Using sound to improve pattern play

iusedtoberich

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Pattern play selection is something I have been wanting to focus on to improve my runout percentage in 9 ball.

I came across something yesterday, in order to keep the sound low on my home table (neighbors), I decided to hit every shot softly. This really reinforced getting the angle that would allow you to have a slow, rolling cue ball on every shot. If you are too straight, you have to pop it to move the cue ball, and get a "loud" hit.

I've been randomly placing 4 balls on one half of the table, and trying to think through a rotation pattern where each shot will be "quiet".

When I get through a whole sequence as planned, the out really feels effortless. All soft, quiet, rolling cue balls.

As I was writing this, I think Corey Deuel plays this style more than the other current pros. He really makes the game look effortless. Shane, in contrast, seems to pound the balls more, with straighter angles. He makes the game look more difficult (IMO).

Thoughts? Anyone do something similar?
 
The way I've always thought about the game is if you have to force a ball, it means that you have little angle or the incorrect angle necessary to get to the next shot. A perfectly ideal runout would be mostly rolling cue ball.
 
Good point. That reminds me of what Mosconi wrote about the stroke; "Soft and softer". He also related as an example as to how a soft stroke can still send the object ball around to strike all 4 cushions. Even though he played 14.1 Pocket Billiards, I believe his advice still stands for most other games as well.:cool:
 
Assuming a level playing table-good observation.

I'm in the habit of hitting the balls crisp to straighten out the tables in league.(helps the roll, but pockets tend to reject)

Easy to forget that the balls are round and like to roll.
 
Play em firm

Ive been a league player in bars for 20 years. I was taught to play em firm, pick a medium speed shot stroke to use on most shots. It helps to remove the variable of speed and focus on precise tips of draw or top. Easier to control one thing...English...than try to control how much English...and how much speed.

This seemed to help me be more consistant, u still need to hit some soft and some hard, but 70% of he shots taken can be done with a standard familiar firm hit. Also helps so the balls don't roll out on the barboxes.

I always love when a table GETS someone on a soft shot...and I honestly go to the table thinking" I deserve is game, now take it" as I feel the shot was missed due to lack of fundamentals and lack of experience. That situation could've been easilly avoided.
 
I like the original post a lot and think it makes a valid point. If you're making your shape without hitting the balls hard, that offers a lot of evidence for the assertion that you are manging your angles well.

Excellent thread!
 
The guys that can run out and seldom have to do anything but roll the cue ball around naturally are the most dangerous IMHO.
 
8onthebreak said:
I always love when a table GETS someone on a soft shot...and I honestly go to the table thinking" I deserve is game, now take it" as I feel the shot was missed due to lack of fundamentals and lack of experience. That situation could've been easilly avoided.
Click to expand...

Sorry to quote you and I mean no disrespect directly at you by any means ... but nobody should be screwed on a match "due to lack of fundamentals" because they were used to playing on decent equipment and then missed a shot because the equipment sucked so bad that you have to bang every shot in. The only argument here is that the person should of practiced on the crappy table they were playing on and not expected it to play true. That is no where near, in my opinion, a lack of fundamentals. They could be a lights out shooter on a level table but not the greatest shooter on your particular bar table that leans 4 degrees to the left and has a funny bump in front of the headstring right side pocket, etc.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Pattern play selection is something I have been wanting to focus on to improve my runout percentage in 9 ball.

I came across something yesterday, in order to keep the sound low on my home table (neighbors), I decided to hit every shot softly. This really reinforced getting the angle that would allow you to have a slow, rolling cue ball on every shot. If you are too straight, you have to pop it to move the cue ball, and get a "loud" hit.

I've been randomly placing 4 balls on one half of the table, and trying to think through a rotation pattern where each shot will be "quiet".

When I get through a whole sequence as planned, the out really feels effortless. All soft, quiet, rolling cue balls.

As I was writing this, I think Corey Deuel plays this style more than the other current pros. He really makes the game look effortless. Shane, in contrast, seems to pound the balls more, with straighter angles. He makes the game look more difficult (IMO).

Thoughts? Anyone do something similar?
Click to expand...
I call this 'tai chi' pool....find out where 'whitey' wants to go....
...and just help it.

Irving Crane was a great exponent of this method.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Pattern play selection is something I have been wanting to focus on to improve my runout percentage in 9 ball.

I came across something yesterday, in order to keep the sound low on my home table (neighbors), I decided to hit every shot softly. This really reinforced getting the angle that would allow you to have a slow, rolling cue ball on every shot. If you are too straight, you have to pop it to move the cue ball, and get a "loud" hit.

I've been randomly placing 4 balls on one half of the table, and trying to think through a rotation pattern where each shot will be "quiet".

When I get through a whole sequence as planned, the out really feels effortless. All soft, quiet, rolling cue balls.

As I was writing this, I think Corey Deuel plays this style more than the other current pros. He really makes the game look effortless. Shane, in contrast, seems to pound the balls more, with straighter angles. He makes the game look more difficult (IMO).

Thoughts? Anyone do something similar?
Click to expand...

All pro players and very advanced players do nor want to take chance on off balance table out of round CB, or worst of all dirty spots on OB; therefor shooting hard takes care of all of these issues (except for stun), plus if they miss, OB is a way from pocket, and CB (as much as possible)

Do not practice position play, practice potting balls , all 6000 pot option, once you are able to pocket balls with all kind of english and speed, stun and roll, you will have lots of options for position play which makes it easier.
 
Thank you all for the feedback.

I didn't mean this to be an absolute and only playing method, but more of a practice technique. As I said, I'm trying to improve my game by improving my patterns. Obviously, one needs to have the whole spectrum of shots to be a good player.

One thing I noticed practicing this way is the cue ball movement is greater. To have a quiet hit, I can't hit stop shots (straight or angled) with any significant distance between the CB and OB. As I noticed this, I was thinking another way to practice pattern selection is to go for the patterns with the least CB movement. That would be another type of drill, that is probably a more common practice method.

After reading the responses to this thread thus far, yet another way to practice pattern selection could be to go for a loud sound on every shot. This would mean your angles would have to be less.

I think I could learn a lot about my game by trying all three methods for a few hours each.
 
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Robert Byrne recommends a drill where you spread the 15 balls out, all at least 6 in. apart and at least 6 in. from the cushions...then you make them in any order without having the cueball go to a cushion....it is very good for teaching soft, or softer stroke and for teaching you to stay down on the shot and move the cueball with good execution of stroke rather than big power.
 
I like this thread because I naturally like to hit the ball somewhat soft.

While planning a runout in 9-ball for example, if I have to move the CB from one end of the table to another, I will want to plan to leave myself a "thin cut", this allows a soft hit, yet the CB retains much of its speed and will get down table.

If you dont want to move the CB much after the shot, you might plan for a stop shot or thick cut, which will naturally take the speed out of the CB.

In other words, by varying your cut angles, you can hit soft and still move all over the table as needed.

Takes some careful planning, but can be done.

(You can always hit harder if your shape falls out of line, as a bail out...)
 
I like the theory. "pattern play" is more a term I associate with 8 ball and I think the 'audio feedback' idea is excellent for that game. You can definitely run racks of 8 ball without hitting anything hard. In 9 ball you're gonna be forced to move the cue ball across the table, e.g. by drawing a rail cut, so that can be a pain.

In the tradeoff between 'straighter but needing more force' vs. 'more angle but also more missable' I tend to go with straighter, because I'm not a super shotmaker. Which sucks because I really really prefer to hit balls softly and use sidespin to move around rather than ramming a ball with draw or follow.
 
Svb

SVB played our house Pro, Rory Hendrickson, on a 9 footer, and Rory said the amazing thing was Shane played all but just a couple of shots the same speed. That was during a session of playing over 2 hours. That is an amazing feat, and where consistency comes from. So I wouldn't say it is about soft, but finding the speed that works best for you.
 
PaulieB said:
Sorry to quote you and I mean no disrespect directly at you by any means ... but nobody should be screwed on a match "due to lack of fundamentals" because they were used to playing on decent equipment and then missed a shot because the equipment sucked so bad that you have to bang every shot in. The only argument here is that the person should of practiced on the crappy table they were playing on and not expected it to play true. That is no where near, in my opinion, a lack of fundamentals. They could be a lights out shooter on a level table but not the greatest shooter on your particular bar table that leans 4 degrees to the left and has a funny bump in front of the headstring right side pocket, etc.
Click to expand...

imo ALL TABLES should be anticipated to be crappy when you are playing in a bar league. Hitting the ball softly IS A LACK OF EXPERIENCE...and good fundamentals IN A BAR LEAGUE should incorporate anticipation of the MOST COMMON mistake...which is getting burned by the roll. Its a BAR!!!
They move the tables regularly, and seldome service them. Did they really expect it to be straight and level???

After missing so many shots due to unlevel "crappy" tables as you say...I've been trained to bypass the possibility of that happening to me, that IS EXPERIENCE.

No offense taken, just difference in opinion. If you own a tree cutting business, you probably need to plan for so many rain days. Me, I plan for some tables to be out of level.
 
dennis orcullo plays this way. and john morra.

orcullo makes the game look easy this way. whereas shane as someone mentioned earlier tend to pop the balls more or force follow because of straighter angles (although he makes it look effortless compared to us mere mortals)

on the other hand, when orcullo faces a similar shot with straighter angles, he's not as comfortable popping it in the way shane does. he would miss it more than shane would.
 
Your neighbors are complaining about balls being hit on a pool table. Good thing they don't live near me where kids practice hockey by shooting tennis balls into the garage door, practice tennis into the garage door, bounce basketballs up and down the driveway, yell and scream while in the swimming pool, and etc. This is not including the radios that are blaring while doing that.
 
8onthebreak said:
Hitting the ball softly IS A LACK OF EXPERIENCE...

and good fundamentals IN A BAR LEAGUE should incorporate anticipation of the MOST COMMON mistake...
Click to expand...

I think you guys are in agreement about the point, but it's just a matter of semantics. Fundamentals means stance, bridge, grip, stroke, follow through, etc. Your point about experience telling you to not hit balls too softly on a bar table is shared by many. But I would not refer to it as fundamentals - experience yes - fundamentals no.

Fatz
 
Pre-Flag Master said:
I think you guys are in agreement about the point, but it's just a matter of semantics. Fundamentals means stance, bridge, grip, stroke, follow through, etc. Your point about experience telling you to not hit balls too softly on a bar table is shared by many. But I would not refer to it as fundamentals - experience yes - fundamentals no.

Fatz
Click to expand...

Ok-if you were deciding to shoot firm today, because you are playing on barboxes TODAY...I would put it into the experience category only.
However, if you take the time to find and incorporate a firm, consistant, reliable, reproduce able stroke into your every game, shoot most all shots with that stroke and speed, then it's not just experience,...it's also part of your fundamentals...it's your stroke, like you said. Agreed, semantics yes:cool:
 
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