Help with cushion billiards and all types of bank shots. Struggling to sink your cushion billiards shots like you should when you bank, dear reader? Here are some of my hottest tips for getting more balls off the rails and deep inside all six pockets.

Here is your first "kicker" to help you make a lot more banks:

Aim to bank most balls "long", past the intended pocket. Something around 9 of 10 banks that are missed are missed short of the intended pocket.

A secret is to bank the object ball to go a little past the intended pocket than the angle seems to dictate.

Why it works: Standing high above the table in the erect position before bending to shoot is where the next billiards shot should be planned. High above the rails provides parallax views from the real perspective down below in the full stance-a key factor in those banks missed on the short side.

Strive to shoot a bit past the pocket instead when plotting aim before you get in the stance. You should make twice as many banks successfully.

Don't anticipate contact with the rail. On any type of bank or kick shot where the cue ball or an object ball has to touch a cushion, do not anticipate collision with the rail.

Why it works: The average player hitches their stroke as a flinch reaction when aiming a cushion billiard. Trust the stroke you put on the cue ball to impart correct spin and speed to the balls and then watch, don't cringe, as the balls touch the cushions.

Calculate rail throwback. Anticipate what the cushion will do in slow motion to your ball and watch your back percentage soar.

Why it works: It would be simple to grow confused on the action a ball will take off the cushion when using topspin (or draw), outside english (or inside english), a hard or soft stroke, etc.

Visualize what your banking ball will do in super-slow motion as it presses into the cushion at impact--and then how the cushion itself will bounce back and push the ball--and you'll know with assurance what the ball will do following the hit.

Shoot banks close to the side pockets hard, with inside english. Go soft instead and with outside english for banks needing to travel a great distance there.

Why it works: I've covered how and why spin banks work in a previous article. Check it out, since hitting two of each kind of spin bank to start your session will more than double your banking ability during play!

Avoid cushion billiards and all types of banks like the Black Death. No less a player than the late and great Willie Mosconi studiously avoided banks of all kinds, going to the far corners where possible without fear rather than risk a bank shot.

Why it works: Willie who could bank most anything and was a fabulous Three Cushion Billiards player knew that bad spots crop along the rails of most tables. Why risk putting a perfectly stroked ball along a misshapen rail and miss anyway?

I can bank like mad, too, but never see one unless it's been left for me or I've badly missed my intended shape on the next shot.

Miss the deadly double hit banks. You know those awful double kiss bank shots, where you are going cross-corner and the cue ball hits the object ball a second time as it exits the rail? Yeah, you probably do.

The simplest way to judge whether the bank is "on" is to answer positively, "Can you shoot the cue ball directly into the pocket on the same side as the banked ball?"

Why it works: The clear line to the corner pocket means you'll have to work the cue ball "in" toward the banked ball, which means it will leave town before the object ball rolls through the same city. I appreciate The Drill Instructor for showing me how to avoid this type of double kiss.

Calculate the "dead ball action" you need at impact time then go from there. When considering what kind of spin and speed the banked ball needs when it hits the cushion, begin with pure skid, no forward or backward ball roll and no sidespin either.

Why it works: Dead ball action will give you the "angle in equals angle out" you crave from the rails for cushion billiards plays but don't always get otherwise. Works wonders for your kick calculations, too, when you get hooked in 8-Ball, 9-Ball or One Pocket.

A handy move is to add a bit of draw to wear away due to cloth friction so that the ball of choice has "nothing" when it actually reaches the intended cushion for the billiard.