourself a more difficult angle. You can give yourself a reverse angle even.
But start out with the shots that you can make over and over again. if I set that up for you. You can make that shot.
You can make this shot. You can make these shots straight in. Even though you have to cut that sixth lot, you can make these shots straight in. And you can make them as banks as well. But you need to build up to them the same way you learn to make every other shot.
So the building block is shoot so many of these that they're layups. And then increase the distance. And then increase the angle.
When I say increase the angle, don't increase it in this direction. Don't give yourself that shot in this corner. And the reason is, this is a timing shot. This is an episode four type shot. Where the cue ball, if I'm trying to go into this corner pocket, the cue ball and the six ball may very well intersect.
So you don't want to risk that intersection when you're first learning. You will learn. to avoid that the same way I did, but that's for later episodes. If you guys aren't willing to learn pool from the bottom up, then you're never going to be an elite player. You are going to learn by giving yourself easy bank shots.
Shoot them until they are ridiculous. If you have a table at home, you're not going to have a problem doing this. If you're embarrassed doing it at a bar or a pool hall, you need to get past it because this is how you get to be a good player. In the next episode, I'm going to show you how to increase the cut angle. Maybe I'll show you how to shoot the bank shot I just shot where the balls may intersect.
And in the meantime, here are a couple drills for you. As I said, if you have dropped pockets like I do, fill this pocket with balls and just shoot that bank shot over and over again. In fact, if you have dropped pockets, the same ball is going in the same pocket every time. Just take it out of the pocket.
the pocket and put it back and just shoot this shot over and over again. If you miss, it doesn't matter. What you're doing is developing the muscle memory. You're developing the sight angle so that you can make this shot.
When you see it, you know this is not a natural. but this is what I need to do. And you're going to shoot it.
And notice also guys, how softly I'm hitting each and every one of these shots. You do not need to hammer the ball. So I leave you today with this.
If you want to be good at this. Run drills. I don't have to make up drills for you. You know what you need to do.
Give yourself easy shots and progress into more difficult shots. Thank you for watching. Have a great day and shoot some drills.