Right: opponent's ball first, separate to both endsWhite hits the yellow with a 3/8 ball fraction, a high hit and right spin, at speed 2. The yellow goes to the bottom short cushion, from there to the right long cushion, travels the whole table and stops frozen to the top short cushion. White arrives slowly at the red via the left long cushion and the bottom right corner (right long and bottom short cushion); white and red stay in the lower left area. Even if it misses, the yellow is at the far end. The green area is the target for the yellow, the red area the zone where the yellow must never stay. Typical mistake: hitting the yellow too thin and leaving it in the middle of the table.
Principles of defence · Drill cards
Mistake: red first in the same layoutIf the red is chosen as ball 2 in the same layout (1/2 ball fraction, high hit, left spin, speed 2), the red hits the bottom cushion, goes the length of the table, comes back and stops just above the yellow. White takes the left, bottom and right cushions and misses the yellow by a hair. Result: three balls together and it is the opponent's turn. The red area shows the easy zone left to the opponent. In this layout the right choice is the yellow first (p1).
Pure defence: freeze the opponent's ball to the short cushionWith no scoring path, white hits the yellow with a 7/8 ball fraction, through the center and without spin, slowly (speed 2). The yellow goes up to the top short cushion and stops frozen against it; white gives its speed to the yellow and stays at the point of contact. The opponent has to play with a ball frozen to the cushion, while the red is in the other half of the table. Green strip: the base of the cushion where the yellow should stop. Alternative: freezing the yellow to the middle of the long cushion; mistake: bringing the yellow back off the cushion with too much speed.
Mistake: leaving the two targets togetherThe same shot as p1, but the arrival at the red is too slow: white touches the red and stops right next to it. Even though the yellow is far away, two balls side by side form a big target for the opponent; it becomes easy to find both at once with a bricole or a short three-cushion path. The red circle shows this big target. The right way is to arrive at the red with enough speed to push it a few ball widths (p1).