Interactive Three-Cushion Shot Analysis & Training

Some shots have a large margin for error. A small change in aim or speed still produces a successful result. Other shots are extremely sensitive: a tiny change in the contact point, spin or power sends the cue ball somewhere completely different.

Shot analysis lets you explore this sensitivity interactively. For example, hold the position constant and vary the aim slightly. Then vary the speed. Then experiment with spin or cue elevation. The analysis shows how these changes affect the resulting path and whether the shot still succeeds.

This gives you a practical way to understand what you need to control when playing the shot on a real table.

The analysis panel displays the shot together with variations around it: green marks a variation that scores, red an outcome that misses, and a white marker shows where the shot currently sits. The spin scatter maps this over the cue ball's face — left and right english across, follow and draw up and down — while a white tick on each bar marks the original shot parameters.

The result is effectively a map of the shot's tolerance: you can see where the playable region is and how quickly the outcome changes as you move away from the ideal shot. Only one display shows a full scan at a time, so Show on a bar replaces the scatter with that bar's one-dimensional sweep. Every variation that was evaluated can be downloaded as a CSV.

The simulator can be used as a laboratory for your own three-cushion play. Find an interesting position from a game, recreate it, and investigate it. Try different approaches. Find the range of aim, spin and power that works. Then save the result as a diagram you can return to later.

Instead of simply being told "use this shot", you can investigate why it works and what happens when you get it slightly wrong.

Shot positions can also be turned into diagrams for your own notes, training material or three-cushion articles. The diagram export turns an analysed position into a clean SVG chart for blog posts and documentation — vector artwork that stays sharp at any size and can be dropped straight into a page or printed for a training folder.

This makes the simulator useful not only for practising shots, but also for creating and communicating three-cushion knowledge — expanding its audience to teachers, bloggers, forum users, and researchers.

A useful training position doesn't have to disappear after you play it. Analyse a shot, record what you discovered, and use the resulting diagram as a reference for future practice. You can build your own collection of positions and experiments — including difficult shots from real games, system experiments and shots you want to understand better.

The goal is not to replace practice on a real table. It is to make the time between practice sessions more useful by giving you a way to experiment, visualise and reason about shots.

The simulator is based on a physics model of billiard balls, cushions, friction and spin. That makes it possible to investigate questions that are difficult to answer with a static diagram alone:

• How much does the path change if the speed is reduced?
• How much side spin can be removed before the shot no longer reaches the target?
• How accurate does the aim need to be?
• Which parameter is actually responsible for the difficult part of the shot?

Experiment with the shot and find out.

A good training tool should help you understand what to practise. A shot with a narrow tolerance tells you that precision matters. A shot with a wide tolerance tells you that you may be able to concentrate on another part of your technique.

Combined with the site's shot exams and practice modes, shot analysis provides a coherent way to move from playing a shot → analysing it → practising it → testing yourself on it.