Even though the shot doesn’t come up too often, it pays to know how to perform three rail kicks. They might only come up a few times a match, but if you know how to execute them they’ll definitely help win you a game or two and at least avoid giving ball in hand to your opponent. For many beginners three rail kicks seem complex because of all the angles involved. The number of rails and the angles make it hard for amateurs to visualize the path the cue ball needs to take to hit its target. Fortunately, there’s a kicking system to help plot this path.
The Corner 5 System is the most popular system for three rail kicks from the corner. The reason it’s called that is because from the specific number 5 position on the table the cue ball should hit the opposite corner pocket every time. This system is more complicated than the two plus system and does take a little bit more math, but once you learn it, its fairly easy to use on a regular basis.
The reason this system is a little tricky is because you need to keep track of 3 different numbers for the Corner 5 System. The three numbers you’re going to need are the original direction number, the first rail number, and the third rail number.
The first numbers, the original direction numbers are set in the corner from which you’re aiming. The corner is always 5 and the numbers increment by one along the short rails up to 8. On the long rail the numbers decrement by one half until you get to 3 at the side pocket. You figure out the original direction number by drawing a line in the direction you want to send the cue ball back through the number that’s closest to that line.
The other two numbers are the first and third diamond numbers which represent the first and third diamonds you are going to hit which you can see below. These numbers start at 7 from the corner you’re shooting from and increment down by one for each diamond.
The way this system works is you take the original direction number minus the first diamond number to get the third diamond number. In the example below, we see that the cue ball is in front of the corner which means its going to have the original direction of 5 and we want to hit the cue ball into the corner pocket. To do that we need to hit the 3rd diamond on the long rail. So, if we take 5 minus 3 we know that we must hit the second diamond on the first rail diamond to hit the 3rd diamond on the 3rd rail diamonds. If we do that when the cue ball will head straight to the pocket.
For some more information on this system, Dr. Dave has a great video on this concept which should help account for any scenario you come up with using this system.