ADJUSTING ANGLES USING SPIN
During a game, there’s a good chance that opponent balls will get in your way and prevent you from making a cushion shot with an angle of entry the same as the angle of exit. It’s in this type of situation that you’ll need to use spin. When the cue tip hits the white ball right at its center, there is no spin and the ball will bounce back from the cushion at a mirrored angle. However, if you shift this point of impact to the left or right, the ball will bounce back to the chosen side. You can shift the point of impact between one and three cue tips to one side or the other to adjust the angle as desired.
PERFORMING A CUSHION SHOT WITH AN OBJECT BALL
Like for a cushion shot with the white ball, you can use the mirror method, the entry angle of the object ball to the cushion will correspond to its exit angle. However, most of the time, during a game, one or more other balls will be in your way and will force you to add spin to avoid them and carry off a successful shot. This is when you have to keep in mind what is referred to as throw (or the gear system). It means that if you use side-spin on one side of the white ball, the object ball will be thrown the opposite way.