A simple pool aimer is yours to own. No, it's not a Yahoo! Pool Aimer or pool buddy aimer, but it takes 10 seconds to make and use!
A reader writes in to ask about teaching a younger child pool more easily:

"I'm trying to teach my 10-year-old son to play (not that I'm that good, but I can read books and get better). Any suggestions for helping a boy who's enthusiastic and patient but not... overly aware of body stance and cue stick position?


For example, he'll have the stick pointed at an angle but for a shot that calls for the cue ball hitting the object ball straight on instead. Obvious to you and me, but not to him.

Is 10 too young to teach? He told me today he can't really determine where the center of the cue ball is, so I'm going to get one of those learning balls with the spots on it. Should help."

Good questions! A little permanent marker can go on a cue ball and then be washed off again later, so you might save dollars as opposed to buying a special cue ball.

I wrote my pool book and administer the About.com website with kids often in mind. I have a ten-year-old, too, and am using this website to teach him. It has many step-by-step helps for teaching aiming, stance, everything the beginner or strong intermediate needs. I write for pool in large part because other resources with those in-depth details are elusive.

I know what the reader is asking about ultra-specific aim. Here's a free pool aimer for two:

Take a sheet of white paper and draw 4 black dots on it with a marker, each dot about 1 1/8 inches up from the center of each edge of the paper.

The illustration best demonstrates what I mean, although of course, it is not drawn to scale.

Take the paper to the pool table with you. Point out the spot on the ball where you want your son to strike the object ball, then hold the paper vertically on the cloth touching the ball. In other words, have your son aim toward the dot on the flat surface to drive the ball where you want it to go--this will be easier than working off a strictly spherical surface whether you want him to seek contact with the center of the cue ball or the center of some object ball.

Obviously, the dots on the paper need to move a bit if you are not shooting using standard 2 1/4" pool balls.

And what about this?

"Does the dot/paper system work better than a ball with a spot right on it (like one of the specially made practice balls)?"

Not necessarily, but the dot/paper is cheap and easy and you can lie the paper down flat beneath the ball, also. It will show your son the line of travel on a cut shot or straight shot! "Send the ball from this dot through that dot, son..."

Thanks for writing, keep those questions coming!