Cue ball control: stop, follow and draw explained

7 min read · Updated 19 August 2026

The three states, and what each one does

Every cue ball you have ever played was in one of these three states. Position play is the craft of choosing which, and how much.

• Sliding (stun). The ball is moving forward but not rotating. On a straight shot it stops dead. On an angled shot it moves along the tangent line, at ninety degrees to the object ball's path.
• Rolling (follow). The ball is rotating forward faster than a slide. It continues forward after contact.
• Backspin (draw). The ball is rotating backwards at contact. It comes back toward you.

Why a stop shot gets harder with distance

Hit the cue ball dead centre and it starts out sliding. Friction with the cloth immediately begins converting that slide into a forward roll, and after roughly a metre and a half it is rolling naturally regardless of what you did.

So a stop shot at close range needs only a centre hit. A stop shot from six feet needs either a firmer strike — arriving before friction takes over — or a touch of draw applied so that the backspin has decayed to exactly zero at the moment of contact.

This is why the stop shot ladder is such a good diagnostic. It quietly tests your understanding of pace as well as your striking.

The tangent line, which is the actual secret

On any shot that is not dead straight, a sliding cue ball leaves along the tangent line — perpendicular to the line joining the two ball centres at contact. This direction is fixed by the geometry of the cut. You cannot change it with a stun shot.

What you can do is bend away from it: follow pushes the cue ball forward off the tangent, draw pulls it back off the tangent. Good position play is mostly picking a cut angle that puts the tangent line somewhere useful, then bending it the rest of the way.

Players who plan position without thinking about the tangent line are guessing. Players who think about it are choosing.

Four drills that build real control

• Stop shot ladder. Straight pot, stop the white dead, moving back six inches at a time.
• Nominated distance. Call 'one foot forward' or 'one foot back' before each shot; pass if you land within a ball's width.
• Tangent tracking. Set a cut shot, play pure stun, and place a coin where you predict the cue ball will cross the far cushion. Score how close you were.
• Three-position black. Same pot from the same place three times, finishing in three different nominated zones. This is the drill that turns theory into feel.

The common mistakes

• Raising the butt to get draw. A raised cue applies downward force, not backspin, and produces a hop. Keep it as level as the rail allows and strike lower instead.
• Hitting harder to get more spin. Pace and spin are separate. More pace with the same contact point gives you a faster ball with proportionally the same spin.
• Ignoring the object ball. A perfect draw shot that rattles the pot has still lost you the frame.