I have had a lot of success using a bank shot as my primary shot from the three bar, even in tournaments. The only thing holding me back is my passing game. It really depends on the table though. A lot of bank shots, when using a slicker ball, are hit using a hard pinch on the back toe, and such shots are predictable because it's easy to see the set up. However, on every table I've played on so far except tornado, I can hit a bank shot off of a pull kick or push kick stance, and very fast at that. It's more of a hard lateral movement with a well timed kick for a little forward movement. It takes a long time to pick up that kind of timing. Bank specialists take a lot of time setting up their offensive sets. I am currently working on a backpin offense from the 2 being able to pull quickly to the 1 or 3 for a long bank. The bank towards me still needs some work. When you have the straight shot threat as well, the bank can be quite challenging to block. The neat thing about bank specialists is we always feel like we invented the shot ourselves, because often we never really learned it from anyone else, at least from the 3-rod. I'm always amazed to find others who are good at it.
If anyone here can instruct me how to hit a pull kick into a bank shot from the 3-rod on the tornado table, please, I'm begging you. That shot would fly.