A Few Cue Tips

• When lifting the cue butt aim full with running side and
  fine with check side for the half-ball contacts.
• A mis-cue may result from too heavy chalking—in other
  words from a clogged and dirty tip. “Chalk lightly and
  often” is the best system.
• There is one cue “tip” that ought to be printed every
  month, although it has more to do with the butt than the
  tip. It is: “Swing the cue.”
• If the three balls are in line slightly caterwise to a
  cushion a kiss cannon is as easy as though they were at
  right angles with the cushion. The only difference is that
  the contact must be less full.
• When the red is over a middle pocket don’t pot it until
  you have noticed where the white is. It may be easy to
  play the white towards the billiard spot and the potting
  shot should then leave the red on the spot with the cue ball
  a little below.
• In spotting for jennies ignore the side cushion and take
  the angle as though for a half-ball cannon on to a ball at
  the mouth of the desired pocket. Aim finer than the edge
  to allow for the carry-in of the ball and play with plenty
  of side and very slowly.
• As a rule the mental query: “Full or fine?” is to be
  answered “Full,” because fullish strokes send the balls
  along together instead of separating them. But fine strokes
  —and especially gentle fine strokes—are often extremely
  valuable when position is disturbed as little as possible in
  this way.
• The reason why a run-through with side into a corner
  pocket, when the object ball is against the cushion, and the
  cue ball a little away from it, is successful, although the
  aim is taken dead centre, is that, although the cue ball
  encounters the cushion before reaching the pocket, it cannot
  get away from it so long as the spin continues to act.
• There is only one way of making breaks regularly and
  that is never to play off a ball without having forecasted,
  approximately, where the strength and contact that are
  being applied will leave it and never to pot a ball without
  having forecasted approximately where the strength and
  contact that are being applied will leave the cue ball. This
  can easily be cultivated into a habit.
• There is no difficulty about potting if the right contact
  is made, and the right contact is at the commencement of
  a line bisecting the object ball and running to the centre of
  the pocket. Keep the eye on this point, without looking at
  the pocket, and aim twice as far from the centre of the
  ball, viewed from where you are getting down to the stroke,
  as the point of actual contact should be.
• The one thing in successful billiards that is infinitely
  more important than anything else is cue swing, and the
  invariable rule is (1) that the cue shall be merely balanced
  within the thumb and finger or fingers, without being actually
  held there; (2) that it point along, or parallel with, the
  intended line of travel of the cue ball; and (3) that it be
  brought back and sent through the ball an equal distance
  and without prod or jerk. Try sending the ball up and
  down the table in this way and then try some near run-throughs.