Common 8-ball Position

Your down to the 8 and you’ve left yourself with a down the rail shot. It is a good thing you’ve been practicing this drill with a bridge. Left/right handed people should be practicing this drill on opposite sides of the table so that the bridge is necessary.

Even though there are an infinite number of places for 8-ball and cue-ball to end up for your attempt at pocketing the 8-ball some setups occur more often than others. Take the following example, for example. This 8-ball shot requires the player to be competent at two key skills. Pocketing a ball stuck to the rail, and also stretching/bridge usage.

From left to right the difficulty increases. The first shot is leaning over the rail (for a right handed player), the second is a long stretch, and the third uses the bridge.

8 ball drill illustration
Pool Table Design

This is concidered one of those shots that you will definetly want to make 90%+ successfully.