Short and long follow-through, and the drive-through shot

1. Short follow-through: a short finish, a smooth stroke

Practice this when you want to repeat speed with a small motion. Start from a short backswing and finish short, naturally. The goal is not a "jab" where you squeeze the grip or stop the cue abruptly at contact.

Set up the table like this and shoot 5

1. Place the two balls as shown and keep the cue close to level. Aim straight on with soft to medium speed and a slightly high tip position.
2. Shoot 5 times with a short, relaxed motion. Watch where the cue tip ends up after contact and how far the cue ball follows, separately.
3. If the object ball goes off the straight line, check your aim and tip position first. If the cue ball follows too far, try a little less stroke speed first. Do not shorten it by grabbing the cue to stop it at contact.

Check: in trying to finish short, did your hand tighten before contact or did your tip position drop? Do not decide "it's short, so there's no spin"; watch the cue ball after contact.

2. Long follow-through: extend fully along the chosen line

Use this to check habits such as lifting your body or stopping your hand early. Give your arm room to move comfortably and let the cue keep going along the chosen line. It is also used for harder shots, but a long motion by itself does not guarantee a hard shot.

The other 5 from the same layout

1. Keep the ball positions, tip position and straight-on thickness from the short drill. Start with as similar a stroke speed as you can.
2. Shoot 5 times, letting the cue continue naturally further after contact. Do not force length by pushing your elbow or shoulder forward.
3. If short and long give different results, check whether the stroke speed and actual tip position changed too. Filming your motion from the side and checking the chalk mark on the cue ball helps.

Check: write down the cue's finish length, actual tip position, object ball speed and how far the cue ball followed, separately. Shots by hand are not a perfect physics experiment, so do not put a distance difference down to finish length alone.

3. Drive-through shot: keep moving forward past the object ball

Teachers use "drive-through shot" for slightly different things. Here we practice it as a shot where the cue ball cuts the object ball and keeps a forward component as it moves on. It does not mean the ball literally goes through the object ball, or that the cue stays on the cue ball for a long time.

1. At first, place only the two balls above, without a second object ball. Leave out sidespin and start with a tip position a little above center and medium speed.
2. Repeat about 1/4 thickness 5 times. Record how far the cue ball moves forward past the object ball and which long rail it reaches.
3. Keep tip position and speed, change to about 1/2 thickness, and compare over 5 shots. Watch the difference in object ball speed and the cue ball's separation direction. The goal is to reproduce the difference, not to find one correct end point.
4. Once your thickness is steady, go back to 1/4 and change only the speed a little. In a real 3-cushion layout, check the next cushion route and possible kisses separately.

Common mistakes: hitting too full and trying to fix it with cue length alone, raising the tip position too high and miscuing, and forcing a push when the object ball is close, causing a double hit. Leave enough space between the balls, as in this drill. A normal follow shot and a push shot foul are different.