I made a revelation today while at the table. I decided to start practicing my draw shot; back spin will be essential to my game soon enough so I figured I might as well get serious about starting now. I tried to practice it for many months before my old cue lost its tip, but, as you can imagine, nothing but center ball hits would do while playing with what truly became the flat end of a stick.

I bought a book called The 99 Critical Shots in Pool weeks ago and the draw shot is listed as shot number seven, and to practice it the book recommends setting two object balls on opposite ends of the table and drawing back after pocketing one to get position on the second after coming off a rail.

Easy enough, right?

Well, I quickly gave up on shooting with the purpose of sinking the second ball and instead focused only on drawing back the rock to a cushion.

If I'm honest, putting terrific back spin on the cue ball has to be one of the most, if not THE most, amazing things a pool player can do. It's the definition of finesse, the pinnacle of mastery over the cue ball once executing the move becomes consistent. It's nothing short of miraculous to the layman and always impressive to the connoisseur.

It's just unbelievably cool fucking shit.

But learning and getting the hang of the action has to be one of the most infuriating tasks I've ever taken on. I've watched video after video and read article after article, trying my best to understand and apply each expert and professional's explanation of the technique, but to no avail.

For the longest time, draw always seemed damn near impossible.

Until tonight.

After trying and trying, I managed to get enough action to draw my cue ball over two feet to a rail, and when I tell you I grinned like a motherfucking idiot and shouted my amazement I fucking did. I imagine my feelings were similar to Einstein's when he came up with his theories of relativity. I just felt so goddamn powerful, like I'd found the keys to Pandora's box.

And after repeating the action a few more times and really dissecting what went on with my stroke, I came to the heated conclusion that all those experts and professionals were full of the most rotten shit.

Goddamn them, every single one.

Goddamn them to the most sulfuric pits of Hell.

You see, I was told, time and again, that good action draw was the result of keeping a level cue and striking the cue ball as low as possible with a straight stroke.

Time and again.

But that's not fucking correct.

Not entirely.

It's true that a player should keep a level cue. After all, most shots require it because a level cue delivers a straight stroke that's easiest to control.

It's also fucking true that, in order to get the most back spin, the cue ball should be struck as low as possible. The top of a tip impacting the bottom of a cue ball is what gives it the spin necessary to roll backwards.

But that doesn't happen because of a straight stroke.

Not at all.

It happens when the tip is delivered, right before the moment of impact, at a DOWNWARD ANGLE.

THAT'S how the magic happens, and best believe it blew my fucking mind.

Understand that the downward angle isn't steep. It's gradual, like a plane beginning to fall just after its engines died. But it happens so fast that it FEELS like your tip plummeted and shot into the bottom of the cue ball, and in my case, perhaps because I'm still getting the hang of it, it felt like I was WHIPPING at the cue ball, as if my stick had turned into a nylon cord and cracked into the hard resin. My stroke felt like it was morphing JUST to make the back spin happen.

It was an intense thing to experience, and I'm looking forward to breaking it down further and eventually mastering it, but I can't help but wonder why the technique isn't described that way. If you were only told what I was told and left to your own devices, you'd be practicing far longer than necessary to get it down, and for many, they'd practice until they were blue in the face and eventually give up.

Draw isn't an easy thing to create by any means, but it CAN be easier to do when told EXACTLY what needs to happen to make it a reality.

Tonight was a milestone, a far cry from evenings when I'd shuffle from the table more annoyed than satisfied and consider fucking pool off completely.

It excites me to know that the secrets of draw are within my reach. Now I just need to practice, practice, and motherfucking practice.