How do “spot-on-the-wall” banking and kicking systems work?
The Video Encyclopedia of One Pocket (VEOP) covers several 1-rail, 2-rail, and 3-rail banking and kicking in detail. Here are some examples for sliding 1-rail banks:
For more info, see: “Sliding Bank ‘Spot on the Wall’ System” (BD, March, 2023).
The 3-rail Corner-5 System, 2-rail Plus System, 1-rail two-to-one kicking system, and alternative “spot-on-the-wall” kicking systems for those are described and demonstrated here:
More information, including guidelines on how far the spot should be from the table, can be found in “VEPS GEMS – Part XIV: ‘Spot-on-the-Wall’ System” (BD, February, 2011). You can also use your cue to locate the “spot” in case there is no landmark nearby. Here’s an example for 1-rail kicks from Taylor Chalkanderror.
There are different “rules of thumb” for estimating the best distance to the spot on the wall, but they don’t always match the results in the article very well. Here’s a common rule that does a decent job (although, it predicts a distance longer than recommended for a 3-rail shot and a distance shorter than recommended for a 1-rail shot):
from Monte Ohrt:
For any given spot-on-the-wall kick shot, the exact optimal distance from the first rail to the spot is the distance the cueball travels after it hits the first rail to the target. For a one-rail kick, this is simply the distance from rail 1 to the target. For a two-rail kick, it is the distance between rail 1 and 2, and also add the distance between rail 2 and the target point. For a three rail kick, it is the distance between rails 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 to the target point … and so on for 4 rails, 5 rails, etc. After about 3 rails the point of convergence is so narrow that it normally doesn’t make any difference, just pick a spot at least 3 tables away.
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