I haven’t been able to find a decent explanation on using pool table diamonds anywhere. I can’t even find “Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land”, he explained them pretty concisely in that.
Any basic knowledge or site links would be greatly appreciated.
They mark (approximately) where you can hit the side for various bank shots. For example, if you are shooting from one of the side pockets, and you want to bank into a corner on your same side, you can aim at the diamond midpoint on the opposite bank.
I said “approximately” above because that’s stated for a perfect table, of which such thing doesn’t exist. The cussion absorbs a bit of the angle, so the ball bounces back out at a slightly lesser angle than it went in at. In a very poor table, it can come out at a much lesser angle. I’ve played on tables so shitty, it would come out at dang near 90 degrees no matter what angle you hit it in at.
Also, english plays into it dramatically of course.
Isn’t there a grid system of something?
Well, pix go so much further, but here’s my best verbal explanation:
Imagine a virtual pool table, side by side with your real one. This virtual one is the exact same size. So, imagine that there isn’t a cussion between the two, so that a ball you shot into that cussion instead goes across the virtual pool table.
Now, any ball you shoot into the far corner pocket in the virtual table will actually bounce off the cussion and instead be a one bank shot into the real corner pocket coresponding on the real table.
You can do the same exercise with a virtual table placed end to end with the real table. So any shot made into a pocket on this virtual table will actually bank into the apprpriate pocket on the real one.
You can extend this further, by imagining a second virtual table either beyond, or alongside the first virtual table. If you shoot a ball across the real table, across the first virtual table, across the second virtual table, and into one of the pockets in the third table, you’ll actually make a two bank shot into one of the real pockets. Each of the edges between these tables is actually a cussion that will reflect back into the real table.
So, if you know where a particular virtual pocket is two virtual tables away, say you even mark it by putting a lamp where it is, or a mark on the wall if the wall is the proper distance, anywhere you shoot on the table towards that virtual pocket will be a two bank shot into a real pocket.
Of course, that’s in that theoretical no-friction perfect world they talk about in physics book. Real world will require correction, either slightly left or right, or slight english.
There are several different diamond systems,
corner-five, mirror, opposite-three, and plus systems and some others that are probably less reliable. They are generally more accurate on billiard tables than on pool tables but none are perfect. They will give you a good starting point though.
If you really are serious about learning them, pick up Robert Byrne’s New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards or Jack Koehler’s Science of Pocket Billiards. See questions 6 of the
rsb faq
for a brief discussion of the corner-five system and a link to more instructional topics.
There are numerous ‘diamond systems’ for using the cushions. They have fallen out of favor and are little known because the games of today don’t require a lot of heavy duty banking.
But back in the day, one of the most popular games was 3-cushion billiards, played on a table with no pockets. The game was played with three balls, and you had to bank around the cushions to score. Diamond systems were used a lot in that game.