Practicing 1-Pocket

PhilosopherKing

PhilosopherKing

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How do YOU practice for 1-pocket?

What skills do all 1-pocket players need in their tool belts?

Any creative ideas for working on moving and strategy?

Thanks
 
I like to put a bunch of balls in the pack with a few balls spread around. Try to make a ball and break open the pack running as many balls as you can into one hole.

Also practice banking straight backs and cross corners leaving the cue ball on the rail. The more often you can leave the cueball either frozen to the stack or frozen to the rail (preferably far away), the more you increase your chance of winning.

Another very important element is getting out of the break. Break the balls and spend some time thinking about the many different shots to reply with.

These are some of the things I do, along with many others. It is difficult to "practice" one pocket, but I believe you can practice multiple elements of the game individually.
 
PhilosopherKing said:
How do YOU practice for 1-pocket?

What skills do all 1-pocket players need in their tool belts?

Any creative ideas for working on moving and strategy?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The guy who taught me, Toby Flaherty would set up strings of balls and practice one, two and three rail banks for disgustingly long hours. He would also practice sending the cueball off of balls on the top rail so the cueball would tuck behind a ball near his opponents side, which is one of the most valuable skills in my opinion.
 
PhilosopherKing said:
How do YOU practice for 1-pocket?

What skills do all 1-pocket players need in their tool belts?

Any creative ideas for working on moving and strategy?

Thanks
Click to expand...


There are a number of things I'll practice before a tournament. A simple one is to throw out the one through five and shoot them off in rotation.

Lou Figueroa
 
The best way to practice is to find a good player and play one pocket against him. Nothing is better than the practice of getting out of a good player's traps.

If you can't do that, try the one pocket ghost. Break, take ball in hand and try to run 8 into your hole. If you can run all 15, try it without taking ball in hand. It can be fun seeing how many you are able to run. It's a good drill for learning small position plays and breakouts.
 
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one pocket practice

one pocket is very hard to practice because of all the different elements of the game. therefore, i believe you have to practice the pieces of the game that you have trouble with until they are second nature. at this point, you will see improvement in your game. then, playing people who are better then you and pick their brain as to why they did this or that. this will give you a different perspective of the game. which will allow you, to again, pick pieces of the puzzle to work on. it is a life long journey my friend. have fun as this game will test you in more than one way.
 
TheMadScientist said:
The best way to practice is to find a good player and play one pocket against him. Nothing is better than the practice of getting out of a good player's traps.
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This is really the truth of the matter. Practice will only take you so far. You need to see the opening, middle and end games. You need to be able to learn to play from a position of strength, when you have the other guy trapped, and learn to exploit that. And you need to learn how to play from a position of weakness, when the other guy has you trapped, and how to escape.

The game is so rich with possibilities, offensive and defensive, that you can never get enough games under your belt.

Lou Figueroa
 
Where is he?

JesseAllred said:
The guy who taught me, Toby Flaherty would set up strings of balls and practice one, two and three rail banks for disgustingly long hours. He would also practice sending the cueball off of balls on the top rail so the cueball would tuck behind a ball near his opponents side, which is one of the most valuable skills in my opinion.
Click to expand...


Where is Toby Flaherty these days?

EW
 
Thank you to everyone for all the suggestions.

These are some ideas of my own:

(1.) Shooting both offensive and defensive shots while jacked-up.

(2.) Shooting both offensive and defensive shots with the cue ball close to or frozen on the rail.

(3.) Banking balls into other balls with a purpose.

(4.) Setting-up and clearing-out groups of balls from in front of a pocket.

(5.) Banking balls and trying to freeze the cue ball to a rail.

(6.) Feathering and bunting balls.
 
I like to do the "L" drill, even if not with a full set of balls, to warm up quickly. The drill requires honing your touch and speed control.
 
one pocket practice.

I practice for one pocket mostly by practicing bank pool.
There are many times in a game of one pocket that you have to bet the game on a single bank.
I also practice 10 ball for one pocket. I teaches you to run balls well.

I also practice a lot of what I call trick banks. Banks with the object ball close to the end rail and with the cue ball in different positions. Banking across the table into your pocket. These are essential to winning one pocket.

Another more advanced drill is to place a line of balls parallel to the side rail about 10" away and with extreme reverse English practice shooting the balls into the opposite pocket and reversing the cue ball to keep it inside the 10" area. Very difficult to run many balls but it comes with practice.

By the way the secrete to banks is to bank with the vertical center of the cue ball and use speed to control the angles.

I learned this while on the road with Eddy Taylor.

Bill Stroud
 
Playing One Ball One Pocket is great practice for the end game in a normal game with all the balls.
 
Ed Wiggins said:
Where is Toby Flaherty these days?

EW
Click to expand...

haven't seen him in years. He owned the cue club in Vegas when I was a kid, but I heard he wasn't involved with it any more. He and Cooney would play $50k 8-ahead sets every year that would last for about a week. Really fun to watch.
 
IMHO there is no way to practice one pocket. NONE.

Practicing one pocket by yourself is like practicing chess by yourself, pointless.


One pocket more than any other pool game requires an answer to a shot and your answer to their answer, on down the line. You can practice kicks and such, but how are you going to practice getting out of where you were put.

The only way I can think to practice which might be beneficial is to watch videos of positions and then set up those positions and shoot several times from those positions until you receive a favorable result.
 
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