Allen Hopkins Crazy Challenge

poolrod

poolrod

I like old school
Silver Member
This is a lot of fun, you break and shoot any ball in, down to the last 5 balls, then shoot them in rotation. If you miss at any time, game over. The first 10 balls are worth 1 point each, the rotation balls are worth 2 points. 20 points for a full rack. Do this for 10 rack sessions, and it's great practice. 100 racks will give you an average of where you are, and you can improve as you go along. http://infohost.nmt.edu/~billiard/qskills_scorecard.html
Here are a couple racks I pounded out. If you see anything I could use work on, please help me out. Rod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RjpgpAWoY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0DyRhSGSPQ
 
Hopkins Challenge

This is one of the games that can keep me interested when practicing at home. There's another version where you can start rotation as soon as you feel comfortable taking on the run.
 
kanecalgary said:
This is one of the games that can keep me interested when practicing at home. There's another version where you can start rotation as soon as you feel comfortable taking on the run.
Click to expand...

Very true, I have a lot of friends that hate to practice by themselves, so the more you have to think, the more you try to do well, and that builds stamina.
 
Good shooting. You seem to have a good eye. I assume the couple of swoop strokes were on purpose. I may be incorrect but it seems that you do not shoot with much purpose for position on all shots & are simply comfortable & willling to take whatever the roll leaves you. As I said. I may be wrong as I certainly can not read your mind per the video.

My only suggestion would be to not practice in 'sock feet' unless that is how you plan on playing. I even have shoes that I do not play particularly well in. I heard a story that Earl Strickland almost forfeited a match because he went to it in the 'wrong' shoes & had to rush back to his hotel room to change shoes & rush back. He made it though. CJ as also said that the stroke starts with the feet & I agree. The last thing a good athlete does before starting to play is to tie his/her shoes.

Just my $0.02 'crap' observations & thoughts.

Best Wishes,
 
ENGLISH! said:
Good shooting. You seem to have a good eye. I assume the couple of swoop strokes were on purpose. I may be incorrect but it seems that you do not shoot with much purpose for position on all shots & are simply comfortable & willling to take whatever the roll leaves you. As I said. I may be wrong as I certainly can not read your mind per the video.

My only suggestion would be to not practice in 'sock feet' unless that is how you plan on playing. I even have shoes that I do not play particularly well in. I heard a story that Earl Strickland almost forfeited a match because he went to it in the 'wrong' shoes & had to rush back to his hotel room to change shoes & rush back. He made it though. CJ as also said that the stroke starts with the feet & I agree. The last thing a good athlete does before starting to play is to tie his/her shoes.

Just my $0.02 'crap' observations & thoughts.

Best Wishes,
Click to expand...
Thank you, Rick. I assume the swoop is an up and down, as opposed to straight back and forth?. I should wear shoes, also, unless there's a barefoot tournament somewhere. Thank you for your help.
 
poolrod said:
Thank you, Rick. I assume the swoop is an up and down, as opposed to straight back and forth?. I should wear shoes, also, unless there's a barefoot tournament somewhere. Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

Your welcome. Watch the 1st video. There were a couple of shots, one in the corner near the camera where you swooped the cue to the outside of the shot. I do that when I want to put a lttle more spin on the cue ball while not using a more powerful stroke. You made the balls, so no big deal. I feel we often play subconsciously better than consciously so don't worry about it. In fact, forget that I said anything & don't watch the video ever. In fact erase it right now.

Best Wishes,

Rick
 
ENGLISH! said:
Your welcome. Watch the 1st video. There were a couple of shots, one in the corner near the camera where you swooped the cue to the outside of the shot. I do that when I want to put a lttle more spin on the cue ball while not using a more powerful stroke. You made the balls, so no big deal. I feel we often play subconsciously better than consciously so don't worry about it. In fact, forget that I said anything & don't watch the video ever. In fact erase it right now.

Best Wishes,

Rick
Click to expand...
So we have a not so good habit, but it works,lol. Thank you.
 
poolrod said:
This is a lot of fun, you break and shoot any ball in, down to the last 5 balls, then shoot them in rotation. If you miss at any time, game over. The first 10 balls are worth 1 point each, the rotation balls are worth 2 points. 20 points for a full rack. Do this for 10 rack sessions, and it's great practice. 100 racks will give you an average of where you are, and you can improve as you go along. http://infohost.nmt.edu/~billiard/qskills_scorecard.html
Here are a couple racks I pounded out. If you see anything I could use work on, please help me out. Rod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RjpgpAWoY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0DyRhSGSPQ
Click to expand...

For anyone interested, it was this game (Allen Hopkins Q-Skills Challenge) which lead to some online forum members during the RSB days to not only try it out but eventually to rethink a better way to do a skills challenge.

The result was from the great mind of Mike Page of Fargo, ND who thought that rather than be limited to the 2-point per ball in rotation for the last 5 balls on the table, that instead the player should have an option to "flip a coin over" and go for the 2-point per ball in rotation at any point provided he goes all the way in rotation once he "flips over to rotation." So, a player could just go hitting any ball in at 1-point per ball or flip the coin immediately and start going in rotation for a max of 30 points per rack. Or he could flip the coin one and only one time during the rack, but at any time (until a miss of course).

The game obviously was a great idea. Mike Page originally called it... RREO (Random Rotation Equal Offense) . When it came to coming up with a better name, Patrick Johnson from Chicago suggested Flip-And-Run Guts Offense or FARGO for short to honor Mike Page.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Freddie <~~~ no guts, no offense
 
Last edited:
Cornerman said:
For anyone interested, it was this game (Allen Hopkins Q-Skills Challenge) which lead to some online forum members during the RSB days to not only try it out but eventually to rethink a better way to do a skills challenge.

The result was from the great mind of Mike Page of Fargo, ND who thought that rather than be limited to the 2-point per ball in rotation for the last 5 balls on the table, that instead the player should have an option to "flip a coin over" and go for the 2-point per ball in rotation at any point provided he goes all the way in rotation once he "flips over to rotation." So, a player could just go hitting any ball in at 1-point per ball or flip the coin immediately and start going in rotation for a max of 30 points per rack. Or he could flip the coin one and only one time during the rack, but at any time (until a miss of course).

The game obviously was a great idea. Mike Page originally called it... RREO (Random Rotation Equal Offense) . When it came to coming up with a better name, Patrick Johnson from Chicago suggested Flip-And-Run Guts Offense or FARGO for short to honor Mike Page.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Freddie <~~~ no guts, no offense
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info. This is a great practice tool, no matter how you change it up.
 
My eyes hurt just watching that. Is it the camera or is your table that dimly lit?
As far as everything else goes, nice run and way to keeping simple. Once you found your pattern you needed to do nothing fancy to get out -other than the bump at the end, (I only watched the first video.) Btw it looks like my pool room with the cat tower lol. Thanks for this game, I'm gonna go try it.
-James
 
JolietJames said:
My eyes hurt just watching that. Is it the camera or is your table that dimly lit?
As far as everything else goes, nice run and way to keeping simple. Once you found your pattern you needed to do nothing fancy to get out -other than the bump at the end, (I only watched the first video.) Btw it looks like my pool room with the cat tower lol. Thanks for this game, I'm gonna go try it.
-James
Click to expand...

It is very bad lighting, more of a challenge,lol. I have toys all around the floor, from my little girl, and 3 6 month old kittens zooming around. More challenges. Even a hoolahoop in the back ground,lol. It is a great way to keep focused, knowing you need a five ball rotation, and they should be somewhat easy to get to. You can make that as tough as you like also,lol.
 
I tried this drill yesterday on a 9 footer with very tough pockets- it is quite difficult on such equipment. Sad to say that the best I could score was 12.
 
westcoast said:
I tried this drill yesterday on a 9 footer with very tough pockets- it is quite difficult on such equipment. Sad to say that the best I could score was 12.
Click to expand...

I bet if you kept the cue ball in the middle of the table, so you never had a long shot, it might go easier. Also, you could set 12 as a goal to beat to death. Just a thought. Rod.
 
Fargo

I play a lot of the game Freddie mentioned called Fargo (Mike Page also has a video on his Youtube channel explaining/demonstrating the game).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHj6KUw8xzE

It allows more flexibility in deciding when to switch over to rotation, and for me, it keeps the pressure on to best my high score (over ten frames/racks).

Attached also is the rulesheet, with rankings (no idea how accurate the rankings are, although I am sure anything Mike put together has been well thought out)...

At any rate, structured practice like this (where you track results) is much more beneficial than throwing out balls and shooting them in...plus if you don't feel the pressure build when you are approaching a personal milestone, I think you are doing something wrong (IMHO).

I almost use this in a way that simulates competition...meaning I feel like I am playing someone else, but I am not. I am playing against my best score and my average. Hope that makes sense.

Anyway, enjoy your game and much success.

Peace.

~Razor
 

Attachments

We had a subforum for this Hopkin's drill for about 4 or 5 years. Lots of posts on how to do it, and final scores of the members who did it. The subforum is gone, and I think all the posts were consolidated into the main forum. There were several members who scored almost all 20's. I recall one post saying that Parica did 20 20's in a row.

I think it was called the Drivermaker, then the Breakup, then the Bud Bowl Tournament.

Here is one of the score threads, for reference.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=80387
 
poolrod said:
I bet if you kept the cue ball in the middle of the table, so you never had a long shot, it might go easier. Also, you could set 12 as a goal to beat to death. Just a thought. Rod.
Click to expand...

True. I enjoyed the drill. It is just tougher than I thought it would be
 
Just practice exercise?

poolrod said:
This is a lot of fun, you break and shoot any ball in, down to the last 5 balls, then shoot them in rotation. If you miss at any time, game over. The first 10 balls are worth 1 point each, the rotation balls are worth 2 points. 20 points for a full rack. Do this for 10 rack sessions, and it's great practice. 100 racks will give you an average of where you are, and you can improve as you go along. http://infohost.nmt.edu/~billiard/qskills_scorecard.html
Here are a couple racks I pounded out. If you see anything I could use work on, please help me out. Rod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RjpgpAWoY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0DyRhSGSPQ
Click to expand...

I like it. I think it would be fun competitively as well!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top