"How do you make the soft shots?"

1. The pros shoot very few soft shots. They use stop, stun, stun follow, and stun draw to control the cue ball effectively on medium speed shots.

2.Acceleration on soft shots does take a little practice, but once you get used to it, it feels incredibly comfortable and natural, even when the acceleration is slower.

If you think about it, in 99% of our shots, the speed with which the object ball moves to the pocket is of little importance. It is the cue ball we need to control. That is easily accomplished by where and how we strike it.

With a medium stroke, you can stop the cue ball dead, draw it a few inches, draw it a lot, follow just a few inches, or follow it a lot. We can do it by controlling cue speed too, but that is much less predictable. I am sure we have all tried a very soft shot that didn't quite make it to the pocket.