I have about a million drills if you are interested. Here are some that REALLY helped me. I try to do these drills about once a week at least. I sure wish I knew how to use the pool table layout thing, but I'll have to just try and describe them:
"balls on the rail drill". There are many variations of this. Here's mine. Use 12 object balls. Freeze them to the rails at basically every other diamond. You put 4 on the side rails on either side of each side pocket at the diamond nearest the side pocket. Then you put 4 more on each of the diamonds on the side rail closest to the corner pockets. Then 4 more go on each of the diamonds closest to the corner pockets on the end rails. The goal is to run out without missing. I generally do the drill until I succeed, which could be on the first try or could take many tries. Probably better would be to do 10 attempts and see how far you get. No bank shots. Every ball must go in the nearest corner pocket. If you move a ball, you have the option of immediately moving it back or moving it back after you shoot. You are not allowed to shoot a ball you move. This helps tremendously with your ability to play accurate position off the rails, and also helps with shotmaking for these situations.
"balls in the middle of the table drill": This one is awesome. Simply spread out all 15 balls all over the table. Make sure there are no clusters, and no ball should be within a diamond of the rail. The goal is to run out without missing. However, the cue ball cannot touch a rail OR another ball. This drill is awesome for learning patters, and mastering the stop shot. You will frequently have to spin balls in, use extreme draw to hold up the cue ball, and really become the master of the straight in stop shot.
"Straight in drill": my version is super tough, you can adjust the standards to your ability level. I mark the table somehow (those hole reinforcers work great-the really thin clear ones). If you are standing at the head rail, you mark a spot 1 diamond from the left side rail on the head string. This is where the cueball goes. Then you mark a spot 1 diamond from the right side rail on the foot string. This is where the object ball goes. This should give you a perfectly straight in shot diagonally across the table. The objective of the drill for me is to shoot the object ball in and draw straight back, making the cue ball scratch in the corner pocket near me. I even make it so it must scratch without contacting the sides of the pocket at all. If I make the ball but fail to scratch the cue ball, I try again. I only have to scratch the cue ball once this way. I get 15 shots total. So I must make all 15 in a row, and at least one of them must involve the cueball coming straight back and scratching. The rest can be stop shots. When I get all 15 in, I usually shoot 5 "bonus" balls. I try to hit the cueball as soft as I can and still stop it. I do 2 like this. Then I shoot a couple with dead center cue ball and still try to stop it. At this distance, I am FIRING the ball in. My last shot, I try to scratch like before. I'm allowed to miss on the bonus shots, but not on the first 15. To complete this drill sometimes takes me over an hour. If you don't have that stroke to draw all the way back, figure out what a reasonable distance is for you and make that your goal. The key, though, is that the cueball comes STRAIGHT back. It can be a lot of pressure when you make the perfect draw shot on the first couple of tries and then have to shoot like 12 in a row straight in without missing, or else start over--Because it might be a while before you hit another perfect draw shot...
I love the drills where you MUST run out to finish. It really puts the pressure on, and trains you to *finish* your run.
I have tons more. Let me know if you'd like something different.
Hope it helps,
KMRUNOUT
