What Are Trick Shots?
Trick shots, or artistic pool, is an entertaining and demanding discipline of pool, just like any other pool game. Casual observers are often fascinated by the poetic dancing of the balls and their magical disappearances into the pockets. There are two general types of shots – setup shots and skill shots. Setup shots are those in which the balls are positioned in a particular way to steer them towards the pockets. Once they are setup correctly, they are perhaps more difficult (though not impossible) to miss. These are the shots that volunteers from an audience are often chosen to shoot. Skill shots require a good stroke that makes the cue ball whirl around the table. The basic skill shots are draw and follow shots. The advanced ones are jumps and masses, where the cue ball curves on its own. Many of these shots can be adapted for a snooker or billiard table as well. In artistic pool competitions, shots are broken down even further into eight disciplines – trick and fancy, prop/novelty/
