Recommendations on Practice

I agree with most of the posts above.

I play the 9 ball ghost and drills.

The 9 ball ghost is good as it lets you keep score. Alot of practice you do such as drills and then you dont know if you are making progress or not.

I prefer doing race to 5 against the ghost.

Ken
 
Ken_4fun said:
I agree with most of the posts above.

I play the 9 ball ghost and drills.

The 9 ball ghost is good as it lets you keep score. Alot of practice you do such as drills and then you dont know if you are making progress or not.

I prefer doing race to 5 against the ghost.

Ken
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While playing the ghost is a good thing to do, it is not practice. It is playing.

If you don't know if you are making any progress doing drills, you aren't doing them correctly. When doing drills, you should be paying very close attention to detail. They will teach you consistency and what each spot on the cb will do with that shot. That should automatically translate to better shotmaking and position play during play.
 
dr_dave said:
I would recommend alternating between the BU playing-ability exams / pool workout and the 10-ball-ghost rating drill, keeping track of your scores as you go to monitor improvement and to help challenge and motivate yourself to do better.

Good luck with your practice,
Dave

PS: If you do use the BU Exams, please consider posting your scores (and video if available) on the AZB BU thread, as other AZB user have done.
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Thanks Dr. Dave; love all the stuff you have posted as well. Thanks for posting all that stuff for free so people like me can take advantage. I wanted to try the BU exams (at least for practice) then forgot about them. Glad you reminded me. I have a four day weekend this weekend and plan on including them in a practice routine.
 
Take notes then, work on problem shots your next session. Another great drill is to use a Just Center Vertical cue ball with NO outside spin at all. This way your playing shape Only with ball speed or stop or draw shots. Speed control is ''thee'' most important aspect of all position play. By working ''just'' the vertical middle of whitey from 6 o'clock to high noon, all your shots are natural, with the all natural ball a Nooner. This is a foundation most all good players have. Speed control practiced in this manner is your cornerstone for ''muscle memory''. It can be relied upon in critical situations.
 
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Houstoer said:
dr_dave said:
I would recommend alternating between the BU playing-ability exams / pool workout and the 10-ball-ghost rating drill, keeping track of your scores as you go to monitor improvement and to help challenge and motivate yourself to do better.

Good luck with your practice,
Dave

PS: If you do use the BU Exams, please consider posting your scores (and video if available) on the AZB BU thread, as other AZB user have done.
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Thanks Dr. Dave; love all the stuff you have posted as well. Thanks for posting all that stuff for free so people like me can take advantage. I wanted to try the BU exams (at least for practice) then forgot about them. Glad you reminded me. I have a four day weekend this weekend and plan on including them in a practice routine.
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If you do work with the BU Exams, please consider posting your scores both initially and after a lot of practice so we can see how much you can improve your scores.

Good luck on the exams,
Dave
 
I"d prefer you guys keep this drill to yourselves

Icon of Sin said:
This actually sounds like some really good advice and a great practice drill.
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Yes, I"d prefer you guys keep this drill to yourselves. ;)

This is the foundation of a routine that I was shown by one of the greatest "road men" of all time. Once you get this one down I'll share the next level, it's really an "eye opener".

Together We Can Do It - 'The Game is Our Guide'
 
I didn't see anyone mention break practice. About 6 months ago I started including this in my practice routine and it has made a huge difference in my game. Almost as much as learning to play position did years ago. I never really knew what to focus on in a break shot, then I had a pro show me what to look for, and what the ideal results of the break were. Cueball control, head ball control, and ball pocketing adjustments. I went from making a ball on the break randomly to around an 80% average on my 8 ball break.
 
Recommendations for Practice

The first thing I do when I practice is put 8 balls on the foot spot and 7 balls on the head spot. I get behind one of the spots with ball in hand and shoot a ball on the opposite end of the table STRAIGHT IN. When you shoot a straight in shot everything is on the line of aim and your tip should be pointing at the center of the cue ball, center of the object ball and the center of the pocket. I practice stroke a few times and on my final stroke I push my tip to the center of THE OBJECT BALL. This way you make sure you are stroking down the line of aim and not "just in front of you". When you miss a ball check your alignment. This drill makes sure you are stroking straight.
 
Culinarytracker said:
I didn't see anyone mention break practice. About 6 months ago I started including this in my practice routine and it has made a huge difference in my game. Almost as much as learning to play position did years ago. I never really knew what to focus on in a break shot, then I had a pro show me what to look for, and what the ideal results of the break were. Cueball control, head ball control, and ball pocketing adjustments. I went from making a ball on the break randomly to around an 80% average on my 8 ball break.
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Wow did you hit on something there. I believe part of my problems have been that I'm breaking, spreading the balls everywhere but pocketing nothing and to make it worse I normally control the cue ball pretty good. Actually I just bought a break rack from someone and will try it out this weekend to help my break some. Its really frustrating to know you can run balls but when you break then don't get a shot and just sit back while the other guys runs out; it pisses me off to no end. Very good point you made sir. I certainly don't mind losing at all but hate to beat myself.
 
This may not be much, but when i start off i shoot straight ins and stay totally down till the shots over. If i miss, i automatically figure i either moved my head or my elbow dropped and my forearm veered off the stroke line. I make myself be more conscious of my stroke and 9 out of 10 times i have my answer, the 10th time, i just cuss and say how much i hate the game !
When my elbow is frozen and only my forearm is moving, i do pretty good, for a bum that is. :D
Hope i made sense.
 
I started this drill only one week ago and my game is 30% better already. it is all about the "delivery" IMHO.
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Yep, I've said this many times ... if you spread the OBs over the table and put them in with your cue stick, without a CB, you would never miss. Point being we already know where to hit the OBs.

The key is delivering the CB to that spot consistently with the english you need and without english.

Easier said than done for sure. Smooth relaxed repeatable stroke is needed.

One thing also ... a VERY clear mental vision of the path and speeds of both CB and OB. The sounds of the shot and the timing of the clicks and pocket drop. Practicing these things help land you in dead stroke. This is key as well.

I can suggest these things, I just can't muster up the desire any longer to keep up with them. :o
 
CJ Wiley said:
Yes, I"d prefer you guys keep this drill to yourselves. ;)

This is the foundation of a routine that I was shown by one of the greatest "road men" of all time. Once you get this one down I'll share the next level, it's really an "eye opener".

Together We Can Do It - 'The Game is Our Guide'
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If you think that drill is some big secret, you sure don't look at others material much if at all. A good place to go for positional practice is Bert Kinnisters material.
 
I think I'm at about the same level as the OP as I play league twice a week and am a BCA 9 and would like to share what I recently discovered.

my biggest nine ball pack is 4 so I'm nowhere near the level of others posting in this thread. I used to only play the nine ball ghost and I found I wanted to beat him so bad (Often hill hill) that I would play shape where there was no chance of getting hooked.

I still play the ghost closer to the end of the practice session but I start out with just throwing the nine balls out on the table then I take ball in hand. I don't focus on getting out, instead I put all of my focus on shooting shots that will keep me off the rail and stay within two diamonds of the next object ball.

If I miss I just take ball in hand again. I'm much greedier on shape and have no fear of trying to get perfect shape because there isn't a big punishment for missing (have to re-rack)

Thoughts?
 
dr_dave said:
FYI, Bob Jewett and I have lots of drills related to CB control, position play, and safety play in the Video Encyclopedia of Pool Practice (VEPP). Specifically, in the 1st three DVDs:

VEPP I - Fundamentals and Basic Position Control
VEPP II - Position Control and English
VEPP III - Patterns and Safety Play

Regards,
Dave
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Very true. I was thinking along the lines of the drill that C.J. posted. Bert has the 6 and 9 pointed star which is similar to what was talked about.
 
This is the foundation of a routine that I was shown by one of the greatest road men

Yes, I"d prefer you guys keep this drill to yourselves.

This is the foundation of a routine that I was shown by one of the greatest "road men" of all time. Once you get this one down I'll share the next level, it's really an "eye opener".

Together We Can Do It - 'The Game is Our Guide'
Click to expand...

Neil said:
If you think that drill is some big secret, you sure don't look at others material much if at all. A good place to go for positional practice is Bert Kinnisters material.
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No, that drill is just the foundation of the one I won't show you.....it's a "secret". :D

 click
 
So I had a couple hours before league last night and tried CJ's drill on a barbox (our league is played on barboxes). Triple shimmed Valley. What a humbling experience !! That is a tough drill on a bar box. Funny thing though; when I played my league games seems that almost every other shot I had were balls on the rail ! lol... funny how that works out. BTW I made every single one of them and won all my games. Didn't even come close to missing a ball on the rail and ended up with good shape on each. I will definetly continue this practice drill and this weekend incorporate some of the other ones that people have mentioned. Thanks again guys.
 
You've been given some great advice about drills (although the classic "L drill" has been inexplicably been neglected). I would like to add these two tidbits: First, make sure you spend a good 60% of your practice time in 'playing mode' as opposed to 'drill mode' . Developing your rhythm and your ability to visualize and execute patterns and runouts is as important as developing your foundational skills, and that 'playing mode' time is where you will develop the ability to 'let it flow'.

The other thing, which was touched by a previous player, is PLAY STRAIGHT POOL!! Besides the fact that it rightfully called the Queen of pocket billiards games, I cannot think if a game that is better for developing all the skills and knowledge needed to achieve pool excellence. Shotmaking, position, patterns, cluster management, safety play--it's all there. And most importantly, straight pool will teach you how to make the game simple.

You'll note that straight pool features large in the practice routines of a number of top pros. If you make straight pool part of your practice routine and get to where you can run even 30 balls occasionally, I guarantee that your ability to run out in 8-ball will increase almost exponentially.

Keep working, and good rolls!
 
"Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect"

Houstoer said:
So I had a couple hours before league last night and tried CJ's drill on a barbox (our league is played on barboxes). Triple shimmed Valley. What a humbling experience !! That is a tough drill on a bar box. Funny thing though; when I played my league games seems that almost every other shot I had were balls on the rail ! lol... funny how that works out. BTW I made every single one of them and won all my games. Didn't even come close to missing a ball on the rail and ended up with good shape on each. I will definitely continue this practice drill and this weekend incorporate some of the other ones that people have mentioned. Thanks again guys.
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That's one of the big surprises, many key shots are on the rail..... that's what you'll "Real Eyes" by actually doing this drill, then you can confidently attack these key shots in a game. As I said before, this is just the first part of the complete regiment that I use in my advanced training and teaching seminars.

"Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect"

When you have practiced this routine for 8 days to 3 weeks (your choice) I'll give you the next level. WIthin just a few weeks you will be putting on a better performance for all your home town fans ;) , especially since you have the "Touch of Inside" foundation. The game gets much more enjoyable when you have REAL confidence.....and that's something earned, not something given.

Play Well - Pocket Billiards is the 'Master Game'
 
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CJ Wiley said:
That's one of the big surprises, many key shots are on the rail..... that's what you'll "Real Eyes" by actually doing this drill, then you can confidently attack these key shots in a game. As I said before, this is just the first part of the complete regiment that I use in my advanced training and teaching seminars.

"Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect"

When you have practiced this routine for 8 days to 3 weeks (your choice) I'll give you the next level. WIthin just a few weeks you will be putting on a better performance for all your home town fans ;) , especially since you have the "Touch of Inside" foundation. The game gets much more enjoyable when you have REAL confidence.....and that's something earned, not something given.

Play Well - Pocket Billiards is the 'Master Game'
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Thanks CJ - I'll probably be in the 3 weeks category. I'll practice it until right after thanksgiving then ask for new punishment :) also plan on incorporating the 9 ball drill and straight pool as people have recommended.
 
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