How to Aim in Snooker: The Ghost Ball, Sighting and Why Tiny Errors Miss
The short version:
- Aim the centre of the cue ball at the ghost ball, the spot one ball width behind the object ball on the line to the pocket, not at the contact point.
- Judge the pot as a fraction (fuller or thinner than half-ball) rather than as a number of degrees.
- Set the line standing up, then step into it so your stance and bridge are built around the line.
- Sight with the cue under your chin, in the position where a straight line looks straight to you.
- Look at the object ball last and deliver the cue straight. On a long pot, 0.1° off line is enough to miss.
Most advice on snooker aiming stops at "practise more". That is true, but it does not tell you what you are practising. This guide breaks aiming into the part that is pure geometry, which you can learn in an afternoon, and the parts that are about your body and eyes, which take longer. Every number on the page is worked out for a 52.5 mm snooker ball.
What you are really aiming at: the ghost ball
To pot a ball, the object ball has to leave along the line from its centre to the pocket. That only happens if the cue ball hits it from directly behind on that line. So picture a ghost ball: a second ball touching the object ball, sitting on the pocket line, on the far side from the pocket. Your job is to send the centre of the cue ball to the centre of the ghost ball.
The contact point, where the two balls actually touch, is halfway between the ghost ball's centre and the object ball's centre. It is a useful thing to look at, but if you point the centre of the cue ball at it you will hit almost every cut too thick. Contact point systems work by matching the contact point on the cue ball to the one on the object ball, which comes back to the same ghost ball position.
Judge pots as fractions, not degrees
Nobody can see 37° at the table. What you can see is how much of the object ball the cue ball will cover, looking down the line. A few reference pictures are enough:
| Ball fraction | Cut angle | Where the cue ball's centre points | Offset on a snooker ball |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full ball | 0° | The object ball's centre | 0 mm |
| 3/4 ball | 14.5° | Halfway between the centre and the edge | 13 mm |
| 1/2 ball | 30° | The object ball's edge | 26 mm |
| 1/4 ball | 48.6° | Half a radius outside the edge | 39 mm |
| 1/8 ball | 61° | Three quarters of a radius outside the edge | 46 mm |
The half-ball pot is the anchor because it needs no estimation: centre of the cue ball at the edge of the object ball. For any other pot, ask "fuller or thinner than half-ball?" and step from there. The cut angle chart has every angle from 0° to 85°, an overlap diagram for each 10° and a simulator; the geometry is identical on a snooker table and a pool table.
One thing changes as pots get thinner: the margin. The same aiming error sends the object ball further off line by a factor of 1/cos(cut angle), so at 60° the error is doubled compared with a straight pot. Thin cuts deserve a slower, more careful pre-shot routine, and in break-building it is usually better to play position for a smaller angle.
Set the line before you get down
Aiming happens standing up. Once you are down on the shot, you should only be confirming the line, not searching for it.
- Stand behind the shot, on the line that runs through the ghost ball and the cue ball. Look from the pocket back through the object ball to find the ghost ball, then from the ghost ball back to the cue ball.
- Hold the cue on that line as you walk in, so the cue is pointing down the line before your bridge hand touches the cloth.
- Build the stance around the cue, not the other way round: feet, bridge and chin all settle on the line the cue is already on. Snooker stance covers foot position and weight.
- If it looks wrong when you are down, stand up and start again. Shuffling the bridge sideways to fix the line is how players end up cueing across the shot.
Sighting: where the cue and your eyes go
The cue under the chin
Snooker players get low: the cue usually sits under the chin, touching it or very close, so the eyes are right above the line of the shot. The lower the head, the easier it is to see whether the cue is pointing at the ghost ball, which matters far more on a 12 ft table than on a pub pool table.
Find your vision centre
Most people do not see a straight line most accurately with the cue exactly under the middle of the chin. Some sight slightly towards their dominant eye. A simple test: place the cue ball on the brown spot and a ball on the blue spot, so the shot is straight up the table's centre line. Get down with the cue on that line and move your head a little left and right until the cue looks like it points straight through both balls. That head position is the one to repeat on every shot. Commercial methods such as SightRight are built around this kind of alignment work.
The eye pattern: object ball last
The usual snooker coaching sequence is:
- Address: the tip settles a few centimetres from the cue ball, at the height you want to hit.
- Feathering: a few short practice strokes, with the eyes moving between the cue ball (where am I hitting?) and the object ball (where is it going?).
- Final backswing: the eyes settle on the object ball.
- Strike: the eyes stay on the object ball, and the head stays still until the object ball is well on its way.
Looking at the object ball last makes sense because the target is the object ball, and by then the cue arm already knows where the cue ball is. If you find you are jumping up on the shot, try holding the final position until the ball drops.
Why small errors miss: the numbers
Snooker is harder to aim than pool for two reasons that compound: the table is bigger, and the error is magnified twice. A small error in the cue ball's direction turns into a bigger error in the object ball's direction, and that error grows again over the distance to the pocket.
| Cue ball off line by | Cue ball to object ball | Object ball to pocket | Object ball off line by | Miss at the pocket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1° | 0.5 m | 1.0 m | 1.0° | 17 mm |
| 0.1° | 1.0 m | 1.0 m | 1.9° | 33 mm |
| 0.1° | 1.5 m | 1.5 m | 2.9° | 75 mm |
| 0.25° | 1.0 m | 1.0 m | 4.8° | 83 mm |
| 0.5° | 0.5 m | 1.0 m | 4.8° | 83 mm |
A snooker ball is 52.5 mm wide, so on a long pot a tenth of a degree is the difference between the middle of the pocket and the jaw. Two things follow:
- Distance between cue ball and object ball multiplies the error as much as distance to the pocket does. Leaving the cue ball close to the object ball is the biggest favour you can do your potting, which is why good positional play looks like easy potting.
- No aiming system fixes a bent delivery. If the cue moves even slightly off line through the ball, the aim was irrelevant. Long potting is mostly a test of a straight cue action; snooker cue action covers the pendulum stroke and snooker long potting has drills for it.
Aiming when you use side
Hitting the cue ball off centre to the left or right changes the aim, which is why most coaches tell beginners to pot with plain ball (centre, top or screw, no side) for as long as possible. Two effects are at work:
- Deflection: the cue ball leaves slightly off the line of the cue, away from the side you used. Right-hand side pushes it a little to the left.
- Swerve: on slower shots, and more when the cue is raised, the spinning cue ball then curves back towards the side you used.
On a short, firm pot the deflection dominates; on a long, slow one the swerve has time to bring the ball back. Players deal with it either by aiming slightly to compensate or by pivoting the cue from the bridge hand so the deflection is cancelled out. Snooker side spin explains running and check side and when to use them.
Do you need an aiming system?
Every method gets you to the same place, the ghost ball, by a different route:
- Ghost ball: picture the ghost ball and send the cue ball's centre to it. The most direct and the easiest to teach.
- Ball fractions: match the overlap you see to a reference picture (full, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8). Fast, and very reliable around the half-ball pot.
- Contact points: match the contact point on the cue ball to the contact point on the object ball. Useful on thin cuts where the ghost ball is hard to picture.
Use whichever one gives you a clear line before you get down. Over thousands of pots most players stop thinking about a method and simply see the line. The method is the scaffolding while that picture is being built.
Three drills to build your aim
These three isolate aiming. For a full practice session with break-building, position and pace, see snooker practice routines.
- The straight blue. Blue on its spot, cue ball in line with the blue and a corner pocket, about 30 cm behind it. Pot it with a smooth plain-ball stroke. When you can make 8 out of 10, move the cue ball further back. This isolates cueing: the aim is trivial, so every miss is the delivery.
- Half-ball pots. Set up pots that you work out as exactly half-ball (centre of the cue ball at the edge of the object ball) into a middle pocket and a corner pocket. Ten of each, counting how many go in clean. This builds the one reference picture everything else is judged against.
- Fuller or thinner? A partner, or you, places an object ball and the cue ball at random. Before every shot, say out loud "fuller than half-ball" or "thinner", then check with the chart or by measuring. The habit of comparing with a reference is worth more than any single pot.
See your aiming errors in degrees
The AimGeometry trainer draws the ghost ball and the cut angle on the table, and after every shot it tells you whether you hit it thick or thin and by how many degrees. It runs in the browser, free. Two honest limits: the practice table is a 9 ft pool table, so the angles carry over but the distances are shorter than on a snooker table, and the physics models top and screw but not side, so it trains the plain-ball aim described above.
Start the snooker geometry lesson →FAQ
Where should you look when you strike the cue ball in snooker?
At the object ball. The eyes move between the two balls while feathering, settle on the object ball on the final backswing and stay there through the strike.
Should the cue be under your chin?
In snooker, yes: it usually sits under the chin, touching or very close, so the eyes are above the line. Exactly where it sits, centrally or towards one eye, depends on your vision centre (see the straight-line test above).
Do you aim at the contact point?
No. Aim the centre of the cue ball at the centre of the ghost ball. Aiming the cue ball's centre at the contact point covers only half the offset and the pot goes in thick.
Why do I keep missing long pots?
Because the error is magnified twice over the distance. On a 1.5 m + 1.5 m straight pot, 0.1° of cue ball direction puts the object ball about 75 mm off at the pocket. Shorten the distance between cue ball and object ball with better position, and work on a straight delivery.
How do you aim with side?
Side deflects the cue ball away from the side used and, on slower shots, swerves it back. Compensate by aiming slightly or by pivoting from the bridge, and learn it on short pots first.
Related reading: Spin in Snooker Explained · Snooker Grip and Bridge · Snooker Practice Routines · Pool Cut Angle Chart (0° to 85°) · Snooker Stance · Snooker Cue Action · Snooker Long Potting · Snooker Side Spin
Figures assume ideal geometry on a 52.5 mm ball (WPBSA Official Rules); the error table uses exact trigonometry for a straight pot and ignores throw, cloth and cushion effects. This article contains no sponsored or affiliate links.