I have seen a lot of previous posts on run out and position drills, but I haven't seen many on safety drills. Does anybody have any good drills or ideas to practice safety play? Thanks.
Safety drills?
- Thread starter Taylor_Lee09
- Start date
These depend greatly on the game. A 9-ball safety is usually nothing like an 8-ball safety, which is usually nothing like a 1-pocket safety. For instance, in 8-ball, your most common safeties are often going to involve rolling into a ball near a rail, and having the ball come out just the right distance from the rail to create the hook. This is not a safety in 9-ball, as the ball you hit is the ball your opponent will be on when you turn over the table. In 1-pocket, almost anything can be a "safety" in that you don't leave your opponent an easy offensive shot, but the difference between the right safety and the wrong safety is a matter of a great deal of strategic analysis.
One drill I would suggest is to practice your favorite game with a 2-and-stop rule; you're only allowed to pocket two balls in a row at most, after which you may only play a safety. See if you can run out like this, where missing any ball means you fail, and allowing your imaginary opponent a makeable shot means you fail. After each safety, do play the next shot as your opponent, to evaluate how tough you left him, and maybe understand what you could have done better to limit his options even more.
-Andrew
Great post Andrew.Repped.
Practice stun, stop, nip draw (drag) and slide shots. Also work on your tangent lines so that you know exactly where the cue is going. If you haven't already work with how the cue and object balls react with varying hits i.e.. 3/4, 1/2, 1/4.... and the distance created between the two balls when using them.
Try to just lock up either the object ball or the cue ball when getting used to safety play, trying to control the outcome of two balls is a bit more difficult. Most of all, practice, practice. I good safe is sometimes more difficult then a possible shot.
Try to just lock up either the object ball or the cue ball when getting used to safety play, trying to control the outcome of two balls is a bit more difficult. Most of all, practice, practice. I good safe is sometimes more difficult then a possible shot.
Thanks you guys. Sorry about not specifying the game, I didn't think about the safety play being different. I will definately practice on this.
A killer safety practice game (providing you already know safety shots) is to:
a. Throw out 10 balls
b. BIH play safe after cue ball strikes 1 ball.
c. If successful drop 1 ball in pocket take BIH and play safe from next lowest ball.
d. Continue until the end.
Once the balls open up a safety may be leaving cue ball and object ball in position for a difficult shot.
a. Throw out 10 balls
b. BIH play safe after cue ball strikes 1 ball.
c. If successful drop 1 ball in pocket take BIH and play safe from next lowest ball.
d. Continue until the end.
Once the balls open up a safety may be leaving cue ball and object ball in position for a difficult shot.
blah blah
Shoebat
I was just thinking about something similar last night, in regards to a friend who thinks in 8ball (I think in 9). I can see safeties in 9: I am hiding a shot between the cb and the ob. It's harder for me in 8b: I have to hide the cb from all of your balls. In the latter, the easiest is to just freeze the cb against the side of one of my balls so that you can't see any of yours (yes, legally hitting a rail after contact with an ob).
As for a safety drill in 9b, this is the closest thing I can think of: start with the cb in the center of one end rail, and the 9 at the center of the other end rail. Frozen or not, doesn't matter- make yourself comfortable because the shot sucks. You may bank, kick, thin cut, whatever. Keep shooting, leaving another low- percentage, end- rail- to- end- rail shot each time, seeing how many you can string in a row before you have a leave that makes you think "hell, I could make that ball." Leaving a makeable ball is losing. Subjective, yeah, but it can help for when you're in a match and this endgame occurs.
As for a safety drill in 9b, this is the closest thing I can think of: start with the cb in the center of one end rail, and the 9 at the center of the other end rail. Frozen or not, doesn't matter- make yourself comfortable because the shot sucks. You may bank, kick, thin cut, whatever. Keep shooting, leaving another low- percentage, end- rail- to- end- rail shot each time, seeing how many you can string in a row before you have a leave that makes you think "hell, I could make that ball." Leaving a makeable ball is losing. Subjective, yeah, but it can help for when you're in a match and this endgame occurs.
:scratchhead: Slide... bit of a stun shot or stop shot when there is an angle, I guess.. example i have BIH, I can see the correct tangent line to tuck the cue in nice and tight and push the OB up table a bit, then just play it like a stop or stun the cue slides off on the tangent line and goes to jail. Not always having to move the cue that far after contact, usually it is only 1-3 inches so getting that speed down took me a very log time.
I have a Slide Draw drill in my book Lessons in 9 ball.
l also have an entire section of the book dedicated safeties. There is an excerpt from this part of the book available for free at this link
Unlocking the Safe
I think good practice shots are:
an the all time heartbreaker:
Pay no mind to fact that ob NEVER GETS LEFT ON THE RAIL.
What?! Nobody likes these?!?!
an the all time heartbreaker:
Pay no mind to fact that ob NEVER GETS LEFT ON THE RAIL.
What?! Nobody likes these?!?!
Last edited:
What?! Nobody likes these?!?!
I think a good drill for safeties would be a successive stop-shot drill. Hit stop shots at different speeds, taking note at how hard you're hitting the object ball. Once you get that down, you can translate that into working stun, follow and draw shots at different speeds.
It's amazing how many safeties come up that involve just hitting a stop shot at a specific speed.
It's amazing how many safeties come up that involve just hitting a stop shot at a specific speed.
I thought the safes were fantastic, but you might want to try to use the SAVE PAGE and ADD PAGE features on the Cuetable next time. I have noticed that when there are multiple diagrams in 1 post, that it will jam my browser for some reason. I think it has something to do with the little pop-ups that have players endorsing the Cuetable - or it could be something else.
If you use one table with multiple pages, it takes a lot less time for it to load up. I know many people that won't even open up the page if it has a Cuetable diagram because the page locks up. I'm not sure how this could be fixed, but it is a problem.
If you use one table with multiple pages, it takes a lot less time for it to load up. I know many people that won't even open up the page if it has a Cuetable diagram because the page locks up. I'm not sure how this could be fixed, but it is a problem.
Great post. So well explained.
That being said, to practice my 9-ball safeties, I throw 5 or 6 balls out, and pick a ball and try to either hide the object ball or hide the cue ball behind one of the other balls, forcing a kick, or even better, ball in hand. Then I'll just move the cue ball to another spot on the table and keep doing it. See how many times you can control the object ball, the cue ball or sometimes even both balls if you have to.
For 8-ball safeties, I'll do the same thing, except I pretend that the object ball that I am hitting is my last ball and all of the rest of the balls are my opponent's.
Hopefully this made sense.
Safety drills are tough to get the true answer of how good the safe is when you're playing by yourself. Remember it's you trying to to shoot from the safety you just shot and not someone better at kicking and jumping than you are. That said, Blackjack's has one of the best books to learn from. Johnnyt
Last edited: