AZers -- HELP with practice

Practicing safes and kicks is always tough and the both of you could probably use a little help in that department so here's a fun way to do it for players of all levels;
Defensive 10 Ball Rules of play

The play of Defensive 10 Ball may only be appreciated by top players right now but it is one of the quickest ways for an intermediate player to improve upon their safety and kicking skills.

It is racked and played similar to a normal rack of 10 ball with the 1 in the front and the 10 in the middle but scoring is different.

The object of the game is to earn as many points as possible during each rack.

Players earn 1 point for each ball pocketed but you are only allowed 2 offensive shots in a row and then you must play safe.

You can score more than 2 points if you happen to sink more than 1 ball on a single stroke.

A typical break starts the game and all balls pocketed stay down and are worth 1 point each to the breaker BUT whether the breaker made a ball or not the 1st shot after the break must be a push out. A push out is when a player chooses a position on the table to reposition the cue ball (of course by shooting it to a new position and not by picking it up and placing it with their hand), once the player has repositioned the cue ball the next player up has the option to take the new challenging shot or pass it back to the other player.

After the push out players may now pocket balls or play safe. If you pocket a ball on your first stroke of an inning you are allowed a second shot and if you pocket another ball you must now play safe on your 3rd stroke.

All ball in hand rules apply, if player “A” fails to make a legal hit or shot player “B” gets ball in hand and is allowed a maximum of 2 offensive shots before they must play safe. This is where it pays to play tight safeties. If a player pockets a ball accidently or on purpose on their 3rd stroke the object ball is spotted on the foot spot and the cue ball stays where it is so it is sometimes advisable to execute such a shot.

The player that sinks the 10 ball has the break in the next rack. There are 10 points per rack and players should agree to race to a certain amount of points, 25 points is generally an interesting race.
You can also handicap the race.

Enjoy 2010
 
Ralph Kramden said:
I respect what you say about practicing and playing being two different mind sets. But I do think by playing you can learn a lot about yourself.

Here is my outlook.

Practicing the same shots, over and over and over... is good. You learn a lot. Doing the same drill, after drill, after drill... is good. You learn a lot.
But it does get somewhat boring at times.

Playing the same games, over and over gets somewhat old also.
I do enjoy practice sessions, but I find that in playing different games, I learn WHAT to practice.

I've seen a lot of players practicing what they know, but they would be much better off practicing what they should have known.

We all have our opinions. Yours is good. Different strokes for different folks. :grin:
Click to expand...



If you are truely "in the zone" you remember very little......:-)
SPF=randyg
 
Frank, I would think you beat the 9ball ghost, so B+ is a humble rating.

The game Joe Tucker suggests is very interesting. I am going to try that game out myself.

A few suggestions, many of which you probably already do:
1) Keep a detailed pool journal.
2) Get a breakrak
3) video tape some of the practice sessions to help identify weaknesses.
4) consider trying to learn some kicking systems like the one Lil Joe V has on his tapes.

Your gonna be a bad draw for someone at the next US Amateur event it sounds like.
 
Frank...I agree with Randy. You already have the Mother Drills. If there is any problem with any part of your process, the answers lie within those drills. Practice them with discipline to get confidence in your stroke, and then practice playing (the ghost or some other kind of playing practice).

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
randyg said:
FRANKNCALI: What a noble undertaking. If done correctly you should see great improvement. I Spar twice a week with my best friend, Claude. Claude is not only a great player but has a set of Instructor eyes.

1. Before each Sparring match we both exchange a game plan on what we are individually trying to accomplish. We keep our match to about an 1 1/2 hour duration. After the smoke clears, we sit and critique each other's performance according to the plan. Outside eyes are huge. I take Claude's information back to the Training table and work on my shortcomings for about 20 minutes max.

2. Remember: If you are Playing, you are not Practicing. One can not truthfully Play and learn very much about themselves.

3. Practicing and Playing are two different mind sets.


I hope all works well for the both of you.....SPF=randyg
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Randy

Thanks for your thoughts but what are some drills or some "practice routines" to use.

This is for practice and not for playing. Believe me I know the difference and have always been baffled that others don't.

One thing I have done in relation to "playing" is to buy a extra small notepad so that I can write down something I noticed after playing a match or just when playing against a buddy. I have a good memory but after a long session having something written down is much better.
 
Beware_of_Dawg said:
here is an article from Billiards Digest. Written by Bob Jewitt, on making your own progressive practice drills.

article

Making up your own can be a great way to get both players more involved in the game and give them each a bigger "buy in" to focusing on the drill as they feel some "ownership" to the drill because they collaborated on the goals and specific nuances.
Click to expand...

Thanks
Bob is always good for some good progressive practice ideas.
 
MarcusG19 said:
practice specific shots.

line up a shot and decide where u want the cue ball to land. make it one rail, two rail, or 3 rail shape, whatever u want. then try and land the cue ball right where u wanted for like 15 minutes, on both sides of the table. then do the same shot but move the final cue ball spot about one diamond up or down the table so the shot changes slightly.

ask around for good shots to practice. here's one to get u started that upped my game by itself.


then try landing the cue ball just off the second and first diamond, as well as the center of the table where u shot from.
Click to expand...

Thanks and I like it... My thoughts are similiar to yours. I figure pool is all about learning the constants and then knowing how to adjust to the varible table layouts.
I like this drill I saw on here I believe. Honestly you can most the final cueball position points anywhere and will be learning how to adjust to different gametime situations.
Same shot everytime but you have to see how many of the 1-14 balls you can hit after each shot. After attempting that location pull that ball reset and try for the next one.

CueTable Help

 
Joe T said:
Practicing safes and kicks is always tough and the both of you could probably use a little help in that department so here's a fun way to do it for players of all levels;
Defensive 10 Ball Rules of play

The play of Defensive 10 Ball may only be appreciated by top players right now but it is one of the quickest ways for an intermediate player to improve upon their safety and kicking skills.

It is racked and played similar to a normal rack of 10 ball with the 1 in the front and the 10 in the middle but scoring is different.

The object of the game is to earn as many points as possible during each rack.

Players earn 1 point for each ball pocketed but you are only allowed 2 offensive shots in a row and then you must play safe.

You can score more than 2 points if you happen to sink more than 1 ball on a single stroke.

A typical break starts the game and all balls pocketed stay down and are worth 1 point each to the breaker BUT whether the breaker made a ball or not the 1st shot after the break must be a push out. A push out is when a player chooses a position on the table to reposition the cue ball (of course by shooting it to a new position and not by picking it up and placing it with their hand), once the player has repositioned the cue ball the next player up has the option to take the new challenging shot or pass it back to the other player.

After the push out players may now pocket balls or play safe. If you pocket a ball on your first stroke of an inning you are allowed a second shot and if you pocket another ball you must now play safe on your 3rd stroke.

All ball in hand rules apply, if player “A” fails to make a legal hit or shot player “B” gets ball in hand and is allowed a maximum of 2 offensive shots before they must play safe. This is where it pays to play tight safeties. If a player pockets a ball accidently or on purpose on their 3rd stroke the object ball is spotted on the foot spot and the cue ball stays where it is so it is sometimes advisable to execute such a shot.

The player that sinks the 10 ball has the break in the next rack. There are 10 points per rack and players should agree to race to a certain amount of points, 25 points is generally an interesting race.
You can also handicap the race.

Enjoy 2010
Click to expand...

Thanks Joe
I like it and will give it a try.
Years ago to pass the time my buddies would break a nine ball rack and then we each got ball in hand 3 times alternating shots. Each shot had to be a safe and after each shot we started pulling balls starting with the one. After we each got our three BIH safes we would rerack.
One point per safe that worked (no hit). First to 10 won.
Just something to break up the norm and before long we found ourselves realizing how much goes into a good safe..
 
Scott Lee said:
Frank...I agree with Randy. You already have the Mother Drills. If there is any problem with any part of your process, the answers lie within those drills. Practice them with discipline to get confidence in your stroke, and then practice playing (the ghost or some other kind of playing practice).

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

ssshhh I didnt want anyone to know I had the Mother Drills :wink:

Through my years playing and being a part of online pool forums I have some knowledge of drills and practice. From lessons and from asking for advice I have gotten more.
However putting everything into a organized plan that will be effective is the hard part.

I know if hard to picture now but I used to play baseball and played pretty well. I spent many years receiving coaching and learning how to practice.
Some coaches were very good and others not so muhc. THEN I met two guys that in a few sentences showed me more than I thought I could learn. They seemed to take everything known and break it down into
simlpe concise segments that would help.
Practicing wrong can do much damage and thats what I am trying to figure out.

Trust me Mother drills will be included. Just trying to figure out how to
bring all these vast different opinions together.
 
If this has been mentioned forgive me.

Spend the first hour doing practice. Help each other to ensure your alignement is copacetic (it's tough to see by yourself)

The second hour, play 100 point game of 14.1 with a reasonable handicap.
 
This may be the dumbest drill ever, but I have a friend that comes over to practice once in a while so we made a game of it. Keep in mind, neither of us are all that great (prob C players), so we needed a practice game we could both manage and have some fun with.

We put a regular 8.5x11 piece of paper in different spots on the table and then the "opponent" takes 2 balls and the cueball all in his hand at once and just scatters them. The shooter then has to hit either ball in and end up in position on the piece of paper. We score 1 point for getting the ball in and 1 more for ending up on the paper (3 for ending up inside the bullseye circe we drew on the paper as an added challenge.)

We use 3 balls cause it gives us the option of choosing either ball for the easier position shot, we plan on eventually going to just cue ball and object ball to force us to try tougher position shots once we raise our skill. Play to whatever points you want or just do it 10 times each and compare the score with your own previous times.
 
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